State Bank Notes. 51 



element as between 135 and 232 millions. The following 

 figures show, accordingly, the average annual addition: 



Whole addition. Note-element. 



( Millions."! 



Annually, 1879 to 1892 72 Between 11 and 20 



Annually, 1882 to 1892 60 Between 13'/i and 23 



And the country has earned (see, also, the table on p. 49) 

 between 52 and 61 millions annually through the longer 

 period, and between 37 and 46^ millions annually through 

 the shorter. 



It may safely be said that our probable dealing with 

 silver in the next few years (omitting free coinage as too 

 improbable in the immediate future to justify the discus- 

 sion, necessarily long, of its bearing on the present ques- 

 tion) will lie within a range bounded by — 



(1) Continuance of the Act of 1890. 



(2) Kevival of the Act of 1878. 



(3) Purchase of silver, and issue of notes whose 

 silver backing, reckoned as bullion, is kept equal to 

 the face value of the notes; kept equal by subsequent 

 purchase of silver, if necessary, without issue of 

 notes against the supplementary silver. 



(4) Suspension of silver purchases, except for 

 small coins. 



It is quite possible that silver legislation may combine 

 two of these methods, or change the amount of silver to 

 be bought under (1) or (2). But the present object is to 

 discover whether the national sacrifice in obtaining addi- 

 tional money will be greater hereafter than it has been for 

 a few years past, and that object will be sufficiently 

 attained by taking each method separately and noting the 

 effect in (1), (2) and (3) of different amounts of silver- 

 purchase; for any combination will be more favorable than 

 the least favorable method standing alone. 



( 1. ) Continuance of the Act of 1890. If this happens, 

 the addition of money will be wholly earned, except for the 

 "lower limit'' purpose a note-element due to the higher 

 price of the silver bought and the silver exported. The 



