MONEY FALLACIES. 
371 
fact, the demands of trade have added more gold to the total 
money of the country in the last twelve years than all the 
silver money and Treasury notes added by the Treasury in 
the same time; and if the Treasury had added nothing the 
demands of trade would doubtless have added it. 
It will probably be suggested here that an importation of 
a large amount of gold drawn from the world’s existing 
stock to meet the growing demand of the United States for 
money would cause a general increase of demand for gold 
without a corresponding increase of supply. It is estimated 
that at the present time the consumption of gold in the arts 
does not differ greatly from the output of the mines, and the 
existing stock has within the last five or six years been but 
little increased. The increased demand, therefore, would 
tend to increase the value of gold, and thus cause a general 
fall of prices. This reasoning is no doubt true, but it takes 
no account of the constant growth of substitutes for gold 
and the continued increase in the efficiency of money, 
whereby less is required as the final basis of money needed 
to accomplish a given amount of exchanges. Whether the 
effect of all causes combined is such as to produce an increase 
in the purchasing power of gold relatively to all commodi¬ 
ties is a question which hardly admits of an answer. So 
many new commodities are being introduced almost daily, 
the older commodities are so much improved in quality or 
changed in fashion, the relations of capital to labor are so 
greatly modified, that exact comparisons are impossible. 
The general opinion of those who have attempted compari¬ 
sons of the prices of a considerable number of commodities 
at different times is that the commodity price of gold has 
appreciated. But it is clear that none of these comparisons 
take full account of the effects of innumerable causes which 
influence prices, nor does it seem possible to do so. 
Waiving this question, however, and granting that there 
may have been an appreciation of the commodity value of 
gold by reason of increased demand for the world’s stock, it 
remains to inquire whether this appreciation would be an 
