3^02 BULLETIN OF THE 



be twelve or fifteen times more tlian tliat of gold when measured 

 in pounds, and twenty-five or thirty times more when measured 

 in cubic inches, and yet the purchasing power of the whole is 

 actually less ! As a monetary medium it is less capable of eifect- 

 ing exchanges than the world's supply of gold. In short, the 

 quantity now in the world either of gold or silver has nothing to 

 do with the question. "Whatever there is, is enough." 



To the assertion that the adoption of the monometallic gold 

 standard by the United States will increase the demand for, and 

 consequent price of gold and depreciate the prices of commodi- 

 ties, the reply is that we have practically the gold standard 

 already, and very nearly enough metal in the country to maintain 

 gold payments. During the last three years the influx has been 

 constant and largely at the expense of the nations of Europe. 

 Yet neither has it risen in price nor have commodities depreci- 

 ated. On the conti-ary, prices have risen with a rapidity and to 

 a degree of which our commercial history furnishes few pai'allels. 

 If the fifty million silver dollars now buried in the Treasury were 

 converted into gold, specie payment would be as sure and safe as 

 it is with the Bank of England. Nor is there reason to fear 

 that the acquisition of a much larger sum would materially affect 

 the price of gold or its purchasing power. Prices have been 

 affected but little by the acquisitions of France and Germany, 

 which have been much greater in amount than we should have 

 occasion for. It is true that in the last ten years prices have 

 fluctuated greatly, but it is clear that the fluctuations have been 

 almost independent of changes in the precious metals. They fell 

 in 1873 to ISYS because a time of reckoning, long deferred, had 

 at last come, and people were more anxious to pay and collect 

 debts than they were to buy and contract new ones. Prices rose 

 in 1879 because debts had been liquidated or sponged out in the 

 courts ; people had lived close, were ready to go to work and to 

 trade with clean slates, and had money and credit enough to 

 begin buying again. The effect of the rise and fall of the pre- 

 cious metals was wholly inappreciable — as much so as the rise 

 and fall of the tides upon the billows of mid-ocean. 



The effect of the Bland bill may be thus summainzed : — 



1. At present it is inoperative, because the silver is not forced 

 into circulation. 



2. It cannot be forced into circulation without being received 

 at a discount or forcing gold up to a premium and driving it out 

 of the country. 



3. Its present effect is limited to a steady and gradual accu- 

 mulation of silver in the treasury in the place of gold. 



4. The growth of this silver hoard is regular and constant, 

 and only requires time to become vast in amount. At any time 

 in the near future a turn in the balance of trade must bring down 

 upon the treasury a demand for gold to export. If the treasury 

 pays gold its stock will be soon exhausted, and it will have no- 



