±12 INFLUENCE OE RECENT GOLD DISCOVERIES ON PRICES. 



depreciation of the metals or the rise in the prices of the commodi- 

 ties is not so great as, looking merely to the unparalleled augmenta- 

 tion of the metallic medium of exchange, one might have been led to 

 anticipate. It is hardly necessary to state that it is not in my power 

 to verify from authentic returns the calculation I have made as to the 

 prohahle amount of bullion coined since 1818. The following table, 

 however, giving the gold coinage of Great Britain, France, and 

 the States, from the period in question, has been compiled carefully 

 from reliable sources, aud will serve, I think, to shew that 1 have 

 not over estimated the whole amount of the coinage of the world 

 since 1848: 





Great Britain. 



France. 



United States. 



Total. 



1848 



1849 



1850 



1851 



1854 



1855 



£ 



2,451,999 



2,177 

 1,49),('00 

 4,400.411 

 8,742,270 

 11,952.391 

 4,152,183 



£ 



1.234,472 

 1,084,882 

 3,407,691 



lii,U77,252 



j 13,023,160 I 



16. 594,000 

 17,20 



£ 



786,565 



1,875,158 



6,662,854 



12,911 



ll,fi41,000 



12,871,700 



12,171.110 



11,262,500 



£ 

 4,478,036 

 5,186 



11. 5 til. 54 5 

 2 7 397,358 



$ 68,28 '.621 I 



32,917,293 



37,471,163 



Total 



£44,875,915 



62,620,957 



70,190,582 



177,187,456 



The preceding table shews that the gold discoveries did not pro- 

 duce any very marked effect on the gold coinage of the "countries 

 enumerated until 1S51, when a sudden and unprecedented augmen- 

 tation took place in the coinage of each of those countries. The 

 average annual coinageof the three countries taken together for thelast 

 four years, exceeds, as appears from the foregoing table, thirty-two 

 millions sterling, an amount which appears almost incredible when 

 compared with their average annual coinage before 1848.* 



It seems, indeed, not unlikely that the mint recently opened at 

 Sydney will coin this year as much as the total annual coinage of 

 England, France, and the States together, before 1848 : for we find 

 from recent Australia papers that the weekly coinage at the Sydney 

 ^lint iu November last was 45,000 sovereigns, or at the rate of 

 £2,340,000 per annum ; and we learn further that the increasing 



* According to Mr. Birkmyre, (during at least the first SO years of the presenl century,) 

 the average annual united coinage of the three countries was only £8,055,000, or about 

 oue-eleventh of their present annual coinage. 



