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of the American mines. The discovery of the Australian, Californian and Columbian gold sources makes a new fall in the value of gold probable.[1]
c. THEORIES OF THE MEDIUM OF CIRCULATION AND OF MONEY.
As the universal thirst for gold prompted nations and princes in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, the period of infancy of modern bourgeois society, to cru-
- ↑ So far the Australian and other discoveries have not affected the ratio of the values of gold and silver. The assertions to the contrary of Michel Chevalier are worth as much as the Socialism of this ex-St. Simonist. The quotations of silver on the London market prove, however, that the average gold price of silver during 1850–1858 is not quite 3 per cent, higher than the price during 1830–1850. But this rise in price is accounted for simply by the Asiatic demand for silver. In the course of the years 1852–1858 the price of silver was changing in certain years and months only with a change in this demand, and in no case with the importation of gold from the newly discovered sources. The following is a summary of the gold prices of silver on the London market.
PRICE OF SILVER PER OUNCE.
Year— March. July. November. 1852 ....... 60⅛ pence 60¼ pence 61⅞ pence 1853 ....... 61⅜ pence 61½ pence 61⅞ pence 1854 ....... 61⅞ pence 61¾ pence 61½ pence 1855 ....... 60⅞ pence 61½ pence 60⅞ pence 1856 ....... 60 pence 61¼ pence 62⅛ pence 1857 ....... 61¾ pence 61⅝ pence 61½ pence 1868 ....... 61⅝ pence
