Manchester Memoirs, Vol. xlii. (1898), No. 10. 



X. The New Gold Discoveries. 



By Eduard Suess (Vienna), 



Honorary Member oj the Manchester Literary and Philosophical Society. 

 Received and read April ^th, i8g8. 



Reference has lately been made in the Proceedings of 

 the Society to my small book on "The Future of Gold," 

 published in 1877, ^.nd a desire has been expressed to 

 learn my opinion on the present situation. My opinion is, 

 that the succession of rich discoveries and the energy of 

 mining operations accelerate the exhaustion of the 

 resources in gold offered by nature to mankind, and at 

 the same time hasten the approach of a universal economic 

 danger. 



When Germany, after the war of 1870, adopted the 

 gold standard, the Government was supported by dis- 

 tinguished men, of well-deserved renown in economical 

 affairs, but without the necessary deference to the geo- 

 logical side of the question. That is why, in 1877, I 

 ventured to remind them that the production of silver 

 would not be reduced in the ratio of the fall in its value, 

 that the source of available gold would not be sufilicient 

 to provide a gold standard for the whole world, and that 

 the epoch was inevitable, probably after a few centuries, 

 when the production of gold must diminish steadily and 

 in a high degree, and this metal, with increasing rarity, 

 would no longer be able to retain its present economic 

 position. 



The evidence seems very clear. The Greek philoso- 

 phers knew that gold was only found on the utmost 



■^ 13th, i8g8. 



