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RELATIVE VALUE

CHAP. XXIII..

nine pounds of silver; nor did the relative valueof the metals fluctuate more in the long course ofcenturies to the time when the new sources ofmineral wealth in the western world were in fullactivity. Since that period the relative value othe two kinds of metal has been gradually changed,and gold is become near fifteen times as valuableas silver, or one pound weight of gold is nearlyequal to fifteen pounds of silver. Humboldt basestimated the quantity of gold and silver producedfrom the whole of America , since the discovery upto the year 1803, to be one hundred and sixty-twomillion pounds weight of the former, and seventhousand one hundred and seventy-eight millionpounds of the latter. The weight of silver to thatof gold has been thus about as forty-four to one.

Thus the value of the silver produced since thediscovery of America is three times that of gold ;but the loss by wear on silver is four times that ofgold. In process of time, therefore, it is clearthat, from its durability, gold would gain in valueupon silver; that is, a pound of gold would be-come worth more than fifteen pounds of silver.This effect was produced at first in part from thegreater proportionate quantity of silver that wasprocured, and in part by a less quantity of thegold which existed at the time of the discovery ofAmerica having been lost by wear than of thesilver then in use. In what degree each of thesecauses tended to preserve the equable proportionate