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m No ig

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS RECEIVED BY THE
AUTHOR OF " JOINT-METALLISM"

Hon. David A. Wells, LL.D., D.C.L., etc.— Your plan is
certainly novel and ingenious.

Hon. John E. Russell, Member of Congress from Massa-
chusetts. — The importance of the question you so ably
discuss cannot be overestimated.

The Right Hon. Lord Playfair. — It is certainly a much
more honest system of bimetallism than the schemes al-
ready propounded.

Prof. W. Smart, LL.D., Glasgow.— It is a most suggestive
contribution to a subject which is now creating as much
interest in Great Britain as it does in its parent country.

W. T. Harris, United States Commissioner of Education. —
In my humble opinion the best book on this subject — a
subject of vital importance to the prosperity of the people
of this country.

Right Rev. H. C. Potter, LL.D., etc.— Much impressed by
your argument.

Rev. David H. Greer, D.D.— I think your statement of the
question most admirable and convincing.

Hon, Carroll D. Wright, United States Commissioner of
Labor.— Your theory attracts me very much. It seems to
me that there is within it the solution of the difficulty.

Prof. Francis Wayland, LL.D., Dean of Yale Law School.
— If It has not brought complete conviction to my mind,
it has certainly shaken some of my pet beliefs.

JOINT-METALLISM

PLAN BY WHICH GOLD AND SILVER TOGETHER, AT
RATIOS ALWAYS BASED ON THEIR RELATIVE MARKET
VALUES, MAY BE MADE THE METALLIC BASIS OF
A SOUND, HONEST, SELF-REGULATING, AND PER-
MANENT CURRENCY, WITHOUT FREQUENT RECOIN-
INGS, AND WITHOUT DANGER OF ONE METAL
DRIVING OUT THE OTHER

With the

Compliments of the Author

MONOMETALLISM

Part IIL-HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE OF MONEY

AND COINAGE

Part IV.-THE APOTHEOSIS OF CREDIT— OBJECTIONS

ANSWERED AND HONEST LEGISLATION

DEMANDED.

Part V.-FREE-COINAGE DEBATE ; LETTERS ; AFTER THE

ELECTION, WHAT ?

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK LONDON

27 WEST twenty-third STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND

flic JLinichcrbockct press
1S96

EXTRACTS FROM LETTERS RECEIVED BY THE
AUTHOR OF " JOINT-METALLISM"

Hon. David A. Wells, LL.D., D.C.L., etc. — Your plan is
certainly novel and ingenious.

Hon. John E. Russell, Member of Congress from Massa-

chu - ■' - ^tinn vou SO ably

disc

The Ri<
mor
rea

Pro

t/^v.*

In my humble opinion mc

subject of vital importance to the prosperity of the people

of this country.

Right Rev. H. C. Potter, LL.D., etc.— Much impressed by
your argument.

Rkv. David H. Greer, D.D.— I think your statement of the
question most admirable and convincing.

Hon. Carroll D. \Vright, United States Commissioner of
Labor. — Your theory attracts me very much. It seems to
me that there is within it the solution of the difficulty.

Prof. Francis Wavland, LL.D., Dean of Yale Law School.
— If it has not brought complete conviction to my mind,
it has certainly shaken some of my pet beliefs.

JOINT-METALLISM

A PLAN BY WHICH GOLD AND SILVER TOGETHER, AT
RATIOS ALWAYS BASED ON THEIR RELATIVE MARKET
VALUES, MAY BE MADE THE METALLIC BASIS OF
A SOUND, HONEST, SELF-REGULATING, AND PER-
MANENT CURRENCY, WITHOUT FREQUENT RECOIN-
INGS, AND WITHOUT DANGER OF ONE METAL
DRIVING OUT THE OTHER

ANSON PHELPS STOKES

FIFTH EDITION

COMPRISING

Part I.— JOINT-METALLISM— APPENDIX

Part II.— JOINT-METALLISM VS. BIMETALLISM AND

MONOMETALLISM

Part III.— HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE OF MONEY

AND COINAGE

Part IV.— THE APOTHEOSIS OF CREDIT— OBJECTIONS

ANSWERED AND HONEST LEGISLATION

DEMANDED.

Part V.— FREE-COINAGE DEBATE ; LETTERS ; AFTER THE

ELECTION, WHAT >

G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS

NEW YORK LONDON

27 WEST TWENTY-THIRD STREET 24 BEDFORD STREET, STRAND

S^IjE ■^unclurbockct |.lrcss
1896

ANSON PHELPS STOKES
Entered at Stationers' Hall, London
By G. p. Putnam's Sons

Ube Iknicfjcrbocfccr iprcae, "Hew IBorfi

• «

« « • •

• • • • t •

• * ft • • •

• ft « •

« •

ft ft • • •
* ftft *•«•••

.J>

INTRODUCTORY NOTE TO THE
FIFTH EDITION.

In this revised edition the statistical tables in the
Appendix have been brought down to July i, 1896,
and additional tables, etc., have been introduced.

The Appendix occupies pages 77 to 118 as in
previous editions.

Pages 207 to 233, containing Extracts from
Saratoga Free-Coinage Debate, Proposed Currency-
Plank, Letters to the Springfield Republican, and
After the Election, What ? are added new matter.

New York, November, i8g6.

389162

CONTENTS.

PAGE

Introductory Note to Fifth Edition .

Advertisement of Fourth Edition . . v

Preface to Third Edition . . . vii

Preface to Second Edition . . . xi

Preface to First Edition .... xxi

PART I.

First Letter on Joint-Metallism . . 3
To Make Times Prosperous.
The Plan.
The Economic Ratio.

From the Evening Post . . . • 13
The New Silver Movement.
Silver Lunatics.

Second Letter on Joint-Metallism . 17

Criticisms.

When the Ratio Becomes Settled.

To Promote Clear Thinking.

How to Remonetize Silver.

The Constitutional Standard.

" A Vein for Silver and a Place for Gold."

From the Evening Post . . . . -29
Mr. Stokes's Basal Proposition.
The Boston Brethren.
Ammunition of the Most Deadly Kind.

11 Contents.

PAGB

Third Letter on Joint-Metallism . . 37

The Plan does Not Affect Present Debts.

The Parliamentary Commission.

The Only Final Basis of All Sound Currency.

From the Evening Post as

"The Goddess Argentum."

The Historical and Just Position.

Fourth Letter on Joint-Metallism . . 53

A Goddess with so Unfeminine a Name.
What Lincoln Said about the Common People.
Is the Production of Gold Increasing ?

From the Evening Post . . . . 6i

Popular Delusions.
Aggravating Popular Errors.

Fifth Letter on Joint-Metallism . . 65
The Danger does Not Come from Discussion.
The Highland Minister.
Some Dangers of the Present Situation.
The Last Legal-Tender Opinion.
The Difficulty of Maintaining the Treasury Reserve.
Potatoes and Point.

Appendix y^

Co7itents. iii

PART II.

PAGE

Joint-Metallism versus Bimetallism and

Monometallism . , . . .121
These Terms Defined,

How Joint-Metallism would Work and Result.
Unscientific Bimetallism with Empirical Ratio.
Why Wheat, Cotton, and Wages Decline with

Silver.
David A. Wells and Edward Atkinson Answered.
The Impending Crisis.

A Commission of Judges and Experts Necessary.
Joint-Metallism a Merit System.

PART III.

History of the Science of Money : a Study
OF Great Philosophical Works on
Money and Coinage . . . .

Nicole Oresme, the Fourteenth-Century Political
Economist, Author of Traictie de la Premiere
Invention des Alonnoies,

Nicholas Copernicus, the Astronomer and Re-
former of Coinage, Author of Moneie Cudende
Ratio,

Wolowski's Admirable Annotated Edition of
These Great Treatises. Paris, 1864.

Views of Bacon, Locke, Newton, etc., etc.

Macleod's Bimelalisni. London, 1894.

The Difficulty with Bimetallism in 1873.

151

iv Contejtts.

PAGE

Quotations from Oresme and Copernicus
Showing Their Wonderful Grasp'Df
Monetary Principles .... i68

That They Saw that Gold and Silver Coins
should Always Bear Substantially the Same
Ratio to Each Other as Their Eullion
Values.

That They Tried to Accomplish This by Re-
coinages when Market Values Changed.

Conclusion 172

That This Ratio can be Maintained Conveniently
by Having a Standard Silver Coin of the
Same Weight as a Standard Gold Coin, and
Simply Changing, when Necessary, the
Number of These Silver Coins to be the
Just and Legal Equivalent of the Gold Coin.

That Thus Silver can be Used Equally with Gold.

PART IV.

The Apotheosis of Credit . . . 187

Objections Answfred and Honest Legis-
lation Demanded ..... 197

PAR r V.

Saratoga Debate 209

Letters to Springfield Republican . .218

After the Election, What ? . . . 229

Index 235

ADVERTISEMENT OF THE
FOURTH EDITION.

The favor with which this book has been re-
ceived indicates that, notwithstanding the uncom-
promising attitude of parties who are striving to
use the currency question for political advantage,
the people are studying it, and are seeking some
fair and reasonable solution.

This work is based upon original research, and
contains pertinent historical and statistical matter,
with references to and quotations from the principal
authorities on the science of money ; also a com-
plete Index. The statistical tables have been
brought down to date of latest report of the
Director of the Mint, etc.

The author believes that most of the present de-
pression in trade, agriculture, and other industries
is traceable to ignorance of the history and science
of money, and to attempts to retry unscientific ex-
periments ; and he opposes both Monometallism
and Bimetallism at any fixed empirical ratio. He
proposes that the mints be opened to both the
precious metals at their market values when they
are presented together in quantities of equal value,
and that joint certificates, payable half in gold and
half in silver, be issued by the Treasury, to be legal
tender for all debts contracted after a fixed future

vi A dvertisemeiit.

date. He claims that the true economic ratio would
thus soon be determined, and would then very
seldom change, and that debtors and creditors
Avould not be affected by such change, as the actual
transactions would be made in Legal-Tender Joint
Certificates ; and that any possible loss to the Gov-
ernment could be provided against by a small
mintage charge.

The treatise presents a convenient plan for coin-
age and currency on the above basis, with standard
silver coins of the same weight as standard gold
coins, but takes the ground that details as to the
coin to be chosen as the gold standard, the time
when and the official by whom the declarations of
the Government ratios shall be made, and the
periods to be considered in fixing the ratio, are not
essential.

The present work shows that the author is a
bullionist and opposed to credit money, while be-
lieving that credit can attain its greatest just
development on a bullionist basis, as it does sub-
stantially in England.

New York, March, 1895.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD
EDITION.

The second edition was published on
the fifth of this month, and I am informed
that it is out of print.

I had planned in the third edition to
discuss credit and paper currency at some
length. I have not time to do so now,
and if I ever undertake this, it will be in
a separate volume.

Since the second edition of Joint-
Metallism went to press, the Government
gold reserve has again been reduced be-
low the minimum of one hundred million
dollars, as it was evident it would be ; and
the President's Message and the Report
of the Secretary of the Treasury have
been published. I am glad to note that
they do not contain any recommendation

viii Preface to the Third Edition.

f of "coinage on Government account,"
/ which was suggested in the Secretary's
/ letter quoted on page 171. But these
I state papers and the Bill reported by the
\ Committee on Banking and Currency pro-
\ pose what is, in my opinion, a dangerous
and unconstitutional system of paper cur-
rency, based on general assets, etc.

It is evident that the modern exagger-
ated theory of credit, of which that very
clever barrister and economist, Henry
Dunning Macleod, is the most prominent
promoter, is threatening the world with
general disaster.

Adam Smith has well pointed out how
a mistaken theory of wealth caused many
European wars during the seventeenth
and eiofhteenth centuries.

Macleod says that Adam Smith, John
Stuart Mill, J. B. Say, etc., "had not the
faintest conception of the great juridical
principles of credit," and that this depart-
ment of economics he has made his own.
He writes: "The true function of credit
is to bring into commerce the present
values of future profits," and that " Ri-

Preface to the Third Edition, ix

vaj:ol_^well said, ' Man conquers space by
commerce, and time by credit.' "
— I regret I have neither time nor space
to quote further or to comment fully on
this theory, but some of the results of its
workings are evident on all sides in bank-
rupt states, railroads, and speculative com-
panies, and further developments are fast
approaching.
'It is a remarkable thing in economic
literature that Macleod, the apostle of
credit money, should now claim to derive
support from the writings of Oresme and
Copernicus, who were the great champions
of sound metallic money, based on the
market values of the two precious metals.
If "credit is as good as money," as
Macleod says it is, and if Government
credit is the best credit, then fiat money
is the best money, and the name of Mac-
leod should be exalted in the gate of the
Greenbackers. ^

^eTTeving there is great danger to the
community in the seductive theory of
credit which Macleod so elaborately and
so ably advocates, and which is admittedly

X Preface to the Third Edition.

an attempt to discount future profits, or,
as he expresses it, " to bring into com-
merce the present values of future profits,"
I have added in Part IV. of this edition
a short chapter on " The Apotheosis of
Credit."

May I ask all readers of Part II. and
Part III. to first read the Preface to the
Second Edition.

A. P. S.

Stokes Building, New York,
December 22, 1894.

PREFACE TO THE SECOND
EDITION.

The first edition of yoint-Metallism
consisted largely of letters hurriedly
written for the newspapers.

A second edition being called for now,
I add, in Part II., commencing page 119,
a more thorough presentation of the plan
of joint-metallism, with some considera-
tions intended to refute objections, and
references to further weighty authorities
on the science of money, whose opinions
are entitled to especial attention.

On page 5 I suggested some details
which might facilitate the establishment
of the system here. But these details as
to the coin to be selected as the gold
standard, the times when and the official
by whom the declaration of the Govern-

xii Preface to the Second Edition.

ment ratio shall be made, and the periods
to be considered in fixing this ratio, are,
of course, not essential.

In reading very many books on money
and coinage, I find :

First. That some of the older writers
on this subject far surpass almost all the
modern ones in genius, reasoning, force,
and clearness.

Second. That, as compared with other
sciences, there appears a strange general
ignorance of the history of monetary
science.

Oresme, the great master of this science
in the fourteenth century, was acquainted
with the writings on this subject of Justin,
Saint Augustine, Cassiodorus, etc.

But Copernicus, the great astronomer
and economist of the sixteenth century,
was ignorant of Oresme's work in this
field, and Bacon, Locke, and Newton, in
the seventeenth century, did not know of
these writings of Oresme and Copernicus,
and the English economic writers of the
eighteenth century generally ignored the
earlier continental monetary experiences.

Preface to the Second Edition. xiii

Roscher, Professor of Political Econo-
my at Leipsic, when he found a copy of
Oresme's work in 1862, supposed that
"this diamond of the first water hidden
in the dust " had been entirely unknown
for many years. Its existence, was, how-
ever, known to several French writers,
but its importance not appreciated. That
this treatise had caused the reform of the
French coinage in the fourteenth century
was generally forgotten until the publica-
tion, in 1864, of Wolowski's^ Etitde sur le
Traite de la Monnaie de Nicole Oresnie,
and most recent writers show little knowl-
edge of any of these great authorities,
and total ignorance of their most import-
ant works.

It appears that at a critical period when
it became necessary to reform the coinage,
in order to save the country from ruin,
some philosopher would adequately study
up the matter, and prepare a plan which
met the emergency, and then his work
was soon forgotten. Old vicious coinage
plans would then again be resorted to in
order to cheat the people. Again there

' Read before the Institute nf France August 14, 1862.

xiv Preface to the Second Edition.

would be a crisis in affairs, then another
philosopher would save society by mone-
tary reform ; and then his work would,
in turn, soon be forgotten.

In Oresme's time the coin had been so
debased that it contained only one eighty-
sixth part of its nominal quantity of sil-
ver ; the late King John, strangely called
" The Good," having ordered the masters
of the mint to exactly imitate the old
coins in base metal, charging them under
the most extreme penalty of treason ta
keep this fraud secret. Oresme discov-
ered and explained why bad money drove
out good money.'

One hundred and sixty years later Co-
pernicus rediscovered how bad money was
driving good money out of the great king-
dom of Poland, which then embraced
Prussia, etc.

Similar conditions of affairs were after-
wards repeatedly discovered in England
and elsewhere.

Some of the men who brouorht about
great reforms of the coinage were the
very greatest philosophers of their time.

' See note, page 154.

Preface to the Second lidition. xv

But, although they convinced those then
in authority, their work in monetary re-
form was not generally understood or
appreciated. The hidden but momentous
workings of changes in the basis of
money are among the things no people
have as yet shown an aptitude to under-
stand.

Even to-day the importance of the fol-
lowing simple facts appears difficult of
common comprehension, viz. : That
gcnei'-al prospci'ity in our cotintry depends
largely on the prices obtainable abroad for
our chief exportable staples ; and that the
fall in these is directly caused by the de-
monetization of silver, because for every
pound sterling which a planter in India,
etc., receives for cotton or ivheat sold in
England, he can now employ twice as
many native laborers as lie could a few
years ago, for their wages remain the
same in silver coin.

In a country where monetary questions
must be decided finally by popular vote,
the importance of a right understanding
of the science of money cannot be over-
estimated ; and its thorough study ought

xvi Preface to the Second Edition.

to appeal to those who have the neces-
sary time and training.

As most of the present depression In
trade, agriculture, and other industries is
clearly traceable to legislative ignorance
of the history of money, and to attempts
to retry unscientific experiments, the duty
of the hour Is to encourage and to facilitate
real study of the money problem, which
is again about to be discussed In Congress
and In the newspapers, and ought not to
be decided by Ignorance, party spirit, and
ad captanditm appeals.

Anarcharsis criticised the constitution
of Athens because the Athenians had
wise men to debate and fools to decide.

happy Athenians ! if you had always
wise men to debate !

1 do not claim to be learned or wise ; I
desire, like Oresme, " to submit what I
have written to the correction of wise
and prudent men, for, as Aristotle says,
the civil needs are often doubtful and
uncertain." But I do claim to have made
some little study of the currency question,
and I desire to study it more, and to see

Preface to the Second Edition. xvii

more general and scientific study of it in
our colleges, newspapers, and legislatures,
amone those who are called upon to lead
public opinion. I am sure I will not dis-
oblige these by expressing my humble
judgment that the best and most impor-
tant foundation for this study is Oresme's
treatise on the " Origin, Nature, Law,
and Mutations of Money y

Professor Roscher well says of this
great work :

"In order to rightly comprehend the
present state of all science and from this
to grasp its future, it is indispensable to
know the past, so when we come to climb
hicrher near the unseen sources of some
truth, we experience a satisfaction, etc."

His expression loses something in my
feeble translation.

In Part III., in this edition, I give some
account of Oresme and his work written
about 1 366, and some notice of the treatise
on money written by Copernicus in 1526.

The opening sentence of this latter
work I beg permission to translate here :

" However innumerable are the ills

xviii Preface to the Second Edition.

which lead to the fall of kingdoms, princi-
palities, and republics, these four, in my
judgment, are the most formidable : dis-
cord, mortality, sterility of land, and bad-
ness of money. For the first three, the
evidence is so apparent that no one can
be ignorant of it. But the fourth, con-
cerning money, excepting some men of
great ability, very few persons consider
or understand it, because it is not by a
single blow, but little by little, in an occult
manner, that it overthrows the state."

Our country does not suffer from the
first three of the above named causes.
We are a united people, our death rate is
comparatively low, and our land fertile,
but we are in danger of bad money.

Of all bad money Jiat paper money is
the worst.

In our legislation we have forgotten the
maxims of our Constitution, which made
gold and silver the legal tender. We have
forgotten the teachings of Oresme, Co-
pernicus, Bacon, Locke, Newton, and a
host of other philosophers, that the only
honest measure of the value of money is

Preface to the Seco7id Edition. xix

the value of the buHion in the coin. We
have forgotten that all experience has
shown that the only way to keep our
government currency always safe and
good is to permit none to be issued that
does not have an equal amount of coin
behind it, and that this coin must be
always convertible into bullion at a
trifling cost.

In the old times the bad money was
usually money fraudulently alloyed, be-
cause that was the easiest way to take
advantage of the popular ignorance of
the hidden effects of the money-stamping
power. But at times when the govern-
ments had large sums to receive, they
would cheat by suddenly increasing the
amount of silver in the coins, and insist-
ing on being paid in the new coinage. As
Macleod expresses it : " When they had
debts to pay they cried the coin up. When
they had debts to receive they cried the
coin down." The mint rates in France
were often changed more than a dozen
times in a year.

In our times it has been found easier

XX Preface to the Second Edition.

and more profitable to take advantage of
this popular ignorance by reducing the
total metallic basis of the currency.

Both these schemes produce bad and
dangerous money and cause great injustice
and loss to the people.

Five-cent cotton, fifty-cent wheat, low
and diminishing gold reserve, the issuing
of Government bonds in time of peace,
falling wages and decreased employment,
these things are making the people think
on the currency question. Now is the
time for enlightened discussion to find the
principles upon which monetary science
is bottomed, and to establish our currency
on the best and most solid, safe, honest,
and permanent basis.

Believing that joint-metallism con-
veniently provides this basis, I ask for it
the candid consideration of competent
critics.

A. P. S.

Stokes Building, New York.
23 November, 1894.

PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.

The first of the following Letters on
Joint-Metallism appeared in xki^New Yo7'k
Times February i8, 1894. It was printed
also in the New York Trihtne on the
following day, and in the New York World
February 24, 1894.

The second Letter on Joint-Metallism
appeared in the New York Times March
26, 1894, and in the New York Tribune
April 17, 1894.

Editorial articles in the New York
Evening Post March 30th and April 5th
caused the third and fourth Letters on
Joint-Metallism to be addressed to that
paper.

Extracts from these Letters, not always
fairly representing them, have appeared
in various parts of the country, where
among the typographical errors may be
noted the word "vetoes" being printed
"votes," "ratio" printed "ration," "eco-
nomic" printed "economical," etc.

XXI

xxii Preface to the First Edition.

Numerous inquiries, some of them
from those who have seen only part of
the correspondence, and the request of
Messrs. G. P. Putnam's Sons have led to
the present publication.

The fifth Letter on Joint-Metallism
was not addressed to any newspaper, as it
has to be read in connection with the
many facts, figures, and statements given
in the Appendix.

In the Appendix, among other matters,
it may be seen how the admissions of
leading monometallists strongly favor
Joint-Metallism.

President Cleveland said in his Message
March, 29, 1894 :

" I hope a way will present itself in the
near future for the adjustment of our
monetary affairs in such a comprehensive
and conservative manner as will afford to
silver its proper place in our currency."

The design of these Letters is to point
out such a way.

A. P. S.

Stokes Building, New York
Apr it 26, i8g4

FIRST LETTER ON JOINT-
METALLISM.

JOINT-METALLISM.

FIRST LETTER.

To the Editor of the ''New York Tivies^* :

Sir : To make business generally pros-
perous, it is necessary to find a safe and
honest plan by which both gold and silver,
permanently and at their relative market
values, may be made available as the
metallic basis of currency.

For a long period of years the money of
the world has been, in total value, about
half gold and half silver. Recently some
nations have demonetized silver, and
other countries have attempted to main-
tain it at a ratio that did not regard
the relative values of the two precious
metals. This, at a time when the world's
indebtedness has increased to a danger-

4 y oint- Metallism.

ous point, has naturally caused distrust
and depression of trade.

The known debts of the world amount to
more than ei^ht times the total amount of
gold in the world. To incur a debt that
must be paid on a gold basis is to sell gold
short when the short interest is known to
be eight times as great as the total amount
of the stock in existence. Large owners
of money prefer to keep it in banks or
trust companies at 2 per cent, or less
interest rather than to use it in the pro-
duction or purchase of goods or property
which must decline in value as the pur-
chasing power of money, based on gold
alone, increases. Money is hoarded and
enterprise halts, trade languishes, laborers
are unemployed, incomes are reduced, and
times are hard.

The following plan' for joint-metallism
would enable both the precious metals to
be safely used together, without frequent
recoinings and without danger of one
metal driving out the other, and would
afford an honest, adequate, self-regulating,
and permanent basis of currency ;

* See page 121.

The Plan. 5

Let there be silver coins containing the
same weight of silver as there is weight of
gold in the present $5 gold-piece.^ Let
those silver coins be called standards.^
Let it be enacted that for all debts, public
or private, of $10 and upward, contracted
after six months from the passage of the
act, it shall be lawful to pay half in gold
coins and half in such number of standards^
as shall be approximately equal thereto,
according to the Government ratio to be
fixed as follows :

On the first lawful day of each month,^
after six months from the passage of the
act, the Secretary of the Treasury shall
declare what number of standards ^ most
nearly represent a $5 gold-piece, accord-
ing to the average relative market values
of gold and silver, from the first day of
the third month after the passage of the
act and based on the average market
values of all the intervening months.
This number is to be the ratio for that
current month. A $5 gold-piece, plus
said number of standards,' will constitute
$]0 in lawful money during said month.

' See page xi. ^ Or silver standards. ^ See page 198.

6 yoint- Metallism.

Let the mints be open to the coinage
of standards, double standards, triple
standards, and pieces containing looo
standards, when the silver is presented
accompanied by an equal value of gold,
at the current Government ratio, to be
coined into $5, $10, and $20 gold pieces.

Let the Treasury receive deposits of
gold coin together with silver standards,
the proportion of gold and silver in such
deposits being according to the Govern-
ment ratio current at the time, and issue
therefor legal-tender joint certificates in
denominations of $10, $20, $100, $500,
and $1000, these certificates to be redeem-
able at the Treasury half in gold and half
in standards, the number of standards to
be according to the Government ratio in
force at the time certificates are presented
for redemption.

Changes in the Government ratio would
become very infrequent, could always be
calculated in advance, and would never
exceed one standard at any one time. At
present value of silver, this would make a
difference of 1 5 cents on $ i o lawful money,
or i^ per cent.

The Economic Ratio. 7

This plan would be a suitable basis for
negfotiatinpf an international agreement
for joint-metallism, with an international
committee to make any changes in the
ratio ; but, as the plan is to maintain the
full use of silver with gold on the basis of
their relative market values, the United
States, which is most interested, could
safely undertake it alone.

The only possible loss would come from
a decline in silver, and this is not probable
when, under a system permanently bind-
ing the two metals together, silver would
have substantially the same access as
gold to the mints, even in this country
alone. A small uniform minting charge
of so much per ounce on both gold and
silver might provide a fund to meet any
possible loss ; and, until an international
agreement should be obtained, standards
might be coined exclusively of silver
mined in the United States after the
passage of the act, the market price of all
silver to be still used in fixing the ratio.

The Government ratio would soon
come to be substantially the economic
ratio which is the relative costs of produc-

8 yoint-Metallisin,

tion of gold and silver in the poorest
mines that could be worked at a profit,
when both metals had equal access to the
mints. And the cost of production of the
two precious metals tegether would natu-
rally constitute the just and safe limit to
the expansion of the currency and be the
proper measure of its value.

Owing to some exceptionally rich finds
of limited extent, and to enormous ex-
penditures for tunnels, plants, etc., not
counted in the present cost of production,
a small quantity of silver can be produced
below even the present price, but this is
equally true of gold and does not fix the
cost of production of quantities sufficient
to meet the requirements of the currency
on a joint-metallic basis.

So long as credits throughout the world
were expanding, a limited amount of coin
would support a large amount of credit.
But when there is danger of one money
metal driving out the other, and credits
are contracted, a larger quantity of coin is
required or panic will result. Then pool-
ing of credits and clearing-house certifi-

The Only Possible Final Basis. 9

cates, etc., may save banks and delay or
distribute disaster, but will not produce
prosperity.

The sobered sense of the people will
make them long refuse to develop busi-
ness until they are assured of an adequate
and permanent supply of currency based
on the only possible final basis of a sound
and sufficient currency — the two precious
metals together, limited by the quantities
in existence and the cost of production.
This can be obtained by the plan I have
called joint-metallism.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York, Feb. 13, 1894.

EDITORIAL FROM "EVENING

POST."

Editorial Article in the Evenmcr

Post OF March 22, 1894.

•<i>

The most unfortunate feature of the
new silver movement started by Gen.
Francis A. Walker in Boston is the fact
that it gives the rest of the country a false
impression as to public sentiment in the
East. The silver lunatics of the South
and West are not given to fine distinc-
tions, and do not take the trouble to read
with discrimination long papers on finan-
cial topics. They jump to the conclusion
that Walker and some other men whose
names are known to them are in favor of
silver coinage like themselves, and by
another jump decide that this must be the
sentiment of New Eng-land, This im-
pression is now being given to the people
of the South and West by many of the
newspapers which publish and comment

14 yoint-Metallism.

upon the Boston out givings, and it natur-
ally has a marked effect in reviving the
financial craze which had begun to abate
after the repeal of the silver-purchase act.
There is really no ground for the belief
that public sentiment in Massachusetts on
the silver question is any less sound to-day
than it has always been, but it is not
strange that the recent developments
should deceive people at a distance. This
is the most deplorable aspect of the
matter.

SECOND LETTER ON JOINT
METALLISM.

JOINT-METALLISM.

SECOND LETTER.

To the Editor of the ''New York Times":

The publication of my letter on joint-
metalHsm, which appeared in your issue of
February i8th, has brought me numerous
criticisms, some entirely favorable, others
that think me right, but inopportune,
and others that appear not to fully under-
stand the results of the plan I have
proposed.

Now that Congress has passed the
Seigniorage bill, I again trespass upon
your kind hospitality for a few further
lines regarding this plan of joint-metal-
lism, by which gold and silver together, at
ratios always based on their relative mar-
ket values, may be made the metallic

2 17

1 8 Joint-AIetallism.

basis of currency and afford a sound,
honest, self-regulating, and permanent
currency on the only possible safe and
adequate final basis, the two precious
metals together, limited by the quantities
in existence and by the costs of produc-
tion.

