Show I 1 SILVER IN ANCIENT TIMES me re review may 23 we present the following as showing elbowing how an international bimetallist would build a modern monetary system upon precedents thousands of years yeara old and on relations of supply and demand of the prec precious ions metals bearing no DO comparison to those now ex existing hiting J B montgomery in the p portland ort and oregonians oregonian Ore gonian max muller the eminent professor of oxford university delivered an address before the society for the extension of university Te at the mansion house london on february 23 1889 the lord mayor in the chair among those present was mr Goe ohen chancellor of the exchequer the title of his address was some lessons lemons of antiquity in which he be treated among othora the question of the bimetallic standard no man in the world is more bambus in knowledge ot of the greek indian and latin languages and history he showed that the time by which our watches are kept was ot of babylonian ori aristio stio that the babylonians divided the sun buda la daily journey at the time of the equinox into 24 pars pare angs ily or stadia or degrees the the babylonians used the system that is divided by sixties instead of the decimal system and divided the farsang par pare sang aug or hour into 60 minutes and the minutes into 60 second the abe same as we do to this day he then said 11 1 I 1 could lay jay before you many more of these lessons of antiquity but the babylonian dial of my watch rel me that my farsang par aang sang or my hour is drawing to an end and I 1 must confine myself to one or two only you have beard a great deal lately of bimetallism I 1 aw am not going to inflict on this thia aullie audience nce a lecture on that deeply interesting te subject certainly not iu in the presence ot of our chairman the lord mayor and with the fear of the chancellor of the exchequer before my eyes but I 1 may just caution this when I 1 saw what the bimetallistic bimetallist is were contending for foe was waa to fix and maintain in perpetuity a settled ratio between goto gola and silver I 1 asked myself how tnie this idea arose and ana being of an historical turn of wind minds I 1 tried to find out whether antiquity could have any letson leeson onu to teach un this coined money as you is not dot a very ancient invention there may have been a golden age when gold was waa alto gether aether unknown and people paid with cows cow not coins when precious metals matali gold sliver silver copper or irons iron begun to be used for payment they were at first simply weighed even we still spook of ota a pound instead of jofs a sovereign ane abe next step was to issue pieces of gold and silver properly weighed and then to mark the exact weight and value on each piece this was dune in assyria and Baby babelonia Babylon lonia la where we find shekel hekele 8 or pounds of gold god and silver the commerce of the eastern nations was waa carried on for cen by means of these weights of metals it was the greeks greek and the greeks Greek of in ionia who in the seventh century B C first brat conceived the idea of coining money that la Is stans stamping ping on each piece their city arms the or seal thus giving the warranty of their stale for the right weight and value of from this art spread rapidly to the greek towns of asia minor and was thence transplanted to aegina the desus athens athena and the greek colb colonies liles in italy the weight of the most moat A coin in all these countries was originally the same as that of the ancient babylonian gold shekel only stamped camped with the arms of each bouc try which thus thug made itself responsible for its proper weight and this gold shekels shekel a pound in spite of historical disturbances has held its own through centuries the gold coins of croesus darius philip and alexander have all about the same weight as the babylonian gold shekel 60 of them going to one giua of gold and what is stronger stranger still our own sovereign or pounds pound or a beke has nearly the same weight 60 of them going to an old babylonian manof of gold in ancient times 20 silver drachmas or half balf shekels went to a gold shekel just as an with us 20 silver shillings are equivalent to a this ancient shilling was again sub divided into 60 copper coins 60 being the favorite babylonian figure knowing therefore the relative monetary value of a gold and silver shekels shekel or half shekel knowing how many silver shekels the kne ancient nations had to give for one gold shekel it was possible by merely weighing the ancient coins coina to find out whether there was then already spy any fixed ratio be tween gold and sliver silver thousands of coins have bave thus been tested and the result has been to the from the earliest times timea with the most moat exact accuracy that ratio as ae dr brugsch has baa shown was I 1 to 12 in egypt it was waa aa proved by dr brandis brandia 1 to 13 18 1 8 in babelonia babylonia Baby lonia and all the countries which adopted the babylonian standard atao dard there have been slight there are instances of debased coinage in ill ancient as ae well as aa in modern times timer but bat for international trade and tribute the old babylonian standard atac dard was waa maintained for a very long time these numismatic researches researcher which have been carried on with in industry by tome anae of the most moat eminent scholars in ilk europe may seem simply curious curi curio oue deg buts but like all historical stud Blu diee they may also alao convey some lessons leae oos they inthey prove that in spite of icher ent difficulties the great political and commercial nations of the ancient world did succeed in solvieg the bimetallic problem and in maintaining for centuries a fixed standard between gold and silver they prove that bat this standard though influenced no doubt by the he relative quantity of the two metals by the be cost coat of production and by the demaud tor for either silver or gold in the markets of the ancient world was wag maintained by the common sense of at the be great commercial nations of anta alty who were anxious ti safeguard the he interests of both of their heir wholesale and nd retail traders tra dere they prove lastly that though a hango in the ratio between golu gold and oliver liver cannot be entirely prevented it took place in ancient times by very small mall degree from the sixteenth century B C or at all events if we restrict our remarks to coined money from the seventh century B C to nearly our own time the appreciation of gold hap had been no more then than 1 23 2 3 namely from 13 1313 13 3 to 15 it if now within our own recollection it has hag suddenly risen from 16 15 to 20 and in 1892 i it is ie 1 to 30 J B M have we not a right to ask whether this viole violent dig die tur bance anoe is due altogether to natural causes or whether what we are told is ia the effect la Is not to a certain extent the cause of it I 1 mean the sudden re resolution sIu of certain governments to boycott for their own pur purposes Domes the second precious metal of the world ay Is it any wonder that right bight hon HOD arthur james balfour should say in his bia speech at the bimetallic conference antija at alie mansion house london 0 on D may 2 last that there is ia now practically a con census of the whole economic opinion which has devoted itself to the elucidation of this problem and any man in the face of that opinion who quotes any of the old tags about demand and supply making it impossible to fix a ratio between the ibe two metals or such doctrines as that the of the be state fixing prices must necessarily fail siy any men man who now relies upon arguments ol 01 that kind to show that the abe double standard is in an impossible expedient doess Abing else than write himself himself down as an individual ignorant of tue the latest scientific development of political cal economy this to Is just what J sterling morton morion has baa done that is just what W C cornwell cornwall president of new york bankers association said in his big rip roaring speech before the bankers of chicago many thoughtless people are being led astray by the brazen statements of such men as morton morion mud and cornwall just tie as they are belog being led away by the foolish utterances of ef trie silver who call themselves independent bl bi meta illets they are nothing of the kind they are sure as anything can be to put our country on a silver basis basia alone all history shows unerringly that bimetallism can be maintained for it was maintained from tile abe dawn of civil from years yean before christ till A D 1873 by a substantial agreement anre ement among the commercial nations on a ratio wd und that for a and years it never varied more than from 12 to tol 1 to ola 13 13 1 3 to one but it takes taken an agreement among some of the principal commercial nations no one nation can do it |