At one time, early in their deliberations, the old controversy between bimetallists and monometallists which the problem so closely involved threatened to make some division among the delegates. But the danger was soon overcome. Monetary conditions throughout the world had already been so changed by the influence of the fraction of Brent’s treasure which had been poured into the channels of trade that matters of argument a year before had now become matters of accepted fact. Previous opinions and convictions were willingly revised in the light of new and unsuspected conditions. No man sitting at the conference board was so strongly wedded to hobbies or theories as to oppose them for an instant to the stupendous facts now presented. The air was most effectually cleared at the moment a disagreement seemed possible, by a plain, straightforward statement of the situation by one of the English delegates. Speaking in simple, business-like fashion, he said: “Gentlemen, I do not think we need concern ourselves too seriously with the question of bimetallism. It is a matter which need not be directly passed upon by this conference. I admit that our decree upon the fate of this gold will have an almost decisive effect upon the monetary use of silver; but let us look at the matter from another and I believe broader point of view. “Our problem really amounts to this: How shall we, in deciding the destiny of this gold, secure to the world the greatest stability of monetary values? In other words, how much if any of this gold can be devoted to monetary and general use without seriously disturbing proper standards of value? When we settle that point, the ratio between gold and silver will adjust itself. I submit that it is not in the power of any government or combination of governments to fix that ratio arbitrarily in defiance of the actual ratio of the supply of the two metals. “Look at the matter for one moment in the light of history. The fluctuations have been great, and dependent solely upon supply and demand. Go back as far as Darius, and the ratio was thirteen to one. After the pillage of the Temple of Delphi, B.C. 357, it fell to ten to one. In the Roman world it rose as high as seventeen to one, but after Cæsar’s return, loaded with spoils from Gaul, it was reduced to nine to one. In the Middle Ages it ranged between ten and twelve to one. It began to rise soon after 1600, and in 1717 the English government fixed the ratio at 15.2 to one. The relative supply of the two metals has always fixed their relative values, and it always will continue to do so.