The new silver coins I have proposed,
especially those containing looo standards
each, would, for the most part, at first, be
deposited in the Treasury, together with
an equal amount in value of gold coins,
the two together forming the appropriate
basis for the Government currency issued
against them. Whenever more currency
should be required, gold and silver to-
gether would be taken to the mint and the
coined proceeds deposited in the Treasury.
Whenever less currency should be re-
quired, gold and silver would be together
withdrawn from the Treasury and used in
the arts, and less would be mined.

As to the present silver dollars and
other silver tokens, when the ratio becomes
settled and remains unchanged for a con-
siderable period, if the silver dollars and

When the Ratio Beco77zes Settled. 19

the smaller silver coins be found then to
differ very much from the ratio, they
should be recoined, so as to be made of
nearly full intrinsic value.

Prior to 1873 (under "free coinage")
for each 500 ounces of pure silver the
mint delivered 646 silver dollars, less a
charge of \ cent on each piece. .$3.23
and for copper alloy about 1. 1 1

$4.34, or
about two thirds of i per cent. The coin-
age of much larger pieces would cost the
mint a much smaller fraction of i per
cent.

That the question of joint-metallism is
an intricate one is no reason why it should
not be studied, and discussed in the news-
papers. That the ratio can only be ap-
proximately exact might be urged with
equal force against navigation and other
sciences.

Until the general public, by special
study, is better able to understand ques-
tions regarding the basis of currency, it
may be injurious to have bimetallism

20 yoint-Metallism.

made a party issue. The debate on bi-
metallism is becoming so envenomed that,
like the slavery question, it may make
dangerous sectional trouble. Many at the
East think the West is dishonest on this
subject. Many at the West think the
East is dishonest on this subject.

The duty of patriotism is to try to find
a just and honest way to permanently
settle a question which cannot be finally
settled by narrow and fluctuating majori-
ties nor by vetoes.

It will go far to promote clear thinking
regarding this question if it is generally
understood —

First, that money is a certain poten-
tiality or stored-up and readily-available
energy representing the cost of the pro-
duction of the precious metals.

Secondly, that the real function of the
mint regarding the precious metals is to
stamp pieces of metal so as to indicate the
weight of the gold or silver they contain.

Thirdly, that Government paper money
should be only certificates of the deposit
of such pieces of metal.

Injurious Results. 2 1

Fourthly, that for centuries the metallic
money of the world has been in total
value about half gold and half silver, a
leofal ratio having commonlv existed be-
tween the precious metals, being for a
long period 15^^ to i or 16 to i, the legal
sanction of the ratio being powerful
enough to overcome slight differences in
the relative costs of producing the two
metals or their market values.

Fifthly, that silver, having now become
generally demonetized, and its chief use
in Europe and in the United States being
thus abolished, and its market value dimin-
ished below the reduction in value caused
by the lessening of the cost of production,
certain results have necessarih' followed,
ver\- injurious to our countn,- and to the
world, amonor these results beinsf a o-eneral
decline in values and an insufficient
metallic basis of currency, makino- manu-
facture and trade" both uncertain and
dano^erous.

The question before us is how to
remonetize silver.

First — Shall the United States alone

' And agricnltnre.

2 2 Joint-Metallism.

attempt to fix and maintain a permanent
ratio under present conditions of a demone-
tized silver market ? This is impossible.

Second — Shall we wait until other
nations can be induced to join in fixing a
ratio ? This is dangerous and unnecessary,
and the ratio, if so fixed, would soon have
to be changed.

Third — Shall the United States decide
to use gold and silver together at ratios
always based on their relative market
values ? This is safe and honest, and it
can be accomplished by the plan I have
called joint-metallism.

Instead of waiting to make a law or a
treaty every time a change in ratio is
required to conform approximately to the
market values, my contention is that we
ought to establish a law now and a treaty,
if possible, later, that will provide for
necessary changes in ratio, although it is
probable that after both metals shall have
had about equal access to the mint, even
in our country alone, for a period of a
year or more, on the joint basis I have
proposed, changes in ratio will thereafter

Gemnajiy. 23

become very infrequent, and perhaps
many years may pass without such a
change.

A few years ago it became evident to
some students of economics and to the
Government of Germany that the falHng
off in gold production and the cheapening
of silver production by improved metal-
lurgy, etc., and the increase of the world's
business and credits, would make inevi-
table a change in the ratio, which
from the beginning of the century had
varied but very little.' Germany^ took
advantage of her knowledge, her financial
position, and her governmental methods,
which enabled her to act promptly, and
sold her silver for gold, and in 1871 and
1873 demonetized silver, and other nations
followed her lead. Now that the market
value of silver has fallen far below the
cost ot its production in quantities suffi-
cient for its general use as a money metal,
Germany may probably be glad to follow
us in joint-metallism on the plan I have
proposed, and to congratulate herself on
her astute operations in silver.

' See page 132. ^ M. Rochussen opposes this view.

24 Joint-Mctallisfn.

It may not be necessary to have more
money than we now have, but it is neces-
sary to have more security as to the future
value of our currency. Business cannot
prosper and labor cannot be fully employed
if there is danger that a few months hence
a dollar, which is the term we use in con-
tracts, may be worth much less or that
it may be worth much more, as measured
by the market values or cost of production
of the precious metals together, which, in
view of our Constitution and of all history,
is our only fair standard. Daniel Webster
said : " 1 am certainly of opinion that gold
and silver, at rates fixed by Congress,
constitute the legal standard of values in
this country, and that neither Congress
nor any State has authority to establish
any other standard or to displace this
standard."

It is necessary to the security of the
creditor that no Government money should
be issued, except based on the market
value of the precious metals as contem-
plated in the Constitution, and it is neces-
sary for the security of the debtor that he

A Vein for Silver ajtda Place for Gold. 25

shall not be subject to the risk of money
being made artificially scarce or dear, by
laws which may restrict the metallic basis
of currency to a single precious metal, the
hoarding of which may be promoted by
such laws, gold being a metal the produc-
tion of which cannot be greatly and
promptly increased by labor.

The Bible says : " Surely there is a vein
for the silver and a place for gold." From
the earliest historic times there have been
known veins where the supply of silver
could be at any time largely and promptly
increased. It has been always a question
of cost of mining, milling, and smelting.
But all great increases in the production
of o-old have come from new finds, which
were generally soon worked out and are
less to be expected now that the world
has been more explored.

The great difficulty in solving the ques-
tion of the safe, honest, and proper
metallic basis of our currency comes from
the want of general, adequate, and impar-
tial study. The newspapers are best able
to promote this study, and this alone can

26 yoiJit-Metallism.

save us from fiat money and from money
panics.

It is unfortunately true that in this
country of peace and freedom, of abundant
land, and unrivalled resources, among a
people of general education and unex-
ampled energy, there is to-day much suf-
fering on the part of many able and willing
to labor for their daily bread. This suf-
fering is directly traceable to unwise
legislation caused by the want of adequate
study of economic science.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York, March 22, 1894.

EDITORIALS FROM "EVENING

POST."

Editorial Articles in the Evening
Post, OF March 30, 1894.

Mr. Anson Phelps Stokes has a cur-
rency plan called " joint-metallism," by
which "gold and silver together at ratios
always based on their relative market
values may be made the metallic basis of
currency."

The reason why Mr. Stokes proposes
this plan is, he says, that the general de-
monetization of silver, and the great re-
duction in its purchasing power, "have
caused a general decline in values, and an
insufficient metallic basis of currency,
makinpf manufacture and trade both un-
certain and dangerous."

Now, this central or basal proposition
of Mr. Stokes's is totally denied by the
monometallists,^and that is why they will

' See Appendix pages 90, 91, 94, 95.

30 yoint-Meiallism.

never consider his plan. They say, with
one of the British delegates to the Mone-
tary Conference, that the whole silver
movement is simply a preposterous at-
tempt to keep prices up when science,
art, invention, discovery are knocking
them down ; that the fall in silver has had
no more to do with the decline in prices
than the fall in wheat, and that nobody
has complained or is complaining of any
actual scarcity in the supply of gold. It
has not shown itself anywhere.

Many dozens of gentlemen in various
parts of the world keep telling us that it
is going to show itself by and by, and that
they are lying awake at night thinking
anxiously about it. But there is no sign
of it. The supply of gold is increasing
rapidly in answer to the increased de-
mand for it,^ and we believe It may be
said with safety, that nobody in any
country has ever yet maintained that he
was unable to get gold when he had some-
thing to exchange for it or good security
to borrow it on. In fact, nothing is ever

' See Appendix, p. 104.

The Boston Brcthrc7i. 31

heard of the scarcity of gold in business
circles. All we know about it we get
from bimetallic pamphlets and speeches.

The great demand for some other and
cheaper kind of currency comes from
gentlemen with debts to pay, but if we
begin tinkering the currency in order to
accommodate these gentlemen, the tink-
ering will last for ever. The " debtor
class" is the oldest class in history, and
the hardest to satisfy, and the least inter-
esting. The class which most demands
the care of the legislature is the creditor
class — that is, the class which has wages
to receive, and savings in the bank, and
Government bonds in its boxes.

Apropos of this it may be said to the
Boston brethren who are sounding the
trumpet of alarm over silver, that it is
absurd of them to stay in the bimetallic
camp. Their central proposition, that
Governments by laying their heads to-
gether can keep two commodities at equal
value, in spite of difference in quantity,
in cost of production, and in market

32 Joi7it'Mctallis7ii.

price, applies, though they do not seem
to see it, to other commodities than gold
and silver. It would apply just as well
to copper and gold or copper and leather
as silver and gold, and is ample support
for the greenback theory.

There is no reason in the world, on
this theory, why the Government should
not discard metallic money altogether,
and agree that certain stamped paper
should in their dominions have a certain
value in exchange. In old times, when a
Government adulterated its coinatre — that
is, ordered it to pass at a fictitious value
— it acknowledged it was cheating, and
locked up anybody who said anything
about it. The curious feature of the bi-
metallic and silver craze is that its victims
want the civilized Governments to do this
cheating in unison, by common consent,
and in the licrht of dav.

The prospect opened to the modern
world by this confession of ordinarily
sensible and educated men that the Gov-
ernment has this power over currency, it
is no exaggeration to call appalling. It

Aimnunition of the Most Deadly Kind. '^■}^

is ammunition of the most deadly kind
for the sociaHst, communist, popuHst, and
anarchist, and has the promise and po-
tency of such monetary confusion as has
never been seen in any age.

THIRD LETTER ON JOINT-
METALLISM.

JOINT-METALLISM.

THIRD LETTER.

To the Editor of the " Evenmg Post " :

Sir : A leading article in last Friday's
Evening Post beginning "Mr. Anson
Phelps Stokes has a currency plan called
* joint-metallism,' " and your following
article commencing " Apropos of this,"
might, I fear, cause some who had not
seen my letters on joint-metallism to sup-
pose, mistakenly, that you intended to
associate what I have written with the
writings of those who desire a dishonest
currency, or who you say furnish " ammu-
nition of the most deadly kind for the
socialist, communist, populist, and anar-
chist."

You do not quote the particulars of my
plan for "joint-metallism," nor the pro-

.iiH.qi f^2

38 Joint-Metallism.

vision in it that it shall not affect any
debts except those contracted six months
after it becomes law. No one can point
out any line that I have written that in
any way favors dishonesty or anarchy.

What I am contending for is " an
honest, adequate, self-regulating and per-
manent basis of currency," to prevent fiat
money, and to find, as I have said, "a
just and honest way to permanently settle
a question which cannot be finally settled
by narrow and fluctuating majorities nor
by vetoes."

You say that monometallists totally
deny that the demonetization of silver and
the great reduction in its purchasing
power, etc., have caused a general decline
in values, etc., and you refer to British
authority.

The Parliamentary Commission on gold
and silver which considered substantially
this question were equally divided in their
report, six members holding to one side
and six to the other. Their final report
was made in 1888. Since then a distin-
guished member, among those who then

Precious Metal the Final Basis. 39

held that the general demonetization of
silver, and the great reduction of its pur-
chasing power, or, in other words, the
appreciation of gold, had not caused the
general decline in values, has since publicly
declared, in 1893, that further study has
convinced him that he was in error on
this point when he signed the report five
years before.^

I do not object to that reduction in
values which comes from science, art, in-
vention, and discovery, but I do object to
the unjust enhancement of the value of
gold caused by making it the sole money
metal and the sole final basis of currency.

The only final basis of all sound cur-
rency is precious metal. For centuries
the money of the world has been in total
value about half gold and half silver. If
this final basis be now limited to gold
alone, then the final basis is diminished
by about one half. Money may then be
plenty in banks because enterprise fears
to use it, and trade languishes and labor-
ers are unemployed.

' See Appendix, page 104.

40 yoint-Metallism.

Even where only one of the precious
metals has been in actual oreneral use as
money, the fact that both were legally
available has been the important fact.

In your issue of March 2 2d you depre-
cate the present revival of the silver ques-
tion in the East, as giving encouragement
to " silver lunatics at the South and
West." ^ But so long as our Government
is based on popular suffrage, free and full
discussion of this question is as necessary
as it is inevitable.

If there had been more thorough, fair,
and impartial discussion of the silver
problem, the absurd Sherman act would
never have been enacted, and instead of
it I think we might have had a law for the
use of " gold and silver together at ratios
always based on their relative market
values."

I do not want dishonest currency, nor
have I any favorable regard for anarchy ;
but, in company with many more compe-
tent students of economics, abroad and
here, I hold that an honest and practica-

' See page 13.

Tue Discussion Timely and Important, 4 1

ble way can be found to permanently
restore silver to its historic^ and just posi-
tion as a money metal, and that this will
be of inestimable benefit to the world, and
especially to our country.

Therefore, with all becoming trepida-
tion, standing, as I feel I am, face to face
with that greatest of American mono-
metallists, the distinguished author of the
World's Fair address on "The Gold
Standard," I venture the opinion that the
full and temperate discussion of the silver
question in the press is most timely and
important, and that many who are not
monometallists are neither dishonest per-
sons nor lunatics.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York, April 4, 1894.
' See Appendix, page 80.

EDITORIAL FROM THE "EVEN-
ING POST."

Editorial Article in the Evening
Post, OF April 5TH, 1894.

THE GODDESS ARGENTUM.

We print elsewhere a letter from Mr.
Anson Phelps Stokes on his system of
" joint-metallism," in reply to some re-
marks of ours the other day.

Far be it from us to accuse Mr. Stokes
of sympathy with dishonesty or anar-
chism, or of any desire or intention to
aid or abet them, Of course it would be
silly to do so. But a strict regard for
truth compels us to express, as often as
the opportunity offers, our solemn con.
viction that all attempts, whether made in
Boston or New York, to persuade the
world that the use of silver as full money
of account, whether jointly with gold or
not, is in any sense a duty of the Govern-

46 Joint-Metallism,

ment, or is called for as a protection for
the poor man against "gold-bugs" or
" Wall Street sharks," promote popu-
lism, communism, anarchism, greenback-
ism, and simple silverism, and do threaten
this country with unnumbered woes.

Nearly all the trouble has arisen out
of the personification of silver as a moral
being which began in 1 877-1 878, and of
which we find a trace in Mr. Stokes's let-
ter where he speaks of the " historical
and just position " of silver.^ This, if it
means anything, means that there is some
position in the currency or financial ar-
rangements of the nation, which is due to
silver as a matter of right and by prescrip-
tion, that it can, as an individual or a cor-
poration can, claim a place in our medium
of exchange, of which we cannot deprive
it without a breach of the moral law.

To our minds there has been nothino-
more extraordinary than this since Moses,
on coming down from the mountain, found
the Israelities, in spite of the most patent
proofs of divine sovereignty, worshipping

' See Appendix, page 80.

Historical and Coiistitutional Positio7i. 47

a golden calf of their own making. It il-
lustrates admirably what to many people
now seems incomprehensible, the tend-
ency of the whole ancient world to mytho-
logical explanations of the universe. The
notion that silver has rights and virtues,
that it is courageous and faithful to its
friends, and loves the poor, and has made
itself an historical place, and is entitled to
justice — all of which propositions have
been maintained during the last fifteen
years by American orators and writers —
shows how near we are, in spite of Chris-
tianity and science, to the state of mind
in which men deified the moon and sun,
the mountains, the streams, and even wild
beasts and oxen.

To us silver has the same historical
position, and has the same rights under
the moral law and the United States Con-
stitution,^ as wheat or leather, wampum
or cowries, or coal. There was a time
when wheat was twice as dear as it is now,
but did it acquire an historic right to be
kept at that price, and do we insult it by

' See Appendix, page 80.

48 yoint-Metallism.

selling it at 64 to 66 cents a bushel ? It
has played a more prominent part in the
world's history by far than either silver or
gold, and ought to have a far higher place
in our affections than either. And yet it
is bought and sold on margins by Chicago
and other speculators, with an indiffer-
ence to its peace and comfort which is well
calculated to excite the indignation of an
honest worshipper.

Most other commodities which have
played a prominent part in the growth of
our civilization have the same story to tell.
The march of science has cheapened them,
by lessening their value to mankind, but
if they are to be worshipped as silver is —
that is, treated as moral beings instead of
simply brute instruments of human com-
fort and convenience, we must go back to
barbarism. All who know India acknowl-
edge that the sanctity of the cow is in
that region a serious hindrance to prog-
ress. It cuts the Hindu population off
from both beef and a good quality of lea-
ther. It sometimes leads, as the other
day in Bombay, to riots and murders. It

Whai is the Remedy f 49

is, of course, difficult for those who look
on the cow as simply an animal which
furnishes milk and hides, to avoid occa-
sional displays of irreverence or levity in
her presence, and this wounds the Hindu,
as our silver-men are wounded by want of
respect for silver, in their tenderest part.
But what is the remedy? None that we
know of except the growth of knowledge
and more scientific conceptions of the
universe.

Silver is a metal which mankind has
found useful as currency in times past,
when its value, like the value of nearly all
commodities, was pretty steady.^ Various
circumstances, concerning which there is
more or less dispute, have deprived it of a
good deal of its usefulness as currency,
and there is a general disposition among
the nations which can afford gold, to dis-
card it.

The one way to meet this tendency is
to show that the value of silver is likely to
be again steady. To claim for it divine
honors or moral rights is simple paganism

' See Appendix, pages 94, no.

50 Joint'Metallism.

and immensely ridiculous. Hides were
once wonderfully useful as clothing. In-
deed, they were, in northern climates at
least, probably the first clothing man put
on after his own hide became too tender for
exposure. Did this give hides an historic
position ? Did it give them a claim to
justice ? Did it make the use of broad-
cloth a wrong to them over which the
human conscience should reproach itself ?

FOURTH LETTER ON JOINT-
METALLISM.

JOINT-METALLISM.

FOURTH LETTER.

To the Editor of the " Evenmg Post " .•

Sir : I have read with much interest
your courteous and interesting article in
yesterday's Evening Post on "The Goddess
Argentum."

To worship a goddess with so unfemi-
nine a name would be indeed shocking. I
am opposed to idolatry, monometallism,
and inflation. You say that the mono-
metallists will never consider my plan be-
cause they totally deny that the demoneti-
zation of silver and the great reduction in
its purchasing power have caused a gen-
eral decline in values, etc.

The following clause in my plan makes
it entirely unpalatable to all who want
cheap currency to pay their debts with :

54 Joint-Metallism.

" Let it be enacted that for all debts,
public or private, of $io and upward, con-
tracted after six vionths front the passage
of the act," etc.

But between the monometallistsand the
inflationists there is a large class that will
finally decide this question — the thrifty
common people, who are pretty sure, in
time, to get at the right of any ethical
question and any ordinary business ques-
tion. These plain people, the mass of the
voters in our country, have no sympathy
with dishonest debtors, nor have they any
desire to allow creditors any unfair ad-
vantage.

They do not quickly grasp financial
problems that require special study, but
they would sooner understand these prob-
lems if an independent press would furnish
facts and arguments in a non-partisan and
non-sectional spirit, allowing both sides to
be fairly heard.

Your fairness in printing views of corre-
spondents that honestly differ from your
own, is worthy of all commendation.

It is of these common people that Abra-

What Lincoln Said, 55

ham Lincoln said : " Those whom the
Lord prefers, because He has made so
many of them " ; and to quote again from
Lincoln : " You can fool all of the people
some of the time and some of the people
all of the time, but you can't fool all of the
people all of the time."

They will come to see that it is not for
their advantage to have a debased cur-
rency, and at the same time they will see
that if the final basis of currency be re-
stricted to one kind of article alone, as,
for example, city lots or eight-carat dia-
monds, or ocean steamers, or gold, then
capitalists are given an unfair opportunity
to monopolize such final basis, and that
values of farms and products, wares and
merchandise will decline, and business and
employment become uncertain.

You say the supply of gold is increasing.
For what considerable period of late years
has there been any important increase ?
Has it increased in proportion to the in-
crease in national debts or the increase in
the world's trade and population ?^

' See Appendix, page 90.

56 Joint-Mctallism.

A report issued by the Treasury about
January i, 1894, gives the per-capita stocks
of money as follows :

France $36 . 81

United vStates 26.02

Great Britain 20.40

Germany 18 . 56

China 1.80

Will not the 400,000,000 of China require
more than this now that they are getting
railways ? You and other eminent Ameri-
can monometallists, as Messrs. Sperry,
Bourne, Wells, Laughlin, Atkinson, etc.,
etc., quote often the statements regarding
the production of gold, as compiled by Dr.
Soetbeer for the years 1493 to 1885, ^^d
as estimated for the years 1886 to 1892 by
the Bureau of the Mint. These and other
instructive tables are conveniently found
at the back of the most orthodox mono-
metallist speech of Hon. Lewis Sperry in
the House of Representatives, August 21,
1893.^

In 1688 the debt of Great Britain was
/664,ooo. It is now ^685, 000,000. That
is, it is more than one thousand times
as large as it was in 1688.

' See Appendix, page 105, etc.

Production of Gold. 5 7

PRODUCTION OF GOLD IN THE WORLD."

Period.

Annual average of

Period

Annual average of

period, in fine ounces.

185I-1855

6,4io,32d

1886

5,127,750

1856-1S60

6.486,262

1887

5,093,984

1861-1S65

5,949,582

1S88

5,316,412

1866-1870

6,270,086

1889

5,746,950

1871-1875

5.501,014

1890

5.473,631

1876-1880

5,543,110

1891

5,830.107

1881-1885

4,794,755

1892

6,328,272 ■

In 1688 the production of gold was
about 346,000 ounces. It was, in 1892,
6,328,272 ounces. That is, it was in 1892
eighteen times as large as it was in 1688.

I think the sober sense of the people
will decide that they don't want inflation
and that they don't want monometallism,
but that they do want to return to a larger
use of silver, if it can be arranged for con-
veniently and honestly, and that this can
be accomplished by making the basis of
our currency both gold and silver in equal
parts, based on market values, and to be
legal tender for future debts.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York, April 6, 1894.
' See Appendix, page 106.

58 yoint-MetallisTn.

[To make the above table of the gold
increase thoroughly comprehensible and
pertinent, the diminishing part played by
gold in the transactions of life should also
be set forth/ Less than 5 per cent, of
the work of exchange in London and here
is now done by gold. Checks were un-
known in 1688. If the Chinese or any
other people want more money they will
get it in the usual way. Bimetallists need
not lie awake about it. — Ed. Evenmg
Post.l

• See page 68.

EDITORIAL FROM THE ''EVEN-
ING POST."

Editorial Article in the Eventing
Post OF April 17th, 1894.

It was most unfortunate that so many-
people here at the North beHeved that the
victory of sound currency was completely
won when the Sherman law was repealed.
The truth was that it left untouched in a
large part of the country the great delu-
sions out of which the Sherman law sprang
and which it was intended to satisfy. Its
repeal was simply a surrender to stern ne-
cessity. There was no money in the Treas-
ury to continue the purchases for which it
provided. Foremost among these delu-
sions was the belief that the Government
can raise or lower the standard of value ;
that it is its duty to supply money to the
people, and that the bankers and others
who refuse to lend it without security are
selfish and designing persons, who ought
to be taxed into good behavior.

62 Joint'Metallism.

The first duty of intelligent men, when
the struggle of last fall was over, was, it
seems to us, to engage heart and soul in
the great work of public instruction as to
the nature and functions of money, and to
abstain rigidly, for a while at least, from
any words or acts which would be likely
to aggravate the prevailing popular errors
on this subject — errors more threatening
probably to the immediate economical
future of the country than any with which
we have ever had to contend since the
foundation of the government. The ap-
pearance of the currency in the political
arena was the greatest misfortune which
has befallen the nation except the civil
war.

FIFTH LETTER ON JOINT-
METALLISM.

JOINT-METALLISM.

FIFTH LETTER.

To the Ptiblic :

Referring to my previous letters on
Joint-Metallism and to the newspaper
criticisms thereon and the suggestions
that such discussion of the silver question
is injurious at this time, I desire to say,
that the danger of the situation does not
come from discussion but from the facts
and from the want of more thorough, im-
partial and general discussion.

A Scotch Highland minister, preaching
from the text " Can the Ethiopian change
his skin, or a leopard his spots ? " explained
that an Ethiopian was a black man and
that a leopard was a spotted man suffer-
ing from leprosy.

After the service an English clergyman

5 65

66 Joint-Metallism.

tried to kindly explain to the Highlander
that he had confused the words leopard
and leper.

The reply was : " Avoid criticism. It
will lead you into all kinds of infidelity."

Some dangers of the pi^esent situation}

The national debts of the world are
now so enormous and increasing so rap-
idly that if they continue to be extended
payable in gold alone, the base will be
found insufficient to support the super-
structure.

Another danofer is the enormous amount
of railway bonds^ coming due about the
beginning of the next century, while one
fifth of the total mileage of railways in
this country is already being run by re-
ceivers under directions of courts which
are looking to the interests of the com-
munities and the laborers and refuse to
allow wages and some other expenses to
be reduced on bankrupt roads.

Another danger, and one that shows
the need of promptly settling the currency

' See I'age 141. ^ And other bonds.

Dangers of Present Situation. 67

on a just and permanent basis, is found in
the last legal-tender opinion of the
United States Supreme Court, 1884.

" Under the power to coin money and
regulate its value, Congress may issue
coins of the same denomination as those
already current by law, but of less intrin-
sic value than those (as in 1834) by
reason of containing a less weight of the
precious metals, and thus enable debtors
to discharge their debts by the payment
of coins of the less real value."

It is admitted by monometallists that
if the Secretary of the Treasury had made
a different use of his discretion as to pay-
ing out gold and silver, or if the Presi-
dent had made a different use of his veto
power, we would now be on a silver basis
or rapidly approaching it ; and the news-
papers daily refer to the great difficulty
which the Secretary of the Treasury now
experiences in his efforts to maintain
even the very small gold reserve of
$100,000,000.

Single capitalists or either one of the
largest insurance companies in the city of

68 yoint-Mctallism.

New York have more assets than all the
gold in the United States Treasury.

It would be easy for speculators to
draw all the gold out of the Treasury.
A combination to lock up gold might
cause serious trouble.

As to the claim of monometallists in
every country that gold can always be got
from abroad, the statistics show that there
is not nearly enough gold on any sound
banking basis for any time of general
liquidation in several great countries at
once.

In some parts of Ireland a small piece
of pork used to be suspended by a string
from the roof of the hut and the poor
peasants sitting around in a circle on the
earth floor would eat their potatoes and
point at the pork, so that a whole family
were supposed to derive satisfaction from
a piece of pork sufficient for one indi-
vidual.

The fact that the business of the world
is done now so largely by checks and
credits is an element of danger making it
more necessary that there should be no

Mr. Gladstone s Frank Statement. 69

uncertainty as to the adequacy of the
final basis of the currency.

The above are only some of the many
dangers of the present situation showing
the necessity for a thorough study and
complete understanding of the question
of the final basis of currency, and for
prompt and efficient efforts to place our
currency on a sound, adequate, permanent,
and self-regulating basis.

It is neither necessary nor wise for us
to wait for England to act. Her great
banks, bankers, promoters, and holders
of mortgages have a special interest in
desiring a single gold standard as frankly
owned by Gladstone. But the mercantile,
manufacturing, and agricultural classes
and masses there are beginning to under-
stand the position, and are daily increas-
ing their active work against monometal-
lism.

There is one circumstance which would
make my plan for Joint-Metallism more
easily understood in England.

The commutation of tithes in England
is based upon the average market values

Jo yoznt-Mctallzsm.

of wheat, oats, and barley jointly. This
may be called yoiiit-Cerealism.

The Evening Post is right in urging
" intellio^ent men" "to enpfaee heart and
soul in the great work of public instruc-
tion as to the nature and functions of
money."

One of the most important of such
teachings is that all sound currency must
have a sufficient basis of precious metals
so as to be always convertible into coin.

The people of the United States prefer
to use sound convertible paper money
instead of coin.

Probably not 5 per cent., perhaps not
I per cent., of the present population,
outside of the great cities, have ever seen
a gold-piece.

The total amount of silver dollars No-
vember I, 1893, was:

In circulation 58,725,818 '

In the Treasury 360,606,732"

Total coinage 419-332, 550

Pieces of looo "Standards" would be
more suitable than silver dollars to be

'July I, 1S96, 52,175,998. =July I, 1S96, 371,303,176

Standard vs. Medhiin. 71

deposited in the Treasury for silver certifi-
cates, and, when deposited together with
gold, would comply with the requirements
of the Constitution of the United States/

In discussions regarding monometal-
lism and bimetallism, the terms Standard
and Medium are sometimes confused.

A Standard may be purely ideal or in-
tangible. But to be of practical use it
must be expressed by, in, or through a
Medium.

