4 SUESS, The New Gold Discoveries. 



on enterprises with but the faintest spark of hope, and 

 many other circumstances, combine to the effect that, in 

 place of the continued fluctuations^ presumed by me in 1877, 

 the whole production of the world now tends to unite into one 

 great wave^ and, consequently, to hasten the end and to 

 increase the danger. It is a further consequence of this 

 state of things, that the distance of this end may no 

 longer be measurable by centuries. 



But, along with this increase of the world's production, 

 every sort of activity has increased all over the world, 

 hundreds of new exigencies have arisen, and the question 

 may be raised, whether the production of gold and the 

 new necessities have grown in a comparable manner 

 during recent years. 



Every figure in these matters can only be more or less 

 rudely approximate. The figures of production, of export 

 and import of gold, which I beg leave to cite below, are taken 

 from the last excellent publication of the U.S. Director of the 

 Mint, Mr. Preston. I am aware, that in these figures 

 the production of gold for the United States is given 

 for the calendar year, as for the rest of the world, and 

 the figures of export and import are given for the U.S. 

 fiscal year ending June 30th. This may displace a part 

 of the figures, but cannot affect the general conclusion. 



In 1887 the world's production had decreased to 21 '8 

 millions sterling, and from that time the rise was constant, 

 until in 1897 50 millions sterling was reached ; the 

 estimate for 1898 is 55 or 56 millions sterling. 



Three-quarters of this sum is produced by four parts 

 of the world : Australia, South Africa, Russia, and the 

 United States. It is a very wide-spread delusion that 

 these four countries really deliver up all their gold to the 

 world's use. In reality, the case is very different. 



Let us only consider the last four years, 1893-96. for 

 which we possess the necessary figures. 



