136 
between gold and silver standard countries. 
In India, where silver was still the money 
of the people, the index of prices rose from 
107 in 1873 to 140 in 1896. In Japan it 
rose from 104 in 1873 to 133 in 1896, or a 
little less than 20 per cent., while in gold- 
using countries prices fell off more than 
20 per cent. From 1896 to 1909 there has 
been a rise in prices contemporaneously 
with a great increase in the quantity of 
gold mined in South Africa and in dif- 
ferent portions of the United States and 
Alaska. 
Let us draw a little more fully the com- 
parison between these eras of high and low 
prices and the production of gold. From 
1789 to 1810, it has been stated that there 
was a rise in prices. During these years 
the average production of gold in the whole 
world was a little less than $12,000,000 per 
year, and that of silver approximately 
$37,000,000, or $49,000,000 in all. Begin- 
ning in the year 1811 the annual average 
for the next ten years was $7,606,000 of 
gold or a diminished supply of more than 
33 per cent., and $22,000,000 of silver, a 
diminished supply of about 40 per cent. 
In the following decade from 1821 to 1830 
there was an increase in the mining of gold 
and a decrease in that of silver, but the 
total annual average was slightly less than 
from 1811 to 1820. From 1831 to 1840 
there was a substantial increase in both 
metals amounting to about 33 per cent. 
From 1841 to 1850 gold production in- 
ereased from about $13,000,000 per year 
to $36,000,000. However, in the forty 
years from 1811 to 1850, inclusive, an era 
of low prices, the average annual produc- 
tion of gold was barely $17,000,000 per 
year; then with the opening of the mines 
in California and Australia the average 
suddenly rose from $17,000,000 to over 
$130,000,000, and to a still greater figure 
from 1856 to 1860. This was a period of 
SCIENCE 
[N.S. Vou. XXXV. No. 891 
rapidly rising prices. After this there was 
somewhat of a decrease. The lowest an- 
nual production was for the four years, 
1874, 1875, 1876 and 1883, in each of 
which the production was between ninety 
and a hundred millions. A practically 
uniform and very large increase com- 
menced in the year 1891 with $130,000,000, 
which increased to the enormous figure of 
$236,000,000 in 1897, after which with 
slight interruptions resulting from the 
Boer war, the still higher figure of $454.- 
000,000 was reached in 1909. It thus ap- 
pears that the production for the single 
year 1909 was more than two thirds as 
much as for the forty years from 1811 to 
1850. It was greater than the combined 
coinage value of gold and silver for any 
year prior to 1898 and five times as great 
as the production of gold in the year 1874. 
A further fact to be taken into account, 
of course, is the relation of the annual in- 
erement to the accumulated supply. Divers 
estimates of the world’s stock of gold have 
been made. That which should be consid- 
ered is the portion used for money in the 
form of coin or bars of bullion. At the 
present time the annual production is 
equal to at least three and perhaps four 
per cent. of the total existing monetary 
supply. Of the $454,000,000 mined in 
1909, it has been estimated that $145,000,- 
000 was utilized in the arts. It is probable 
that this is a large estimate, but in any 
event the primary money of the gold stand- 
ard countries was increased by $300,000,- 
000 in the year 1909. Indeed, according 
to the very carefully prepared estimate of 
Dr. Roberts, the Director of the Mint, the 
amount of coinage for that year is given 
as $313,000,000. 
It is not by the mere addition of gold to 
the monetary supply that prices are raised. 
There is an even more important stimulus 
to activity in the fact that this money is 
