financial Legislation and its Limitations. 5 5 



could be paid as the ef|iiivalent of i6 ounces or of 32 ounces of 

 silver: that would dcpenrl upon legislation from time to time. 

 His proposition is thus to have a ready means of changing the 

 ratio. It is a sensible annex to symmetallism which, like bi- 

 metallism, will make necessary an occasional change of ratio 

 and a readjustment and tearing-up of the relations of creditor 

 and debtor every now and then, in order to afford the promised 

 benefits during the intervening periods. Stokes desires, then, 

 that debts be authorized to be paid in a certain proportion of the 

 two metals, only, instead of their being fixed together in a 

 standard coin, it is sim^jly to be decreed that the debtor shall 

 pay a certain proportion of his debt in silver and a certain pro- 

 portion in gold, by weight. The deviation of this plan from the 

 preceding is in details only. 



§ 19. Unlike bimetallism, the tabular standard does not attempt 

 to interfere with the existing circulating medium ; it asserts the ^^J^^T^^l^' 

 theory that fluctuations in its value will be found by ascertaining ^^^^I^^^^J^^^^j'^^ 

 the variation in the average price of commodities. In other always pre- 



1 • 1 r •*. a, -^ «^ sers'e the same 



words, mstead of proposmg a new kmd ot money, it otters an ^^j^^y 

 official rule, by which all men may measure the extent of fluctua- 

 tion. When the change in the average of general prices is cal- 

 culated, then the fluctuation that is due to the standard is 

 established. They are identical. Such is the assumption. Its 

 correctness will be discussed in the next chapter. The next step 

 is to affect debts, since it is supposed that the injustice has been 

 measured. By decree a corresponding change is made in the 

 amount of coin that can be demanded in payment of outstanding 

 debts at any given time. Thus is repaired the "injustice" that 

 may have been done to debtor or creditor through fluctuation of 

 commodities over against coin. That really in this way unsteadi- 

 ness in prices due to the circulating medium has been exactly 

 corrected to the individual debtor or creditor is more than doubt- 

 ful. It is equally doubtful whether the variation in values has 

 been scientifically adjusted. 



§ 20. The multiple standard is arrived at by a supplementary 

 change in the tabular. It goes a step further and proposes that 

 the circulating medium itself be contracted or expanded by the 



169 



