The case for bimetallism

Abstract

The question which this essay is an attempt to answer, may be thus expressed :—What would be the effect on prices, and on the financial and industrial interests of the world in general, if the leading nations of the world were to agree to make both gold and silver unlimited legal tender at the ratio of value between the two that prevailed during the seventy years which closed with 1873; — namely, 15.5 ozs. silver as in France, or 16 ozs. as in the United States, equal to one oz. of gold;—at the same time opening their mints to the unlimited and gratuitous coinage of both metals? The statistical data used in the present attempt to answer this question, are taken from the "Final Report of the Royal Commission, appointed to enquire into the recent changes in the relative values of the precious metals, 1888."