A certain portion of the arc of a great
circle is an ideal or an intangible standard
of length. When this is expressed by or
in a metal measure, as a yard or a meter,
the metal is the medium, and is longer
when warm and shorter when cold. If
the metal be of zinc, it will be too frail ; if
copper, too soft. Brass, which is a mix-
ture of these two metals, is more suitable.

Labor is an ideal standard of value.
When it is stored up or expressed in
gold, gold is the medium. As gold can-
not be increased in proportion to com-

' See pages 24 and 80.

72 Joint-Metallism,

modities generally, it is not a just medium
by which to express the standard of value.

Silver has increased more than most
other commodities, and it is, therefore,
not a just medium for this purpose. The
excessive increase has been caused largely
by the legal ratio between silver and gold
having been pei'manently fixed, and be-
low the relative costs of production.

But gold and silver together, half of
each, at values always based on market
prices, make the best medium for express-
ing the standard of value, the most
suitable medium for measuring and stor-
ing up energy.

The history of civilization shows that
they have been used about equally as the
money of the world.

Burke perhaps furnishes an illustration
of a compound standard when he says :

"A disposition to preserve, and an
ability to improve, taken together, would
be my standard oi a Statesman."

Believing that facts and plain state-
ments are more needed than rhetoric, I
have thrown together in the Appendix a

Prominent Monometallists.

I o

number of facts and statistics with the
declarations of those whom American
monometalhsts claim as their best friends,
and the admissions of such leading mono-
metallists as

Dr. Robert Giffen, author of Essays in
Finance, The Case against Bimetallism,
The American Silver Bubble, etc. ;

Hon. David A. Wells, LL.D., D.C.L.,
etc., etc., the most distinguished of all
our political economists and a champion
of monometallism ;

The London Statist, that stalwart mono-
metallist ;

And I claim that these prove the neces-
sity of using both gold and silver together
as the basis of our currency.

If the people have a right to demand
that all money shall be a just and true
measure of value, or the representation of
a just and true measure of value, accord-
ing to Secretary Carlisle,^

And if labor itself is the real standard
of value, as stated by Doctor David A.
Wells,^ . '

' See Appendix, page 84. - See Appendix, page 85.

74 y oint-M ctallisni.

And if labor is continually increasing
its power of producing all products except
gold, as shown by Doctor Robert Giffen/

Then it is obviously unfair and danger-
ous to make gold alone the metallic basis
of our currency.

If President Cleveland was right when
he said,' " I hope a way will present itself
in the near future for the adjustment of
our monetary affairs in such a comprehen-
sive and conservative manner as will afford
to silver its proper place in our currency,"
then I may reasonably ask all reasonable
monometallists and all reasonable bi-
metallists fairly to consider the plan I have
proposed, for I claim that it is precisely
what the President hoped for.

I am not now debating any question
regarding debts already contracted. My
plan refers only to providing a currency
on a just and safe basis for contracts to
be made after the passage of the act.

Safety and equity lie in wedding the
two metals tocrether as in that clever ar-

■ See Appendix, page 88.
* See Appendix, page yg.

JV/iat the President Hoped For. 75

rangement of the brass pendulum sup-
porting glass tubes containing quicksilver.
Increase of heat lengthens the brass arm,
and at the same time raises the quick-
silver so that the centre of weight in the
pendulum is maintained at a constant dis-
tance from the point of suspension.

Both our great political parties at their
conventions have declared, in the most
distinct manner, in favor of preserving
the parity of gold and silver, and using
both metals together in our currency.

The President and the Secretary of the
Treasury and both Houses of Congress
have all most distinctly committed them-
selves to this policy.^

The only difficulty is to find some plan
to accomplish this in an honest, safe, and
permanent way. Such a plan I have
endeavored to set forth in my first Letter
on Joint-Metallism.^

Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York, April 26, 1894.

' See Appendix, page 84.
^ See page 5. See also page 121.

APPENDIX.

President Cleveland's Message, March

29, 1894.

" If both gold and silver are to serve
us as money, and if they together are to
supply our people a safe and stable cur-
rency, the necessity of preserving this
parity is obvious.

" I hope a way will present itself in the
near future for the adjustment of our
monetary affairs in such a comprehensive
and conservative manner as will afford to
silyerjts-proper place in our currency."

8o yoiiit-Metallism.

Constitution of the United States, Article i.

Section viii. Paragraph i. — " The Con-
gress shall have power . . . Paragraph 5.
To coin money, regulate the value there-
of, and of foreign coin, and fix the stand-
ard of weights and measures."

Section x. Paragraph i. — " No State
shall . . . make anything but gold and
silver coin a tender in payment of debts."

The above shows the "historic and
just position " of silver as a money metal
under our Constitution. See page 24.

Appendix. 8 1

Democratic Platform.

" We hold to the use of both gold and
silver as the standard money of the
country, and to the coinage of both gold
and silver without discriminating against
either metal, or charge for mintage, but
the dollar unit of coinage of both metals
must be of equal intrinsic and exchange-
able value, or be adjusted through inter-
national agreement, or by such safeguards
of legislation as shall inszire the mainten-
ance of the parity of the two metals, and
the equal power of every dollar at all times
in the markets and in the payment of debts ;
and we demand that all paper currency
shall be kept at par with and redeemable
in such coin."- — Democratic National Con-
vention held in Chicago, 21st June, 1892.

82 yoint-Metallism.

Republican Platform.

" The American people, from tradition
and interest, favor bimetallism, and the
Republican party demands the use of
both gold and silver as standard money,
with such restrictions and under such pro-
visions, to be determined by legislation, as
will secure the maintenance of the parity
of values of the two metals, so that the
purchasing and debt-paying power of the
dollar, whether of silver, gold, or paper,
shall be at all times equal.'' — Republican
National Convention, June 7, 1892.

"Every dollar put into the hands of
the people should be of the same intrinsic
value or purchasing power. With this
condition absolutely guaranteed, both gold
and silver can be utilized upon equal
terms in the adjustment of our currency."
— Hon. Grover Cleveland's letter, Sep-
tember 26, 1 892, accepting the Democratic
nomination.

"The Republican party is friendly to a
restitution of silver to a place of honor

Appendix. ^2>

among the money metals of the world.
(Applause.) Some of my friends in the
West thought I was uttering new doc-
trines when I declared that I believed the
free use of silver upon an international
agreement that would assure its continued
equality with gold, would do more than
anything that I know of, save the estab-
lishment of the protection principle, to
bring again prosperity into our commerce.
(Applause.) The trouble upon this ques-
tion has been that some of our Western
friends would not receive any man as the
friend of silver who believed that we could
not coin it freely and maintain its parity
with crold without coming- into an arrange-
ment with the other orreat commercial
nations of the world.

" They should have been more liberal.
I believe to-day that we can see in Eng-
land, the nation that has stood most
strongly against the larger use of silver,
and in Germany, a nation that has fol-
lowed Enorland, the clear indications of
the growth of a sentiment for an inter-
national agreement upon this question.

84 yoint-Metallism.

It is increasing in power ; and I believe,
if rightly and wisely encouraged and
directed from America, it will finally
bring other nations, by the compulsion of
their own necessities, into accord with us
upon this subject." (Applause.) — Ex-
President Harrison — Speech at Indian-
apolis, April 25, 1894.

"The established policy of the United
States to maintain the two metals on a
parity with each other upon the present
legal ratio or such ratio as may be pro-
vided by law." — Act of Congress, Novem-
ber I; 1893.

" Whether it [money] be gold or silver
or both, or paper based upon the coins of
the two metals, the people have a right to
demand that it shall be in fact what it
purports to be — a just and true measure
of value, or the representative of a just
and true measure of value." — Hon, John
G. Carlisle, Secretary of the Treasury.
— Speech at Chamber of Commerce Ban-
quet, November 21, 1893.

Appendix, 85

" There can hardly be a better rule in
any country for the legal than the market
proportion, if this can be supposed to
have been produced by the free and steady
course of commercial principles." — Alex-
ander Hamilton, " Report on the Estab-
lishment of a Mint."

" The proportion between the values of
o-old and silver is a mercantile problem
altogether." — Thomas J efferson," On the
Establishment of a Money Unit and of a
Coinage for the United States."

" Labor' itself is the real standard of
value to which the prices of all the pro-
ducts of labor must adjust themselves." —
D. A. Wells, Practical Economics, p. 35.

" Viewing a long period dynamically, it
is beyond all question that commodities
are comparatively steady and only the
money changes."^RoBERT Giffen.

" I venture to ask your publication of
this short letter, because it is the great
depreciation of the currencies of silver-

^ " Labor is the universal and accurate measure of value."—
Adam Smith.

86 yoint-Metallism.

using nations which is destroying Eng-
land's exports to 700,000,000 of those who
were formerly her best customers, and it
is for this reason, and this only, that
the terrible fall in the Eastern rates of
exchange since last July has converted
London by wholesale to bimetallism,
grudgingly and unwillingly, I admit. . . .
Yours faithfully, Moreton Frewen, New
York, April 24, 1894." — From a letter to
the New York Tribune.

The Tabular Standard in Massachusetts.

"Boston, January i, 1780. — In behalf
of the State of Massachusetts Bay, I, the
subscriber, do hereby promise and oblige
myself and successors in the office of
Treasurer of said State, to pay unto Asa
Kider or to his order, the sum of £2^(^.-
11.3 on or before the first day of March,
in the year of our Lord 1781, with inter-
est at 6 per cent, per annum ; both princi-
pal and interest to be paid in the then
current money of said State in a greater or
less sum, according as fiv^e bushels of corn,
sixty-eight pounds and four-sevenths parts

Appendix. 87

of a pound of beef, ten pounds of sheep's
wool, and sixteen pounds of sole leather,
shall then cost more or less than one hun-
dred and thirty pounds current money, at
the then current prices of said articles.
This sum being thirty-two times and a half
what the same quantities of the same arti-
cles would cost at the prices affixed to them
in a law of this State made in i ']^'] entitled,
* An act to prevent monopoly and op-
pression.'" — A. Gardner, Treasurer of
the State of Massachusetts Bay.

"Between 1851 and 1870 the new
supply of gold available for currency
averaged $92,000,000. Between 1871
and 1 88 1 it had fallen to $24,000,000." —

A. SOETBEER.

" About two thirds of the gold annually
produced is taken for the arts ; and if the
consumption of India is included, as being
<^ither for simple hoarding or for the arts,
and in no case for the purpose of circu-
lating money, then the demand for gold
for non-monetary purposes appears almost
equal to the entire annual production." —
Robert Giffen.

88 Joint-Metallism.

Since the discovery of America the
world's total production of the precious
metals has been in weight about five per
cent, gold and ninety-five per cent, silver.

The extremes have been :

1581-1600, average 1.7 % gold, 98.3 % silver

i85[-i855 " 18.4 " 81.6

In 1892 it was 4. " 96. "

It is instructive to note how very much
more these proportions have varied than
have the relative market prices of gold
and silver.

For one hundred and eighty-six years
(1687 to 1873) the commercial ratio of
gold to silver was never less than 14.14,
and never more than 15.95, except^

In 1808, when it was 16.08

" 1S12, " " " 16.11

" 1813, " " " 16.25

See Soetbeer's tables, and Pixley &
Abell's tables.

" It is quite conceivable that if gold were
to increase in quantity and its cost of pro-
duction to diminish, as other commodities

' ."^ce iioie, page 132.

Appendix. 89

increase in quantity and have their cost of
production diminished, there would be no
change of any kind in gold prices. Com-
modities would be more abundant, but the
abundance would make itself felt in a rise
of money wages, salaries, rents, and
profits, and not in lower prices. That it
is felt in lower prices now appears to be
absolute proof that the relation between
gold and commodities has changed, that
they have not increased in quantity and
had their cost of production diminished
pari passu. In addition, however, while
not denying that there has been a change
on the commodities side of the balance, I
would go farther and maintain that what
has happened to gold in the way of
diminished production and increased de-
mands upon it, arising from other causes
than the multiplication of commodities,
must have had great effect." — Robert

GiFFEN.

" But the result of carrying on larger
and larger transactions on a narrow basis
of coin or bullion is to magnify the rela-

90 Joint-Metallisvi.

tive importance of changes on that article.
It may still be true, and I believe it is
true, that the bullion in a country under a
given set of conditions is the final meas-
ure of prices in that country."- — Robert

GiFFEN.

" Population and production are con-
stantly being increased, and the gold used
for reserves and small chanee must be
increased in proportion." — Robert Gif-

FEN.

" I should say also that, allowing for
almost any progress in the modes of
working the precious metals, and for
further discoveries like those of Australia
and California, the probabilities now are
that on the whole this insufficiency of the
supply of the precious metals is likely to
be permanent." — Robert Giffen.

" A large and sudden abstraction from
the money of a country, if that were con-
ceivable, would be equally potent for mis-
chief. The rich would become enormously
richer, and the poor enormously poorer."
— Robert Giffen.

Appendix. 9 1

" Prices are the expression of a relation

of quality between commodities and gold

of course what is said of gold

would be true of any other metal used as

money." — Robert Giffen,

" If we are rio-ht in holdinor the view
which we unquestionably entertain, that
the increase of the gold out-put of the
world will soon bringr about a rise of
prices." — London Statist, February 3,
]894.^

The Banks of Venice and of Amster-
dam issued certificates of deposit and
promissory notes long before the Bank
of England was established.

" At the commencement of the reign of
Hian-Tsoung, of the Thang dynasty, in
the year 807 of the Christian era, and on
the occasion of a great famine, the Em-
peror decreed that all merchants and
wealthy persons should deposit the whole
of their gold and silver in the public

' This IS a very important and late admission as to the effect
upon prices of any reduction in the total supply of money
metals whether caused by demonitization or by lessened pro-
duction.

Joint-Mctallisin.

treasury, and in return there were de-
livered to them notes called ' fey thsian,'
or ' flying money.' Three years after-
ward this paper money was called in at
Pekin, but its circulation continued to be
authorized in the provinces. In a. d. 906
the paper currency was revised by another
Emperor, merchants being permitted to
deposit their bullion in the exchequer,
and to receive in exchange notes called
' running money.' In 102 1 this currency
represented a value of nearly three million
ounces of silver." — Klaproth Asiatic Jour-
nal, for 1822.

paper currency

Marco Polo found
money in China.

From Report of the Director of the Mint for iSg/f.^

page 161.

COINAGES OF NATIONS.

Countries'

1892.

1893.

1S94.'

Gold.

Silver.

Gold.

Silver.

Gold.

Silver.

Japan. . . .
China. . . .

$1,319,525

$12,307,062
3,500,000

$1,306,070

$12,300,705
4,249,960

$1,576,440

$24,131,363
6,000,000

' From Report for 1895.

Appendix. 93

" The Republican party is in favor of
the use of both gold and silver as money,
and condemns the policy of the Demo-
cratic administration in its efforts to de-
monetize silver." — Republican National
Platform plank of 1888, reported by Wil-
liam McKiNLEY, Chairman of the Com-
mittee on Resolutions.

" We know we cannot have free coin-
age now, except in the manner as provided
in the bill. ... I say that to defeat this
bill means to defeat all silver leo-islation
and to leave us with two millions a month
only, when by passing this bill we would
have four and a half millions a month of
Treasury notes as good as gold. For one,
Mr. Speaker, I will not vote against this
bill and thus deprive my people, and my
country, and the laborers, and the produ-
cers, and the industries of my country of
thirty millions annually of additional cir-
culating medium." [Great applause on the
Republican side.] — William McKinley,
in his speech as Chairman of the Ways
and Means Committee and leader of the
House of Representatives, June 7, 1890.

94 yoint-Metallism.

" The value of money in general is the
quantity of all the money in the world
in proportion to all the trade." — John
Locke.

" That commodities rise and fall in
price in proportion to the increase or dim-
inution of money, I assume as a fact that
is uncontrovertible." — Ricardo.

Extracts from the Fuial Report of the

Royal Cominission on gold and

Silver, 1888.

Part I (signed by all the members of the Commission).

Sec. 189 — "Looking then to the vast
changes which occurred prior to 1873 in
the relative production of the two metals
without any corresponding disturbance in
their market value, it appears to us diffi-
cult to resist the conclusion that some in-
fluence was then at work tendincr to
steady the price of silver, and to keep the
ratio which it bore to gold approximately
stable."

Sec. 190— "Prior to 1873 the fluctua-

Appendix. 95

tions in the price of silver were gradual in
their character, and ranged within very
narrow limits. The maximum variation
in 1872 was |d. and the average not quite
y^'gd., while in 1886 the maximum was 23\d.,
and the average nearly i-^d. It has not
been, and indeed hardly could be, sug-
gested that the difference can be ac-
counted for by changes in the relative
production or actual use of the two
metals."

Sec. 193 — " Nor does it appear to us
rt;/rz'^rz' unreasonable to suppose that the
existence in The Latin Union of a bi-
metallic system, with a ratio of 15!^ to i
fixed between the two metals, should have
been capable of keeping the market price
of silver steady at approximately that
ratio.

" The view that it could only affect the
market price to the extent to which there
was a demand for it for currency purposes
in The Latin Union, or to which it was
actually taken to the mints of those coun-
tries, is, we think, fallacious.

g6 yoint-Metallism.

Part II. Signed by six Members of the Commission :
Lord Herschell, G.C.B.; Sir C. \V. Freemantle, K.C.B.;
Rt. Hon. Sir John Lubbock, Bart., M. P.; Lord Farrer ;
Mr. J. W. Birch ; Rt. Hon. Leonard H. Courtney, M.P.'

Sec. 99. — We may summarize our con-
clusions upon this part of the case as
follows : We think that the fall in the
price of commodities may be in part due
to an appreciation of gold, but to what
extent this has affected prices we think it
impossible to determine, with any ap-
proach to accuracy.

We think, too, that the fall in the gold
price of silver has had a tendency opera-
ting in the same direction upon prices ;
but whether this has been effective to
any, and if so to what extent, we think
equally incapable of determination.

We believe the fall to be mainly due, at
all events, to circumstances independent
of changes in the production of, or de-
mand for, the precious metals, or the
altered relation of silver to eold.

As regards the fall in the gold price of
silver, we think that, though it may be

' Mr. Courtney changed his opinion later on the question
of the appreciation of gold, etc. See Appendix page 103.

Appendix. 97

due in part to the appreciation of gold,
it is mainly due to the depreciation of
silver.

Sec. III. We may point also to an
advantage of a different character which
might perhaps arise from the adoption of
bimetallism.

There seems reason to believe that the
production of gold has been diminishing,
and it is uncertain whether this diminution
has reached its lowest point.

On the other hand, there is some reason
to suppose that the use of that metal in
the arts is likely in the future to increase.
There can be no doubt too that the popu-
lation and commerce of nations having a
gold standard may be expected to increase
largely.

Under these circumstances it may be
open to argument that the vast superstruc-
ture of credit, which rests upon the gold
basis, would run the risk of being dis-
turbed if the standard were found to be
appreciating. If, on the other hand,
credit were founded on a bimetallic instead
of a gold standard, the base upon which

98 Joint-Metallism.

the fabric rests might be enlarged, and
the danofer to which we have alluded
might be diminished.

Sec. 119. Apprehensions have been
expressed that if the bimetallic system
were adopted gold would gradually dis-
appear from circulation. If, however, the
arrangement included all the principal
commercial nations, we do not think there
would be any serious danger of such a
result.

Such a danger, if it existed at all must
be remote. It is said, indeed, by some
that if it were to happen, and all nations
were to be driven to a system of silver
monometallism, the result might be re-
garded without dissatisfaction.

We are not prepared to go this length,
but, at the same time, we are fully
sensible of the benefits which would accrue
from the adoption of a common monetary
standard by all the commercial nations of
the world, and we are quite alive to the
advantage of the adoption by these na-
tions of an uniform bimetallic standard as
a step in that direction.

Appendix. 99

Part III. Signed by the other six Members of the Com-
mission : Rt. Hon. Sir Louis Mallet, C.B.; Rt. Hon. A. J.
Balfour, M.P.; Rt. Hon. Henry Chaplin, M.P.; Sir D.
Barbour', K.C.S.L; Sir W. H. Houldesworth, Bart., M.
P.; Mr. Samuel Montagu, M.P.

Sec. II. In Sec. 47 of Part II., our
colleagues express the view that "the
greater part of the fall has resulted from
causes touching the commodities rather
than from an appreciation of the standard ;
and again in Section 99, " we believe the
fall to be mainly due, at all events, to
circumstances independent of changes in
the production of or demand for the
precious metals, or the altered relation of
silver to gold."

From this view we feel bound to dissent.
The importance of the question whether
the incapacity of the existing stock of
gold to meet the currency requirements
of the world arises from the fact that those
currency requirements are increasing
through the growth of commerce and of
population, or through the monetary
policy of particular nations, may easily be
exaggerated. In our opinion it is almost
impossible to distinguish between these
two sets of causes. A great increase in

I oo Joijit-Mctallism.

the production of commodities means a
great increase in wealth, and would ordi-
narily be attended with an increased de-
mand for the standard metal. The prices
of some commodities would fall because
they were produced in increasing quan-
tities ; the prices of commodities generally
would tend to fall because there was an
increased demand for the standard metal,
and there are no means of saying how
much of the alteration in price in any par-
ticular case is due to increased production,
and how much to increased demand for the
standard.

In any case, however, we differ from
the view taken by our colleagues, to which
we have above referred, for the following
reasons :

In the first place we find no proof that
the supply of commodities generally has
increased, or that the cost of production
has diminished at a Q^reater rate in the
years which have elapsed since the rup-
ture of the bimetallic par than was the
case in periods of like duration, antece-
dent to that date. ...

Appendix. lOi

Sec. 12. — There appears to us to be
sufficient evidence (to which we shall refer
later on when we deal in detail with the
several questions contained in our order
of reference) to show that the fall of prices
and its resulting evils have affected all
classes of the population (with the excep-
tion of those in the enjoyment of fixed
incomes payable in gold), from the manu-
facturers and producers down to the
wage-earners; but, in our opinion, it is
the" latter class which have the most direct
and immediate interest in the adoption of
any measure which will re-establish the
comparative stability of the standard of
value, such as it was before the recent
divero-ence in the relative value of the
precious metals.

Sec. 28.— ... We are strongly
of opinion that both metals must continue
to be used as standard money ; the result
of using them separately and indepen-
dently since 1873 have been most unsatis-
factory, and may be positively disastrous
in the future.

I02 Joint-Metallism.

It cannot be questioned that until 1873
gold and silver were always effectively
linked by a legal ratio in one or more
countries.

It is equally indisputable that the rela-
tive value of the two metals has been sub-
ject to greater divergence since 1874 than
during the whole of the two hundred years
preceding that date, notwithstanding the
occurrence of variations in their relative
production more intense and more pro-
longed than those which have been
experienced in recent years.

Sec. 29. — In 1873 ^"d 1874 the con-
necting link disappeared, and for the first
time the system of rating the two metals
ceased to form a subject of legislation in
any country in the world.

The law of supply and demand was for
the first time left to operate independently
upon the value of each metal ; and simul-
taneously the ratio which had been main-
tained, with scarcely any perceptible
variation, for two hundred years, gave
place to a marked and rapid divergence
in the relative value of gold and silver.

Appendix. 103

which has culminated in a change from
15! to I to 22 to I.

From the " Nineteenth Century Review^'
April, iSgj.

I was one of the six members of the
Gold and Silver Commission who could
not see their way to recommend bimetal-
lism, and reported: "When we look at
the character and times of the fall in the
prices of commodities . . . we think
the sounder view is that the greater part
of the fall has resulted from causes touch-
ing the commodities, rather than from an
appreciation of the standard." In the
same paragraph we had said : "We are
far from denying that there may have
been, and probably has been, some ap-
preciation of gold," though we held it
impossible to determine its extent. Let
me make a confession. I hesitated a little
about this paragraph. I thought there
was, perhaps, more in the suggestion of
an appreciation of gold than my colleagues
believed ; but whilst I thus doubted I did

I04 yoint-Metallism.

not dissent. I am now satisfied that there
has been an appreciation of gold greater
than I suspected when I signed the
Report, and I should not be able to concur
in the same paragraph again.

I have no doubt as to the fact of ap-
preciation ; I believe it to have been
serious ; . . . •

With the rupture of the bimetallic tie,
the ratio has changed enormously, though
there has been nothing like the same
alteration in the relative production of the
two metals.

Five years ago I joined with my friends
in deprecating any attempt to establish
an international agreement for the free
coinag-e of both orold and silver as stand-
ard money. I have advanced with further
experience and reflection to the belief
that such an agreement is to be desired,
and that it could be accomplished with
the minimum of change and with great
advantage to the empire and the world on
the conditions I have suofofested.

Leonard Courtney.

Appendix.

\o-

Product of Gold and Silver in the United States from 1792-1844, and

A nniially since.

[The estimate for 17Q2-1873 is by R. W. Raymond, Commissioner, and since

by the Director of the Mint.] See page 112.

Years.

April 2, 1792-July 31,

1834

July 31, 1834-Decem-
ber 31, 1844

1845

1846

1847

1848

1849 ••

1850

1851

1852

1853

1854

1855

1856

1857

1858

.1859

.i860

i86r

1862

1863

1864.

1865

1866

1867

1868

1869

1870

1871

1872

1873

1874

1875

1876 •

1877

1878

1879

1880

1881

1882

1883

1884

1885

1886

1887

1888

1889

1890

1891

1892

1S93

1894

1S95

Gold.

Silver.

^14,000,000

7,500,000
1,008,327

1*139,357!
889,085
10,000,000
40,000,000
50,000,000
55,000,000
60,000,000
65,000,000
60,000,000
55,000,000
55,000,000
55,000,000
50,000,000
50,000,000
46,000,000
43,000,000
39,200,000
40,000,000
46,100,000
53,225,000
53,500,000
51,725,0001
48,000,000,
49,500,000'
50,000,000
43,500,000
36,000,000;
36,000,000
33,500,000
33,400,000
39,900,000,
46,900,000
51,200,000
38,900,000
36,000,0.00
34,7oo,ooo|
32,500,000'
30,000,000]
30,800,000,
31,800,000'
35,ooo,ooOi
33,000,000'
33,i75,ooo|
32,800,000
32,845,000
33,175,000
33,000,000
35,955,000
39,500,000
46,610,000

Total.

Total 2,059,946,769

Coinage value
insignificant.

, $250,000

50,000

500,000

ioo,ooo|

150,000'

2,000,000

4,500,000

8,500,000

11,000,000

11,250,000

10,000,000

13,500,000

12,000,000

16,000,000

23,000,000

28,750,000

35,750,000

37,300,000

31,700,000
38,800,000
39,800,000
45,200,000
40,800,000
39,200,000
43,000,000
46,800,000
46,200,000
48,800,000
51,600,000
51,000,000

53,350,000
59,195,000

64,646,000
70,465,000!

75,417,000

82,101,000
77,576,ooo|
64,000,000
72,051,000

P4, 000,000

7,750,000

1,058,327

1,189,357

939,085

10,050,000

40,050,000

50,050,000

55,050,000

60,050,000

65,050,000

60,050,000

55,050,000

50,500,000

50,100,000

46,150,000

45,000,000

43,700,000

48,500,000

57,100,000

64,475,000

63,500,000

65,225,000

60,000,000

61,500,000

66,000,000

66,500,000

64,750,000

71,750,000

70,800,000

65,100,000

78,700,000

86,700,000

96,400,000

79,700,000

75,200,000

77,700,000

79,300,000

76,200,000

79,600,000

83,400,000

86,000,000

86,350,000

92,370,000

97,446,000

103,309,000

108,592,000

115,101,000

113,531,000

103,500,000

118,661,000

1,368,901,000 3,428,847,769

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§ § i § 8 8 8 8 8 § 8 § 8 8 § 8 8 § 8 8 § 8 8 § § § 8

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Appendix.

107

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io8

Joint- MeialUsm.

Monetary Systems and Approximate Stocks of Money in the

3
4
5
6

13
14

IS
16

19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26

29
30
31
32

Countries.

United States a

United Kingdom

France

Germany

Belgium

Italy

Switzerland

Greece

Spain

Portugal

Roumania

Servia

Austria-Hungary

Netherlands

Norway

Sweden

Denmark

Russia

Turkey

Australia

Egypt

Mexico

Central American States.
South American States . .

Japan

India

China

Straits Settlements

Canada

Cuba

Haiti

Bulgaria

Monetary
system.

Ratio be-
tween gold

and full

legal-tender

silver.

Ratio be-
tween gold
and limited-
tender
silver.

Total

Gold and silver-
Gold

Gold and silver-

....do

Gold

Gold and silver-

....do

Gold

Gold and silver-
Gold

....do

Silver

Gold and silver-
Gold

....do

Silver

....do

. . . .do.<-

Gold and silver-

....do

Silver

....do

Gold

Gold and silver-

....do

...-do

I to 15.9!
I to isi

I to is^
I to \$\
I to 15*
I to 15^
I to 15^

I to 15I

I to 15^
I to 15I

I to i6i

I to isi

I to 15A
I to i6"i8
I to 15

I to 155
1 to 155
I to 15^

I to 14.95
I to 14.28
I to 14.38
I to 13.957
I to 14.38
I to 14.38
I to 14,38
I to 14.38
I to 14.38
I to 14.08

I to 13.69
I to 15
I to 14.88
I to 14.88
I to 14.88
I to 12.90
I to 15^
I to 14.28
I to 15.68

I to 14.28
I to 14.38

Population.

71,390,000

38,900,000

38,300,000

51,200,000

6,300,000

30,700,000

3, 000, coo

2,200,000

17,500,000

5,100,000

5,800,000

2,300,000

43,500,000

4,700,000

2,000,000

4,800,000

2,300,000

126,000,000

22,000,000

4,700,000

6,800,000

12,100,000

5,600,000

36,000,000

41,100.000

296,000,000

360,000,000

3,800,000

4,800,000

1,800,000

1,000,000

4.300,000

Stock of
gold.

