Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy — John Stuart Mill — John Shaqi
Principles of Political Economy: Abridged with Critical, Bibliographical, and Explanatory Notes, and a Sketch of the History of Political Economy
John Stuart Mill · en
For the facts in regard to the production of the precious metals,
see the investigation by Dr. Adolf Soetbeer,(230) from which Chart
IX has been taken. It is worthy of careful study. The figures in
each period, at the top of the respective spaces, give the average
annual production during those years. The last period has been
added by me from figures taken from the reports of the Director of
the United States Mint. Other accessible sources, for the
production of the precious metals, are the tables in the
appendices to the Report of the Committee to the House of Commons
on the “Depreciation of Silver” (1876); the French official
Procès-Verbaux of the International Monetary Conference of 1881,
which give Soetbeer’s figures to a later date than his publication
above mentioned; the various papers in the British parliamentary
documents; and the reports of the director of our mint. Since 1850
more gold has been produced than in the whole period preceding,
from 1492 to 1850. Previous to 1849 the annual average product of
gold, out of the total product of both gold and silver, was
thirty-six per cent; for the twenty-six years ending in 1875, it
has been seventy and one half per cent. The result has been a rise
in gold prices certainly down to 1862,(231) as shown by the
following chart. It will be observed how much higher the prices
rose during the depression after 1858 than it was during a period
of similar conditions after 1848. The result, it may be said, was
predicted by Chevalier.(232)
Chart IX.
_Chart showing the Production of the Precious Metals, according to Value,
from 1493 to 1879._