112 BULLETIN OP THE 



1835, had been made, and thereafter was the standard and cur- 

 rency. The increased production of gold augmented the prices 

 of commodities in America and Europe, the balance of trade set 

 in largely in favor of Asiatic countries, and silver was in demand, 

 and was sent where gold had no legal status, and silver, there- 

 fore, as a consequence of the legislation of such countries, became 

 comparatively more valuable, and commanded a higher market 

 price. 



Mr. Burchard therefore claimed that it seemed capable of his- 

 torical demonstration that the fluctuation of the past in the rela- 

 tive market values of gold and silver had resulted from an 

 increased or diminished use, occasioned chiefly by legislation. 

 He said further that, after much consideration of these facts, the 

 conclusion seemed to him irrefutable that the consent of all na- 

 tions, embodied in the form of law, to the use of gold and silver 

 as legal money, at fixed rates of value, would reduce the fluctu- 

 ations in the relative values of the two metals to a minimum too 

 insignificant to be regarded; and, in the language of the Secre- 

 tary to one of our commissioners to the International Monetary 

 Convention (Mr. Groesbeck), "that if it were possible for the 

 leading commercial nations to fix by agreement an arbitrary i-ela- 

 tion between silver and gold, even though the market value might 

 vary somewhat from time to time, it would be a measure of the 

 greatest good to all nations. " 



Mr. A. J. Warner, of the House of Representatives, was in- 

 vited to participate in the discussion ; and he remarked upon the 

 relations of the quantity of gold in use to the price it held when 

 measured by other commodities. He expressed the conviction 

 that the acquisition of the necessary amount of gold which would 

 be required to make us a thoroughly solvent, specie-paying 

 nation upon a mono-metallic gold basis, would so raise the stand- 

 ard of value as to entail serious injustice. 



Mr. M. H. DooLiTTLE called attention to a recent article in 

 the Atlantic Monthly, which set forth that the future prospects 

 of the production of the precious metals were indicative of a 

 diminishing supply of gold, and a very steady supply of silver. 



The Society then adjourned. 



