On Tuesday night an open debate was held in the Royal Asiati under the an Sveiety. Mr. Geo. Jamieson, the President, occupying the chair.
The subject of discussion was the adoption of Bi ism by a considerable number of nations exchanges between gold and countries and would it otherwise be generally advantageous." Mr, F. Anders: took the sflicmative and Mr. G. J. Morrioon the negative 'Mr. F, Anderson, in opening the debate, said Lani aware that the subject we have met to discuss la difficult and complicated one, regarding which opinions, widely differing frow each other, have been formed by men of great ability' and experience, and that the more you study the question, the more wigantio appear the interests involved in any decision, which may be come to regarding it; but though objections may be raised against any course of action which it is proposed to take, it is doubtful if weightier objections cannot be urged against doing nothing. For many years the world hws Coen seriously affected by a series of experiments which soe of the more powerful nations have been making, in ebangi their currency Inws; these experins have bad fur greater and more serious consequences, probably, than their authors originators expected, consequences which have affected almost the whole civi lised world, and they are to many peuple iextion of "with how little wisdom arid is governed." It is no doubt difficult to indicate @ satisfactory cure for the feeling of uncertainty und insecurity which prevails, but surely nothing can be more Wusatisfuctory, than to resign ourselves to regard a continuance of the vio lent fluctuations of the past throe years, ay x normal state of affairs, Whether the ies are bimetallist or monometallist i views, they all regard violent fuct of the currency of the world us prejudicial to the best interests of the greatest uumbe, and I shall be sntiafied if you regard the views which Lam advocating, us being more likely to give stability to the exchanges of the world, than those which Mr, Morrison will pnt before you, doubtless in x much more able manner than I can represent my take it for granted that every one Knows that the money circulating in the world only represents a fraction of the value of the property in the world—for ice it is calculated that if all the property were to be valued according to the money in circulation, St. Paul's Cathedral would be worth about half a crowa—nioney is merely used for the differences between the vai jinds of property, and when we bear this in mind, the small increase of money, which has lately been made to the world's etuck, seems to have had a ridicuiously important effect on the values of commodities, As population increases and. civilisation advances, more money is required, and although the same commodities, gold and silver, have been in use for thousands of years, and the stock has been constantly increasing, there is still a constant demand for more. At the present trioment, it is roughly calculated that about three-fourths of the world's population use silver, and one-fourth gold—say about 900 millions of people whose standard. in silver, and 300 millions whose standard is gold. But these whose standard is gold have not nearly enough gold to supply the daily requirements of their trade and population, and they lave to supplement their stock' of gold with silver; indeed some of them have more silver than gold in circulation, though their standard is gold. In the Banks of the eight principal gold countries of the world, the stock of money is divided between gold and silver in the proportion of 13 millions gold to 9 millions of silver. ok of gold and silver money in the world is about £1,600 millions sterling, about £800 millions of which is gold, and £800 millions silver. Now this Leing the case. it is obviously impossible to do without either the one, ur the other; both silver and gold countries are constantly experien cing the effects of what is called "tight money," and I think no one pretends to believe that either the silver or the gold currency in the world could be dispensed with. If this is s0, and as we know that alarge portion of the population of gold countries sustain themselves by working for those who live in the silver countries, and vice versd, it seems clear that it would be better fur both of them that they should have a common standard of value, or what tactically the same thing, different standards unintaining a stable relation to exch other, that the currency agreed upon should be that linble to the sumllest amount of fluctuation, If within the borders of ion, one could imagine a state of affairs, in' which there was we common standard of value, such a condition of things would be described us barbarous; as trade international as well xs national, may we which there is ional standard of value as a blot on the legislation of the close of the 19th century? The experience of the world for all oime has been that gold and silver have been the only commodities suitable for currency, and as there is not enough, her of the one or the other, available to nim a single standard, 8 reasonable that the vai ould agree te use both, under specified conditions, and under a common agreement. By doing 40 they would insure greater stability in the purchasing power of buth; the effect of any fluctuation in the demand or supply of either metal would be distributed over the mass of the two metals, instead of og now producing the whole effect on one alone: We should possess a more honest standard of value, us money lent and money repaid would more neatly represent the same purchasing power.