$600,100,000

b 580,000,000

b 850,000,000

b 625,000,000

b 55,000,00c

c 98,200,000

c 14,900,000

(i 500,000

b 40,000,000

b 38,000,000

c 38,600,000

c 3,000,000

b 140,000,000

c 29,200,000

b 7,500,000

c 8,000,000

c 14,500,000

b 480,000,000

b 50,000,000

b 115,000,000

b 120,000,000

b 5,000,000

b 500,000

b 40,000,00c

c 80,000,000

b 14,000,000

b 18,000,000

b 3,000,000

b 800,000

4,068,800,000

<j July I, 1896 ; all other countries, Januarj' i, 1895.

/• Estimate, Bureau of the Mint.

c Information furnished through United States representatives.

Appendix.

109

Aggregate and Per Capita in the Prinxipal Countries of the World.

Stock of silver.

Uncovered
paper.

Per capita.

Full tender.

Limited
tender.

Total.

Gold.

i
Silver.

Paper.

Total.

$549,800,000

$75,800,000
b 115,000,000

c 57,900,000

b 1 10,000,000

b 6,900,000

b C 20,000,000

5,000,000
b 1,000,000
b 40,000,000
b 24,800,000
c 10,600,000
c 1,900,000
b 40,000,000

C 3,200,OCO

b 2,000,000

c 4,800,000

c 5,400,000

b 48,000,000

d 10,000,000

b 7,000,000

b 15,000,000

$625,600,000

115,000,000

487,900,000

215,000,000

54,900,000

41 ,400,000

15,000,000

1,500,000

166,000,000

24,800,000

10,600,000

1,900,000

120,000,000

56,200,000

2,000,000

4,800,000

5,400,000

48,000,000

40,roo,ooo

7,000,000

15,000,000

55,000,000

12,000,000

30,000,000

84,300,000

950,000,000

750,000,000

115,000,000

5,000,000

1,500,000

2,900,000

6,800,00c

$383,300,000

c 113,400,000

c 32,100,000

c 60,400,000

c 65,400,000

c 191,800,000

$8.41
14.91
22.19
12.21

8.73
3.20

4-97
•23

2.28

7-45
6.65
1.30
3.22
6.21

3-75

1.66

6.30

3.80

2.27

24-47

17.65

.41

I. II

1.95

$8.77
2.96

12.94
4.20
8.71
'•35
5.00
.68

9.49
4.S6
1.83

•83
2.76
11.96
1. 00
1. 00
2.35

•38
1.82
1.49
2.20

4.54
2.14

•83
2.05
3.21
2.08
3.26
1.04

.83
2.90
1.5S

$5-37

2.91

.84

1.18

10.38
6.24

"Vo'.is'!
4.78
10.80
2.02
1.65
4.69
6.0S
1.90
•43
2.35
4.28

'•43
15.28

.12

6.04
4.20

$22.55

20.78
35^77
17-59
27.82
10.79
9^97
11.09
16.55
23.11
10.50

3^78

10.67

24.25

6.65

3.10

11.00

8.46

4.09

25.96

1985

4^95

3.66

17.22

4.00

$•33

2.08

3.26

10.00

10.83

10.10

1.76

I
2

b 430,000,000
b 105,000,000

b 48,000,000
be 21,400,000

b 10,000,000

b 500,000

b 126,000,000

4
5
6

c 22,400,000

c 83,700,000

c 55,100,000

c 11,700,000

b 3,800,000

c 204,300,000

c 28,600,000

c 3,800,000

c 2,100,000

c 5,400,000

c 539,000,000

9
10

b 80,000,000
c 53,000,000

13
14
'5

b 30,000,000

19
20

b 55,000,00c

c 12,000,000

b ^0,000,000

c 68,000,000

b 950,000,000

b 750,000,000

b 115,000,000

b 2,000,000

(T 8,000,000

b 550,000,000

c 16,300,000

b 37,000,000

b 5,000,000

b 29,000,000

2.92

10.00

3.00

.18

b 1,500,000
b 2,100,000
b 3,400,000

b 800,00c
3,400,00c

c 4,200,00c

31
32

3,44^,700,000

629,800,00c

4,070,500,00c

2,436,500,00c

d Haupt.

e Except Venezuela and Chile.

I lO

yoint-Metallism.

Commercial Ratio of Silver to Gold for each Year since 1687.
[Note. — From 1687 to 1832 the ratios are taken from the tables of Dr. A.
Soetbeer ; from 1833 to 1878 from Pixley and Abell's tables ; and from 1878 to
1896 from daily cablegrams from London to the Bureau of tlie Mint.]

Year.

Ratio.

Year.

Ratio.

Year.

Ratio.

Year.

Ratio.

Year.

Ratio.

1687

14.94

1729

14.92

I77I

14.66

1813

16.25

1855

15.38

1688

14.94

1730

14.81

1772

14 52

1814

15.04

1856

15-38

1689

15.02

173I

14.94

1773

14. (.2

1815

15.26

1857

15-27

1690

15.02

1732

15.09

1774

14.62

1816

15.28

1858

15.38

1691

14.98

1733

15-18

1775

14.72

1817

I5-II

1859

15.19

1692

14.92

1734

15.39

1776

14-55

181S

15.35

i860

15.29

1693

14.83

1735

15.41

1777

14.54

1819

15.33

I861

15.50

1694

14.87

1736

15.18

1778

14.68

1820

15.62

1S62

15-35

1695

15.02

1737

15.02

1779

14.80

182I

15-95

1863

15.37

1696

15.00

1738

14.91

1780

14.72

1822

15 80

1S64

15.37

1697

15.20

1739

14.91

1781

14.78

1823

15.84

1865

15.44

1698

15.07

1740

14-94

1782

14.42 i

1824

15.82

1866

15.43

1699

14.94

174I

14.92

1783

14.48

1825

15-70

1867

15-57

1700

14.81

1742

14.85

1784

14-70

1826

15-76

1868

15-59

I7OI

15-07

1743

14.85

1785

14.92

1827

15.74

1869

15.60

1702

15-52

1744

14.87

1786

14.96

1828

15-78

1870

15-57

1703

15-17

. 1745

14.98

1787

14.92

1829

15-78

1871

15-57

1704

15.22

1746

15.13

1788

14.65

1830

15 82

1872

15-63

1705

I5-II

1747

15.26

1789

14-75

183I

15-72

1S73

15.92

1706

15.27

1748

15-II

1790

15-04

1832

15.73

1874

16.17

1707

15-44

1749

14.80

179I

15-05

1833

15.93

1S75

16.59

1708

15.41

1750

14-55

1792

15-17

1834

15.73

1876

17.88

1709

15.31

1751

14.39

1793

15.00

1835

15.80

1877

17.22

I710

15.22

1752

14.54

1794

15-37

1836

15-72

1878

17-94

I7II

15-29

1753

14-54

1795

15.55

1837

15.83

1S79

18.40

1712

15.31

1754

14.48

1796

15.65

1838

15-85

1880

18.05

1713

15-24

1755

14.68

1797

15.41

1839

15.62

18S1

18.16

I714

15-13

1756

14.94

1798

15.59

1840

15.62 \

1S82

18.19

1715

15-11

1757

14.87

1799

15.74

184I

15.70 !

1SS3

18.64

I716

15.09

1758

14.85

1800

!5.68

1842

1587

1884

1S.57

I7I7

15-13

1759

14.15

1 801

15-46

1843

15-93

1885

1941

I718

15. II

1760

14.14

j 1802

15.26

1844

15-85

1886

20.78

I7I9

15.09

I761

14.54

! 1803

15.41

1845

15-92

1887

21.13

1720

15-04

1762

15.27

1804

15.41

1846

15-90

1888

21-99

I721

1505

1763

14.99

1805

15.79

1847

15.80

18S9

22.09

1722

15-17

1764

14.70

1806

15.52

1848

15.85

1890

19-75

1723

15.20

1765

14.83

i 1807

15.43

1849

15.78

189I

20.92

1724

15."

1766

14.80

i 1808

16.08

1850

1570

1892

23-72

1725

15-II

1767

14.85

! 1809

15.96

185I

15 46

1893

26.49

1726

15.15

1768

14.80

1810

15.77

1852

15.59

1894

32.56

1727

15.24

1769

14.72

i8n

15-53

1853

15-33

1895

31.60

1728

15. II

1770

14.62

i8t2

16. II

1854

15-33

IS 96

6 rnuntlis

30. -?2

Appendix. 1 1 1

Production of gold and silver in the -world for the calendar years iSjj-iSgj.

Year.

Gold.

Silver.

1873,.

1874. ■
1875..
1876..
1S77..
1878..
1879..
18S0..

i88r..
18S2. .
1883..
1884..
18S5..
1886..
18S7..
18SS. .
1SS9. .
1890. .
iSgi. .
1892. .
1S93..
1894..
1895*.

Total.

Fine ounces.

Value.

Fine ounces.

4.653.675

$96,200,000

63,267,187

4,390,031

90.750,000

55,300,781

4.716,563

97,500,000

62,261,719

5,016,488

103,700,000

67,753,125

5,512,196

113,947,200

62,679,916

5,761,114

119,092,800

73.385,451

5.262,174

108,778,800

74,383,495

5,148,880

106,436,800

74,795,273

4.9S3.742

103,023,100

79,020,872

4,934,086

101,996,600

86,472.091

4,614,588

95,392,000

89,175,023

4.921,169

i<ji,729,6oo

81.567,801

5,245,572

108,435,600

91,609,959

5.135,679

106,163,900

93,297,290

5,116,861

105,774,900

96,123,586

5,330,775

110,196,900

108,827,606

5,973,790

123,489,200

120,213,611

5,749,306

118,848,700

126,095,062

6,320,194

130,650,000

137,170,919

7,iC2,iSo

146,815,100

153,151,762

7,608,787

157,287,600

166,092,047

8,737,788

180,626, 100

167,752,561

9,820,125

203,000,000

■ 174.796,875

132,055,763

2,729,834,900

2,305,194,012

Commercial
value.

$82,120,800
70,674,400
77,578,100
78,322,600
75,278,600
84,540.000
83,532,700
85,640,600
89,925,700
98,232,300
98,984,300
90,785,000
97,518,800
92,793,5001
94,031,0001
102,185,900
112, 414, 1( O;

I3i,937,oooj
135,500,200!
133,404,400!
129,551,800
106,522,900
114,327,600

2,265,802,300

Coining value.

$81,800,000

71,500,000

80,500,000

87,600,000

81,040,700

94,882,200

96,172,600

96,705,000

102,168,400

111,802,300

115,297,000

105,461,400

118,445,200

120,626,800

124,281,000

140,706,400

155,527,700

163,032,000

177,352,300

198,014,400

214,745,300

216,892,200

226,000,000

2,980,452,900

The silver product is given at its commercial value, reckoned at the average
market price of silver each year, as well as us coining value in United States
dollars. See page 106.

* Estimated.

112

Joint' Metallism.

Product of gold and silver from 7?iines in the United States, i8'/j-i8gj.

Calen

riar

Gold.

Silver.

Year.

Fine ounces.

Value.

Fine ounces.

Commercial
value.

Coining value.

1873
1874

1875
1876

1877
1878
1879
1880
1881
1882
1883
1884
1885
1886
1887
1888
1889
1890
1891
1892

1893
1894

1895

1,741,500
1,620,563

1,615.725
1,930,162
2,268,788
2,476,800
1,881,787
1,741,500
1,678,612
1,572,187
1,451,250
1,489,950
1,538,325
1,693,125

1,596,375
1,604,841
1,587,000
1,588,880
1,604,840
1,596,375
1,739,323
1,910,813
2,254,760

$36,000,000
33,500,000
33,400,000
39,900,000
46,900,000
51,200,000
38,900,000
36,000,000
34,700,000
32,500,000
30,000,000
30,800,000
31,800,000
35,000,000
33,000,000
33,175,000
32,800,000
32,845,000
33,175,000
33,000,000
35,955,000
39,500,000
46,610,000

27,650,000
28,849,000
24,518,000
30,009,000
30,783,000
34,960,000
31,550,000
30,320,000
33,260,000
36,200,000
35,730,000
37,800,000
39,910,000
39,440,000
41,200,000
45,780,000
50,000,000
54,500,000
58,330,000
63,500,000
60,000,000
49,500,000
55,727,000

$35,890,000
36,869,000
30,549,000
34,690,000
36,970,000
40,270,000
35,430,000
34,720,000
37,850,000
41,120,000
39,660,000
42,070,000
42,500,000
39,230,000
40,410,000
43,020,000
46,750,000
57,225,000
57,630,000
55,563,000
46,800,000
31,422,000
36,445,000

$35,750,000
37,300,000
31,700,000
38,800,000
39,800,000
45,200,000
40,800,000
39,200,000
43,000,000
46,800,000
46,200,000
48,800,000
51,600,000
51,000,000
53,350,000
59,195,000
64,646,000
70,465,000
75,417,000
82,101,000
77,576,000
64,000,000
72,051,000

tal

40,183,481

830,660,000

939,576,000

943,083,000

1,214,751,000

See page 105.

Appendix,

113

The following table exhibits the value of the
pure silver in a silver dollar at prices of silver per

ounce fine from $0.50 to

I1.2929,

or parity :

Price of

Value of pure

Price of

Value of pure

Price of

Value of pure

silver per

silver in a

silver per

silver in a

silver per

silver in a

fine ounce.

silver dollar.

fine ounce.

silver dollar.

fine ounce.

silver dollar.

$0.50

$0,387

$0.77

$0,596

$1.04

$0,804

•51

• 394

•78

.603

1.05

.812

■52

.402

•79

.611

1.06

.820

• 53

.410

.80

.619

1.07

.828

.54

.418

.81

.626

1.08

•835

.55

.425

.82

•634

1.09

•843

.56

•433

• 83

.642

I. ID

.851

.57

• 441

.84

.650

I. II

.859

.58

.449

• 85

.657

1. 12

.866

.59

• 456

.86

.665

I^I3

• 874

.60

.464

•87

•673

1. 14

.882

.61

.472

.88

.681

i^i5

.889

.62

.480

.89

.688

t.i6

.897

.63

•487

.90

.696

1. 17

.905

.64

• 495

.91

.704

1. 18

.913

.65

.503

.92

.712

1. 19

.920

.66

.510

•93

.719

1.20

.928

.67

.518

•94

•727

1. 21

•936

.68

.526

•95

• 735

1.22

•944

.69

• 534

.96

.742

1.23

•951

• 70

.541

•97

.750

1.24

•959

.71

•549

•98

.758

1^25

.967

.72

.557

•99

.766

1.26

•975

.73

.565

1. 00

.773

1.27

.982

• 74

• 572

1. 01

.781

1.28

.990

.75

.580

1.02

.789

1.29

•998

.76

.588

1.03

•797

*1.2929

I. CO

The silver unit is the dollar which contains 412?^ grains of standard sil-
ver 900 fine. The amount of fine silver in the dollar is 371^4^ grains, and
there are 41^ grains of copper alloy. The standard silver dollar was first
authorized by the act of April 2, 1792. Its weight was 416 grains 892.4
fine. It contained the same quantity of fine silver as the present dollar,
whose weight and fineness were established by the act of January 18,
1837. The coinage of the standard silver dollar was discontinued by the
act of February 12, 1873, and it was restored by the act of February 28,
1878. The total amount coined from 1792 to 1873 was $8,031,238, and the
amount coined from 1878 to June 30, 1896, was $430,790,041. The coinage
ratio between gold and silver under the Act of 1792 was 15 to i, but by the
act of 1837 it was changed to 15.988 to i (commonly called 16 to i). This
is the present ratio.

* Parity.

114

Joint- Metallism.

Statement of the coin and paper circulation of the United States from i860 to i8g6 inclusive

with amount of circulation per capita.

Coin in United

Coin, bul-

Money

Circu-
lation

Year.

States,
including

Paper money
in United

Total money.

lion, and
paper

Circulation.

Population.

in
United
States

bullion in

States.

money in

per

Treasury.

per
capita.

capita

i860..

$235,000,000

$207,102,477

$442,102,477

$6,695,225

$435,407,252

31,443,321

$14.06

$13.85

1861..

250,000,000

202,005,767

452,005,767

3,600,000

448,405,767

32,064,000

14.09

13.98

1862..

25,000,000

333,452,079

358,452,079

23,754.335

334,697.744

32,704,000

10.96

10.23

1863..

25,000,000

649,867,283

674,867,283

79,473.245

595.394.038

33,365,000

20.23

17.84

1864. .

25,000,000

680,588,067

705,588,067

35,946,589

669,641,478

34,046,000

20.72

19.67

1865..

25,000,000

745,129,755

770,129,755

55,426,760

714,702,995

34,748,000

22.16

20.57

1866..

25,000,000

729,327,254

754,327,254

80,839,010

673,488,244

35,469,000

21.27

18.99

1867..

25,000,000

703,200,612

728,200,612

66,208,543

661,992,069

36,211,000

20.11

18.28

1868..

25,000,000

691,553,578

716,553,578

36,449,917

680,103,661

36,973,000

19.38

'8.39

1869..

25,000,000

690,351,180

715^351,180

50.898,289

664,452,891

37,756,000

18.9s

17.60

1870..

2S,000,000

697,868,461

722,868,461

47,655.667

675,212,794

38,558,371

18.73

17.50

1871..

25,000,000

716,812,174

741,812,174

25,923,169

715,889,005

39,555,000

18.75

18.10

1872..

25,000,000

737,721,565

762,721,565

24,412,016

738,309,549

40,596,000

18.70

18.19

1873..

25,000,000

749,445,610

774,445,610

22,563,801

751,881,809

41,677,000

18.58

18.04

1874..

25,000,000

701,024,781

806,024,781

29,941,750

776,083,031

42,796,000

18.83

18.13

1875..

25,000,000

773,273,509

798,273,509

44,171,562

754,101,947

43,951,000

18.16

17.16

1876..

52,418,734

738,264,550

790,683,284

63.073,896

727,609,388

45,137,000

17-52

16.12

1877..

65,837.506

697,216,341

763,053,847

40,738,964

722,314,883

46,353,000

16.46

15.58

1878..

102,047,907

689,205,669

791,253,576

62,120,942

729,132,634

47,598,000

16.62

15-32

1879..

357,268,178

694,253,363

1,051,521,541

232,889,748

818,631,793

48,866,000

21.52

16.7s

1880. .

494,363,884

7i',565,3'3

1,205,929,197

232,546,969

973,382,228

50,155,783

24.04

19.41

1881..

647,868,682

758,673,141

1,406,541,823

292,303,704

1,114,238,119

51,316,000

27.41

21.71

1882..

703.q74.839

776,556,880

1,480,531,719

306,241,300

1,17.4,290,419

52,495,000

28.20

22.37

1883..

769,740,048

873-749.768

1,643,489,816

413,184,120

1,230,305,696

53,693,000

30.60

22.91

1884..

801,068,939

904,385,250

i,705,454,'89

461,^28,220

1,243,925,969

54,911,000

31.06

22.65

1885..

872,175,823

945,482,513

1,817,658,336

525,089,721

1,292,568,615

56,148,000

32.37

23.02

1886. .

90^,027,304

905.532,390

1,808,559,694

555,859,169

1,252,700,525

57,404,000

31-50

21.82

1887..

1,007,513,901

892,928,771

1,900,442,672

582,903,529

1.317,539.143

58,680,000

32.39

22.45

1888..

1,092,391.690

970,564,259

2,062,955,949

690,785,079

1,372,170,870

59,974,000

34-39

22.88

i8«9..

1,100,612,434

974,738,277

2,075,350,7'!

694,989,062

1,380,361,649

61,289,000

33.86

32.52

1890. .

1,152,471,638

991,754,521

2,144,226,159

714,974,889

1,429,251,270

62,622,250

34-24

22.82

1891..

i,i''3. 185,054

1,032,039,021

2,195,224,07s

697,783,368

1,497,440,707

63,975,000

34-31

23.41

1892..

1,232,854,331

1.139,745,170

2,372,599,501

771,252,314

1.601 347,187

65,520,000

36.21

24.44

1893..

1,213,413,584

1,109,988,808

2,323,402,392

7^6,701,147

1,596,701,245

66,946,000

34-70

23-85

1894..

1,251, 543,158

1,168,891,623

2,420,434,781

759,626,073

1,660,808,708

68,397,000

35-39

24.28

1895..

1,260,987,506

1,137,619,914

2,398,607,420

796,638,947

1,601,968,473

69,878,000

34-33

22.93

1896..

1,225,618,792

1,120,012,536

2,345,631,328

839,000,302

1,506,631,026

71,390,000

32.86

21.10

Note i. — Specie payments were susjjended from Januarj' i, 1862, to January i, 1879. During the
greater part of that period gold and silver coins were not in circulation except on the Pacific Coast, where, it
IS estimated, the specie circulation was generally about $25,000,000. This estimated amount is the only coin
included in the above statement from 1S62 to 1875, inclusive.

Note 2. — In 1876 subsidiary silver again came into use, and is included in this statement, beginning
with that year.

Note 3.— The coinage of standard silver dolKars began in 1878 under the act of February 28, 1878.

Note 4. — Specie payments were resumed January i, 1879, and all gold and silver coins, as well as gold
and silver bullion in the Treasury, are included in this statement from and after that date.

Note 5. — This tabic represents the circulation of the United States as shown by the revised statements
of the Treasury Department for June 30 of each of the years specified.

Appendix. 1 1 5

Concurrent Resolution Passed by Senate and House
of Representatives in iSyS.

" Resolved, That all the bonds of the United
States issued under the acts of Congress of July
14, 1S70, and January 14, 1875, are payable, prin-
cijjal and interest, at the option of the government
of the United States, in silver dollars of the coin-
age of the United States containing 412^ grains
each of standard silver, and that to restore to its
coinage such silver coins as a legal tender in pay-
ment of said bonds, principal and interest, is not
in violation of the public faith nor in derogation of
the rights of the public creditor."

From Treasury Department Circular July i, 1896,
Gold coins and standard silver dollars being
standard coins of the United States are not
" redeemable."

Valuation of Foreign Coins {Act of Oct. 7, iSgd).

The value of foreign coins as expressed in the
money of account of the United States shall be
that of the pure metal of such coin of standard
value ; and the values of the standard coins in
circulation of the various nations of the world
shall be estimated quarterly by the Director of the
Mint and be proclaimed by the Secretary of the
Treasury immediately after the passage of this act
and thereafter quarterly on the ist day of January,
April, July, and October in each year.

1 1 6 yoint-Metallism.

From the Republican National Platform of i8g6.
The Republican party is unreservedly for sound
money. It caused the enactment of the law pro-
viding for the resumption of specie payments in
1879, ^^^ since then every dollar has been as good
as gold. We are unalterably opposed to every
measure calculated to debase our currency or im-
pair the credit of our country. We are, therefore,
opposed to the free coinage of silver, except by
international agreement with the leading com-
mercial nations of the world, which we pledge
ourselves to promote, and until such agreement
can be obtained the existing gold standard must
be preserved. All our silver and paper money
must be maintained at a parity with gold, and we
favor all measures designed to maintain inviolably
the obligations of the United States, and all our
money, whether coin or paper, at the present
standard, the standard of the most enlightened
nations of the earth.

From the Platform of the Gold Deniocrats of i8g6.

The experience of mankind has shown that, by
reason of their natural qualities, gold is the neces-
sary money of the large affairs of commerce and
business, while silver is conveniently adapted to
minor transactions, and the most beneficial use of
both together can be ensured only by the adop-
tion of the former as a standard of monetary
measure and the maintenance of silver at a parity
with gold by its limited coinage under suitable
safeguards of law.

Appendix. 1 1 7

From the Democratic National Platform of i8g6.

Recognizing that the money question is para-
mount to all others at this time, we invite attention
to the fact that the Constitution names silver and
gold together as the money metals of the United
States, and that the first coinage law passed by
Congress under the constitution made the silver
dollar the money unit of value and admitted gold
to free coinage at a ratio based upon the silver-
dollar unit.

We declare that the act of 1873, demonetizing
silver without the knowledge or approval of the
American people, has resulted in the appreciation
of gold and a corresponding fall in the prices of
commodities produced by the people ; a heavy in-
crease in the burden of taxation and of all debts,
public and private ; the enrichment of the money-
lending class at home and abroad, prostration of
industry, and impoverishment of the people.

We are unalterably opposed to monometallism,
which has locked fast the prosperity of an indus-
trial people in the paralysis of hard times. Gold
monometallism is a British policy, and its adoption
has brought other nations into financial servitude
to London. It is not only un-American, but anti-
American, and it can be fastened on the United
States only by the stifling of that indomitable
spirit and love of liberty which proclaimed our
political independence in 1776, and won it in the
war of the Revolution.

We demand the free and unlimited coinage of

1 1 8 yoi?it-Metallis77i.

both silver and gold at the present legal ratio of
i6 to I, without waiting for the aid or consent of
any other nation. We demand that the standard
silver dollar shall be a full legal tender, equally
with, gold, for all debts, public and private, and we
favor such legislation as will prevent for the future
the demonetization of any kind of legal-tender
money by private contract.

We are opposed to the policy and practice of
surrendering to the holders of the obligations of
the United States the option reserved by law to the
government of redeeming such obligations in either
silver coin or gold coin.

We are opposed to the issuing of interest-bearing
bonds of the United States in time of peace, and
condemn the trafficking with banking syndicates
which, in exchange for bonds and at an enormous
profit to themselves, supply the federal Treasury
with gold to maintain the policy of gold mono-
metallism.

Congress alone has the power to coin and issue
money, and President Jackson declared that this
power should not be delegated to corporations or
individuals. We therefore denounce the issuance
of notes intended to circulate as money by national
banks, as in derogation of the constitution, and we
demand that all paper which is made a legal tender
for public and private debts, or which is receivable
for duties to the United States, shall be issued by
the government of the United States and shall be
redeemable in coin.

PART II.

JOINT-METALLISM vs. BIMETAL-
LISM AND MONOMETALLISM.

iig

JOINT-METALLISM vs. BIMETAL-
LISM AND MONOMETALLISM.^

" Bimetallic money is formed by admit-
ting gold and silver to free coinage and
makine each an unlimited leo^al tender at
a certain relation in value to the other."

President Andrews.

Monometallic money is formed by ad-
mitting one precious metal alone to free
coinage^ and making it the only unlimited
lesfal tender.

Joint metallic money is formed by coin-
ing silver coins of the same weight as gold
coins, admitting gold and silver both to
free coinage when presented together, in
quantities of equal value, according to a

' See preface to Second Edition.

^ Under "free coinage" a small mintage charge (seignior-
age) is made. This amounts on gold to about one sixth of
one per cent, in England, more than one fifth of one per cent,
in the Latin Union, and one half per cent, (maximum) in Ger-
many. It amounted to two thirds of one per cent, on silver
dollars in the United States prior to 1S73.

121

I 2 2 Joint- Mdallism .

Government ratio declared periodically, as
beine that inteoral number of standard
silver coins which, in the market value of
the silver they contain, most nearly equals
a standard gold coin of like weight ; and
making a gold coin, plus such number of
these standard silver coins as shall be
equal thereto, according to the current
Government ratio, legal tender as twice
the amount of the gold coin, for all debts
contracted after a fixed future date/

In the United States the Treasury
would receive these silver coins and gold
coins, when presented together in quanti-
ties of equal value, according to the cur-
rent Government ratio, and issue therefor
Joint Legal-Tender Currency Certificates,
payable half in gold and half in such
quantity of these silver coins as may be
equal thereto, according to the Govern-
ment ratio current at the time of presenta-
tion.

Joint-metallism would continue the
decimal system here, and permit a con-
tinued use of our present silver coins.
These are now token money. When

' See page 5.

Seign iorage. 123

the ratio becomes settled it may be best
to recoin the 50-cent, 25-cent, and 10-
cent pieces, so that they may contain
nearly full intrinsic value. No more silver
dollars ought to be coined. After a time
all our silver dollars could be converted
into silver standard coins, and multiples
thereof.

A silver coin as heavy as $5,000 in gold
would be more suitable than silver dollars
for deposit in the Treasury.

Under joint-metallism the minting
charge might provide a fund to meet
any possible Government loss from de-
cline in silver.

In the United States, most of the new
silver and gold coins would be deposited
in the Treasury, for the people in this
country prefer to use sound convertible
paper money, instead of coin, for all sums
of one dollar and over. Among us, gold
coin is seldom seen in common use, and
five sixths of our silver dollars remain in
the Treasury, while the circulation of the
remaining one sixth is confined mostly to
colored laborers in a few States.

124 yoint- Metallisin.

Joint-metallism conforms to the princi-
ple of our Constitution tliat gold and
silver shall be our legal tender/

It promotes the use of silver equally
with gold as the metallic basis of currency,
making that basis adequate without im-
pairing the obligation of contracts.

It conveniently adjusts changes in
market ratio by altering the number of
silver standard coins to equal a gold
standard coin of the same weight. These
alterations can be made more or less fre-
quent and exact according to whether a
larger or smaller gold coin be taken as
the gold standard coin.^

It permits nations establishing it to
continue to use their own present gold
coins and subsidiary silver coins, while it
tends to the ultimate establishment of in-
ternational gold and silver coins, and

' '.' I am certainly of opinion that gold and silver, at rates
fixed by Congress, constitute the legal standard of values in
this country, and that neither Congress nor any State has
authority to establish any other standard or to displace this
standard."

Daniel Webster.

° Such a proportion as 3 gold standard coins to equal 100
silver standard coins might also be admissible.

Equivalejit as zuell as Measu^^e. 1 2 5

promotes clear thinking and understand-
ing of what money really is.^

It avoids entirely the principal accusa-
tions against bimetallism, which are : (i)
A dishonest impairment of the obligation
of existing contracts. (2) A ratio that
would be, at times, very different from the
market ratio. Most of the arguments
ao^ainst bimetallism and ao^ainst mono-
metallism do not apply against joint-
metallism.

