INFLUENCE OF BECENT GOLD DISCOTEEIES ON PEICES. 441 



calculates at 3 per cent, of the whole, or upwards of £11,400,000 per 

 annum. 



Again, the annual consumption of the precious metals in the arts 

 he estimates at £11,200,000. 



Wear and tear and loss of coin £ 5,700,000 



Increase of currency 11,400,000 



Used in the arts 11,200,000 



Total £28,300,000 



In reference to the last item, McCulloch remarks, " this quantity, 

 however great it may appear will be increased with the increase of 

 population and the spread of refinement and the arts ; and it will, 

 also, be certainly increased by any thing like a considerable fall in 

 the value of bullion." Indeed I believe tbere can be little doubt 

 that already the decline in the value of gold bullion has caused it to 

 be employed in various new branches of manufactures and the arts, 

 and the tendency of this increased demand for gold will be of course, 

 " pro tanto" to check the decline in its value. 



From a careful examination of all the authorities to which I have 

 had access on the matter, I have arrived at the conclusion that the 

 whole amount of gold raised since 1848 to the beginning of the 

 present year is not much under 300 millions, and that the whole 

 amount coined during the same period may be estimated at upwards 

 of 180 millions. 



Had the whole of this enormous amouut of coin been suddenly 

 thrown upon the currency of the world, the effect would have been 

 (assuming as before the whole mass of the currency of the world to 

 be £380,000,000,) an average decline in the value of gold through- 

 out the world, of nearly 50 per cent. 



But as in reality the rate of influx of the new gold is very differ- 

 ent in different countries, and as the effect of this cause in any par- 

 ticular country is directly proportioned to its rate of influx into that 

 country, as compared of course with the amount already in existence 

 there, the decline in the value of gold in some countries would 

 have been above and in others below this average. 



The addition to the coin has, however,-not been instantaneous, it 

 has been spread over a peiuod of 8 years, and during that time, (owing 

 to the extraordinary impulse given to commerce from the gold discov- 

 eries themselves, from free trade and other causes) the production of 

 commodities has been going forward with a constantly increasing en- 

 ergy, so that the whole mass of commodities in the world in 1856 far 

 exceeds in value the mass of commodities in 1848, and therefore the 



