silver, and involving a decline from 62 3-4d. to
52d. per ounce; great fear of a gold famine come upon the Directors of
the Bank of France, and also of the Bank of England; the annual product
of gold to attain its acme, four years before his predictions; its
gradual decline, until it had descended to one-half; a new gold-field
opened in New Zealand; and silver demonetized by his own country,
Germany, and the other principal countries of Europe. M. Emile de
Lavelaye (Ninteenth Century Review, September, 1881), states, "that the
present annual supply of gold is no more than sufficient to meet the
requirements of the expanding commerce of the world. The scarcity of
gold has induced so great a fall in prices that they are now lower than
in 1850. It is estimated that North America has contributed L14,000,000
of the stock of gold in the world." We have already shown that the
annual product of gold has increased, at one period, thirteen fold, and
is now, notwithstanding its rapid decrease, five fold greater than at
the commencement of the present century; that prices have not been in
the least degree affected by the increased supply of gold; and that
North America has contributed $2,374,000,000 of the stock of gold in the
world.

Gold has faithfully performed for the last forty-two years, and, in view
of its abundance and prospective increase, will continue to support its
_role_ of a fixed standard of value, and a firm basis for the bank-note
circulation of the principal countries of the civilized world, which is
evidently growing gradually metallic, as a comparative statement of the
amount of bank-note circulation issued, and the amount of specie held by
the Bank of England, the joint stock banks, and the private banks of
Great Britain the Bank of France, the State banks, and the National
banks of the United States, at different periods, will exhibit:

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1840.
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| GREAT BRITAIN. | FRANCE. | UNITED STATES.
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Circulation | L34,976,524 | 220,005,695 francs. | $87,872,171
Specie | 8,751,342 | 225,406,807 " | 35,207,690
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1850.
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