302 
[May, 
Analyses of Books. 
Supplement to a Treatise on Gold and Silver. To show a Chief 
Cause of Present Depression in Trade and Shrinkage in 
Value of all Produce and Property. By George O’Brien. 
Dedicated to the Right Hon. W. Ewart Gladstone, M.P. 
London: “ Mining Journal ” Office. 
This pamphlet is an important supplement to a treatise by the 
same author which we had the pleasure of noticing in our issue 
for February. There prevails an opinion among economists that 
the recent fall in the value of silver as compared with ^that of 
gold is due to an excess in the supply of the former. Nothing 
can be more wide of the truth. The “ plethora of silver, so 
much complained of in certain quarters, is chiefly due to its 
demonetisation in Germany, and to a greater or less extent in 
other countries. Hence a considerable quantity of silver has 
been thrown upon the market, with the natural result of reducing 
its value. Whether this demonetisation was undertaken in some 
quarters in the hope of damaging British interests, is a question 
which we must leave to be discussed by our political contem- 
poraries. _ . 
Our task is rather to follow Mr. O’Brien’s brief and conclusive 
demonstration that the yield of silver, like that of gold, is by no 
means unlimited, and that most of the known sources of supply 
are approaching exhaustion. 
The author first calls attention to the curious fart that silver 
mainly belongs to the American continent, and there only to the 
great mountain-chain known in its Southern portion as the 
Andes. In Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia it is not now, 
and apparently has not for ages been, found in any quantity likely 
to affeCt the market. What were the sources which in the days 
of Solomon made this metal “ as stones ” at Jerusalem, and “ of 
no account,” we cannot say. Certain it is the silver mines of 
the eastern hemisphere had during the Christian era been very 
sparingly productive. Hence the supplies that flowed in from 
Mexico and Peru, during the reign of the Emperor Charles V., 
gave an impulse to commerce similar to that which in our time 
followed upon the opening up of the Californian and Austialian 
gold deposits. _ . 
Mr. O’Brien opens his review of the silver-yielding countries 
of America with Chili. This State, since 1835, has yielded silver 
to the value of more than 60 millions sterling, chiefly from the 
three districts of Arqueros, Chanarcillo, and Tres Puntas. All 
these three are substantially abandoned from exhaustion. Cara- 
coles, on the frontiers of Bolivia, is not in a flourishing condi- 
tion. The Peruvian mines of Potosi and Cerro del Pasco are 
nearly exhausted. 
In Mexico and in certain of the United States, such as Nevada, 
Montana, Colorado, and Utah, much silver occurs. Butin Mexico 