It recognizes the principle that honest
money must be " an equivalent as well as
a measure."

It makes the measure of value more
just and more stable because based on
both precious metals jointly.

It prevents speculators from monopo-
lizing the metallic basis of money. It
gives a proper elasticity to the volume of
the metallic basis of currency, because the
production of silver^can always be largely

' Money is a potentiality or stored up and readily available
energy (see page 20).

^ P. 25. " Surely there is a vein for the silver and a place
for the gold."

126 yoint-Metallism.

and promptly increased by labor, while
the production of gold cannot.

Under joint-metallism, the relative
coinage values of gold and silver would
be neither permanently nor arbitrarily
fixed; but would be variable according to
their relative market values. This would
obviate the present chief causes of dis-
turbances in trade and finance ; for these
disturbances have resulted principally
from a laree change in the relative
market values of gold and silver, while
no provision had been made for changing
the coinage ratio.

It is impossible, now, to determine the
most proper ratio except by giving to
both the precious metals equal access to
a mint. The question of the ratio to be
fixed arbitraril)', under present conditions,
might break up any international conven-
tion. But if oold and silver tocrether had
thus equal access to the mints of even
the United States alone, there would be
established, soon, between them the true
economic ratio of values, viz. : the relative
costs of production in the poorest mines

Fluctuations would be Lessened. 1 2 7

of eold and of silver that could be worked
at a profit.

The relative market values w^ould then
seldom change, and the Government
ratio would probably not have to be
changed for years, perhaps not for cen-
turies. If, owing to discoveries of mines
or to improved metallurgy, the relative
production of one precious metal were
increased, whenever this appeared suffi-
cient to affect the relative proportions of
the world's stock of gold and silver, then
one metal would have a tendency to de-
cline in price ; but against this tendency
would be the knowledge that with any
decline in price a larger proportion of this
metal would be demanded at the mint
and in payment of debts. Moreover, the
market price of each being based on the
two metals jointly, their relative fluctua-
tions would be lessened, and besides this,
the fact that a law was established which
provided for adjusting the Government
ratio to correspond with fluctuations in
the market ratio, would have a strong
tendency to obviate these fluctuations and

128 yomt-Metallism,

to prevent speculative attempts to mo-
nopolize either of the precious metals.

An international agreement would be
advantageous but not necessary to joint-
metallism.

The establishment of a legal coinage
ratio by France, in 1803, was found sufih-
cient to overcome the variations in the
relative costs of production of the two
precious metals so far that for sixty-two
years the coinage ratio of 15^ to i was
maintained and the mint of France kept
open at this same ratio, during this long
period of most remarkable fluctuations in
the production of both gold and silver/

This fact does not contravene the law
that market values are governed by supply
and demand. It is an excellent illustration
of the law. The principal demand for
precious metals is for coinage. A coinage
law can increase or diminish the demand
for a precious metal and thus affect its
market value.

The writings of John Locke and others

' The French coinage was at times all gold and at times all
silver. Joint-metallism would prevent such alternation.

Oresme, Copernicus, and Olhers. 129

of his time in favor of a monometallic
standard, because of the difficulty of fixing
and maintaining a just ratio, distinctly
state that the standard must be silver. It
is astonishing that many gold monometal-
lists quote Locke without mentioning this.
Locke wrote : " Silver therefore and silver
alone is the measure of commerce . .
The fittest for this use of all others is
silver ; all other metals, gold as well as
lead, are but commodities." And that
gold is " not the money of the world nor
fit to be so." What I have called joint-
metallism was not then invented. But if
Locke were living now, it may fairly be
presumed from his writings that he would
welcome my plan. Before him Oresme,
Copernicus, and Bacon, and after him
Newton and many other great authorities
.acknowledged the importance of trying to
maintain the coinage of both metals at
the market ratio, but they did not hit
upon the plan of joint-metallism. Al-
though bimetallism was in general use
throughout the civilized world until 1873
(the mint of France being open to both

130 Joint- Metallism.

metals), it is still necessary, in popular
discussion, to reiterate some oft repeated
historical statements and well established
monetary principles.

" The fall of the Roman Empire , . .
was in reality brought about by the de-
cline in the gold and silver mines of Spain
and Greece. . . . And as if Provi-
dence had intended to reveal in the clear-
est manner the influence of this agent in
human affairs, the resurrection of mankind
from ruin which these causes had pro-
duced was owing to the directly opposite
set of agencies being put in motion.
Columbus led the way in the career of
renovation ; when he spread his sails across
the Atlantic, he bore mankind and its for-
tunes in his bark. The mines of Mexico
and Peru were opened to European enter-
prise." — Alison's History.

" The value of money, other things be-
ing the same, varies inversely as its quan-
tity." — John Stuart Mill.

" Money has to serve not merely as a
medium of exchange, but also as a fair
and permanent record of obligations ex-

Hon. A. y. Balfour, 131

tending over long periods of time. In
this great and fundamental requirement
our existing currency totally and lament-
ably fails." — A. J. Balfour.

" Credit cannot permanently supplant
money."

All honest and permanent money must
have an adequate metallic basis, as is
shown by history.

Freight on gold and silver coin and on
bullion is by value, not by weight.

Index number tables show how com-
modities have generally declined since the
decline in silver.

Since the discovery of America the
world's total production of gold and silver
has been in weight about 5 per cent, gold
and 95 per cent, silver.

Gold is somewhat more durable than
silver.

A single year's production of gold or
silver has little effect on the market values
of the world's stocks, which are the accu-
mulation of thousands of years.

The coinage ratio of 15^ to i having
been fixed by France, April 6, 1803, for

132 Joint-Metallis7n.

seventy years thereafter the relative mar-
ket values of the two precious metals in
London did not vary therefrom more than

3 per cent, for any year (excepting 1808
and 1 8 1 2, when the variation was less than

4 per cent, and 18 13, when it was less
than 5 per cent.^), although the relative
production of the two metals varied enor-
mously, being some years, in value, three
times as much silver as gold, and some
years only about one fourth as much silver
as gold.

France long stood alone, but some other
countries afterwards adopted her ratio in
their mints, and in 1865 Belgium, Italy,
and Switzerland joined her in forming the
"Latin Union," which was joined by
Greece in 1867, and continued free coin-
age at the ratio of 15^ to i until 1873.^

' Napoleon's wars, and the cost and risk of transportation,
and the suspension of specie payments in England account for
most of this variation.

" The Final Report of the Royal Commission on Gold and
Silver, 1888, shows that all the twelve commissioners, the
monometallists as M'ell as the bimetallists, agreed in the fol-
lowing statement : "Sec. 193. Nor does it appear to us a
priori unreasonable to suppose that the existence in the ' Latin
Union' of a bimetallic system, with a ratio of 15^ to I fixed

Some Powerful Interests. 133

By this time improvements in metal-
lurgy, etc., had so greatly reduced the cost
of producing silver that the " Latin
Union" coinage ratio of 15^ to i could
not be maintained. There was very great
difference of opinion as to the proper ra-
tio, and some powerful interests hoped to
benefit by the appreciation of gold which
would result from demonetizing silver.

As the proper ratio could not be deter-
mined except by open competition be-
tween the metals in the market, and with
a mint open to both metals, on the basis
of their relative market values, and as no
plan for this had been provided, the mints
were closed to silver, and general disaster
has resulted.

Joint-metallism would obviate such dis-
astrous results, and would always act as
an automatic regulator and as a safety
valve.

between the two metals, should have been capable of keeping
the market price of silver steady at approximately that ratio.

The view that it could only affect the market price to the
extent to which there was a demand for it for currency pur-
poses in the ' Latin Union,' or to which it was actually taken
to the mints of those countries, is, we think, fallacious. . . .

134 yoint- Metallism.

Under joint-metallism, when once estab-
lished, no variation in the market value of
gold and silver could ever make a recoin-
age necessary. Changes in the relative
market values of the precious metals
would only diminish or increase the num-
ber of standard silver coins that, together
with one standard gold coin of same
weight, should be legal tender as twice
the amount of the gold coin, for debts
contracted after a fixed future date.

Bimetallism, as commonly advocated,
has the serious defects that a certain ratio
is arbitrarily fixed without proper provi-
sion for keeping the ratio at all times
just, and that it would be unjust to cred-
itors or to debtors, and more plainly so
as regards debts incurred before, but
payable after, the law should go into
effect.

This unscientific bimetallism with a
fixed empirical ratio might be a constant
menace to the whole community. For
while the sanction of a legal ratio is able
to overcome small changes in the relative
costs of producing the two metals, it is

A Dangerous Political Issue. 135

powerless when changes are great, and as
soon as it is seen that either gold or sil-
ver coin is likely to command a premium
in any country, it is withdrawn from cir-
culation, and panic commonly results.

Besides this, the fixing or the altering
of the ratio must become a dangerous
political issue unless it be decreed that it
shall be adjusted always upon the basis
of market values.^

From the beginning of civilization gold
and silver have been used about equally
as the money of the world.^

Joint-metallism would continue this be-
neficent parity, and would provide a suffi-
cient metallic basis of money to check the
illegitimate decline in prices of commodi-

• Numerous writers have recognized the fact that there would
be some advantage in a flexible ratio. The following plans
have been proposed : Frequent recoinings at market values
Coins of an amalgam of fluctuating proportions. Gold disks
framed in silver disks of fluctuating thicknesses An agree-
ment among nations generally to join in the V^^-^-'^^^f^^-
ver and in fixing the ratio from time to time, etc. All these
plans present difficulties which my plan entirely avoids

^ Tables on pages 49 and 50 of the Report of the Director
of the Mint for 1893, give the estimated stocks of gold and
silver money in the world amounting to $3,901,900,000 gold,
and $3,931,100,000 silver.

136 Joint- Metallism .

ties which must continue indefinitely
under gold monometallism/

The decline in prices caused by inven-
tions and discoveries is legitimate, and
silver has also been affected by inventions
and discoveries.

The decline in prices caused by re-
ducing the total metallic basis of money
througfh the demonetization of silver is
illegitimate and is working disaster, and
must so work. By making gold alone the
metallic basis of money, the demand for
gold is increased, and thus its market
value is increased at the expense of all
other commodities.

Those in authority naturally prefer
gold monometallism, because it increases

' Sir William H. Houldesworth, in criticism of my book on
joint-metallism, says: "It is ingenious, but the plan he sug-
gests has one objection. If the supply of either of the precious
metals diminished down to the demand in the arts, I do not
see how equal quantities of gold and silver could any longer
be sent to the mint as required. Again, I do not care for the
ratio being determined by proclamation."

Sir William, who was so able and conspicuous a member of
the Royal Commission on Gold and Silver, and of the Brussels
International Monetary Conference of 1892, of course appre-
ciates the fact that when there is not enough gold for joint-
metallism, a fortiori gold monometallism will be impossible.

The People Deceived. 137

the purchasing power of their fixed sala-
ries ; it also increases the purchasing-
power of the Government revenues with-
out nominally increasing taxation. More
iron-clads, forts, and public buildings,
etc., can be built and more soldiers em-
ployed when the revenues are on a gold
basis and commodities at large have de-
clined. The Government also unfairly
profits by the issuing of dishonest silver
coin. The burden of public debt is also
made to appear smaller than it really is.

National debts, like all other debts, can
be paid only by surplus profits. We have
had many statements published showing
great reductions in our national debt,
when in reality it would require more of
our available surplus products to pay the
nominally reduced debt.

A farmer who pays the same tax on
his land when wheat is worth 50 cents as
he did when it was worth $1.00, does not
always comprehend that his taxation has
been practically doubled.

The decline in silver is most injurious
to the United States :

138 yoifit- Metallism.

1. Because we are the largest pro-
ducers of silver.

2. Because we owe more money than
any other people.

3. Because our principal exports are
wheat, cotton, etc., which have to be sold
in competition with India and other coun-
tries whose currency is silver, and where
wages and the prices of commodities used
by laborers remain substantially as they
have been for many years.

Cotton and wheat are sold in England
at gold prices for pounds sterling, and
thus the world's price is determined.

For every pound sterling which a
planter in India receives for cotton or
wheat sent to England, he can now em-
ploy twice as many native laborers as he
could a few years ago, for tJicir wages
reritain the same in silver coin, viz. : one
quarter of a silver rupee per day.

In view of this fact as to the reduced
gold cost of the production of wheat and
cotton in India, owing to the fall in the
value of silver, or appreciation of gold, I
am unable to comprehend how our great-

We/ls and Atkinson Anszuered. 139

est economist, my esteemed friend, the
Hon. David A. Wells, can maintain what
he wrote in his very valuable book on
Recent Economic Changes, p. 232 : "If the
fall in the price of all desirable commodi-
ties has been an evil, as not a few seem
to believe, it cannot be conclusively
proved, in respect to even one article,
that any such fall has been extensively
due to any decline in the value of silver
or any appreciation of gold."

If Mr. Wells's views have been modi-
fied by the course of events since August,
1889, the date of the preface to that book,
it would be of the greatest possible ad-
vantage to have a public expression from
him now.

These facts regarding the fall in prices
of wheat and cotton appear to furnish a
complete answer to Mr. Atkinson's de-
mand for the name of any one article in
which the variation in price since 1873
may not be accounted for without any
regard to the ratio of gold and silver.

If silver continues to decline, much less
wheat and cotton will be cultivated in

1 40 Joint- Metallis77i.

this country, the wages of our agricultural
laborers must fall, and as less of these
will find employment in raising wheat and
cotton, the competition for employment
will become greater in other departments
also, and will result, after a period of
strikes, etc., in a general decline in wages
and a great increase in the burden of
debt, and the more so if that debt has to
be paid in gold.

Gold monometallism, by diminishing
the total metallic basis of currency, and
thus causing a continual decline in every-
thing except gold, tends to transform a
nation of enterprising farmers, traders,
and manufacturers into a nation of wao-e
seekers, with some great money lenders,
speculators, and monopolists. For the
difficulties and losses of productive enter-
prise are increased and destructive specu-
lation is promoted.

Business development requires some
prudent use of credit. But to incur in-
debtedness on a gold basis when the
world's known stock of gfold is less than
one eighth of the world's known debts, is

Danger of Ajiother Pa7iic. 141

to sell crold short when the short interest
is known to be eio^ht times as laro-e as the
total known amount of gold in existence.

We are now in danger of another great
money panic from the withdrawal of gold
from circulation. Under joint-metallism
one money metal could not drive out the
other, for they would have to be pre-
sented together at the mint and would be
available together in payment of debts.

Our natural resources and mechanical
development must give this country the
leading position, even while we may en-
dure much bad fiscal lecjislation. But if
our commerce were relieved from un-
natural restrictions, and our currency
placed upon the sound, honest, perma-
nent, adequate, and scientific basis of joint-
metallism, the final money reserves of the
world (the money that can be loaned at
the lowest rate) would be held here, and
the exchantres of the world drawn in
dollars.

There ought to be a commission ap-
pointed, consisting of two eminent judges
of our highest courts, with, say, David

142 yohit-MetalLism.

A. Wells, Edward Atkinson, General
Walker, President Andrews, and five
eminent financiers and business men, to
be selected by these six, with power to
call for papers and to summon witnesses,
and. authority to prepare and recommend
a plan for such treatment of silver as
would best promote the interests of our
country.

The political positions of members of
Congress generally preclude their useful-
ness upon such a commission.

Questions as to votes to be stained or
lost in a member's or in an office-seeker's
district must be excluded.

The science of money is one of the
most profound, abstruse, and subtle that
has ever engaged the human mind. Only
those who have been trained by special
study, and are accustomed to keep their
understandings open, and to patiently in-
vestigate, and to seek truth as the great-
est good, are fitted to settle the question
of the best treatment of gold and silver as
regards money.

I am confident that such a commission,

A Commission Necessary. 143

as I have suggested, would establish the
real facts of the case to the general satis-
faction. Like the -Royal Commission,
which has accomplished more than had
ever before been done to elucidate the
gold and silver problem, they might. pre-
sent two reports on some points ; but I
think they would agree in recommending
a plan, and, naturally, I think this plan
would be joint-metallism.

To compare large things with small ;
for a long time it was impossible to
arrange for international yacht races,
because of different standards of measure-
ments.

The Enorlish claimed that leneth and
breadth made the proper standard. We
generally claimed that displacement was
the proper standard, and some insisted
that sail area was the proper standard.

I moved in the New York Yacht Club,
February i, 1S83, for a committee to con-
sider the whole subject, and served on this
committee. We had many sessions and
many difficulties and disagreements. But
after thoroughly threshing out the matter,

1 44 Joint- Metallism.

we ao^reed to recommend a joint standard
of measurement consisting of half the
lenofth added to half the square root of
the sail area, with some minor modifica-
tions ; and I presided at the meeting of
the club when this report was adopted,
May 28, 1883.

The joint system of measurement is
now generally approved, although when
it was first talked of many thought it ab-
surdly complicated.

It must be admitted that joint-metallism
is more complicated than either monomet-
allism or bimetallism. The natural course
of development is from the simpler to the
more complex. " Clocks are more com-
plicated than hour-glasses." Civilization
is more complicated than barbarism. Just
legislation is more complicated than

'' The good old rule, the simple plan.
That he should take who has the power,
And he should keep who can."

Mr. Wells and Mr. Atkinson above all
others have adequately studied and set
forth the effects of the increased produc-

Walter Bagehot. 145

tiveness of labor ; but it seems to me they
have not sufficiently considered and ex-
pounded the effects of the increased
" preciousness imparted to gold " by mono-
metallistic legislation.

Walter Bagehot, if living to-day, would
be, I think, a joint-metallist. He wrote
in February, 1877, shortly before he died :

'' As yet no one can prove that the per-
manent value of silver, whether in its
relation to crold or to commodities at
laree, will changre so much as to render
any alteration necessary."

Since 1877 silver has declined from
$1.20 per ounce (the average for that
year) to .63 per ounce, November, 1894,
and the index number of gold prices
of general commodities has declined, ac-
cording to Sauerbeck's tables (45 leading
commodities average per year), from 94
to 65 (to February 28, 1894) ; or, ac-
cordinof to the London Economist' s tables
(22 leading articles January i, 1877, to
January i, 1894), from 88 to 67.

Joint-metallism is strictly a merit sys-

1 46 Joint-Metallism.

tern, based upon equal opportunities for
competition, and upon the limitation of
the arbitrary power of the Executive.
At present the Secretary of the Treasury
has the power to put the country, any
day, upon a silver basis. Under that part
of the act of 1890 which is still in force,
he is authorized to pay out " gold or sil-
ver coin at his discretion."

Civil-Service Reform, Tariff Reform,
and many other reforms are bound up
with this question of monetary reform.

Gold monometallism increases the at-
tractiveness of official salaries, and thus
promotes office-seeking and political cor-
ruption.

Countries on a gold basis cannot trade
freely with countries on a silver basis, un-
less the relative values of the two metals
are controlled and ascertainable by having,
in some great country, a mint open to
both gold and silver at some calculable
and nearly just ratio.

Mr. Samuel Smith, M.P., has ably shown
how gold monometallism is p7^otection to
•* those who enjoy without working at the

Just and Fair to All. i^y

expense of those who work without en-
joying."

Yes ! Monometallists and monopolists
are near akin.

Monometallism works injustice to
debtors.

Bimetallism might be unfair to cred-
itors.

Joint-metallism would be always just
and fair to all.

PART III.

HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE OF

MONEY.

149

HISTORY OF THE SCIENCE OF
MONEY.'

Nicole^ Oresme, the fourteenth cen-
tury college president and political econo-
mist, councillor to Charles V. of France,
and Count Bishop of Lisieux, appears to
have been the founder of the modern

science of money. His Traictie de la pre-

"^ . ~ "

mierfTnventioii des Monnoies was written
abouU L:^66.

Nicolas Copernicus, the great astron-
omer, Canon of Frauenburg, and adviser
of Sigismund I. of Poland, wrote Monete^
Cudende^ Ratio in 1526.

These works are in the Astor Library,
where I found them uncut. They are
not in the Mercantile Library.

M. L. Wolowski, the very able editor
and annotator of the edition of these

' See Preface to Second Edition.
* He signed his name Nicole, not Nicholas.
^ He does not use the diphthong ae in this title.

151

152 yoint-Metallisni.

works published by MM. Guillaumin et
Cie., Paris, 1864, says in \i\?, Avant-Propos \

" Les vues de Copernic sur la monnoie
se rapprochent beaucoup de celles de Ni-
cole Oresme ; ce sont les memes apercus,
sains et vigoureux c'est la meme entente de
I'importance attachee a ce que Tinstrument
des echanges soit maintenu droit de titre
et de poids, c'est le meme jugement porte
sur la nature du pouvoir du prince, en ce
qui concerne le reglement de la valeur
monetaire. Le rapprochement des indica-
tions fournies par ces deux grands esprits
donne lieu a une etude aussi feconde
qu'attrayante."

Sequin's Histoire des Eveques-Comtes de
Lzsieux, published in 1832, says of Nicole
Oresme, " 2)Z^ eveque et 19^ comte." :

" Ce savant eveque, apres avoir fait ses
etudes dans son pays, alia a Paris ; il fut
grand maitre du college de Navarre ; il
. . . etait le plus habile dans les sciences
et les beaux-arts, qui fut dans I'universite
de Paris."

Dubois, Huet, Mezeray, and others
bear similar testimony to the worth of

Oresine and Charles V. 153

this grand liberal bishop of the fourteenth
century, who first translated into French,
the Ethics, Politics, and Economics of Aris-
totle, was commissioned by Charles V. to
translate the Bible into French, wrote
acrainst the Ultramontanes, was unsuccess-
fully accused of heresy,^ and proved him-
self a master of theology, mathematics,
and political economy.^

Our people are so inventive, and have
such confidence in their intuitive ability
to determine any question, that a thorough
study of even_the,_Jbjbliology of such a
science as that of money is generally not
considered necessary for an American law-
maker or economic writer. Even in Eng-
land, writers on the money question
commonly ignore the older continental
writers, and continually speak of the law
that poorer money will drive out better

' On account of the sermon which he preached before Pope
Urbain V. and the College of Cardinals, " Surles dereglements
des princes de I'Eglise."

* Many other illustrious churchmen have highly appreciated
the moral importance of the currency question. In the XIII
Century St. Thomas Aquinas was the foremost writer oa
Political Economy and Currency.

154 Joint- Metallism.

money, as being a great discovery of Sir
Thomas Gresham, the councillor of Queen
Elizabeth, although the councillor of the
French king had plainly written of it 194
years before, and the French Government
had considered and acted upon this very
view/

Henry Dunning Macleod, a most ultra
and intolerant gold monometallist, a vo-
luminous writer on political economics,
etc., and whose ability is vouched for by
many great English law lords, and to
whom Mr. Justice Stephen wrote, " I
should doubt whether any one living had
studied questions of political economy
and the branches of law which relate to it

* Regarding the effects of debased money, Oresme writes :
" et encores, qui est pire chose, les changeurs et banquiers qui
S9avent ou I'or a cours a plus hault pris, chacun en sa figure,
ilz, par secrets cautelles, en diminuent le pays, et I'envoient ou
vendent dehors aux marchans, en recevant d'iceulx autres
pieces d'or, mixtes et de bas aloy, desquelles ilz emplissent le
pays."

Copernicus also stated this law most explicitly as follows :
"Cum autem minime conveniat novam ac bonam monetam
introducere antiqua viliore remanente, quanto hie magis erra-
tum est vetere meliore remanente viliorem novam introducen-
doque non solum infecit antiquam, sed, ut ita dicam, expug-
navit."

Henry Dun7iing Macleod. 155

more thoroughly and successfully than
you," in a book on Bhnetalisni^ lately
published by Longmans, has helped the
discussion of the gold and silver question
by clearly and authoritatively stating the
case of monometallism against bimetallism,
and by a brief analysis of the monetary
writings of Oresme^ and Copernicus, and a
concise summary of some of the coinage
views of Gresham, Petty, Locke, Harris,
Bacon, Newton, Adam Smith, Lord
Liverpool, Steuart, Pole, Herries, Han-
kinson, Peel, Mill, and other great authori-
ties.

■ — 'Macleod says : " All these illustrious
writers, except those who declared for a
single standard, pointed out that the law
must regulate the value of the coins ac-

' He spells thus " Bimetalism," " Monometalism," " Bi-
metalist," "Bimetallic," "Monometallic."

^ Reseller, in German, in 1862, and Wolowski, in French,
in 1S64, had published more important notes on Oresme's
noble treatise, and Wolowski had published, in, 1864 very im-
portant notes on the great treatise of Copernicus.

That these works of Oresme and Copernicus have not been
translated into English is most astonishing when we consider
the wonderful originality and genius they display, and which
no summary can adequately represent.

156 Joint- Metallisin.

cording to the relative market value of
the metals in bullion. This was for a
long time attempted to be done ; but the
attempt was finally abandoned as hope-
less, and it only led to constant disturb-
ances in the coinage."

Jolnt-metallism, when established would
" regulate the value of the coins according
to the market value of the metals " with-
out leading to "disturbances in the coin-
age."

That my plan of joInt-metalllsm^ was not
invented when these great authorities
wrote, does not invalidate it ; other valu-
able discoveries have also been made since
then.

It is interestinof to note how the diffi-
culties which these great political econo-
mists find in maintaining a just bimetal-
lism are avoided by jolnt-metallism, which
is a scientific and honest bimetallism.
Their writings show howstrongly many of

' See page 121. See also page 5, where the plan was stated
in a concrete manner, as was necessary for newspaper jnihlica-
tion, but the details as to the gold coin to he selected for the
standard weight and the periods to be considered, are of course
not essential.

Same Ratio for Coins and Biillio7i. 157

them felt the importance of the general
coinaee and circulation of both metals and
at their relative market values, but that
they failed to hit upon the plan of joint-
metallism, which compels the use of both
together, wiTh ratios always based on their
relative market values, without frequent
recoinings, and prevents one precious
metal from driving out the other.

Of Oresme and Copernicus Macleod
says : " Nicholas Oresme, afterwards
Bishop of Lisieux, who wrote a Treatise
on the Coinage, which may justly be said
to stand at the head of modern economic
literature. . . . But the doctrines
maintained by these two great authori-
ties are absolutely identical. They are
5. That the coins of gold and
silver must bear the same ratio to each
other as the metals in bullion do in the
market : . . . They quite perceived
the impossibility of keeping gold and
silver coins in circulation toq-ether in
unlimited quantities, at a legal ratio
differing from the market ratio of the
metals. . . . It was left to the genius

158 yoint- Metallism.

of Petty and Locke^to discover that the
true remedy for the perpetual confusion
caused by attempting to keep gold and
silver coins in unlimited quantities in cir-
culation together at a legal ratio differing
from the market ratio, was to adopt one
metal only as the standard, and to make
coins of any other metal subsidiary to it,
that the coins should be altered
in their weights from time to time to
meet the alterations in the market value
of the metals. Such a plan is absolutely
impracticable. It would possess no ele-
ment of stability. Every change in the
market value of the metals would require
a fresh callingf in and recoiningr of the
coinage, at an expense and worry which
no country could stand. All other reme-
dies being exhausted, there is no resource
but to adopt Petty and Locke's^plan of
Monometalism."

^"ToT thisT^answer that the true remedy
is to use the two metals on substantially
equal terms according to the plan I have
called joint-metallism.

My book, J oint-Metallism, appears not

' See page I2g.

Roschcr, Wolowski, and Cossa. 1 59

to have been read by Macleod, whose
work was pubHshed two months after
mine. He certainly had no intention of
favoring joint-metalHsm. Indeed he claims
that very little metallic money is required
for use in the world's trade and commerce.

Macleod is the highest juridical author-
ity on forms and uses of credit, and his
very eminence in this department has led
him, I think, to a dangerously exaggerated
estimate of the position of credits as a
basis for currency.

An economist of commanding ability, he
is more juridical than judgmatical, a great
philosophical writer of history, with a pur-
pose, and more an advocate than a judge.

Macleod mentions, in a note, the edi-
tion of the treatises of Oresme and Co-
pernicus published by Guillaumin et Cie.,
Paris, 1864. But he omits to mention
the names of Roscher and \Volo\vski
who had written so" abt)^ thirty years
before him, regarding those grand old
economists. Nor does he mention what
Cossa had written in the Introduction to
the Study of Political Economy ^

' See also Cunningham's Growth of English Industry and
Commerce.

1 60 Joini-Metallism.

After noticing other economists of the
XlVth century, Cossa wrote :

" Last must be mentioned the most re-
markable of them all, Nicholas Oresme,
who died in 1382 as Bishop of Lisieux.
[ ^ He wrote his De origine, natui^a, jure et
^ ] 'inutatioiiibus inofietarwin for his pupil
^ Charles V., and afterwards republished it
. in French. Here is a simple, well-arranged,
and clear summary of the theory of money,
together with a masterly arraignment of
those who were for debasinor coin. Ros-
^ cher, like all the generations of specialists

who had read this brief masterpiece, con-
ceived a high opinion of its merits, and
his commendation led Wolowski to pre-
pare an admirable edition of it in Latin
and French, which was printed in 1864."

Later on in the same work, after notic-
ing a number of writers who had treated
of coinage from different points of view,
Cossa wrote :

" But none of the authors above men-
tioned compare in importance with those
who dealt wTth''the very same problems
from a purely economic point of view.

Aiiticipaies Greshavi s Theorem. i6i

Nicholas Copernicus, the astronomer, in
or about the year 1526, upon the invita-
tion of Kingf Siorjsmund of Poland, wrote
a pamphlet, De monetcu ciidcndce ratione,
which was not published until 1 816, and
was reprinted and translated into French
in 1864 by Wolowski. Copernicus there
explains clearly the functions of money,
condemning all debasement, as well as the
so-called right of dominion {seigneurage)
He shows the harm underlying all these
practices, while he justifies alloy and an-
ticipates Gresham's theorem, strongly
favouring also a concentration and sim-
plification of the uttering of coins ; and
finally he makes a special application of
all his views to the conditions actually
existing in certain Prussian provinces
then under Polish rule."

