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POLITICAL  ECONOMY

much  more  than  those  of  gold,  because
as  gold  got  scarce  silver  would  tend  to  fill  the
gap  made  in  the  currency,  and  when  silver
got  scarce  gold  would  tend  to  fill  the  gap  left.
And  there  would  obviously  be  a  par  of
exchange  between  the  gold-using  and  silverusing ­
  countries.  A  par  of  exchange  is
provided  when  the  standards  of  value  in  the
two  groups  of  countries  do  not  vary  independently. ­
  When  they  vary  independently,  a
rise  or  fall  in  the  value  of  silver  with  reference
to  gold  naturally  causes  disturbance  in  the
trade  between  the  two  groups  of  countries.
The  inducement  to  make  the  bimetallic
experiment  lost  its  power  after  prices  began
to  rise  ;  and  before  that  it  had  been  weakened
by  the  closure  of  the  Indian  mints  to  the
free  coinage  of  silver,  which  meant  that  the
quantity  of  silver  coins  in  circulation  was  so
regulated  by  the  Government  that  their
purchasing-power  was  kept  constant  with
the  purchasing-power  of  gold,  and  a  par  of
exchange  between  gold-using  countries  and
India  was  created.