TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION F. 759 



b. The village officers. 



c. The serfs or agfi-estial slaves. 



d. The local militia. 



e. The outside or foreign cultivators, who reside on sufferance. 

 The di\-ision of the village lands into shares is then noticed. 



The incidence of the land-tax is described, as it has fluctuated under the oppressive 

 rule of native governments ; and a glance is then taken at the light throvra on the 

 general question of normal property in the soil, which has been so well treated by 

 Sir Henry Maine, Sir John Phear, and others. 



2. Report of the Anthropometric Committee. — See Reports, p. 225. 



3. On the Eelation of the Gold Standard in England to the International 

 Money Market. By Hyde Claeke, V.P.S.S. 



Eeferring to his paper before the Association in 1877 on Foreign Loans, Mr, 

 Olarke more particularly dealt with the operations of the London Money Market in 

 coimection with foreign loans and coupons. For what are called international 

 seciu-ities, cm-rent in all the money markets of Europe, the participation of the 

 London market is an essential featiu-e. This becomes supreme in periods of 

 political disquietude on the Continent, but it is partly dependent on the acceptance 

 of the English gold standard as a fixed and unalterable standard. Whatever may 

 be the theoretical toleration shown to bimetallism, the financial world has given ia 

 its adhesion to the gold standard. Any tampering with this is calcidated to 

 endanger our position as the central money market of the world, and to enable our 

 rivals at Paris and elsewhere to outstrip us. He pointed out some recent incidents 

 which were calculated to afiect us. The employment of coupons as an inter- 

 national cm'rency was also considered, and the connection of this market with the 

 growing American money market. 



4. The Silver Question, and the DoiMe versus the Single Standard. 



By "Wm. Westgakth. 



This country is monometallic with the gold standard, which means that in our 

 money engagements we are subject to all the mcidents that may affect the value of 

 gold. If gold happens at some time to be found very abundantly, as when Cali- 

 fornia and Australia poured forth then- treasiu-es thirty years ago, the value must 

 fall. On the other hand, if this great supply falls off, and if concurrently there is 

 a disposition La some leading States to take preferably to a gold coinage — both of 

 these incidents having actually happened of late — the value of gold must advance. 

 To earn, say a thousand pounds, under the first set of cii'cumstances may be a very 

 different thing from earning that quantity of gold under the second set. The latter 

 would be likely to cutaU a much greater labour or cost. 



But yet the terms of our money engagement are clear and fair. We engage to 

 pay or to be paid in gold, and we pay or receive accordingly, taking our chance 

 respectively of the appreciation or depreciation for the time of that metal. With 

 the double standard, on the other hand, there are two metals to deal with — gold 

 and silver; and if then- value, the one to the other, is exposed to fluctuation, they 

 cannot both be fairly used as legal money, seeing that the paying party woidd 

 assuredly elect to pay his creditor in that metal which for the time was relatively 

 cheaper. 



The assertion of bimetallists is that the two metals can be maiutained substan- 

 tially at one fixed ratio of value, if there be a sufficiently extensive bimetallic 

 agreement for that piu-pose. The mints of the agi-eeing states have but to be kept 

 open to unlimited coinage at the fixed ratio, and that ratio must of necessity remain 

 substantially unchanged. In this way, the ratio of silver to gold remained 



