Show S 01 I 1 SILVER HISTORY Alex alexanda andu hamilton and ami thomas jeffor son soa agreed on en the ratio sixteen to one has been the motto of this country till the tha plutocrats began I 1 to shape our legislation since the war the ful following lowing from the salt lake tribune is reprinted liere here a at t the request of numerous free silver republican subscribers to JOURNAL it is an editorial answer to questions as follows A payette idaho correspondent asks us to answer some questions as follows 1 by what means meane or by whom was the sta standard lidard price of line fine gold placed at 1 20 67 2 upon what basis or rule rule was the ratio of 16 to I 1 fixed that is N aas as it through production or w what hat 3 0 3 by whom and by what method was the price of silver placed at i 4 by abat TV hat rule is it that france c coins her silver at to I 1 the answer to the first qu question estion is by act of parliament when sir isaac newton was the master of the british mint in one of the early years of the eighteenth century for many years the english coins had been debased and were much under weight both the silver anil and the rold gold 0 sir isaac newton introduced exact weights wei abts and the silver oin coin having 0 come down in weight exactly to correspond with the roman coins coin the gold was adjusted to correspond in value with the silv silver er at the ratio then prevalent in england and europe the aisner to the lecona question is that at the reformation of if our government in 1789 alexander hamilton tested all the coins of europe and determined that about the Sp spanish anih mill dollar was the proper bassis for the unit of values in this jefferson Jefre rEon agreed with him and then the gold coins were established at a little lower ratio than they had in europe for what reason we do not exactly understand der stand the ration being I 1 in in E europe drope at the first establishment of the mint and of the coinage system gold was too heavy it was worth a little more than the silver and therefore vanished away from the country in 1834 the weight of the gold piece was reduced making silver at 16 to I 1 a little more valuable than gold and then silver kilver gravitated an slimy ay because it was worth at the jewelers exactly what it was worth in europe which was a little more than here with our ratio 16 to 1 in answer to the third question it came naturally when silver was fixed at 16 to 1 of gold it tools tool exactly sixteen times to make the value of the ounce of gold in answer to the fourth question the tribune can give no information except that that was the ratio established in continental europe y years ears and years ago the correspondent wishes further to ask what effect on trade or business did the of silver by en england gland in 1816 have it had bad no effect on the outside world because england was not sufficiently strong to cause silver to fall in value as compared with gold at that time germany arid and other european countries were on a silver basis while the rest were on a bimetallic basas but the effect in england was most distressing panic followed panic and the people were in such distress and poverty that thousands 0 of f th them em b had a d t to 0 be transformed to keep the them from starving england never did recover from the fall in prices and general demoralization caused by that legislation until she drew to herself nearly all the gold taken from california and australia placers in the the correspondent further asks what effect if any there was I 1 from the closing clo king of the mints of india to free coin coinage ae a e in 1893 3 and whether il lether it had any any tendency to reduce the bullion values of siler the clo closing sin g of thu the mints and the proclamation of the president calling congress in extra session to repeal t he purchasing clause of the sherman law caused silver to fall 12 points in as many days silver fell from 83 to about 68 cents in n a few days clays the above is but a skeleton containing tamiria the important facts the coinage e of france and england came down from the he romans with such changes is as those countries have made since and the substance of them thein is embodied in the above france went through exactly i lich uch a process as england did she got to tampering with her coins and ishuin issuing underweight gulland gold and silver until tas as tile the world progressed and the necessity cesily ne of having an absolute abeokuto measure of values was better under understood tood her laws law were revised put putting tino coinage exactly on a scientific scientific basis the queer thing about abou tour our own country is that the 1 he coinage at 16 to 1 was never ado adopted pled it ought of course to have corresponded exactly with that of continental europe and had that hat been the case gold and silver would have come down side by side without variation or trouble we should have had bad a fair proportion of silver dollars to correspond with our gold money all the time and the argument of the present goldate that it is impossible to make gold and silver circulate side by side would have bad no possible inundation foundation loun dation |