VALUE OF GOLD IQ desirability of paying for more accommodation. The marginal purchase is the increase or decrease which some one is only just persuaded to make; and the elasticity of demand comes in because greater cheap- ness of the coin vw persuade people or govern- ments to go further _n their purchases of it, and persuade them to go much further or only a little further according to circumstances. Possible econo- mies in use and the competition of available sub- stitutes plav ‘ust t4e same art as they do in regard to ordiner commodities. Demand is checked by the rise ¢ v~"~ inst = in the case of other things. The supply side of the problem of the value of the precious meta’: = ore anomalous than the demand side. Gold and silver are produced like other things, because the producers want to get money. But it is just as true here as elsewhere that people only want money in order to buy other things with it, so that their real aim is the acquisition of these other things and services. Thus though they produce gold in exchange for money, which may be gold, or based on gold, they are reallv exchanging it for other commo- dities and services. There ic nothing mysterious about the way gold comes from the sources of supply into the hands of the people, ~ither as currency or as other things made of gold. It is exchanged for commodities and services just like coal or any other mineral. The workers earn bread and meat and other things bh their labour in producing it just like workers in ther industries. The owners of the machinerv em~'~ 1 obtain profits and with these profits t- (138 WILel Ih want in just the same wr Wners ov _chinery employed in other wey. ww owners « the mines or other sources <f "sometimes live in luxury in Park -