April — sept. 1859.] Ancient and Modern times. 97 



exclusion in the languages of some of the peoples I have named : 

 I wish now to call attention to another particular in which the 

 supremacy of one metal over the others was manifested, after its 

 exclusive employment had given way to the requirements of 

 advancing civilisation and increasing commerce. 



One metal has almost always been considered as the sole Stand- 

 ard of Value; and, as a necessary consequence, the sole legal 

 tender to an indefinite amount. The metal which in each parti- 

 cular country had been the first instrument of commercial ex- 

 changes has invariably been the first standard of value — and first 

 unrestricted legal tender, and silver having been amongst most 

 peoples the earliest medium of exchange, it has also been most 

 generally the. standard of value. In England, for instance, this 

 was the case for a very long time ; gold was not a legal tender for 

 many years after it had been introduced into the currency. But 

 as commercial intercourse extended, and as riches increased, men 

 would soon begin to feel that gold is a more convenient metal for 

 large payments than silver ; while its value is not more fluctuating 

 — in this country the inconvenience of large payments in a silver 

 currency is often felt. Accordingly in the two great commercial 

 nations of the world gold has supplanted silver as the Standard 

 of Value and as legal tender to an unlimited amount. 



But in England and America there was — in France there exists 

 at this present time — an intermediate, transition, state ; in which 

 gold and silver are the Standard of Value, and gold or silver in 

 legal tender to any amount. The English and Americans soon 

 felt the exceeding inconvenience of a Double Standard, and took 

 immediately the obviously necessary steps for their relief. The 

 French are suffering now from the consequences of their attempt 

 to fix by legislative enactment what Nature has made fluctuating — ■ 

 the relative value of the precious metals. But in accordance 

 with the celebrated dictum of the first Napoleon, that " political 

 economy" would crumble to dust the most powerful empire, the 

 French talk of remedies which political economy teaches to be 

 utterly futile, and refuse to adopt the only means which both 

 science and experience point out for the remedy of the evil from 

 which they suffer. 

 Vol. xx. o. s. Vol. ti. n. s. 



