ccomplished, and now a
convention was called at Vienna, which was attended by authorized
representatives of Prussia, Austria, and the South German States. It was
there stated that, besides various minor coins, there were three great
competing systems in Germany, namely, those of Austria, Prussia, and
Bavaria. It is needless to go into details of this once famous convention,
but suffice it to say that the following points were agreed upon: (1) The
Prussian thaler was to be the standard for Prussia and the South German
States, and was to be a silver standard exclusively. (2) The Austrian
silver standard was to prevail throughout that empire. (3) The contracting
powers could coin trade coins in gold, but none others, except Austria,
which retained the right of coining ducats, and these gold coins were to
have their value fixed entirely by the relation of the supply to the
demand. "They were not therefore to be considered as mediums of payments
in the same nature as the legal silver currency, and nobody was legally
bound to receive them as such;" in short, none of the gold coins permitted
by the convention were to be legal tender, but all were to be mere trade
coins precisely for the same purpose as the trade dollar once so famous in
the United States. The result, of course, was to make silver the standard
and gold the fluctuating money or token money. The effects of this
convention remained with but little change till 1871.

Of course, gold at once became "dishonest money." It was worth less than
silver, and a regular gold panic set in. Holland had already demonetized
most of her gold coinage, that is, had deprived it of the legal tender
quality, and Portugal now practically prohibited any gold from having
current value, except English sovereigns. Belgium demonetized all its gold
at one sweep, and Russia prohibited the export of silver. Thus, in an
alarmingly short space of time five nations had practically demonetized
gold, and others were threatening to do so, and the world was rapidly
being taught that gold was the discredited metal, while silver was the
stable and sound money.

Some curious and a few amusing results followed. Among a certain class in
England a regular panic broke out, and in Holland and Belgium even the
masses of the people became suspicious of gold and disliked to take it in
payment. In the latter country a few traders hung out signs to attract
customers, to this effect, "L'or est recu sans perte," me