Gold and the Gold Standard.pdf

GOLD AND, THE GOLD STANDARD
gold standard in England, with its token silver
coinage, and to the desirability of our having a
standard conforming to that of the country with
which we carried on our largest trade.
The arguments of the gold monometallists were
strengthened by the fact that, about that time, some
gold discoveries were made in Georgia and North
Carolina, which created in those sections special and
local interests favorable to gold.
Bimetallism Continued
Nonetheless, the majority of thinking people
still favored bimetallism, which appeared to them to
be succeeding in France and which they believed
had not been given a fair trial in the United States.
It had long been recognized that the mint ratio
of 15 to 1 adopted by the United States in 1792 had
soon thereafter fallen below the market ratio and
also below the mint ratio of France. Agitation in
favor of raising our mint ratio in order to restore
our gold circulation became increasingly strong
after 1828. A select committee of the House of
Representatives, on the subject of the relative values
of the gold and silver coins of the United States,
made a report to the House on February 2, 1821,
favoring an increase of our mint ratio to about 15.6
to 1. The committee found that!, gold coins, both
foreign and of the United States, had, in great
1 Finance Reports, vol. III, pp. 660-661.
[ 74 ]