Years. Silver. Gold. Total. 1493-1520 $2,115,000 $4,045,500 $6,160,500 1521-1544 4,059,000 4,994,000 9,053,000 1545-1560 14,022,000 5,935,500 19,957,500 1561-1580 13,477,500 4,770,750 18,248,250 1581-1600 18,850,500 5,147,500 23,998,000 1601-1620 19,030,500 5,942,750 24,973,250 1621-1640 17,712,000 5,789,250 23,501,250 1641-1660 16,483,500 6,117,000 22,600,500 1661-1680 15,165,000 6,458,750 21,623,750 1681-1700 15,385,500 7,508,500 22,894,000 1701-1720 16,002,000 8,942,000 24,944,000 1721-1740 19,404,000 13,308,250 32,712,250 1741-1760 23,991,500 17,165,500 41,157,000 1761-1780 29,373,250 14,441,750 43,815,000 1781-1800 39,557,750 12,408,500 51,966,250 1801-1810 40,236,750 12,400,000 52,636,750 1811-1820 24,334,750 7,983,000 32,317,750 1821-1830 20,725,250 9,915,750 30,641,000 1831-1840 26,840,250 14,151,500 40,991,750 1841-1850 35,118,750 38,194,250 73,313,000 1851-1855 39,875,250 137,766,750 177,642,000 1856-1860 40,724,500 143,725,250 184,449,750 1861-1865 49,551,750 129,123,250 178,675,000 1866-1870 60,258,750 133,850,000 194,108,750 1871-1875 88,624,000 119,045,750 207,669,750 1876-1879 110,575,000 119,710,000 230,285,000 [Illustration: Rise of Average Gold Prices.] Chart showing rise of average gold prices after the gold discoveries of 1849 to 1862. The fall of prices from 1873 to 1879, owing to the commercial panic in the former year, however, is regarded, somewhat unjustly, in my opinion, as an evidence of an appreciation of gold. Mr. Giffen’s paper in the “Statistical Journal,” vol. xlii, is the basis on which Mr. Goschen founded an argument in the “Journal of the Institute of Bankers” (London), May, 1883, and which attracted considerable attention. On the other side, see Bourne, “Statistical Journal,” vol. xlii. The claim that the value of gold has risen seems particularly hasty, especially when we consider that after the panics of 1857 and 1866 the value of money rose, for reasons not affecting gold, respectively fifteen and twenty-five per cent. The very thing for which the precious metals are most recommended for use as the materials of money—their _durability_—is also the very thing which has, for all practical purposes, excepted them from the law of cost of production, and caused their value to depend practically upon the law of demand and supply. Their durability is the reason of the vast accumulations in existence, and this it is which makes the annual product very small in relation to the whole existing supply, and so prevents its value from conforming, except after a long term of years, to the cost of production of the annual supply.