Macleod prints letters commending his
legal ability, etc., from Lords Hatherley,
Westbury, Selborne, Coleridge, Penzance,
Ardmillan, and Manor, and Lords Chief
Justice Bovill, Cockburn, etc., and no more
stalwart advocate of gold monometallism
could be selected. That Macleod's book

1 6 2 Joint- Met alii sni.

must be greatly to the taste of those who
like their gold monometallism hot, a few
extracts will sufficiently show.

He writes : "They [Bimetallists] never
adduce any real facts and arguments.
They do nothing but pour forth torrents
of frothy rhetoric and declamation, with
abusive epithets on all the solid arguments
upon which monometalism has been
adopted."

" There is not the faintest shadow of
the shade of the ghost of the n"" differential
co-efficient of a pin's point of evidence in
favor of the contention of the Bimetalists.
It is absolutely zero."

If this is so, one is tempted to ask,
" Why do you write a book with the
title ' Bimetalism ' ?" " Why do you not
write a treatise to overturn the ' The-
ory that the Moon is made of Green
Cheese ' ? "

In the following climax, Macleod ap-
peals strongly to such as have " grasped
the great central idea " that whatever is
(in British institutions) is right.

"And ever since then [i8i6,_when

Amenities of Monetary Discussion. 163

England adopted the gold standard],
England has enjoyed the most perfect
system of coinage ever devised by the in-
genuity of man."

Of course it is obvious that a non-
decimal system with ^3 \']s. \o\d. the
ounce of gold is ideal perfection !

I need not undertake to reply to some
of the strong language used by Mr. Mac-
leod against bimetallists, whom he charges
generally with dishonesty and fraud.

We are accustomed to such amenities
in America also. Here gold monometal-
lists commonly say to their opponents :
" You are not necessarily lunatics. You
maybe only undeveloped idiots. But it is
fair to presume that you are rogues."

The problem of the proper relation of
gold and silver to coinage is so important
and so abstruse that it has interested many
of the greatest minds of the last five cen-
turies.^

* We have records showing the use of silver coins more than
4000 years ago.

According to an article in the London Daily Chronicle of
September 25, 1894, Dr. W^alHs Budge has lately added to the
treasures of the British Museum many clay tablets found at

164 Joint- Met alii sni.

Charles The Wise referred the ques-
tion to Oresme, the ablest political econo-
mist of his day, and the greatest of all the
scholastic writers on economics.

Sigismund I. employed Copernicus to
investigate it.

James I. consulted Bacon and Coke
about it.

John Locke discussed it with profound
ability.

The British Government referred it to
Sir Isaac Newton.

And the principal political economists
since then have written about it.

But in our enlightened day any news-
paper writer or cross-roads politician
without knowledge of affairs and unlearned
in even the history of the abstruse science

Sippera and Senkereh, about twenty miles from the site of Ur
of the Chaldees. Among these tablets are the commercial docu-
ments of the firm of Zini-Istar & Sons, who were a large bank-

Ts^ ing and trading firm, and had branches in many towns of

^ Babylonia. The money payments are recorded in silver coin,

mostly shekels, but small amounts were paid in "ring money."

' Some of these records are of the exact date of the Abramic

migration (shortly after the invasion by the Elamites), and
Messrs. Zini-Istar & Sons were probably " Abram's bank-
ers."

Object of Macleod'' s Book. 1 65

of money, is supposed to know all about
it. And a "printer's devil" if asked
whether he could write a review of a
book on money, or go to Congress to
make laws on this subject, would reply
as confidently as did the man who was
asked whether he could play the piano :
"Yes, I suppose so, I never tried."

There is therefore much satisfaction in
havinof to do with so able and well
equipped an advocate as Mr. Macleod,
even when he exhibits prejudice and want
of fairness.

He says the object of his book is "to
supply the Monometalists a concise but
sufficiently full statement of the facts and
arguments upon which their system is
founded, and upon which they must defend
it ; and also to show the Bimetalists the
facts and arguments which they have to
assail, controvert, and overthrow — if they
can — before they are entitled to a Jiearing.'^
The italics are mine.

Bimetallism, so long as the French mint
remained open to both metals, was in gen-
eral use throucfhout the civilized world

1 66 Joint- Metallism.

until 1873. The difficulty with it was
that no plan had been devised to change
the coinage ratio when there was a large
chanee in the market ratio. Gold mono-
metallism is the experiment which is being
tried with such disastrous results. ^

Aeain Mr. Macleod writes : " When
the Bimetalists are called upon to sub-
stantiate their assertions and allegations,
as strictly as they would be in a court of
law, they will find themselves very much in
the case of Shadrack, Mesheck, and Abed-
nego when cast bound into the burning
furnace."

Perhaps no more unfortunate quotation
for his purpose could be found in the
whole Bible, for those Jewish worthies
were put into the burning fiery furnace

' Throughout all Europe the money standard was originally
a pound weight of silver. The name pound, livre, lira, etc.,
has been~Thaintaine(i while the weight of silver in coins has
been greatly reduced by the fraudulent efforts of those in
authority to take advantage of the popular error that the
y^ value of coins depended to a considerable extent on the

stamp. Many writers have exposed this error, but it persists.
The only safe course is to have all money based upon gold and
silver at their relative market values. Joint-metallism shows
how this can be accomplished, honestly and conveniently.

The Golden Idol. 167

because they refused to worship \\\^golde7i^
idol which Nebuchadnezzar had set up,
and it was their adversaries who were
destroyed.

It is remarkable how many of the
choicest weapons of the gold monometal-
lists prove to be boomerangs.

Compare with this the noble use made
by Oresme of the story of Joseph and
the landowners of Egypt and their corn,
and of the fable of Midas.

Oresme lived at a period when general
ignorance regarding " Origine, natura,
jure et mutationibus monetarum" had led
to eeneral disaster. He felt the need of
a thorough study in order to propose a
remedy. Copernicus, in ignorance of
Oresme's work, applied the great powers
of his trained intellect to the same prob-
lem and came to the same conclusions.
Others, among whom were Turgot and
Adam Smith, without knowledge of the
work of either Oresme or Copernicus in
this field, investigated, and likewise found,
that good money is convenient merchan-
dise, the true weight and fineness of

* See page 47.

1 6 8 Joint- Me tall ism .

which are certified to by authority ; and
that the market values of coins must
nearly coincide with the market values of
the bullion they contain.

I add three short quotations, one from
Oresme 528 years ago, in his old-fashioned
spelling, and two from Copernicus 368
years ago, showing the wonderful grasp
these men had of questions which are
perplexing so many among us now.

It will be seen that their original writ-
ings largely sustain much that I have writ-
ten, although, of course, they did not have
joint-metallism in view.

" Le dixiesme chapitre. De la mutacion
es proportion de la Monnoie.

" Proportion de Tor a I'argent. Propor-
tion est une comparaison ou habitude
faicte d'une chose a ung autre, si comme
en proportion de la Monnoie d' or a la
Monnoie d'argent, doit estre certaine
habitude et proportion en valeur et en
pois ; car selon ce que For est de sa nature
plus noble, plus precieux et meilleur de
I'argent et a le trouver et avoir plus diffi-

QiLotations from Orcsmc. 1 69

cile, certes il convient et est bien raison
que le mesme poix d'or doit beaulcopt
plus valoir et estre de plus precieuse
estime, en certaine proportion, de I'argent,
si comme, par aventure, la proportion de
vingt a ung, et ainsi une livre d'or vaul-
droit vingt livres d'argent, ung marc d'or,
vingt marcs d'argent ; et ainsi semblable-
ment du grand au petit ; et aussi est
possible de faire une autre proportion de
vingt-cinq a trois ou autre semblable
evaluacion ; mais toutesfois ceste propor-
tion doit ensuivir le naturel habitude ou
valeur de I'or a I'argent, en preciosite ; et
selon icelle doit estre ceste proportion in-
stituee, laquelle il ne loist voluntairement
transmuer, ne aller contre, ne si ne se
peult justement varier, ce n'est pour
cause raisonnable, et, par la variacion de
celle matiere en partie, laquelle advient
peu souvant/ Si comme, par adventure,

'"Verum tamen ista proportio debet sequi naturalem
habitudinem auri ad argentum in preciositate et secundum hoc
instituenda est hujusmodi proportio. Quam non licet volun-
tarie transmutare, nee potest jam variari, nisi propter causam
realem et variationem ex parte ipsius materia : quK causa raro
contingit." — Latin Text.

I 70 Joint- Metallism.

moins se trouvoit d'or que par avant
I'institution de la monnoie ne se trouvoit,
et lors conviendroit qu'il fut plus chier en
comparaison de Fargent, et qu'il fut mue
en pris et valeur." Oresme (about 1366).
*' Opere precium autem erit quod he
due monete unius sint grani, valoris et
estimationis et vigili cura prematum rei-
publice juxta ordinationem nunc institu-
endam perpetuo perseverent."

Copernicus' (in 1526),

" Superius dictum est aurum et argen-
tum esse basim in qua residet bonitas
monete. Et que de moneta argenti ex-
posita sunt, possunt etiam pro majori
parte ad auream referri. Reliquum est ut
ex transverso auri et argenti commutandi
rationem exponamus. Primum igitur in-
vestigare oportet que sit ratio apprecia-
tionis meri auri ad argentum merum sivi
purum : ut de genere in specie et a simpli-
cibus ad composita descendamus.

Copernicus (in 1526).

The following letter appeared in the
New York Tribune, Nov. 21, 1894.

Secretin y Carlisle s Opinion. 171

" To the Editor of The Tribune :

Sir : In a late letter addressed to Mr.
Shreve, of Virginia, and published to-day,
the Secretary of the Treasury says :

" My opinion Is that whenever the coin-
age value of a metal, whether it be gold
or silver, is greater than the intrinsic or
commercial value of the bullion contained
in it, the coinage of that metal, if it is
coined at all, should be on Government
account only. This is the only way in
which the coinage of the depreciated
metal can be restrained within safe limits,
so as to maintain equality in the purchas-
ing power of the two kinds of coins."

Coinaee on Government account was a
favorite method of defrauding and op-
pressing the peoples of Europe for many
centuries. That the Government should
make a considerable profit on coinage is
the worst of all monetary fallacies. Its
iniquity was exposed by Cassiodorus in
the sixth century, by Oresme in the four-
teenth century, and by Copernicus in the

^:^

1/2 Joint-Metallism.

sixteenth century, and later by Locke,
Newton, Turgot, Adam Smith, Say, and
many other great philosophical writers on
money and coinage.

These great authorities saw clearly that
coin is only a convenient merchandise, the
weight and fineness of which is guaran-
teed by authority. Oresme, the founder
of the modern science of money, asks how
a prince can punish forgers if he cheats
by making a profit on coinage.

Coinage of silver dollars on Government
account would to-day pay a profit of lOO
per cent. Some of the French kings
made it pay a profit of several hundred
per cent. Such profits, however, always
come out of the people, and cannot be
tolerated in any free country.

In my book on joint-metallism, I have
shown that gold and silver coins should
always bear substantially the same ratio
to each other as their bullion values, and
that this ratio can be maintained con-
veniently by having a standard silver coin
the same w^eight as a standard gold coin,
and simply changing when necessary the

Govt Bonds and Legal Tender Money, i 73

number of these silver coins to be the
just and legal equivalent of the gold
coin, and that thus silver can be used
equally with gold by making both together
the metallic basis of a sound, honest, self-
regulating and permanent currency, re-
deemable always half in gold coins and
half in silver coins, and always at the
relative market values of the precious
metals.

It is stated in the newspapers generally
that they have received intimations from
Washington that the Treasury Depart-
ment will discriminate against those who
try to make payment in Government de-
mand notes for the new bonds.

The history of the science of money
shows that it is as impossible for a govern-
ment to be benefited by discriminating
against its own legal tender money as it is
for prosperity to be produced by increas-
ing the public debt in time of peace.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York, Nov. 20, 1894."

This, so far as I know, is the first time

1 74 Joint-Metallism.

the name of Oresme appeared in any
American newspaper or in any Ameri-
can work. It does not even appear in
the Century Cyclopedia of Names, just
issued. My own copy of his treatise
is the only one I ever found here, except
the one in the Astor Library, although I
have often asked for the work, and have
been impressed with the feeling that "the
battle of the standards" would finally be
waged around Oresme's writings.

On the evening of the same day on
which my letter had been printed in that
morning's Tribune, November 21st, 1894,
the Evening Post said editorially :

" It is good to read Prof. Hadley's
protest in the Yale Review against making
an occult science of political economy.
He most justly says of some recent ten-
dencies in economic literature that they
may be part of a science intended to
warm the hearts of antiquarians, dialecti-
cians, or sentimentalists, but are only so
much weariness of the flesh for statesmen
and business men. They take some
psychologic speculation and beat it up

Nineteenth Centuiy Review. i 75

into a world-lather, as Carlyle would say,
stating conclusions in such language that,
as Prof. Hadley says, ' nobody could ever
1' find out, by observation of prices, whether
they were right or wrong.' "

One would naturally expect to find the
Evening- Post encouratrina- most thorouQ^h
study and research. It was by years of
historical study that Locke and Adam
Smith, etc., were able to accomplish what
they did for the science of economics.
In another article on the same page the
Post referred to Macleod as follows :

"We reprint to-day in full, from the
Nineteenth Centtiry Magazine, the most
crushing reply to the bimetallists in brief
compass which, in our opinion, the con-
troversy has called forth, from Mr. Dun-
ning Macleod, the well-known economi-
cal writer. A more trenchant exposure
of the bimetallic fallacies we have never
read, and it is none the less trenchant for
being mainly historical."

Macleod's article fills three and one
half columns of the Post, and is chiefly a

1 ^6 Joint- Metallism.

condensation of his book, lately published,
and to which I have referred above, I
have expressed my opinion of this work
on page 159.

In this article from the London Nine-
teenth Centttry Review for this month,
November, 1894, The Monometalist Creed,
which I would call a Brief rather than
a Creed, it is noticeable that, as in his
late book, Bimetalism, Macleod still omits
to mention even the name of Wolowski,
who, in 1864, had so thoroughly dis-
proved the statement that Sir Thomas
Gresham was entitled to be considered
the o-reat discoverer of what Macleod in
1858 called the Gresham law.

In 1862, Roscher's paper on Oresme's
treatise was presented to the Institute of
France, and Wolowski's etude on Oresme's
treatise was read at the annual meeting
of the Institute. In 1864, Wolowski
printed the original Latin and old French
texts, showing that Oresme and Coper-
nicus Miad understood and declared this
law long before Gresham was born. But

> Bentkovvski published the Monete Cudende Ratio in
1816

Cossas Introduction, Etc. 177

Macleod continued to claim it as Gres-
ham's great discovery.

Thus in his Elements of Baulking, pub-
lished in 1876, Macleod says: " Sir Thomas
Gresham explained the cause, whence we
have called it Gresham Law."

And even in the last edition of his
Theory of Credit, vol. ii., published in
1 890, Macleod says: "Sir Thomas Gresham
first explained the reason to Queen Eliza-
beth, and therefore we have called it
' Gresham Law of the Coinage,' and this
name is now universally recognized."

But in the Enorlish edition of Cossa's
great standard work, published in 1893,
Introduction to tlie Study of Political Econ-
ornyl the facts as stated by Wolowski are
plainly set forth in English, and now in
Macleod's book, published in July, 1894,
and in his magazine article, published this
November, Macleod says that "it ought
to be called the law of Oresme, Copernicus,
and Gresham," but he does not mention
Wolowski's name, although he is plainly
much indebted to Wolowski's very able
work, and to the important notices it con-

^ This work contains a valuable liibliology.

1 7 8 Joint- Metallism.

tains on Oresme, by Roscher and Wo-
lowski.

I cannot recollect that Macleod has
ever mentioned Wolowski, and as Mac-
leod's voluminous works are mostly pub-
lished without indexes, it is difficult to
ascertain. But Macleod's statement in
this month's Nineteenth Century, that the
great treatise of Oresme, " in twenty-six
chapters, has only recently been brought
to the notice of economists," requires to
be modified by stating the fact that this
treatise was most elaborately published
thirty years ago by W. L. Wolowski with
very valuable notes.

Authors of great repute among the gold
monometallists formerly found much fault
with Macleod's "peculiar views," "oppo-
sition to Say and Mill on credit, and to
Ricardo on rent," etc. He was said to be
" at issue with the recognized authorities,
and that, too, on points of the first im-
portance." ^

Luigi Cossa said : " Macleod is a

' See The Readers Guide in Econojnics, etc., edited by
Bowker and lies.

Macleod's Dangerous Theory. 179

learned, acute, but paradoxical writer,
combining good observations on special
questions with dangerous errors and old
sophisms." And in another place Cossa
says : " Macleod has repeated his errors in
voluminous productions and then sum-
marized them in Economics for Beginners!'

There have been many such criticisms.

None in America know better than the
editors of the Evening Post the dangerous
character of much of the teachines of
Macleod and the justness of Cossa's
criticisms.

Macleod's favorite theory is that " credit
is as good as money." He says : " If a
bank can maintain in circulation a quan-
tity of credit in excess of the cash it
holds, that is, for all practical purposes,
an augmentation of the capital of the
country." Mr. Horace White, one of the
editors of the Post and also of the Nation,
once wrote, Macleod " confounds capital
and credit.'!^ —

The author and the translator of Cossa's
above-mentioned work acknowledged their
obligation to the Nation, and Mr. White

1 80 yoint-Metallism.

also had a translation made of Cossa's
work on Taxation and wrote an introduc-
tion and notes for it and copyrighted the
book here.

It is interesting to observe how gold
monometallists now speak of Macleod's
work with unqualified praise. A similar
good fortune has attended Giffen, although
many thoughtful readers must prefer
Giffen, the philosophical writer who ex-
pounded the dangers arising from the
scarcity of gold, to Giffen, the Secretary^
of the Board of Trade, gold monometal-
listic writer on the London Economist, and
a chief clubber of the bimetallists.

[■^ Giffen once wrote : " The fall in prices
in such a general way as to amount to
what is known as a rise in the purchasing
power of gold is generally — I may say
jjniversally — admitted."

Again, in 1879: "An appreciation of
the money of a country forced on by a
government is simply a measure for dis-
abling the productive powers of the peo-
ple, and making them poorer than they
would otherwise be." But this was before

' Head of the Stntistical TieDartment.

Silverphobia. i S i

he wrote The Case against Bimeiallism
and The American Silver Bubble^ etc.

Now I have had for many years the
pleasure of working with my most es-
teemed friends, the editors of the Evening
Post, for Revenue Reform, Civil-Service
Reform, and other good causes, and I
well know they would not willingly permit
their readers to mistake their real estimate
of the general authority of Macleod, and
I hope they will state plainly in their
columns that this famous English cham-
pion of gold monometallism, who is noted
for his fierce attacks on many of the
o-reatest economists, is usually to be read
with caution.

Macleod' s motto sometimes appears to
be " Wherever you see a head, hit," and
it is unfortunately a characteristic of silver-
phobia that the patient will sometimes
attack everything that comes in his way.

The works of these two great writers,
Macleod and Giffen, are very important
and indispensable to every student of the
money question. It would ill become an

' See pages 89, 90, and 91.

1 8 2 yoint-Metallisni.

amateur like myself to claim to rival them
in ability or research.

Besides this I don't object when they
overthrow those unscientific bimetallists
who want a fixed empirical ratio.

Neither do I object to the masterly
manner in which A. J. Balfour and
Archbishop Welsh belabor and over-
throw the gold monometallists.

I say, more power to their elbows,
good luck to their club, golf stick, shil-
lalah, and crosier. The more the mutually
destructive fight wages between the gold
and the silver champions, the more the
way will be prepared for joint-metallism.

In all this discussion, and in all the
efforts put forth by our statesmen, capital-
ists, and great financial newspapers to
maintain the diminishing Government
gold reserve, the one thing that stands
out clearly is the fact that there is not
enough gold to form a sufficient basis for
the currency, commerce, and credits of
the world ; and that if we don't want to
see this country on a silver basis, it is
necessary now to consider some way of

^/ Convenient and Sufficient Basis. 183

using both the precious metals together,
and always at their market values/

I think joint-metallism presents a con-
venient and sufficient basis, and until this
view is shown to be erroneousby facts and
fair arguments, I must continue so to think.

' See page 66, etc., for an account of some dangers of the
present situation.

* PART IV.
THE APOTHEOSIS OF CREDIT.

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED AND

HONEST LEGISLATION

DEMANDED.

185

THE APOTHEOSIS OF CREDIT.

Macleod's favorite theory is that " credit
is as good as money." He says : " If a
bank can maintain in circulation a quan-
tity of credit in excess of the cash it holds,
that is, for all practical purposes, an aug-
mentation of the capital of the country."
And he expresses great admiration for a
system of banking based on the use of
only five per cent, of specie.

His credit theory has just found a
happy illustration in Newfoundland, where
there is to-day general bankruptcy, be-
cause they have little specie although they
have much fish and plenty of notes based
on general assets, etc., a kind of security
highly appreciated by those who favor
the Administration - Baltimore - Canadian
system of currency (which may be called,
for short, the A. B. C. system), and who
will not admit that what is needed is more

specie money and less credit money.

187

1 88 ' yoint-Metallism.

The holder of a Newfoundland bank-
note will be lucky if he can get fish for it,
and then if he wants to buy a newspaper,
he can take a codfish out of his pocket
and put back three mackerels and two
herrinofs received as chano-e.

Some persons, hearing that rich people
get their living by cutting coupons off
Government bonds, come to think that
a people can live upon the interest of
what they owe, and that if the Apostle
Paul were living now he would write,
" Owe all men every^thing," instead of
''Qwfi-Jio'^nanrany But it will not

be easy to convince thoughtful people
that A. and B., by exchanging their prom-
ises to pay, can augment the capital of
the country.

Gold and silver are suitable for money;
fish and other kinds of merchandise are
not. Paper currency based on gold and
silver at their relative market values, is
good currency. If based on fish or other
kinds of merchandise, or on credits, it is
generally bad currency. Credits based
on sales of wheat, cotton, fish, etc., to re-

Canadian Banks, 189

sponsible merchants, are more safe than
credits based on sales of wild lands and
mining stocks to speculators ; and the
great New York banks will never agree
to guarantee the notes of small Western
banks,Jbas£d_largely-on general-assets.

In Canada there are few banks. They
know each other well and have numerous
branches. But to try to introduce_ their
currency system here, where we have 3756
National Banks,^ is unwise.

If It were certainly known in what our
Government bonds were to be paid, there
would be no difficulty in disposing of
them abroad. \,

I t_is.,un reason able to give a creditor the ,
right to choose whether he will be paid in
gold or in silver, at a ratio different from
the market ratio. It is unreasonable to
give a debtor the right to choose whether
he will pay in gold or in silver, at a ratio
different from the market ratio. But to
say that all payments for contracts made
after a certain fixed future date shall be
payable half in one precious metal and
half in the other precious metal, at the

' And as many other banks.

1 QO J oint-Metallism.

market ratio, is just, and this is joint-
metallism.

I have shown elsewhere^ how joint-
metallism presents a convenient, honest,
safe, and permanent basis for currency.
If it were established here, the exchanges
of the world would come to be drawn in
dollars, and the final banking reserves of
the world held in New York.

]V^r._ Carlisle's monstrously ingenious
currency plan combines the objectionable
features of a National Banking Trust and
an Assessment Insurance Company.'

The terrible danger is that it may be
forced through Congress by political
methods and the plea of Treasury neces-
sities, and without^ sufficient intelligent
and thorouo"h discussion.

If, as in the English Parliament, our
head of the Treasury Department had a
seat in the National Leo^islature, and were
obliged, risin g in h is place and in fair and
real debate, to answer the attacks of
educated economists upon his plan, he
would soon_l3e out of office.

If, in a time of peace, we establish a

' See page 121 ; also page 5.

Secretary Carlisle s Flan. 191

permanent system of Government credit
money, such as that proposed by the
Secretary of the Treasury, it may tem-
porarily benefit some banks and specu-
lators, and facilitate some reorganization
schemes, and enable promoters to dispose
of their holdings, but it will make it im-
possible for this country to attain the
paramount position which our population
and developed resources entitle us to as-
sume in the near future.

It is perhaps, too much to expect that
all who take part in the legislation upon
our currency should be great economists
or learned historians. But it may reason-
ably be expected that they should know
the difference between Bullion and Billon,
and at least be acquainted with past
American monetary experiments.

I see that the debate on the new Cur-
rency Bill in the House of Representa-
tives is to be adjourned over Thursday^ of
this week, for the reception of the statue
of Daniel Webster, etc.

At that grand function it would be most

'Originally printed in the World of December iS, and the
Tribune of December 2o, 1894.

192 Joint- Metallism.

appropriate to read Webster's words of
warning, as follows :

f"! am certainly of opinion that gold
an3~ silver, at rates fixed by Congress,
constitute the lesfal standard of values in
this country, and that neither Congress
nor any State has authority to establish
any other standard or to displace this
standardTH No man ever expressed his
appreci"S^tTon of the real use of credit
more strongly than he. But Daniel Web-
ster opposed legal-tender credit money.

We are soon to have a ofreatcetebration
of the 250th Anniversary of the Capture
of Louisbourg. As our Society of the
Colonial Wars has done me the honor to
appoint me on the Committee for the
memorial, I call to mind, among other
thinofs, that this first grreat outside adven-
ture of the American Colonies was the
cause of our first large experiment in
credit currency. It led Massachusetts to
^, issue two and a half million pounds of

credit money which soon fell tojnne^^r
-cgnt^of its nominal value, and the State
was only saved from financial ruin by the

Massachusetts, the ''Silver Colony.'' 193

English ransom of Louisbourg from the
Colonies, and by the wisdom of Governor
Hutchinson, who secured for his State,
payment from England, mostly in silver dol-
lars, so that Massachusetts became known
as the "Silver Colony," while the neiirh-
boring Colonies kept their depreciated
currency, and lost their trade, which was
transferred to Massachusetts. Newport
then rapidly declined in importance, while
the supremacy of Salem and Boston was
established.

Tf~~Gur people could only grasp the
situation, they would see that we have the
greatest opportunity ever offered to any
country to control the finances of the
world. It is not by locking up and per-
manently maintaining thirty per cent, of
our pernicious greenbacks, to promote the
issue of three times as large an amount
of paper currency, the volume of which
would be more than eit^ht times as o^reat
as the gold on which it would be based
finally. It is not thus that we can solve
our currency question and the world's
^old and silver question. But we can

1 94 J oint-Metallism.

solve these problems by jolnt-metallism, a
plan^ by which gold and silver together,
at ratios always based on their relative
market values, may be made the metallic
basis of a sound,^ honest, self-regulating,
and permanent currency, without frequent
recoinings, and without danger of one
metal driving out the other.

^ * See page 121. ■*^

'^ Daniel Webster said in tlie Senate, March 18, 1854 : " I
\ hold the immediate convertibility of bank notes into specie to
• be an indispensable security to their retaining their value."
t

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, AND

HONEST LEGISLATION

DEMANDED.

195

OBJECTIONS ANSWERED, AND

HONEST LEGISLATION

DEMANDED.

Criticisms of jolnt-metallism have been
mostly favorable, but some objections have
been raised.

All the principal objections seem to be
comprised in the following two :

1. That under joint-metallism the mint
ratio might have to be changed often.

2. That under joint-metallism the final
standard would still be gold.

The reply to the first objection is that
the ratio would not have to be chano-ed
often, because the world's stocks of the
precious metals being the accumulation of
many centuries, any change in their rela-
tive production for a few years, e. g. four
times as much gold as silver in value, or
four times as much silver as gold in value,
makes little difference in the total pro-

197

198 Joint-Metallisfn.

portion of gold to silver in the world's
stocks.^

As Adam Smith pointed out 118 years
aeo, their " durableness is the foundation
of this extraordinary steadiness in price."

When once joint-metallism has been
established and the economic ratio has
been determined, /. e. the relative costs of
production in the poorest mines of gold
and of silver that can be worked at a
profit, then, so long as it is known that
both precious metals will have substantially
free access to a mint, in some great coun-
try, the ratio of their market values is not
likely to change for years,^ and may not
change for centuries, and, as I have more
fully explained on page 127, joint-metal-
lism, in still other ways, promotes steadi-
ness in the ratio, as, for example, by the
provision that, at the mint, gold and silver
must be presented together in quantities
of equal value.

But whenever it is found that, for a
long period of time, the mint ratio is very

' See page S8.

' See pages 6, 131-133.

The Principle of J oint-Metallism. 199

different from the relative costs of pro-
duction, and if it be known that no provi-
sion exists to correct this, and that one
metal is in danger of being demonetized,
and thus the chief demand for it abolished,
then there will ensue great fluctuations in
the value of that precious metal as com-
pared with the other ; and speculation will
come to deal with estimates and opinions
and conjectures as to whether a mint will
again be open to it, and when and at
what ratio, etc.

It is precisely this condition that has
existed since 1873, and which could not
exist under joint-metallism.

In reply to the second objection :

For the sake of convenient statement
and illustration, I have commonly spoken
of the ratio as being so many silver
standard coins to equal one gold standard
coin of same weight, and of changing,
when necessary, the number of silver
standard coins to equal the gold standard
coin.

