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POLITICAL  ECONOMY

between  the  gold-using  and  silver-using  countries ­
  ;  and  by  yet  others  with  the  object  of
enhancing  the  value  of  property  in  silver,  or
at  least  of  stopping  its  depreciation.
Bimetallism  means  making  the  standard  of
value  an  alternative  consisting  in  a  given
quantity  of  gold  or  a  given  quantity  of  silver
of  a  larger  amount,  so  that  for  currency  purposes ­
  silver  and  gold  are  interchangeable  at  a
fixed  ratio.  The  proposal  was  that  three  or
four  leading  countries  should  combine  and  fix
a  ratio  to  be  observed  in  the  currency  laws
of  the  countries  concerned.  It  was  argued  that
in  this  event  the  ratio  all  over  the  world
between  the  values  of  gold  and  silver  would
be  drawn  to  the  fixed  ratio  decided  upon.
Theoretically,  the  argument  was  flawless,  at
any  rate  for  moderate  variations  in  the
supplies  of  either  gold  or  silver,  on  the
assumption  that  a  substantial  proportion  of
the  supplies  of  these  metals  in  existence
was  devoted  to  monetary  uses.  If  silver
became  very  plentiful,  so  that  it  tended
to  fall  in  value  with  reference  to  gold,
masses  of  silver  would  displace  gold  in  the
currencies  and  reserves  of  the  bimetallic
countries,  and  outside  these  currencies  and
reserves  supplies  of  gold  would  be  consequently ­
  augmented  while  supplies  of  silver