Having passed in review the most important aspects of the world's experience with bimetallism, we may now close our discussion with a statement of results, first of all regarding the bearing of the historical facts presented upon the theory of the subject.

The crucial point in the doctrine of bimetallism is the supposed adequacy of the compensatory action of the double standard to prevent a divergence between the legal and the market ratios of gold and silver. Upon this point the testimony of history is clear. Throughout the Middle Ages and early modern times there was nearly always a lack of uniformity between the market ratio and that established by law in the various countries, and during the nineteenth century, in spite of more settled conditions and a studied attempt by governments to give the compensatory law an unobstructed field for operation, the same experience has been repeated. In order to maintain the concurrent circulation of the two metals, one after the other every nation of Europe and the United States has been compelled to make small silver coins subsidiary, and those which have attempted to retain one silver coin as standard money have been obliged at first to limit the amount coined, and ultimately to discontinue its coinage entirely. At the present time, outside of the silver-standard countries, there is not a single nation which is regularly minting full legal-tender silver coins. That this situation has been brought about by the force of economic law, and in most, if not all, cases against the will, and in spite of the efforts, of the nations most concerned, is evident from the facts presented in the preceding pages.

Many people still believe that bimetallism has never had a fair trial, and that its establishment upon an international basis would vindicate the claim of its advocates regarding the efficacy of the compensatory law. The failure of the experiment made by the Latin Union along this line is not regarded by such people as a demonstration of the futility of international bimetallic agreements, because, they say, the times were then rendered unpropitious for such an experiment by the action of Germany in demanding an enormous war indemnity in gold from France and in throwing upon the bullion market more than half of the silver which had formerly constituted her circulating medium. It must be remembered, however, that the Latin Union was compelled to limit the coinage of five-franc pieces in 1874, before Germany had sold silver enough to affect the markets materially, and that only a small part of the gold which she had at that time absorbed came from France. Further, in judging of the probable effects of an international agreement at the present time it must not be forgotten that the market for the precious metals was never so sensitive as now. A much smaller difference in price than was formerly required will now cause the movement of metal from one market to another. The cost of transportation is less than formerly, and a much closer connection between the bullion markets of the world has been established by the development of the credit system in its various branches and especially by the extension of international banking. Moreover, the magnitude of international credit transactions is so great that large quantities of gold or silver can be drawn from one nation to another with comparative ease. A nation which should attempt to establish the bimetallic system at the present day would find the task a more difficult one than it was twenty or even ten years ago.

It is idle to speculate regarding what would happen if all the great nations of the earth should unite in the free coinage of silver at a common ratio, but it may not be out of place here to say that the probability of such action was never more remote than at the present time. The results of the Brussels Conference were certainly sufficiently discouraging to the bimetallists, but the statistics of the production of gold in recent times are even more so. The discovery of new mines of great richness in South Africa, Alaska, and the western part of the United States has so much enlarged the world's capacity to meet a growing demand for that metal that the outcry against an appreciating standard of value has lost much of its force. There are few people who would not prefer a single to a double standard, if the fear of falling prices could be removed. It is significant of the trend of opinion in very-recent times that in 1900 the Congress of the United States, the stronghold of bimetallism for a quarter of a century, was induced to pass a law expressly making gold the standard of value in this country and safeguarding it by provisions which, though inadequate, are a long step in the right direction.

References

The literature on the history of bimetallism is voluminous, but most of it is controversial and fragmentary in character. The following books are general and cover large portions of the entire field: W. A. Shaw's The History of Currency, 1252 to 1894. While this is a hard book to read, it is filled with valuable facts and observations and systematically covers the entire period from the thirteenth century to the last decade of the nineteenth, and includes the history of currency in all the important countries of continental Europe as well as in England and the United States. The following three books by Mr. Ottomar Haupt also contain a large amount of historical material relative to various countries: Wahrungs-Politik und Munzstatistik; L'His-toire Monetaire de Notre Temps; and The Money Question in 1892. See also James Maclaren's A Sketch of the History of the Currency.

On the experience of the United States the best book is J. Laurence Laughlin's The History of Bimetallism in the United States. It was first published in 1886, but it has been brought up to date in more recent editions. It covers the entire period from the passage of the act of 1792, and explains in detail the various coinage acts which have been passed since that date and the influence of the production of the precious metals and of the legislation of European countries upon our currency. For the period since the Civil War see also Noyes's Thirty Years of American Finance.

The history of bimetallism in France, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy is usually treated in books on the Latin Union. The latest of these and the most complete is Henry Parker Willis's

A History of the Latin Monetary Union. Appendix III of this book contains a valuable bibliography. Others are: L. Bamberger's Die Schicksale des Lateinischen Munzbundes; and Ad. Burckhardt-Bischoff's Die Lateinische Munz-Convention und der Internationale Bimetallismus, which, however, treats the subject chiefly from the standpoint of Switzerland and is not so useful as either of the others for the purposes of most students. H. Cernuschi's Le grand Proces de l'Union monetaire latine and O. Noel's La Question monetaire et l'Union latine treat of the experiences of the Latin Union itself, especially of the circumstances which led at first to the limitation and finally to the discontinuance of the coinage of the five-franc pieces.

On the statistics of the production of the precious metals and fluctuations in their market ratios the chief authority is Soet-beer's Edelmetall-Production und Wertverhaltnisse von Gold und Silber, which, however, brings the subject down to the year 1886 only. It should, therefore, be supplemented by reference to the Annual Reports of the Director of the United States Mint and of the United States Bureau of Statistics. A good critical discussion of the statistics which cover the period 1886-1895 may be found in Ernst Biedermann's Die Statistik der Edel-metalle, published in Berlin in 1898. For statistics which differ to some extent from those of Soetbeer see the Appendices to Laughlin's history. On the interpretation of these statistics and the causes of the changes in the value of the precious metals see, besides the references above given, W. Stanley Jevons's Investigations in Currency and Finance, chs. ii, iii, and iv; Ernst Seyd's Der Hauptirrthum in der Goldwahrung; W. Jacob's History of the Precious Metals; J. E. Cairnes's Essays in Political Economy, chs. i-iv; Michel Chevalier's De la Baisse Probable de l'Or; Helferich's Von den periodischen Schwankungen im Wert der edlen Metalle von der Entdeckung Amerikas bis zum Jahre 1830; Thomas Tooke and William Newmarch's History of Prices, vols. V and VI; and R. Hogarth Patterson's The New Golden Age.

On the international conferences see the Reports published by the United States Government; Russell's International Monetary Conferences; L. Pauliat's La Conference de 1881; Shaw's history, pp. 275-285; J. D.Casasus's Le Probleme Monetaire et la Conference de Bruxelles; and Joh. Phil. Schneider's Die Pariser Munz-Conferenzen von 1878.

Copies of the various coinage acts of the United States maybe found in Dunbar's Laws of the United States relating to Currency, Finance, and Banking, in Laws of the United States relating to Loans, Currency, and Banking published by the Treasury Department and in the Appendices to Laughlin's History of Bimetallism. For translations of the legislative acts of other countries see the Appendices to Laughlin's History and to Willis's History of the Latin Monetary Union.