CHAPTER III. ON THE RELATIVE VALUE OF GOLD AND SILVER.

GOLD and silver, like all other commodities, have each their own peculiar value founded upon the immutable law of supply and demand, by which all values are determined. The scarcity of the one compared with that of the other, in connection with the difference in their respective costs of production, that is, of the expenses of mining and smelting the ore, and of refining the metal, establish between them a very wide difference as regards their relative value. An ounce of pure gold has always been, and probably always will be, worth more than an ounce of pure silver. But the ratio of this difference, it must be manifest, is not fixed by any law of nature, any more than the ratio between any two other commodities. Nature does not say, that an ounce of gold shall always be worth so many ounces of silver, any more than she says that a pound of copper shall always be worth so many pounds of iron, or a pound of cotton so many pounds of flour, and hence it is clear, that there is no law of nature applicable to gold and silver, which is not equally applicable to all other commodities.

What nature, however, has left undone, man in his limited wisdom has attempted to accomplish, by the enactment of laws fixing the ratio at which gold and silver shall be exchangeable for each other. These laws, when first enacted, were no doubt founded upon the observation of the fact, that in the general market of the commercial world, these two metals had, for long periods together, preserved something like a fixed proportion, and it was no doubt conceived, that chaining them together by statute, would prevent them from ever separating.

We learn from Adam Smith,* that prior to the discovery of the American mines, which first began to show its effects somewhere about the year 1570, in the diminished value of both the precious metals by the new and annually augmenting supplies which were derived from that fruitful source, the value of pure gold to pure silver was established in the different mints of Europe, at proportions varying from one to ten, to one to twelve; that is, one ounce of pure gold, was declared to be the equivalent of ten to twelve ounces of pure silver; and in their respective coinages these proportions were consequently observed. At about the middle of the 17th century, that is, about the year 1650, the ratio between gold and silver came to be regulated in the proportion of one to fourteen, and one to fifteen ounces of silver, no doubt occasioned by the fact, that although both metals had become more abundant in proportion to the demand, and had both been depreciated below their former value, yet silver had depreciated more than gold, to an extent that had created new proportions in the general market, which it was the design of the new laws to follow up.

From the period last mentioned, there does not appear to have been any material change in the relative value of gold and silver in the general market of the trading world prior to the beginning of the present century, when a further depreciation of silver in reference to gold began to show itself, so that by the year 1820, an ounce of gold came to be worth near sixteen ounces of silver, of which the consequence was, that all the gold coins of the United States, where the mint proportion had been fixed at one to fifteen, were exported from the country, to be exchanged for their proper equivalent.†

The author believes that he was one of the first, if not the first, writer in this country who called the attention of the public to this new change, and apprehensive at the time, that the legislative folly of attempting to establish by law what nature herself could not establish, would be repeated by a new enactment, he urged in December, 1821, upon the late Mr. Lowndes, a representative in congress from South Carolina, and chairman of the committee of finance, the expediency of abolishing the coinage of eagles and their fractional parts, and of substituting in their place new pieces, to weigh respectively an ounce, a half ounce, and a quarter of an ounce of standard gold, under the full conviction that they would soon be introduced into circulation at their proper equivalent, without involving us in the absurdity of having two legal tenders.* The arguments presented to Mr. Lowndes in conversation were at his particular request reduced to writing, together with answers to two points raised by him, and were published in the National Gazette of 26th January, 1822. A copy of this paper will be found in the Appendix, marked A.

The death, in the course of the last mentioned year, of Mr. Lowndes, who was one of the few individuals in congress who had studied the subject of the coinage, appeared to suspend the action of that body in regard to the alteration of the mint regulations, and although several propositions were at different periods subsequently submitted, yet nothing was done until the 28th of June, 1834, when the law usually known as the gold bill was passed. A short history of these propositions was drawn up by the author in the last named year, and as it may be of service to those who have a desire to study the subject, extracts therefrom have been placed in the Appendix marked B.

In connection with this subject, it may not be amiss to remark, that the proportion of one to fifteen or sixteen in the relative value of gold to silver, does not by any means warrant the inference that there is just fifteen or sixteen times as much silver as gold in existence. Adam Smith advances conclusive arguments to show that the quantity of silver at the time he wrote was far greater than the proportion which it bore to gold called for, and indeed any one may be convinced of this fact if he will reflect upon the very small value of gold compared with silver, that is consumed in plate and ornaments. The relative value of no two commodities determines their relative quantities, and it is easy to be perceived, that if a barrel of flour were worth ten dollars, and a box of Spanish segars twenty dollars, it would not necessarily follow that there were in existence only twice as many barrels of flour as there were boxes of segars.