Annual Report of the Council. 



Ixi. 



ment of the previous work, and consists of the substance 

 of lectures delivered at the Lowell Institute of Boston. 

 It does not profess to deal with the literature of the 

 subject like the former work, but, on the other hand, 

 it deals more fully with the relation of money to general 

 economics. In it Walker reaffirms, with reference to 

 fiduciary issues, the opinion that " the evils caused by 

 even the slightest variation from the metallic standard 

 far outweigh the saving in cost effected by reducing the 

 specie basis, and, consequently, such money is neither 

 good nor cheap." In his last work, " International Bi- 

 metallism," published in 1896, and consisting of the sub- 

 stance of lectures in the Harvard University, he remarks 

 with reference to the earlier works mentioned : "I do not 

 know that I have had occasion to change a single one 

 of the opinions expressed in those volumes. The subject 

 seems to me, as it has always seemed, a perfectly simple 

 one if prejudice and passion are not allowed to obscure 

 it" ; and he closes the book with the statement that, though 

 the working classes have gained through improvements in 

 the arts and the discovery of new resources in nature since 

 1873, Y et — as production has not increased as much as it 

 ought to have done and would have done had it not been 

 for the dislocation of international exchanges — they " have 

 suffered, and have suffered greatly, from demonetisation." 

 It may be pointed out, in conclusion, that General Walker's 

 objections to the division of the world into silver- and gold- 

 using States respectively have been justified by the fact 

 that this arrangement, put forward as a "natural" solution 

 of the problem by the monometallists in 1878, finds no 

 advocates to-day. The closing of the Indian Mints to silver 

 in 1893, to say nothing of the similar steps taken by Japan, 

 Peru, Roumania, and others of the poorer nations, has 

 demonstrated its rejection even as a theory. In the next 

 place, notwithstanding the increased output of gold, the 

 soundness of Walker's contention respecting the inadequacy 

 of the supply of that metal has been proved by the practical 



