PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OP WASHINGTON. 99 



In the search for an illustration of the quantity of silver which 

 a country can absorb, the bimetalists have fixed upon France. 

 Never was a case more grossly misunderstood and misrepresented. 



The function which silver now performs in France may be 

 made intelligible by the following illustration: Suppose all 

 our $1, $2, $5, and $10 notes were not in existence, and that the 

 same amount of one dollar notes were circulating in their place. 

 Suppose, further, that the promise to pay one gold dollar on de- 

 mand, instead of being printed on a piece of paper, were stamped 

 upon a circular piece of silver worth about 81 or 82 cents. In 

 all essential respects such a currency would correspond to French 

 silver. The latter is a token currency, circulating at 18 or 20 

 per cent, above its real value because it is convertible into gold. 

 The amount, though large, is still limited by stopping the coin- 

 age, and the quantity in actual circulation is rapidly diminishing, 

 being gathered into the Bank of France in an enormous hoard. 

 The French government, however, is firmly resolved on maintain- 

 ing the gold standard, and the only important difference between 

 her silver and a redeemable paper currency is that the former 

 can never depreciate below its bullion value. In no sense can 

 France be said at present to be employing the bimetallic standard. 

 Her standard is gold as truly as that of England or Germany. 

 Her silver is the heritage bequeathed to her from antiquity, and 

 is now a burden rather than a source of wealth. The present 

 outlook is that before many years France will become a gold 

 using nation exclusively, as she is already in chief part, If it 

 were possible to demonetize silver at once without serious loss 

 and doing violence to the peculiar habits of her poorer people, 

 there is little doubt that it would be done. 



The Bland bill provides for a silver currency radically different 

 from that of France. It is calculated to push the country into a 

 situation involving not only the difficulties and evils which France 

 would most gladly escape from if she could, but others far more 

 serious. The growing spectre of the silver dollar has no limit 

 fixed to the size which it may reach. No gross sum is named at 

 which the coinage must stop. These dollars are not convertible 

 into gold at face value, as the French five-franc pieces are. If it 

 were not that the volume now out is small, and M'ere they not 

 receivable in taxes and duties in place of so much gold, they 

 would be at a discount or gold at a premium. 



The question how much silver can our country absorb is one 

 thing, and the question how much ought it to be made to absorb 

 is another. The first question can be finally answered only after 

 trial ; the second one has been answered already. It ought to be 

 made to absorb just as little as it can get along with without 

 inconvenience. That it might use a considerable number of 

 silver dollars of the present standard seems probable. They 

 could perform the function which is now performed by the $1 

 and $2 notes, but somehow the people seem to prefer the notes 



