Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/169

 Rh first postponed, and to how distant a date; and by what successive steps (specifying both the date and the length of postponement) the échéances reached the nine months of 1874, and the 19 months of 1875.

It was precisely the data before July 1874 that I wanted rather than those after that date.

In England, a slight decline had begun in April 1872,—no more, however, than had taken place in former years; but the fall became appreciable on the 27th May 1873, and continued gradually down to 58d. in December 1873. I wished to ascertain whether the postponement of the échéances had begun as early as May 1873; and I learned from the letter to he quoted presently that they had not.

It will be seen that M. Sudre attributes the action of the French Government mainly to the fall in the price of Silver, which he says had already taken place before 1873. Where had it fallen, and in what was the fall measured?

Surely not in France, nor measured in francs; for it is inconceivable that in the absence of alterations of the échéances of the bons de monnaie, or of limitations of the quantity to be coined, any man who could by law demand 200 francs from the Mint for his kilogramme of Silver would be content to take 199 or any less quantity from any buyer. Just as it is inconceivable that an English holder of a like quantity of Silver would take less than 60d. an ounce for it, so long as he could send it to Paris for coinage and have 200 francs put to his credit without delay, and as long as the exchange at which he could draw for them in this market would give him that result.

It seemed certain then, that it was in this country, as the central mart for Silver, that the fall is supposed to have taken place; and I have to inquire whether it did fall, and if it did, whether the fall was abnormal, what it was that caused it, and whether it was that, or, if not, what else, that influenced the action of France. I believe that fear was the motive cause; fear, not on the part of the holder of Silver, who had nothing to fear while the law remained intact, but on the part of the Government and Mint authorities, who feared—not without reason—that they would be overwhelmed with the work of coinage. Perhaps also there may have been in some minds a fear that the Gold would depart from the country as it had done before, though no one had then been the worse for it, and though each napoleon that went away left 20 silver francs behind it, plus an agio.

Fear caused certain administrative measures to be taken, and