4,326,397 ounces. In 1894 the product was
167,752,561 ounces, which, as will be observed, was about nine times
the annual product from 1493 to 1865.

From 1876 to 1894 the business of silver mining was increased 147 per
cent. Can any one name any other business or pursuit in which there
was a like increase? And is not the inference justified that the
profits have been large and tempting, notwithstanding the
demonetization of silver in some countries and the suspension of
coinage in other countries?

I turn now to the future, and first as to the possibility of the
further use of silver as currency.

I assume that in countries where the standard is gold there may be a
considerable use of silver, as in the United States to-day.

An international bimetallic system, binding nations to each other for
a definite term of years, is a proposition involving large
responsibilities.

If in 1885 it was not practicable to secure the adoption of the
bimetallic system, when silver was worth eighty-four cents per ounce,
what is the prospect of its adoption when silver is worth only sixty-
four cents per ounce, with an annually increasing product and a
diminishing price?

What remains? This, possibly: That the nations may agree to purchase
each a per cent of a fixed amount of silver as the product of each
year. This scheme might prove, and probably it would prove, to be only
a temporary expedient.

The enormous increase in the business of silver mining is evidence that
the profits are far in excess of the profits that are gained in other
pursuits. The increase in product is likely to be followed by a fall
in price. Such are the resources of the earth that an increase in the
demand for silver will be followed by an increase in the supply.

Gold mining is obedient to the same law. From 1876 to 1894 the product
increased 74 per cent. That ratio of increase is likely to continue.
The world is not in peril of a gold famine. Gold as a currency,
passing from hand to hand, will be used less and less. Substitutes,
for which gold can be obtained, will be preferred. The volume of
currency in a country is not limited by the amount of gold that a
country may possess. It may increase the amount of subsidiary coin
very largely, and it may add to the sum of paper money, provided that
that paper money is always redeemable in gold.

Nor does the quantity of gold in a country determine the price of
commodities, except as that gold