1874. 1875. 1876. Belgium 12,000,000 15,000,000 10,800,000 France 60,000,000 75,000,000 54,000,000 Italy 60,000,000 50,000,000 36,000,000 Switzerland 8,000,000 10,000,000 7,200,000 Greece (which had acceded to the Union in 1868) 12,000,000 Of these states Switzerland alone did not coin up to her total, and at the conference in February 1876 her delegates pressed strongly for the entire cessation of the coinage of the 5-franc piece, and for the adoption of a gold standard. In this she was strongly opposed by Italy. The latter state, on account of the disappearance of her metallic currency before the inconvertible paper, had no interest in the limitation of the mintings of the Union. In the conference of 1874 she even sought and was authorised to coin beyond the quota accorded her, by a sum of not less than £800,000 in 5-franc pieces, on condition that such amount should be deposited as a metallic reserve of the Bank of Italy. The force of circumstances, however, soon broke down even this policy of limitation. In the course of 1876 the fall of silver became more disastrously pronounced. In addition, it was no secret that the amounts accorded by the conferences of 1874-75-76 for the mintings of each state, had been assigned as maximum, not minimum limits, under the Latin Union.[16] The next Mint convention of November 1878 would determine the Latin Union on the 31st December 1885, if not prolonged by further treaty. As the time approached the smaller states, such as Belgium, which had committed themselves to a large minting and thereby to the liability of having to liquidate or take back its own mintings--such 5-franc pieces as happened to be beyond its frontiers--at full value, in the face of a greatly fallen silver market, shrank from the responsibility, and sought and obtained a prolongation of the _status quo_ until the end of 1891, and thenceforward by yearly agreement. Finding that individuals treated the agreed amounts of mintings as a minimum limit, the French Government resolved to suspend the minting of the 5-franc pieces entirely. Accordingly, on the 21st March 1876, M. Léon Say, Minister of Finance, submitted to the Senate a Bill to that effect. It was followed, eight days later, by a proposition of a law suspending the emission of "_bons_" for the coining of silver money 9/10 fine. The _exposé des motifs_ of this Act is most remarkable:-- "The events which have happened for some time past in the relations of the precious metals have brought to a head the monetary question amongst us, although from 1815 Great Britain has laid down principles which have attracted round her an ever-increasing circle of nations. "The theory of the double standard, on which our monetary law of the year XI. reposes, has been called in question ever since its origin.