Now, it in alleged, that this system of fixing the relative value of gold and silver to each other la artificial. It may be, bet all systems of currency are artifi cial, Te was not natural laws that made England adopt " gold standard in 1816—after having been under a bimetallic standard for 540 years—it is purely arbitrary when any nation selects gold rather than silver for its currency, or silver rather than gold, or both, and, therefore, the relative value of the two metals as caused by the relative demand for them is not natural, but artificial, Bimetallism i werely a willingness on the part great nations of the world to aban thie artificial preference for the oF the other and to agree to employ either, accurding as it is most convenient. The curious thing is that every individual gold country has at the present moment in operation, interwal bimetallism, though limited Iver is circulating at preser extent of nearly £400 mil sterling, at the rate of from 594d. pr. in the United States up to 662. pr. oz. in England, although the market price is 384d. Is this not artificial? Is this subject to natural laws? 'The fact is that the desire to aim at having " single standard on the part of these so-called gold countries, has produced the rust highly artificial' and unnatural state of the currency that has ever existed in the world. They are all obliged tv make their own subjects accept silver and gold ata fixed ratly, xs other-wie internal trade would be thrown into inextricable confusion, but though the external trade of some of them is greater than the internal, they each declive to extend this arrangement beyond certain geographical limite as if the standard of value of the world should be affected by seas, or rivers, or. mountains, They agree with one another regarding such matters as duties, postal, and telegraph charges, but regarding currency laws which affect every form of property, and thes ness ut which affects the basis of prospe they are unable to a understanding. The frequent changes in these laws appear tu indicate that a stable basis has not been established so far, and i ishing that the lead of the great commercial countries di devote greater attention to the establialment of " basis of currency. which is suitadle, not for this country or that, but for the whole civilised world." In these gold countries, their silver coins, though all bear nearly the same relative value to gold within their own borders, are only worth half the nominal amount when exchanged; these Iver coins cannot be called tokens, ne in countries they form the bulk of the currency, and are therefore the real, though not the nominal staple, Is this artificial, or is it not?
We know that when duties are high, smuggling flourishes—the profit on ihi coinage of silver is so immense that it is marvellous if it is not practised largely every false shilling, dollar, franc, or thaler, if wade identical with true ones gives a profit of 50 per cent. to the coiner—and many people believe that a large quantity is being coined every day. Is this system sound Is it not a premium on dishonesty 2 Isit not far more artificial than bimetallism If not sound, what less artificial systenv than bimetallism have our opponents to suggest, to replace it? The objection is then raised, that gold and silver are commodities, and that you cannot, by law, give or maintain a relative value in two different, commodities—to do so, it is said, is against, the laws of political economy. ' Now, the truths of political economy are undeniable, but opinions are sometimes mistaken for truths, and misapplications of truths for fixed laws. In this case theory may be right, but the conclusion drawn from it is wrong. If a precious metal be declared by law to. be legal tender, a constant-demand for it is at once set up; if it be declared not legal tender, that particular demand will cease. Demand is a decisive factor in the value of things and therefore monetary Jaws can, and do affect value. If two precious metals are declared legal tender, at a fixed ratio, an action is set up, which operating Ly the ordinary laws of supply and demand, will preserve them at thst legal ratio. "But it is a little difficult to maintain that money is a commodity in the ordinary sense of the term; it is a measure of comtnodities, and can hardly be that which it measures, Besides commodities differ very much from one another, and the laws which govern them affect them differently. Most commodities are perishable, and a variation of supply affects them seriously ay we have. lately seen with cotton; stocks are small and are generally consumed from year to year. But the gold and silver money in the world represents the accumulations of confu ro-bably since the flood, the bulk of which is not consumed, and therefore a variation of supply affects them but slightly, as it bears 8 small percentage to the stod The total stock of silver and vold is estimated at £2,800 millions sterling, while the average production of both" metals has been £48,000,000 for the last ten years or per cent. of the stock of the world—this ix taking silver at 15} to one; at silver's present ratio of over 25 to one the value of the average production is under £40,000,000. This is not' supposed to be sufficient to keep pace with the increase of trade and population, and to make good the loss by waste. One would naturally expect that so comparatively small'a yearly increase to the stock would have very little effect-on the purchasing power of both metals, and bimetallists maintain that this would be
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.