206 Wisconsin State Agricultural Society. 
From this table we learn several things: Among others, 1. That 
the fluctuation of prices in no respect corresponds with the varia¬ 
tions in the premium on gold. 2. That the value of gold instead 
of a fixed and stable value is constantly fluctuating and that in the 
thirteen years it has varied all the way from 1 per cent, up to 69 
per cent, in one year. 3. That in four out of the last six years the 
variation in the value of gold has been greater than in that of 
greenbacks. 4. That for the whole thirteen years, during which 
time the greenback has been, subject to unnatural disabilities by 
the action to the government, its average variations in value has 
been not quite one-third of one per cent, greater than that of gold. 
It may be said that these statistics pertain to an era full of dis¬ 
turbing elements and that, therefore, calculations made from them 
are unreliable. Let us then, examine certain facts belonging to a 
time free from these perturbations. I avail myself of another table 
and diagram prepared by Mr. Walker.* 
He gives us a tabular list of the comparative prices of ten staple 
articles in the New York market for twenty-six years, 1834 to 1859 
inclusive—the only period, he says, for which we have correct data, 
also a period of general peace. The articles selected are the most 
common in use, and those whose prices are best known, and least 
liable to fluctuations, except by change in the currency. The 
prices, it will be observed, are gold prices. If the articles here 
specified fairly represent the general values of the commodities of 
the country, the value of gold diminished in two years, 1834 to 
1836, to more than 35 per cent. In the next six years, 1836 to 
1842, its value increased 109 per cent. In the next five years it di¬ 
minished again 33^ per cent., having had an advance in the mean¬ 
time of 11 per cent. In the next three years the value of gold ad¬ 
vanced nearly 30 per cent., and in the next seven years, with some 
fluctuations in the interval, it diminished 36^- per cent., with an in¬ 
crease the next year of 15^ per cent. Here, then, we have, in the 
space of twenty-four years, seven marked fluctuations, varying 
from 11 to 109 per cent., with some minor variations not noticed. 
Mr. Walker constructed these tables to show that the fluctuation in 
prices corresponds with the variations in the amount of circulation, 
and that the former are caused by the latter. He is not altogether 
successful in that which he attempts, and his tables are by no means 
* Science of Wealth, by Amasa Walker, (larger edition,) pp. 177,178, with diagram. 
