THE REIGN OF BIMETALLISM 25 
in the year XI, which was adopted by many other coun- 
tries, regulated international monetary relations for nearly 
three-quarters of a century by ensuring stable exchanges 
between monometallist gold-standard, bimetallist and 
monometallist silver-standard countries. An inhabitant of 
India, for instance, who only had silver at his disposal and 
whose English creditor could only accept gold, was able 
to have his rupees sent to France, re-coined, and trans- 
formed into g-franc pieces, take 20-franc pieces out of 
French currency, and then procure pounds sterling by 
having them re-coined in London. The possibility of carry- 
ing out this series of operations, if need arose, was suffi- 
cient to restrict the exchange rates between India and 
England within the limits of a go/d point and a silver point. 
It 1s true that the final abrogation of this system might 
be considered as a belated confirmation of the fears enter- 
tained by the legislators of the year XI when they set up 
the double standard régime in defiance of their principles. 
Experience does indeed show that the working of Bimetal- 
lism involves some risk for countries which have adopted 
it, when they are surrounded by monometallist gold-standard 
and silver-standard countries, which draw upon their stocks 
of the metal required for monetary transactions, and sur- 
render the other metal in exchange. Moreover, this danger 
may become particularly serious in the event of over- 
production of white metal or the demonetisation of silver 
coin in a neighbouring country ; for silver will be sent in 
enormous quantities to bimetallist countries, and as these 
shipments are not provoked by the necessity of settling 
debts, those who use this method of getting rid of their 
silver will very naturally recoup themselves by obtaining 
a corresponding amount of gold. This happened in 1873, 
and it is for this reason that thenceforward bimetallist 
countries suspended the free coinage of silver in order to 
protect their stock of gold. 
Thus Bimetallism, caught between gold- and silver- 
standard countries, works to the profit of both, by suffer- 
ing depletion alternately of the metal which is most in 
demand, and receiving in exchange the one which is