5th Dec.
Wuen the place at which the Iuternational Monetary Conference was to meet™ was settled, we poled a telegram from, a leader of the bimetallists at Paris, giving his opinion that there would be no result from their discussion. 'The difficulty Jay not so much. with England where, notwithstanding the obstinacy of the Economist and some other leading papers, the idea that gold was Grerwosked' wax' gradually spreads ing, and receiving: every day adhesions, including such ai eminent authority as, Mr. A. J. Balfour, who told his audience at Manchester at the end of October that "Great Britain wanted a sound instrument of exchange, and, the bimetallic solution would be both possible and adequate." It was the two great Powers of Central Burope, Germany and Austria, the latter a very recent convert to the gold standard, that were expected to stand in the way of an international adoption of a fixed price for silver in terms in gold. This the, monometallists have always held to be theoretically impossible, and their position has always been that a double standard is a contradiction in terms, and that you might as well fix the price of copper or wheat or any other commodity in gold, as of silver. It does not matter, they said, what you make the standard, though there are good reasons why gold was chosen; when' one thing, gold or whatever it may be, is'selected as the standard, the prices of everything else in terms of this thing must be subject to supply and demand or,-where~ the supply is adequate to the demand, will be subject to the amount of the "fixed thing ded in the production of the commodities. The bimetallists retorted that what was theoretically impossible was sometimes found to be practically possible, and that the experience of many decades showed that by agreement silver could be kept at a certain ratio with gold, with only trifling fluctuations. The great appreciation of gold in the last few years shows that it 3s greatly overworked, and there is a eral feeling that something must be lone, the generally approved expedient being that so ably expounded in Mr. Samuel Montagu's article in the Fortnightly Review, that all the. western nations should agree to take twenty ounces of silver as equal to one ounce of gold. here are estimated to be at the present time 1,400 million £ sterling in gold in public treasuries, in banks, and in, private possession, and £1,600 million £ sterling in silver, at the ratio of. 154: 1; so that at the ratio of 20: 1, the tance of Mr. Montagu's plan would add 1,240 million sterling to the metallic currency of the.world. his, of course, is on the supposition that at the present moment silver is. not a precious metal at all, but only a commodity. by @ government to raise the price of "Phe only practical attempt yet made silver was that adopted by the United States; they bought a certain amount of Iver a month, and locked it up in the Treasury vaults, reducing by so much the supply on the market. At the time the-Jaw was passed the Hconomist predicted that it would have no permanent effect, and on this occasion the Lconomist was right. There was a most de-captive rally, which lasted alittle while, and: which. has been followed by a steady decline.
International bimetallism caus not yet be established, because, as was Jh, expected, the Austrian and German delegates to theConfereuce have declared that their governments cannot agree to any modification of the existing monetary system. Curiously enough, while! Reuter has told us with more or less uncertainty what Powers are willing to agree to the American proposals, he has not told us what those proposals are. We must suppose that they are not to enjoin the free coinage of silver: because both President Harrison and Mr. Cleveland have declared inst that step; though on the other hand, that declaration may only be against the United States undertaking the free coinage of silver single-handed, We gave on Saturday sketch of Baron Rothschild's proposal, and it looks so weak a suggestion, that we must imagine he only brought it forward as an alternative. If you will not have international bimetallism, we must presume him to have said, the only alternative is to assist the United States to raise the price of silver, or to prevent farther depreciation, by buying a certain quantity annually and taking it off the market.
His proposal, as telegraphed, is that the European governments should agree to buy silver to the value of five millions sterling a year, at 43d. an ounce, the United States continuing her present purchases, and the agreement being made for five years. We have been told that this proposal was on the whole favourably received in the City of London, but disapproved in the United States, and we now learn that the proposal has not commended itself to the Conference, and that " the prospects of a practical outcome of the Conference are vanishing." There is a general belief here that Baron Rothschild's proposal cannot have been fully reported for as it stands, it appears to be a mere temporary palliative, which would not even postpone the difficulty for five years. "he silver bought by the European governments would be stored up in their treasuries just as the silver bought by the Washington government now is, and it would have the same depressing effect that the latter has, for it would be felt that though it was not actually on the market, it might be let loose on it at any moment.
Meanwhile, it is a great disappointment that—as appears—unothing is to be done to relieve.the present disastrous condition of things; and bimetallist writers believe—aud prove—that. there will be a great financial crisis in London next Spring unless something is dove. They have, however, generally asserted, that if England would consent to join the rest of the world in reverting to bimetallism, the double standard would be adopted; but it seems now that it is not Englamd that stands in the way, but Austria and Germany. hose who prefer to see no legislation attempted, and who believe in silver finding its own level, will have their way; and we can only hope that the consequences of international irresolution will not be as calamitous as many: acute students of the subject apprehend they will be.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.