But the principle of joint-metallism is
to have all debts, contracted after a cer-

200 Joint-Mctamsm.

tain fixed future date, payable half in gold
and half in silver, /. e. in equal proportions
of value of each precious metal, or in joint
legal-tender certificates for such equal
proportions ; and a joint-metallic system
mio-ht be so arranged that the silver
standard coin would be more exactly as
much the final standard as the gold
standard coin. But this would be com-
plicated, and a discussion of anything like
compound ratios would be difficult in a
popular treatise, and the form of joint-
metallism herein set forth is sufficient for
practical purposes, for so long as the Gov-
ernment ratio is kept at approximately
the market ratio, and while there is an
existing provision for changing the Gov-
ernment ratio when necessary, it will not
frequently have to be changed/

Supposing the principle of joint-metal-
lism to be adopted this winter or next
spring, to go into effect January i, 1896,
the result would be as follows :

Silver would advance in value until the
true economic ratio would be reached as

' See page 127.

Legal- Tender Joint Ccrtifcates. 20 r

nearly as could be generally estimated
with the knowledge that both precious
metals were about to have substantially
equal access to our mints. So by January
I, 1S96, or soon thereafter, the relative
market values of gold and silver would
become settled, and the Government ratio
would then probably not change for many
years.

It is also to be remembered that while
the law would provide for payment in
gold standards and silver standards jointly,
the actual transactions would be in legal-
tender joint certificates. The buyer or
seller would not be affected to any con-
siderable extent by any change in the
ratio, except that the security pledged
for the Government legal-tender joint
certificates might possibly be affected to
the extent of about one and one half per
cent.^ at any time of altering ratio, but
this is too remote to have any practical
bearing on the question so far as the
buyer and seller are concerned. The Gov-
ernment would assume a small risk for

' See page 6.

202 y ohit-Metallism.

which the minting charge (seigneurage)
might be made to pay.^

It is also to be noted ^ that joint-metal-
lism permits the continued use of dollars
and cents as the terms to be used in con-
tracts and in accounts, and permits the
continued use of our present subsidiary
coins.

Silver standard coins need not be used
at all as small change, although they might
be so used conveniently, in some circum-
stances, as, for example, in case the gold
standard coin should be the $5 gold
piece, and the ratio should become fixed
at I to 20, the silver standard would be
worth exactly 25 cents, or at i to 25, it
would be 20 cents, at i to 30, one sixth of
a dollar, or at 3 to 100, 15 cents, etc.,
etc.

It is probable that by January i, 1896,
or soon thereafter, other nations would
follow our example and open their mints
to silver on a similar basis.

^ See pages 7 and 123. In Australia the Government makes
a profit out of permanently guaranteeing land titles for a charge
of one eighth per cent.

^ See page 122.

Faying off Government Debt. 203

I do not feel called upon to refute some
objections which show plainly that the
writers have not carefully considered what
I have fully explained in preceding pages.
As to those who object that joint-metal-
lism is bimetallism, I must refer them to
pages 118, 121, 125, 134, 147, etc.

I do not attempt to deny that I am a
bullionist in the sense of holdine that all
Government money should be coin, or
readily convertible into coin.

The enormous business, finances, and
credit of England are on a bullionist basis,
for the uncovered Bank of England notes,
limited to ;^i 5,000,000, are comparatively
inconsiderable.

The United States have set an example
to the world in paying off a large part of
a Government debt.^ This was a prepay-
ment. If we paid off the greenbacks,
which are a demand debt, we could place
our finances in a position which no other
nation could attain.

Now that w^e can export largely iron
and other manufactures, as well as grain,

1 See page 137.

204 y oini-Metallisf}i.

cotton, and other produce, we have the
opportunity to take the foremost financial
position, with all the advantage and profit
which this implies.

But to accomplish this our national
money must be based strictly on the only
possible sound and sufficient basis, the
two precious metals together, limited by
the quantities in existence and the costs
of production.

Credit can then have its full legitimate
development.

But credit money cannot be suitable
money with which to do the world's busi-
ness.

Joint-metallism would be most suitable
for the world's business, aud contracts
under it would be more safe as well as
more just.

Mr. Carlisle came to New York and
declared for sound money — specie or paper
based on specie, — a just and true measure
of value, etc. His words are quoted on
page 84. But as soon as he had induced
New York bankers to take his bonds, he
declares for credit money. Under the

Honesty in Poll, ics and Legislation. 205

plea of war necessity, our people have
acquiesced in Government credit money,
as a temporary expedient. Mr. Carlisle's
distinct purpose is, now, to make credit
money a permanent institution.

Momentous results now hang upon the
decision of Congrress and of a President
elected upon the distinct pledge contained
in his letter of acceptance dated Septem-
ber 28, 1892, as follows :

" Every dollar put into the hands of the
people should be of the same intrinsic
value or purchasing power. With this
condition absolutely guaranteed, both gold
and silver caii be utilised upon equal terms
in the adjustment of our currency."

The last Democratic National Con-
vention declared : " We hold to the use
of botJi o-old and silver as the standard
money of the country, and to the coiiiage
of both without discriminatio7i against
either metal" etc.^ ; and the last Repub-
lican National Convention demanded ''the
use of both gold and silver as standard
money."

• See page 8i.

2o6 y oint-Metallism.

So late as March 29, 1894, President
Cleveland said in a Message to Con-
gress :

" I hope a way will present itself in the
near future for the adjustment of our
monetary affairs in such a comprehensive
and conservative manner as will afford to
silver" its proper place in our currency''

Honesty in politics and in legislation de-
mands that the foregoing distinct, formal,
and solemn pledges be carried out, and
that a Bill be passed by Congress and
signed by the President to 7Ltilize gold
and silver tipon substatitially eqnal terms
as standard money.

If they cannot agree upon a Bill for this
purpose it is their bounden duty to ap-
point a commission of competent experts
to investigate and to recommend a plan.

PART V.

SARATOGA FREE-COINAGE
DEBATE.

LETTERS TO "SPRINGFIELD
REPUBLICAN."

AFTER THE ELECTION, WHAT?

207

EXTRACTS FROM THE DEBATE ON
FREE COINAGE OF SILVER, BE-
FORE THE AMERICAN SOCIAL
SCIENCE ASSOCIATION AT SARA-
TOGA, SEPTEMBER 6, 1895.

From the Introductory Remarks by the Secretary of
the Finance Dcpai-tment, Professor y. W. Jenks.

. . The silver question has become the im-
portant topic of the day, and is likely to be the most
important question of the next political campaign.
It has been thought best, therefore, to have the mat-
ter talked out to-day before the Association by
some of the best authorities on both sides that the
country affords ; and the debaters have agreed to
let the question take the specific form :

Resolved, That the United States should provide, by
law, for free coinage of silver at the ratio of J 6 to i
with gold.

From Address of Hon. A. y . Warner.

. . . Twenty-five years ago there were not
forty millions of people out of the entire popula-
tion of the world using gold exclusively as money :

20Q

2IO J oint- Metallism.

to-day there are more than three hundred million
such people.

. . . In 1869 Mr. David A. Wells made a re-
port for 1868, stating our debt abroad — I do not
mean the government debt alone — at $1,500,000,-
000. Professor Cairnes, a few years later, put our
debt to England alone at ;!^3oo, 000,000 (which was
about the same thing), and the average interest, divi-
dends, etc., including what was then spent abroad by
travellers, at $175,000,000 a year. If we start with
that, and add the annual interest that we are now
to pay, and what has probably been expended by
travellers abroad, and for the carrying trade, and
deduct the balances in our favor from those against
us, we should find that our debt to-day is more
than $5,000,000,000. Upon that we have the
authority of Professor Thorold Rogers. We have
this statement direct from him, as well as from Mr.
Gladstone, — that the investments of England alone
in other countries are more than $10,000,000,000.
Certainly 40 per cent, of that is invested in the
United States. Mr. Heidelbach, one of the large
exporters of gold from New York, in the February
Forum placed our annual dues abroad at $350,-
000,000 — $75,000,000 as interest, $75,000,000 as
dividends, $100,000,000 expended by travellers,
and $100,000,000 in the carrying trade. . . .

From Remarks of Hon. J^osia/i Patterson.

. . . The silver dollar stands on a somewhat
different footing. It is coined money. It is not

Sa7'atoga Free- Co mage Debate. 2 1 1

the promise of the government to pay anything.
But the coinage is limited. It is denied free and
unlimited coinage, and is in no sense standard
money. The government of the United Sates
collects annually about ^350,000,000 in the way of
revenue. These silver dollars are a full legal
tender for all those revenues. Consequently, every
silver dollar now coined can find its way into the
Treasury of the United States at least once every
year. As long as the government receives, there-
fore, these silver dollars into its Treasury on an
equality and on a parity with gold, and pays gold
on its own obligations, it follows, as night follows
the day, that the parity is maintained between gold
and silver. . .

From Remarks of J^oseph Sheldon, Esq.

. . . Ours was originally a government of
law, and not of arbitary power in the hands of any
President or Secretary of the Treasury. Till very
recent times parties dealing with the government
have been subject to the wholesome rule that they
must take notice of the limitation of the powers of
those assuming to act in behalf of the government.
That rule must be restored, and must be inflexibly
maintained.

The public faith has never been pledged to pay
the obligations of the government in gold coin.
Not a statute exists that by any possible legal con-
struction supports that claim. Not a statute exists
in regard to any form of the public debt or in re-

212 Joint-Metallism.

gard to the coinage of silver dollars that does not
positively show that this claim is utterly without
foundation. . .

From Address of Hoti. Ro swell G. Horr.

. . . To-day gold is the money of the civi-
lized world simply because it is the best substance
known to the human race for the large transactions
of the civilized world, and for no other reason.

Of course, I dispute from begining to end the
whole doctrine of the last speaker about the quan-
tity of money governing prices. I cannot stop to
argue such a proposition as that, but will simply
say it is the worst humbug of this age of humbugs.
What the people need is good money ; and, when
you have good money, you cannot get too much of
it. If you resort to poor money, you cannot have
too little of it. . . .

From Retnarks of A. B. Woodford, Esq.

. . That then will produce the equilibrium.
That movement of poor gold mines going out and
poor silver mines coming in will produce it. Now
the question arises, can an act of Congress achieve
that ? One group of economists maintain that
bimetallism is a scientific impossibility. They
insist that the government cannot give value to a
commodity. I submit that it can by giving a new
market. . . .

Saratoga Free-Coinage Debate. 213

From Remarks of Senator Higgins.

. . . The disparity of the metals operates as
a tariff against the silver-using countries' imports,
and a bounty upon the India exports to gold-
using countries. . . ,

I believe there is no solution of this question
except by giving back to silver its imperial and
royal function as a money metal of full debt-pay-
ing power. But I want my friends to restrain their
enthusiasm when I couple that proposition with the
other one, which I lay down with equal emphasis,
that never can be done until all the world comes
into a bimetallic agreement ; and that is until Eng-
land agrees. That is where I stand. I do not
believe anything else is bimetallism. . . .

I do not expect to see prosperity while the
disparity of metals continues. . . .

From Remarks of Anson F helps Stokes.

I am opposed to the coinage of silver at 16 to i.
I am opposed to it, not because I believe in gold
monometallism. I am equally opposed to that. I
believe there is a solution of this whole difficulty
which reasonable men in time may come to ; and
that is the free coinage, on substantially equal
terms, of both gold and silver, in quantities of
equal value, at the ratio of their market values.
. . . This would work no injury to any just
interest.

I would have the silver in new silver standard

2 1 4 yoiiit-Metallism.

coins to be equal in weight to the gold in the gold
standard coins ; and I would open the mint to the
free coinage of both gold and silver, when pre-
sented together in quantities of equal value of
each metal, according to the government ratio of
the time, which should be based always on the
market ratio, and change only when the market
ratio changed as much as one integer, — e.g., from,
say, 25 to I to 24 to i, or from 29 to i to 30 to i.
The true economic ratio would thus soon be
arrived at, and would very seldom change ; and
any change would not make recoinage necessary.

I would have a currency so based, half on gold
and half on silver, legal tender for the payments
of debts contracted after a date some months later
than the passage of the act. . , .

The officers of the Association were kind enough
to invite me some time ago to take part in this
debate, and I then felt that the controversy had
got to go on for some time under conditions un-
favorable to any attempt at arrangement between
the gold and silver parties, and that the time for
compromise must be deferred.

To-day I am much encouraged to think that this
time is more nearly approaching. I feel that those
who have spoken here for gold monometallism are
willing to have a larger use of silver, if it can be
had safely and honestly, and those who have
spoken for silver are willing that we should try 16
to I, and then, if it does not succeed, to have a
different ratio. My proposition is that the United

Saratoga Free- CoUiage Debate. 2 1 5

States should decide to begin at a fixed future date
to coin both metals, when presented together in
quantities of equal value, and at the market ratio
of the time when this new coinage begins, and to
change the ratio when necessary.

The great thing that we have to consider now is
the danger of the position in which we are at the
present moment. That, it seems to me, has been
lost sight of in this debate, except by the gentle-
man who has just spoken, and whose remarks I
have listened to with the greatest interest. It is
that to which we should address ourselves,— that
position, which is degrading to our gold-using
countries, making it impossible for them to com-
pete with silver-using countries.

General prosperity in our country depends
largely upon the prices obtainable for our chief
exportable staples. The fall in these is directly
caused by the demonetization of silver, because
for every pound sterling which a planter in India,
■etc. receives for cotton or wheat sold in England,
he can now employ twice as many native laborers
as he could a few years ago, for their wages remain
the same in silver coin.

That is what we come to in the end. What is
our position at the present moment ? We are hav-
ing to pay abroad $1,000,000 per day, and we can-
not go on doing it unless we can export much more
surplus products. We are getting less into condi-
tion to do this than we have been. The danger is
that there is an appearance of prosperity which

2 1 6 yoint-Metallism.

has been brought about during the last few months
by the operations of speculation in sterling ex-
change. The American people have got hold of
some money, and think they are going to have a
good time.

In reply to his invitation, I wrote to our Secre-
tary, July 27th :

" The times are not propitious for moderate
views or for efforts for accommodation between the
partisans of gold and the partisans of silver. The
artificial appearance of prosperity produced by the
gold which government has borrowed at an exor-
bitant rate has intoxicated the people, who now
expect to be saved by getting deeper in debt, and
are unwilling to be reminded of the day of reck-
oning.

" So I must wait to appeal to Philip sober, as he
will be when gold exports commence again in
earnest after the government's partnership in ex-
change speculation comes to an end. In this part-
nership the government put in its credit and the
good-will of the business, and the other partners
contributed experience."

. . It is well known that the bonds sold
abroad are for the most part coming back. It is
well known that we can, if we are willing to remain
in such a dependent condition, go on for some years
in that way, with frequent issues of government
bonds. But, unless we can get into a position to
export more of our surplus products, we cannot
reduce our foreign debt nor get out of danger.

Saratoga Free- Coinage Debate. 2 1 7

Our greatest danger is our greenback currency,
which is at least twice as dishonest as our silver
currency, for there is more than half a dollar of
real value behind each silver dollar or silver-dollar
note.

I have enjoyed this debate very much indeed,
although I do not agree with either side. I do
hope that we shall not think only of the simple
proposition of 16 to i, but that we will think of the
greater proposition of putting our currency on a
safe basis. If credit money is good money, then
fiat money is the best money, because the govern-
ment's credit is the best credit. What we want is
more real money and less credit money. What we
want is that no dollar shall be issued that does not
have a specie dollar behind it. As the human
character is constituted, we shall never have any
safety except on that basis.

PROPOSED CURRENCY PLANK.

To the Editor of the ''Springfield Republican " ' ;

Sir : How would the following do for a Demo-
cratic currency plank ?

The Democratic party asserts again its historic
belief in hard money — gold and silver freely coined
at a ratio regulated by Congress — the only legal
tender contemplated by the Constitution" — and de-
mands that the greenbacks and paper money based
on bonds and issued for the benefit of banks and
speculators shall be replaced by coin and coin
certificates of deposit, and that in this country
nothing shall be money that does not honestly
represent labor.

The Democratic party, which has always opposed
monopolies, denounces the gold monopoly as the
most oppressive of all.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

Lenox, Mass., June 26, 1896.

' This letter and the following letters were printed in a
number of newspapers.

^ Constitution of the United States, Article i, Section viii,
Paragraph 5. See page 80.

218

THE BIRDS AND THE FARMERS.

To the Editor of the ''Republican " :

Most of the political platforms are claiming to
favor bimetallism. Some demand it now, others
want us to wait until European nations help us to
attain it.

This brinsjs to mind the old fable of the mother
bird telling her young that they must leave soon
their nest in the wheat fields, as it was time for
harvest. The little birds said : " Mother, we over-
heard the farmer tell his sons to go and ask his
neighbors and friends to come and help him reap
to-morrow." The mother bird replied : " There
is no danger yet." The next day the little birds
reported that the farmer had sent for his relations
to come and help him cut the grain. But the
mother bird would not take her little ones away.
The following evening they heard the farmer say
to his sons : " We will come ourselves to-morrow
and reap this field." Then the birds left. " Who
would be free, himself must strike the blow."
AVhen you hear a man say that undoubtedly your
claim is just, but that you had better wait and sell
him some more produce on credit and wait until
he can conveniently pay you and others all together,
you will do well to look out for your own interest.

As a Berkshire farmer I am considering whether
we farmers had better now buy and pay for silver
bricks to be delivered when England adopts bi-
metallism.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

Lenox, June 29, 1896.

219

AS BETWEEN SILVER AND GOLD.

AND AS BETWEEN WEST AND EAST.

ANSON PHELPS STOKES OF NEW YORK AND LENOX
ARGUES FOR A FAIR HEARING, IN GOOD TEMPER,
AND ESPECIALLY SPEAKS FOR SILVER AND THE
WEST.

To the Editor of the ''Republican " :

In these times of angry dispute over an old prob-
lem in economics, it is pleasant to find a leading
journal keeping its head, giving each party a
fair hearing, promoting kindly feeling between the
different sections of our common country and dis-
daining all opportunity to gain popular applause by
abetting partisan strife ; saying ever, respectfully
and firmly : " Sirs, ye are brethren. The Union
is more important than any question of money."

I am glad that such a journal is published near
my summer home, that my first reading of the
news these lovely mornings is not colored and dis-
torted by sensationalism, hatred, and violent ap-
peals to partisan passions.

One of the most serious of the dangers that
threaten our national welfare is the temptation that

220

Letters to '' Sprnigjield Republican^ 221

presents itself to politicians to express extreme
sectional views when selfishly seeking jjartisan
votes. Many also find it easier to call names than
to maintain their cause in fair debate. This spring
I have visited most of the States, and I am ])ain-
fidly impressed by the bitterness of feeling that
abounds, and which, I regret to say, finds such
violent expression in New York and in Massa-
chusetts.

I am convinced that our Western fellow-citizens
have no more dishonest intent in their protest
against the artificial legislative enhancement of
the burden of their debts than have our Eastern
citizens in their mistaken demand for gold mono-
metallism.

Is it fair to say that the debts have been con-
tracted on the present gold basis when these debts
have been generally continuous, because necessa-
rily renewed from time to time in the currency
provided by law ?

Is it fair to say that the debtors knew of and
consented to the demonetization of 1873 ? How
many of the leading business men of the East can
assert truthfully that they knew of and understood
then the momentous meaning of that act, which
was ostensibly an act of 71 sections to regulate de-
tails " relative to the mint, assay offices, and coin-
age, etc." I was a somewhat attentive student of
political economics at that time, and I cannot rec-
ollect that the importance of that act attracted my
attention.

2 2 2 Joint- MetaUism.

When the question was raised a few years later
as to the effect of that act upon the debts of the
country, both Senate and House of Representatives
passed a concurrent resolution declaring that
United States bonds were payable at the option of
the government in silver dollars of 4124- grains,
and the author of that concurrent resolution was
later made a justice of the Supreme Court of the
United States. And afterward Congress elected
to accept a lower price for bonds, rather than give
up this option to pay in silver.' Is it quite fair to
call our western brethren dishonest for saying
what Congress and our leading statesmen and
greatest constitutional lawyers and other most emi-
nent authorities have said ?

The Bible denounces those who " make the
shekel large," and who " make the poor to fail."
Lincoln said : " To contract the volume of money
before the debt is paid is the most heinous crime,"
etc.

Blaine said : " The destruction of silver as money
and establishing gold as the sole unit of value
must have a ruinous effect on all forms of prop-
erty except those investments which yield a fixed
return in money. I believe gold and silver coin
to be the money of the Constitution. No power

' As stated in the New York Evening Post of August 7,
1896 : " Yes, the syndicate of February, 1895, offered to lend
$65,000,000 at 3| per cent, interest if it were payable in
coin ; or at 3 per cent, if payable in 'gold.' The difference to
the government during the time the bonds had to run was over
$16,000,000."

Letters to ''Springfield Republican'' 22

•>

was conferred on Congress to declare either metal
should not be money. Congress has, therefore, in
my judgment, no power to demonetize either. If,
therefore, silver has been demonetized, I am in
favor of remonetizing it. If the coinage has been
prohibited, I am in favor of having it resumed.
I am in favor of having it increased."

Webster said : " I am certainly of opinion that
gold and silver at rates fixed by Congress consti-
tute the legal standard of values in this country,
and that neither Congress nor any State has
authority to establish any other standard or to dis-
place this standard."

McKinley said : " I want the double standard.
I would have gold and silver alike."

Hill said : " I am indignant at the rapacity of
the gold monometallists, so reckless of both science
and of public opinion. The bimetallic coinage is
the demand of a vast majority of the American peo-
ple. No wonder it made us the party of the silver
dollar for eight years. To restore it safely, finally,
and wisely is the mission of the Democratic party.''

Hamilton and Jefferson agreed in saying that
the money unit must rest on both metals.

The Democratic National Convention of 1892
declared : "We hold to the use of both gold and
silver as the standard money of this country, and
to the coinage of both without discrimination
against either metal." The Republican National
Convention of 1892 demanded " the use of both
gold and silver as standard money."

2 24 yoiitt- Metallism.

Cleveland said in his letter of acceptance ;
*' With this condition absolutely guaranteed, both
gold and silver can be utilized upon equal terms
in the adjustment of our currency."

Carlisle said, in the House of Representatives,
February 21, 1878':". . . Mankind will be
fortunate indeed if the annual production of gold
and silver coin shall keep pace with the annual in-
crease of population, commerce, and industry.
According to my view of the subject, the con-
spiracy which seems to have been formed here and
in Europe to destroy by legislation and otherwise
from three sevenths to one half of the metallic
money of the world is the most gigantic crime of
this or any other age.

" The consummation of such a scheme would
ultimately entail more misery upon the human
race than all the wars, pestilences, and famines
that ever occurred in the history of the world.
The absolute and instantaneous destruction of half
the entire movable property of the world, including
houses, ships, railroads, and all other appliances for
carrying on commerce, while it would be felt more
sensibly at the moment, would not produce anything

' "On the Senate amendments to the bill (H. R., No.
1093) to authorize the free coinage of the standard silver dollar,
and to restore its legal-tender character."

The extracts as here presented have been carefully com-
pared with the official report of this speech, as printed in the
Congressional Record, Vol. 7., Part 5., Appendix, page 41.
Second Session XLVth Congress.

Letters to '' Spi ing field Republican" 225

like the prolonged distress and disorganization of
society that must inevitably result from the per-
manent annihilation of one half of the metallic
money in the world. With an ample currency, an
industrious and frugal people will speedily rebuild
their works of internal improvement and repair
losses of property, but no amount of industry or
■economy on the part of the people can create
money. When the government creates it or au-
thorizes it, the citizen may acquire it, but he can
do nothing more.

" I am in favor of every practicable and constitu-
tional measure that will have a tendency to defeat
or retard tlie perpetration of this great crime, and
I am also in favor of every practicable and consti-
tutional measure that will aid us in devising a just
and permanent ratio of value between the two
metals, so that they may circulate side by side and
not alternately drive each other into exile from one
country to another. . . . The struggle now
going on cannot cease, and ought not to cease,
until all the industrial interests of the country are
fully and finally emancipated from the heartless
•domination of syndicates, stock exchanges, and
other great combinations of money grabbers in
this country and in Europe. ..."

It would be easy to multiply such quotations.
Many of them have been published.

I have steadily opposed the i6-to-i idea, and
have always claimed that the ratio should be regu-
lated by Congress at approximately the market ratio

2 26 yoi7it-Metallism.

when both metals should have substantially equal
access to the mint. But this question of ratio is
quite distinct from the question of constitutional
right to have both metals coined at rates regulated
by Congress and available as money in payment of
debts.

Suppose it were found possible by some new test
to distinguish the gold mined in Australia and
Africa from all other gold, and that laws should
be made in Europe and in America excluding from
the mints all Australian and African gold, — would
not this be an injustice to debtors on a gold basis?
Would it not impair that obligation of the contract
which had compelled creditors to accept any gold ?
Would not Australian and African gold decline to
half their former value ? Would not all other gold
greatly increase in value ?

The Constitutional Convention refused to give
Congress the right to print paper money, but did
give it the right to coin money, and the power to
regulate the ratio. It is ultra vires for any political
convention to attempt to fix the ratio. That duty
belongs to Congress. The States agreed to leave
the matter of rates or ratio to the arbitration of
Congress when they adopted the Constitution. Our
present trouble comes from the failure of Congress
to alter the ratio on one of those very rare occa-
sions when an alteration was necessarv to make
the ratio approximately accord with the market
ratio, while both metals had free access to our
mints.

Letters to ' ' Springfield Republicany 227

It would be unfair to take the market ratio for
our government now while one of the precious
metals is demonetized. But if a reasonable future
date were fixed when both metals should be ad-
mitted to free coinage at the then market ratio, no
wrong would be done to any just interest. Massa-
chusetts used to be proud of being called the silver
colony, and strict bullionist views have been held
by many of the most enlightened citizens of this
commonwealth since it became a State in the
Union.

If we will now take the only real sound-money
ground — opposition to all credit money, — and
patiently and fairly contend for this great prin-
ciple, that " money must be an equivalent as well
as a measure," and that nothing should be money
that does not honestly represent labor, the East
may yet lead in carrying the country for this great
reform of the currency as the East has led in other
reform movements.

While most of my interests are in the East, I
have interests in the West, and go there every
year, and I think I know something of the real
feeling there. It is that the East has been more
prosperous than the West, and that in so far as
this inequality springs from adroit legislation in
our favor they intend to have this changed, so
that opportunities, so far as law is concerned, shall
be made equal, that the government shall not give
advantages to manufacturers and bankers that it
does not give to farmers and miners. As I have long

2 28 Joint-Metallism.

pointed out, we are in danger of silver monometal-
lism because we would not listen to reasonable
complaints. The East has pushed the pendulum
so unfairly toward gold monometallism that it has
swung too far the other way.

Let us now do what we can to promote a cam-
paign of education. Let us have a fair debate
between the two champions, McKinley and Bryan.
They are both thoroughly reputable men, while
both the party platforms are faulty. I cannot vote
for McKinley for I am opposed to monopoly, but I
would claim for him a respectful hearing. Bryan
is accused of being young. He may outgrow this
fault. Some of us would like to have half his
complaint.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

Lenox, July 6, 1896.

AFTER THE ELECTION, WHAT?

To the Editor of the ''New York Times " :

Whatever the result, we will still have a goodly-
heritage in the rich land and free institutions of an
honest people devoted to the Union and with much
real mutual respect between the different sections
which are now ignorantly abusing each other.

But the success of either party in the present
election will not bring prosperity. If either of the
platforms be enacted into law, the industries and
business of the people must continue to suffer so
long as either gold or silver monometallism is main-
tained and until we come to use both the precious
metals jointly and at about their relative market
values, to be regulated when our mints shall be
open to both.

The total quantities of gold money and of silver
money in the world have been for many years of
about equal value at the coinage ratio of about
iSi to I.

Thus the last report of the Treasury Department,
July I, 1896, estimates in the approximate stocks
of money in the principal countries of the world :
Gold, $4,068,800,000 ; silver, $4,070,500,000. Add-
ing these together, we get a total of, say, $8,000,-
000,000 as the world's stock of real money.

229

230 Joint- Metallism.

But if the value of the silver money be reduced
to the present market ratio of the metals, the value
of the silver money in the world would be reduced
from, say, $4,000,000,000 to $2,000,000,000, and
the value of the world's stock of real money would
be reduced from $8,000,000,000 to $6,000,000,000.
This gives some idea of the shock which the mone-
tary affairs of the world have received from the
demonetization and further threatened demonetiza-
tion of silver.

Even supposing that the population and trade of
the world should cease to increase, and that the
present production of gold and silver should be
maintained, and that all of it should be coined, it
would require seven years to make up this differ-
ence of $2,000,000,000.

The population, however, must increase, and
much of the present production of gold is specu-
lative, from mines that sell shares but cannot earn
dividends, and a large portion of the product of
the precious metals will continue to be used in the
arts, so that many times seven years would be re-
quired to make up the difference, which can be
made up promptly only by the larger coinage use
of silver, by which use its market value would be
advanced.

It is unfortunate that neither of the great parties
in our country has declared for real honest hard
money and against all credit money, and it is im-
portant that the people should understand this
question and know what hurts them when they

After the Election, What ^ 231

find that the proposed Democratic or Republican
panacea fails to give relief.

I would have the silver in new silver standard
coins to be equal in weight to the gold in the gold
standard coins ; and I would open the mint to the
free coinage of both gold and silver when presented
together in quantities of equal value of each metal,
according to the government ratio of the time,
which should be based always on the market ratio,
and changed only when the market ratio changed
as much as one integer, e. g., from, say, 25 to i to
24 to I, or from 29 to i to 30 to i. The true eco-
nomic ratio would thus soon be arrived at, and
would very seldom change ; and any change would
not make recoinage necessary.

I would have a currency so based, halt on gold
and half on silver, legal tender for the payments of
debts contracted after a date some months later
than the passage of the act.

