Modern monetary systems

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Monograph

Identifikator:: 1753210836

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-128414

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Nogaro, Bertrand http://d-nb.info/gnd/117039713

Title:: Modern monetary systems

Place of publication:: London

Publisher:: King

Year of publication:: 1927

Scope:: XII, 236 S.

Digitisation:: 2021

Collection:: Economics Books

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Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: Part I. Modern monetary systems and their operation

Collection:: Economics Books

THE REIGN OF BIMETALLISM 17 silver had been 1 to 144 in France and in the majority of bimetallist countries. Now the commercial ratio given by the London quotations for silver rarely exceeded 1 to 16 or fell below 1 to 15. Thus the variations were always slight, and after the disturbed time of the Consulate and the Empire only four phases of alternating movements emerge between 1814 and 1873. Between 1814 and 1819 the annual average, consistently below 14-5, shows that silver was at a premium with regard to the legal ratio ; be- tween 1820 and 1850 the commercial ratio, consistently above 15-5,! marks, on the contrary, a period in which gold stands at a premium ; from 1851-1866 the annual average, always below 154-5, once more shows silver at a premium ; from 1867-1873, the end of our period, the commercial ratio, consistently above 15-5 again, shows gold at a premium. Thus during the whole period in which gold and silver were concurrently accepted for free coinage, i.e. during the whole period of real bimetallism, the relative value of the two metals was only subject to alternating movements, which were slow and inconsiderable ; so that their prices, instead of pursuing independent courses, seem to be bound up with one another. We shall attempt to examine this important phase of modern monetary history by first seeking the causes of the fluctuations observed in the relative value of gold and silver and then by attempting to discover why these fluctuations were so slight, and why the rates of the two metals, so closely connected as long as the bimetallist 7égime lasted, became independent of each other after its dis- appearance. Although the fluctuations which occurred during the period of bimetallism in the relative value of the two 1 In fact, owing to the costs of minting, the legal ratio in France was I:15+59 and later 1 : 15-58. But from 1820 to 1850 the quoted rate always corresponded to a ratio far exceeding, not only 1 : 15-50, but even 1 : 15-59. It was not till the period 1867-1873 that the annual average occasionally fell below 1: 15-58, but the price of silver often fell to a point corre- sponding to a higher ratio. -

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