ons; that by attempting bimetallism a
nation puts itself in the second or third rank, and that the results are
in every way bad. Well, all those conditions applied to France. She, like
the United States, may be considered as regarding England in the light of
the world's clearing house, and her currency may be said to have
fluctuated, as they declare ours would, with bimetallism. What, then, have
been the general results to France? What effect has it had upon her
commercial, social, and industrial development? On this point let us
return thanks that the testimony is universal. No other nation in the
world has made such stupendous progress in the general improvement of her
people as France has made since 1803. No civilized country probably had
sunk to such depths of popular misery as had France at the beginning of
her revolution, and we can hardly believe that the subsequent fourteen
years of war and internal turmoil had greatly improved her condition when
the policy of 1803 was adopted.

[Illustration: The above diagram shows the course of the commercial ratio
of the values of gold and silver during the bimetallic period of France.
The upper dotted line (A) shows the extreme high limit of ratio, and the
lower dotted line (C) the extreme low limit reached from the years 1803 to
1873. The central line (B) is the mint ratio of 15.50 to 1 fixed by the
French Government in 1803. The variable line (D) is the commercial ratio
of the values of the two metals during that period. Note the slight
variation in this ratio from 1803 to 1873, during which time the
bimetallic action of the French law was operative, and then contrast it
with the sudden and swift descent of the ratio after the demonetization of
silver by the various nations in 1873 and 1875.]

Bimetallism and a rigid adherence to a specie basis were two of the means
adopted by Bonaparte to restore France, and during all his wars, with
their terrible expenses, he never once departed from the specie standard.
After the Act of 1803 France was still to have twelve years of war and
severe trial. She has subsequently had two revolutions and a foreign war,
singularly destructive in its course, and ending in her subjugation, the
occupation of her territory, and the loss of two of her wealthiest
provinces.

Seventy years of bimetallism had left France saturated with gold and
silver when her Emperor rashly provoked the war with Germany; her expenses
were enormously increased, and