The Constitution empowers Congress " to coin
money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign
coin, and fix the standard of weights and meas-

232 Joint-Metallism.

ures." These words " coin," " regulate," and " fix ""
are very significant.

The total exchanges of the Clearing Houses of
the United States average nearly ^1,000,000,000
per week ; for the year ending September 30, 1894,
they were $45,028,496,746 ; for the year ending
September 30, 1895, $51,111,591,928.

When we add to this the total amount of trans-
actions that do not go through the Clearing Houses,
how ridiculous it appears that we should hesitate
to replace with specie our $346,000,000 of fiat
money (greenbacks), so dangerous a menace to all
the interests of our country.

The people of this great honest debtor country,
when sufficiently educated by history and experi-
ence, will find that their safety requires the aboli-
tion of all credit money, and they will abolish it
when they realize that credit money restricts
credit, that every dollar of the miserable, dishonest
greenbacks has cost the country an unnecessary
loss of many dollars, and that every dollar of
credit money destroys many dollars of credits.

As human nature is constituted, no popular gov-
ernment can afford to tamper at all with so insidi-
ous and dangerous a stimulant as uncovered paper
money.

A Scotch doctor advised his patient to take a
little whiskey in hot water. " But," said the pa-
tient, " I am a temperance man, and would not like
to have it known that I took liquor." " Well, have
a bottle of whiskey in your room, and ring for

After the Election, What? 233

shaving water." Some days later the doctor called
again, and asked the servant how her master was.
She replied : " He 's better physically, but he 's
gone clean daft, and shaves himself seven times a
day."

Americans are shaving themselves more than

seven times a day.

Anson Phelps Stokes.

New York, September 10, i8q6.

INDEX.

" Abram's BankeiS," 164.

Accusation against bimetallism, 163.

Act of Congress, November i, 1893, 84.

Administration-Baltimore-Canadian system, 187.

After the Election, what?— 229.

Alison's History, 130. .

Amenities of monometallistic argumentation, 162, 103,

American monometallists, 56.

American Social Science Association 209.

Ammunition of the most deadly kind, 33-

Anarch arsis, xvi.

Andrews, President, 121, 142.

Apotheosis of credit, x, 187.

Appendix, 77.

Appreciation of gold, 39, 103, Ibo.

Aquinas, 153.

Argentum, The Goddess, 45, 53-

Aristotle, xvi, I53-

Arts, use of gold in, 87.

As between silver and gold, 220.

Asiatic Journal, 92.

Athenians, xvi.

Atkinson, Edward, 56, I39. M2, I44-

Attempts to persuade, 45-.

Augmentation of capital, ix, 187, ib».

Bacon, xii, I55. 164.

Bad money in old times, xix.

" " rnodern times, xix.
Bagehot, Walter, I45-
Balfour, Arthur James, 131, 182.
Banking and Currency Committee, viii.
Banks, 189, 203.
Basal proposition. The, 29.

235

236 Lidex.

Basis, honest, safe, self-regulating, permanent, 4, 18, 38, 183;

190, 1 04.
Basis, insufficient, 21, 55, 140.

" the only final, 39, 69.
Bible, " a vein for the silver and a place for gold," 25.

" can an Ethiopian change his skin? 65.

" 222.
Bibliology, 177, 178.
Billon, igi.

Bimetallic money, how formed, 121.
Birds and Farmers, 219.
Bitterness, 221.
Blaine, 222.

Bonds (government) 216.
Bonds coming back, 216.
Boston, 193.

" brethren, 31.
Bowker and lies, 178.
Bryan, William J., 228.
Bullion, 90.
Bullionist views, vi.
Business and currency, 9.
" prosperity, 3

Cairnes, Prof., 210.

Candid consideration of competent critics, xx.

Capita, stocks of money (per capita), 108, 109.

Carlisle, Secretary, 73, 84, 171, 224.

Cassiodorus, xii, 171.

Century, beginning of, 66.

Cerealism, Joint-, 70.

Changes in ratio, xix, 5, 6, 22, no, 198.

Changing number instead of recoining, 124, 134, 199.

Charles V, " The Wise," 151, 153.

Checks, 58, 68.

China, 92.

" flying paper currency, 92.
Marco Polo, 92.
Churchmen and coinage, 153.
Clear thinking, 20.
Clearing-house certificates, 8.
Clearing-house exchanges, 232.
Cleveland, President, 74, 79, 224.
hope, 74, 79.

" letter of acceptance, 82,

" message, 79.

hidex. 237

Coinage, 19, 92, 93.

English system, 163.
" on Government account, viii, 137, 171, 172.
Coke, 164.

Colonial currency, 192.
Commercial ratio of gold and silver, no.
Commission, the royal, 94.

" should be appointed, 141, 206.

Commodities steady, money changes, 85
Concurrent resolution, 1 15, 222.
Conference, monetary, 30, 86.
Congress, act of, 84, 204, 205.
Constitutional position of gold and silver, 24, 80.
Constitution of the United States, xviii, 80, 124, 222, 223, 231.
Continued use of dollars and cents, etc., 202.
Continuous debts, 221.
Contracts, future, 5, 38, 54, 118, 125.

Conveniently adjusting changes in market ratio, 124, 183.
Conventions, national, 81, 82.

Copernicus, ix, xii, 151, 152, 154, I55, I57, 164, 168, 177.
Cossa, Luigi, 159, 160, 177, 178, 179. 180.
Cotton, why it declines with silver, xv, 138.
Countries, money used in, 108, 109.
Courtney, Leonard, 104.
Cow in India, 48.

Credit as good as money, ix, 179, 187.
" money, 191, 192, 217.

" cannot permanently supplant money, vii, 131.
Credits, 8, 68, 140.
Criticisms, 17, 66, 197, 217.
Cross-roads politicians, 164.

Cunningham's growth of English trade, etc., 159.
Currency bill, viii, 191.

plank, 218.

must always be convertible, xix, 70, 203.

proper limit of expansion, 8, 24.

gold an insufficient basis, 4, 8, 21, 30, 56-58, 66.

security as to value of, 18, 24, 39.

question in politics, 20, 38, 62.

Dangers of the situation, ix, 66, 68.
Debate at Saratoga, 207.

" envenomed, 20.
Debtor class, 31.
Debts, 4.

" national, 66.

238

Index.

Debts made to appear smaller, 137.

Decimal system, 122.

Decline in silver, 7, 21, 30, 38.

" " values, 4, 21, 30, 38. »

Defects of bimetallism as commonly advocated, 134.
Definition of terms, 121.
Depression in trade, causes of, xvi.
Democratic platform, 81, 117, 205.
Demonetization, 23.
Details, ones that can be varied, vi.
Director of the mint, g2.

Discretion of the Secretary of the Treasury, f 7.
Discussion necessary, 40, 41, 65.
Dubois, 152.

Economic ratio, 7, 198, 200.

Economist, The, 180.

Empirical ratio, 134, 182.

Engineering and Alining yournal, 87,

English Parliament, iqo.

Equal parts of gold and silver, 5, 6, 57, 72, 198,

" power of every dollar, 81, 82.
Equilibrium established by joint-metallism, 127, 133.
Equivalent as well as measure, 125.
Establishment of the mint, 85.

" " a money unit, 85.

Ethiopian, 65.

Etude sur le Traite de la Monnaie, xiii.
Evening Post, 13, 29, 40, 45, 61, 70, 86, 175, 179.

Fish, 188.

Fifth letter on joint-metallism, 65.

Final basis, 4, g, 18. 24, 39, 69, 70, 204.

" report of royal commission, 94-103.

" standard, 197, 200.
First letter on joint-metallism, 3.
Flexible ratio, 135.
Flying paper, 92.
Forum, The. 210.

Four causes of the fall of nations, xviii.
Fourth letter on joint-metallism, 53.
Freight on bullion by value not weight, 131.
French ratio fixed 1803, 128, 131.
Frewen, Moreton, 86.
Future contracts, 5, 38, 54.

Index, 239

General assets, 187.

" prosperity depends, xv«
Germany, 23. o q,

Giffen, Dr. Robert, 73, 74. 85, 87, 89, QO, 91, 180, l8l.
Gladstone, W. E., his frank statement, 69, 210.
Goddess Argentum, 45, 53-
Gold more durable than silver, 131.
" world's stock, 108, 109.
" statistics, 1 05-1 10.
" production, 57, 86-88, 106, 107.
•'- per capita stocks, 108, no.
" probability of increase, 55.
" cost of production, 88.
" standards, 5.

" output and prices, or any other metal, 91.
•' needed for reserve and change, 90.
" supply of, 30, 86, 87, 90. 91.
" and silver, half each, j, 6, 57, 72-
" cannot always be got from abroad, 68.
" reserve, vii, 182.
•' Democrats, 116.
Golden calf, 47-
Goodly heritage, 229.
Government bonds, xx, 173, 188, 189, 203, -lO.

" paper-money should be only ccrtihcates, 20.

" partnership, 216.

" ratio, 7.

Great Britain, 69.
Greenbacks, 193, CI7, 232.
Greer, Rev. David H., facing title-page.
" Gresham Law " known to Oresme and Copernicus, 17O.
Gresham, Sir Thomas, 154, I55, 1/6, I77-

Hadley, Professor, 174-
Hamilton's report, 85, 223.
Hankinson, 155.

Harris, W. T., U. S. Commissioner of Education, facing title-
page, 155-
Harrison, ex-President, 84.
Heidelback, Mr. 210.
Herries, 155.
Hides as clothing, 50.
Higgins, Senator, 213.
Highlander, 65.
Hill, David B., 223.

240 Index.

Historical and just position, 41, 46, 47.

History of money, 151.

Honest legislation demanded, 197, 205,

" money, 230.
Horr, Hon. Roswell G. , 212.
Houldesworth, Sir William H,, 136.
Huet, 152.
Hutchinson, Gov., 192.

Illegitimate decline in prices, 136.
Impending crisis, 141,
Incomes reduced, 4.
Index numbers, 131, 145.
Insurance companies, assets of, 67.
Interest in the West, 227.
International agreement, 7, 81, 83, 128.
Irish peasants, 68.

Jefferson on money unit and coinage, 85, 223.

Jenks, Prof. J. \V., 209.

John, " The Good," xiv.

Joint-cerealism^ 70.

Joint legal-tender certificates, 6-122, 201.

Joint-metallic money, how formed, 121.

Joint-metallism a merit system, 145.

" vs. bimetallism and monometallism, 121, 203.

Klaproth, 92.

Labor the real standard of value, 73, 85.

Latin union, 132.

Laughlin, Prof., 56.

Law, 21.

Leading position of the United States, 141.

Legal tender, only gold and silver, 80.

" joint certificates, 6, 122, 201.

" " opinion, 67.

" ratio, 21.
Legislation, 81, 82.
Letters on joint-metallism, 3, 17, 37, 53, 65.

" to Springfield Republican, 218.
Limit of currency expansion, 8, 9, 18.
Lincoln, President, 55.

Locke, xii, 94, 128, 155, 158, 164, 172, 175.
Locking up gold, 68.

Index • 241

London Statist, 73, Q^-
Lord Liverpool, I55-
Louisbourg, 192.

Macleod, Henry Dunning, viii. ix, 155. I59, i&i. 162, 165.

166, 175. 17S, 179. iSi, 187.

Market values, 5. 21.

Massachusetts Tabular Standard, bO.

McKinley, Q3, 223,^ 228.

Measure of value. 8.

Medium, 72.

Merit system, I45-

Mezarey, 152- ... , ^^o

Mill, John Stuart, viu, 130, Idd, 17»-

Mint, real function of, 20.

" Director of, 56, 93-

'« charges, 7, 19. 121, 123, 201.

Monetary conference, 30, 86.

" experiments, 191.
Monete Cudende Ratio, 151-
Money, a certain potentiality, 20.
paper, preferred, 70.

" half gold, half silver, 3. 2i, 39- 57-

" result of large abstraction of, 90.

:: S:e,„r"t "pi-l'A-i" b. »„., cer.Bca.« of eota.

20, 24, IQI- , , ^^

Monometallic money, how formed, 121.
Monometallist creed, 176-

Napoleon's wars, 132.

^^iS^Sof the United States. I4X.I9X

Near the unseen sources, xvii.

New bimetallism, m.

Newfoundland, 1S8.

Newport, I93-

New silver discussion, I3-

Newton, viii, I55. 1^4, 1/2.

New York Times, 229. „a t^<?

Nineteenth Century Magazine, I75. ^b, I75.

gEiSSnre'iu^^lon increased, .46.

Officials prefer monometallism, ijo.
16

242 Index,

Old writers compared with new, xii.

Opposed to 16 to I idea, 217, 231.

Oresme, ix, xii, 151, 152, 154, 155, 157, 164, 168, 177, 178.

Originality, opposite title-page, m.

Paper currency, vii.
Parity, 75, 79. 81-83.
Parliamentary commission, 38.
Patriotism, the duty of, 20.
Patterson, Hon. Joseph, 210.
Peel, 155.
Pendulum, 75, 228.
People, the, and ethical questions, 54.

" " and business questions, 54, 57.

" " Lincoln's opinion of, 54.
Petty, 155.
Philosophers, xiii.
Pixley & Abell's tables, 88.
Plan, 4, 5, 57, 75. 121, 172.
Platform of the gold democrats, 116.
" democratic, 8r.
" republican, 82.
Pole, 155.

Pohcy of United States, 79-S2, 84.
Polo, Marco, 92.
Pope Urban V., 153.
Popular ignorance, xix.
Potatoes and point, 68.
Potentiality, 20.

Potter, Rt. Rev. H. C, opposite title-page.
Pound weight of silver, 166.
Practical economics, 85.
Preciousness imparted to gold, 145.
Preface to First Edition, xxi.

" " Second Edition, xi.
" Third Edition, vii.
Present silver coins, 18, 201, 202.
President, letter, 82, 204, 206.
" message, vii, 205, 206.

veto, 67.
Prices the expression of a relation, 91.
" Printer's Devil," 165.

Product of gold and silver, 88, 105, 106, 107, iii, 112, 131,
Production in quantities sufficient for currency, 8.
Proposed coinage plank, 21S.
Protection, 146.

Index, 243

Quantity theory, 212.
Question is how to remonetize silver, 21.
" old economic, 220.

Railway bonds, 66.

" receivers, 66.
Railways, 66.
Ratio, would become settled, iS, 118, 123, 127, 198, 201.

" would not change frequently, 6, 23, 127.

" economic, 7, 19S.

" would become a dangerous political issue, unless based
on market values, 135.
Recoinage, how avoided, 134.
Recoining subsidiary silver, 123.
Reforms dependent on monetary reform, 146.
Relative values, 88.
Remonetization, 21.
Republican platform, 82, 93, 206.
Reserve, gold, 67.

" Government gold, 182.
Results to come from continued decline in silver, 140.
Revival of silver question, 13, 40.
Ricardo, 94, 178.
Rivarol, viii.
Rochussen, 23.
Rogers, Prof. Thorold, 210.
Roman Empire, cause of its fall, 130.
Roscher, Guillaume, xiii, xvii, 155, 17S.
Royal commission on gold and silver, 38, 94, 143.

Safety in specie money only, 217.

Salem, 193.

Saratoga address, 213.

Saratoga debate, 207.

Say, viii, 172, 178.

Science of money, 142, 151.

Scotch doctor, 232.

Second letter on joint-metallism, 17.

Secretary of the Treasury, vii, 146, 171, 191, 204.

Seigniorage, 7, 121, 123, 201.

Selling gold short, 4.

Sequin's Histoire des Eveques Conites de Lisiettx, 1 52.

Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, 166.

Shaving, 233.

Shekel, 222.

244 Index.

Sheldon, Joseph, 210.

Sherman law, 40, 6r.

Shock to monetary affairs, 230.

Sigismund I., 164.

"Silver Colony," The, 193.

Silver countries, wages in, xv, 138.

" dollar stocks, where, 70, 123.

" lunatics, 13, 40, 41.

" " standards," 5, 231.
Silverphobia, 181.
Sirs, ye are brethren, 220.
Sixteen to one, 217, 231.
Smith, Adam, viii, 155, 172, 175.

Samuel, M.P., 146.
Soetbeer, Dr. A., 56, 87, 88.
Special study and training necessary, xii, 163. .
Speculation in sterling exchange, 216,
Sperry. Hon. Lewis, 56.
Sprijigjield Republican, 218.
Standard, the constitutional, 24.

" vs. medium, 71.

Standards, battle of the, 112, 174.
Statistics, 105-114.
Steuart, 155.
St. Augustine, xii.
Stocks of money, 108, 109, 229.
Study, 25, 26, 39.
Supply and demand, 128.
Supreme Court, 67.

Tables, 56, 105, 106, 107, 108, log, no.

Tabular standard, 86.

Taxes practically doubled, 137.

" made to appear lighter, 137.
Third letter on jomt-metallism, 37.
Those who enjoy without working, 146.
Those who work without enjoying, 147.
Thousand standard pieces, 5, 18, 70.
Times not propitious, 216.
Tithes, 6q.

Traictie de la premiere Invention des Monnoies, 151,
Transformation of character of citizens, 140.
Treasury Department Circular, 115, 229.
Treaty, 22.

Tribune, The, 170, 174.
Turgot, 167, 172.

Index. -45

Two kinds of gold, 226.

Typographical errors, preface to first edition, p. xxi.

Union more than money, 220.

United States could act alone, 7. 21, 12S.

United States have the largest interest in silver, 15S.

Unscientific bimetallism, 134.

Value, the real standard of, S5.

Value of silver in silver dollar, 113.

Variations in market would not necessitate recoinage, 134.

Veto, the President's, 67.

Visit to West, 227.

Wages in silver countries, xv, 13S.

Walker. Gen. Francis A., 13, 142.

Walsh. Archbishop, 1S2.

Warner, Hon. A. I., 209,

Wav, 3S, 75.

Webster. Daniel, 24, 192, 194. 223.

Wells, David A., 56, 73, S5, 139. U2, I44. 210.

Western interests. 227.

Wheat, why it declines with silver, xv, 13S.

Whiskey and hot water, 232.

White. Horace, 41, I79-

Wolowski, L., xiii, 151, 155. 177. 17S.

Woodford, A. B., 212.

World's business. 203, 204.

" Fair address, 41.

" stocks of gold and silver, 12", 131, 197.

Yacht measurement by joint standard, 143.
Yes. I suppose so, I never tried, 165.

COMMENTS.

Boston, Mav 22, 1S04-

. . . I have read your several papers -vrith mucii inter-
est, and am ^ad to have them and tliis new matter in such a
convenient and attractive form.

(Signed) Francis A. Walkxs..

. . . I have read it vrith much interest as a + contribution
to better knowledge upon the subject of monev, a subject, how-
ever, which not very many will ever understand nor ever need
to, unless they stand in the way of those who do.

Not doubting of the need of the money use of the two pre-
cious meials, I am glad to count you on that side.

(Signed) Wm. M. Ev.\kt;.

So. Kensington, 2 June, '94.

. . . It is certainly a much more honest system of bi-
metallism than the schemes already propounded, but as I dis-
believe in any system of international legal tender, and doubt
the ordinary" meaning given by bimetallists to the appreciation
of gold, my mind was not a fertile soil for the seed sown by

your book.

(Signed) Piayfair.

TiUNiTY College, Dublin, June 2.
. . . The state of the case is that here every thinker is
in favor of bimetallism of some sort, every business man
against it. The latter will go on jeering at the former for a
generation and then will find out that the Professors were
right. That is the usual course of history. . . .

(Signed) H. Mahaffy.

247

248 Comments.

Lenox, Mass., May 22, '94.

. . . It seems to me that you have very cleverly laid at
rest mono and bi, and introduced a flexible nexus which unites
the two precious metals so that without injury to either they
can together make a permanent currency basis. . . .

(Signed) Richard Goodman.

N. Y. Times, May 26, 1894.

. . . A rather striking example of the deep interest
which thoughtful men and men of large affairs are now taking
in one of the foremost questions of our times.

15 Lombard Street, i June, '94.

. . . I quite agree with you that the so-called Bimetal-
lism is not really Bimetallism. I fear, however, that there
are fatal objections to the purpose of allowing an official to
determine the value of the silver coins from time to time.

(Signed) John Lubbock,

The Chelsea, June 10, '94,

. . . Your suggestion is a valuable contribution to
economic thought, and it looks to me as if your idea, carried
into practice, would solve the problem of currency.

(Signed) Daniel Greanleaf Thompson.

June II, 1894,

. . I am not wise in the matter of methods, and only
an expert would be competent to pass a valuable judgment on
the details of your plan. But I thoroughly agree with you
that our hard times are due to the attempt to put the business
of the world on a gold basis, and that we shall not have any
permanent return of prosperity until, in some form or other,
we succeed in establishing a standard of currency which will
neither appreciate, as gold alone is certain to do, nor depre-
ciate, as silver alone is certain to do. . . .

(Signed) Lyman Abbott.

Commeitts. 249

Market Drayton, 14 June, 1894.
, . . Indian difficulties must, however, force the silver
question upon us before long, and then your ingenious pro-
posal may be a great help towards solving the problem. Some
of our leading men, including Mr. Balfour, are much disposed
to agree with your view, . . ,

(Signed) Fras. R. Tremlow.

Springfield Republican, June 16, '94.
. . . But behind this movement there is a real element
of popular sagacity, which finds honest expression in the silent
rather than the outspoken desire of many millions not to give
up silver as a part of the world's stock of money. INIr. Stokes
of New York, who is neither a Republican nor a Populist,
nor a crank of any class, recognized this silent preponderation
of public sentiment some months ago, and began to print in
the New York newspapers some letters on " Joint-Metallism,"
which attracted attention . . . and thus carried on the
discussion with good temper and in a style where pleasant
humor is mingled with forcible suggestion, and a candor which
no infallibility from the Delphic Oracle to the New York
weeklies can be expected to indulge the world with. The
merits of Mr. Stokes's plan will be sufficiently discussed be-
fore Congress adopts it, — but it has real merits, and contains
the element of a just appreciation of the present world diffi-
culty, — which neither Reed nor Lodge nor Harrison even
se^k to express, and apparently do not see. . .

Dowanhill Gardens, Glasgow, 19 June, 1894.
It is a most suggestive contribution to a subject
which is now creating as much interest in Great Britain as it
does in its parent country.

(Signed) W. Smart,

N. Y. Commercial Advertiser, July 23, 1S94.

, . . There is much ingenuity in his plan and his sup-
porting argument.

250 Comments.

Rochester Chronicle, June 26.

. . . The book is well and intelligently written, and
has some novel ideas. As a contribution to the literature of a
subject of world-wide interest it is well worth reading. . . .

Indianapolis Journal, July 27, 1894.

. . . The book is an interesting contribution to the
currency question.

August 3, 1894.
I have read your book on the silver question with very
great interest. , . .

(Signed) C. Schurz.

South Eagremont, Aug. 16, 1894.
... It occurred to me, on looking at your book when
it was first issued, that its citations looked inviting, and
that probably your own part was better than the citations, so
I bought it. I have it here on my vacation. I think you
have performed a very useful and distinct public service ;
you have presented a plan the most practical of anything I
have seen suggested for the solution of a question, beset,
from whatever point we regard it, with obvious difficulties.
, . . You have answered all the criticisms, and your cita-
tions admirably back you up. The book is one that I
shall put with those that I most frequently have occasion to
refer to on subjects of national interest. . .

(Signed) Geo. R. Bishop.

Concord, December 11, 1894.

" Joint-Metallism " is charming, . . . As in his first edi-
tion, now much enlarged, Mr. Stokes shows good humor, good
sense, and a competent knowledge of his subject. . . .

(Signed) F. B. Sanborn.

Leicester, Mass., December 16, 1894.
. . . The importance of the question you so ably discuss

cannot be overestimated.

(Signed) John E. Russell.

Comments.

2SI

133 East 35th Street, New York, December 17, 1894.
. . . The matter of " Joint-Metallism " is one which I
have, for a long time, been desirous of making a study of ; it
enters as so large a factor into serious current questions that a
man who professes to know anything about his day and country
ought to have at least a degree of information respecting it.

(Signed) C. H. Parkhurst.

Department of the Interior,
Bureau of Education,

Washington, December 19, 1894.

. . . Your valuable book on the subject of " Joint-Metal-
lism," in my humble opinion, is the best book on this subject — •
a subject of vital importance to the prosperity of the people of
this country.

(Signed) W. T. Harris,

Commissioner.

Springfield Republican, Jan'y 22, 1895.
It often happens that when two opposites have battled against
each other for years, a middle term, or peaceful union, is at
last found, by which the fierce strife is composed. Thus was
the long war of the red rose and the white, in England,
brought to an end by the marriage of the white rose of York to
the Lancastrian but unblushing Henry Tudor. At present
the battle of the standards — on one side gold, on the other
silver — is raging savagely, like the quadrilateral puss-in-the-
corner of Milton's chaos :

For hot, cold, moist, and drj', four champions fierce,
Strive there for mastery, and to battle bring
Their embryon atoms ; Chaos umpire sits,
And by decision more embroils the fray.

Far be it from us to compare Anson Phelps Stokes of New
York to Satan, — though, if he goes on pestering the souls of
the infallible in New York and London, somebody will give
him as ill a name, — but really, his attitude before he began to

252 Co7ninents.

print essays on " Joint-metallism " was a little Satanic, if
Milton is a correct reporter :

Into this wild abyss the wary fiend

Stood on the brink of Sheol — and Ibok'd awhile,

Pondering his voyage.

At last an intuition came to him, and he saw that the way to
umpire tliis awful game of financial football was to marry the
two precious metals in one act of exchange, so that, instead of
monometallism or bimetallism, the world should rejoice in
"joint-metallism." And what is that ? . . . He proposes
to admit gold and silver freely to the mint, if presented in
quantities of equal value (according to a government ratio fixed
from time to time) — the silver coin to have the same weight as
the gold one, but, of course, to be much less valuable. Then
make one gold coin, plus as many of the silver coins as will
equal it in value, legal tender to twice the value of the gold
coin, for all debts contracted after a fixed date. Next let the
United States receive these twofold coins, when offered in
equal values of each metal, and issue against this deposit
"joint legal-tender currency certificates," payable half in gold
and half in the new silver coinage, — the government fixing the
ratio of one metal to the other. ... If all men were as
well-informed and fair-minded as he, " joint-metallism could
be introduced this winter, and would prol^ably work well.

Boston Gazette, Dec. 29, 1S94.
The favor which attended the earlier edition of
this work will no doubt be extended to this fuller and more
comprehensive consideration of the same subject. The ideas
are presented in a fresh and lucid manner that will attract the
interest of thoughtful people.

Kansas City Times, Jan'y 28, 1895.
'''■ Joint- Metallism,'" a work by Anson Phelps Stokes, is
especially valuable now while the currency question is being
discussed both in and out of Congress. . . . It is
undoubtedly a book to interest students of political
economy.

Comments. 253

Kansas City Journal, Jan'y 28, 1895.

The work is a profitable study of the great and rdl-absorbing
question of the present time, and from a standpoint calculated
to do much good.

Rochester Herald, Jan'y 5, 1895.

. . . Perhaps one of the most valuable monographs on
the monetary question now available. In view of the intense
interest the subject has for every resident of this country, the
publication is timely.

United States Senate,
Washington, D.C, Dec. 8, 1894.

. . . I have read the book with very great interest and
pleasure, and shall very carefully and patiently study your
plan. It seems to me to be worthy of the most thoughtful
consideration. . . . (Signed)

James K. Jones.

Department of Labor,
Washington, D.C, Jan'y 2, 1895.

I have taken much pleasure in perusing it. . . .
Your theory attracts me very much. It seens to me that
there is within it the solution of the difficulty.

(Signed) Carroll D. Wright.

Detroit Journal, Dec 20, 1894.

. . . Mr. Stokes's plan is novel, and his arguments to
support it are at all times interesting and impressive.

Baltimore American, Jan'y 2, 1895.

. . . This is a subject of intense interest at the present
time, and any method by which the relative values may be
maintained is of great importance to every citizen. In this
volume much information of great value may be obtained.

2 54 Comments.

Boston Times, Jan'y 6, 1895.

The book is a valuable contribution to our finan-
cial literature.

London Public Opinion, Dec. 7, 1894.

This plan . . . Mr. Stokes sets forth with
much lucidity. . . . Mr. Stokes is quite right when he
asserts that the great difficulty of solving the question of the
metallic basis of currency comes from inadequate study. . . ,

Pittsburg Gazette, March i, 1894.

Mr. Anson Phelps Stokes has formulated a practical plan
for securing the joint circulation of gold and silver. Mr.
Stokes's plan certainly has the merit of originality, and it
seems to overcome the chief difficulties heretofore found in
securing the joint use of the two metals.

Lawyer and Creditman, April, 1895.

The historical portions of the work are superior to anything
we have seen for conciseness and exhaustive reference to the
best authorities both on the gold and double-standard side of
the question.

Burlington Hawk-Eye, June 30, 1895.

The plan is thoroughly explained, and every student of the
financial situation will find in it an inviting argument.

From the President of the American Social Science

Association.

Waterbury, Conn., Aug. i, 1895.

I 'bought yoint-Metallism last winter and laid it on my
desk, and I have only found time to read it within the last
two or three weeks. I have been interested and instructed

by it.

Comments, 255

You have contrived to get a great deal of clearly expressed
thought into a moderate compass. It seems to me that your
plan would introduce silver again into the money of the world
without serious disturbance — especially if some time, say a
year, was given after the passage of the act and before it went
into operation.

Meantime silver would gradually advance to about its proper
point, that is it would get the principal part of the effect of
restoration.

It seems to me that you still leave gold the measure of
value, and this, I think, must be done.

The effect of the plan seems to me just about equivalent to
doubling the amount of gold which goes into use as money.

I think you have reason to be much pleased with the success
of the book.

(Signed) FREDERICK J. KINGSBURY.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AT LOS ANGELES

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