of the impossibility of even approximate statistics of the amount of coin in any countries but the United States, Great Britain and France, this seems the most satisfactory rule of estimation. There are, of course, exceptions to all rules; but in the cases of exception to this the causes are pretty well known. Switzerland, for instance, is known to have a much larger percentage of money to revenue; but the cause is plainly in the fact that she has no public debt of any consequence. But in the case of nearly all the remaining countries in the table the exceptions are in the opposite direction. They all have great public debts. The pressure of taxation to pay the interest on these, as in Russia, Austria, Italy and Spain, has resulted in a revenue larger in proportion to the amount of money in the countries than in England and France, until, as in the cases of Italy and Spain, it has impoverished the people and, in the case of Spain, bankrupted the government. Therefore, taking the remainder of Europe (exclusive of Great Britain, France and Germany), the amount of annual taxation and revenue is larger in proportion to the amount of money in the countries, and we should assume at least 40 per cent as the ratio of the former to the latter.

Under this rule the total annual revenue of AustriaHungary, being $200,000,000, would represent a total monetary circulation of $500,000,000, or about $14 per capita. Of this amount $300,000,000 is paper money, thus leaving $200,000,000 of coin, which is known to be almost exclusively silver and token coinage.*

Upon the same basis there should be in Russia an aggregate of $982,000,000 of monetary circulating me

* See article on Suspensions of Specie Payments in all Countries.

dium. By reference to the table of paper money it will be seen that the aggregate of paper money in Russia in 1873 was equal to $780,000,000, in United States money, thus leaving an aggregate of $200,000,000 of coin, which is known to be, as in Austria, almost exclusively silver and base metal.

The total ordinary revenue of Italy, stated in the foregoing table at $178,000,000 for 1870, if accepted as representing 40 per cent of the total monetary circulation of the kingdom, would indicate the total of money to be $445,000,000, or $16.60 per capita. The total of paper money in Italy in 1874 was 1,500,000,000 francs, equal to $300,000,000 in United States money. Deducting this latter amount from the whole, it leaves $145,000,000 to be represented by coin. Silver is a legal tender in any sum in Italy, and even if gold was not driven out by the suspension of specie payments, the recent decline in the value of silver would have the effect to leave nothing but silver and copper in circulation.

The disorganization of finances in Spain is so complete that it is impossible to estimate the amount of government paper that has recently been used as money. But the government being hopelessly bankrupt, its paper has lost all value.

The countries most critically examined in the foregoing pages, viz.: Great Britain, France, Austria, Italy and Russia, contain 70 per cent of the population of Europe, and the conclusions to be drawn from the premises sustain the popular opinion that the wealth of Europe in gold and silver as well as other things concentrated mainly in Great Britain and France.

is

In view of all the foregoing facts, the estimates of the total value of gold and silver coin and bullion in banks

and in circulation in the respective countries of Europe would stand about as follows, viz.:

GOLD, SILVER AND BASE METAL COIN AND GOLD AND SILVER BULLION IN CIRCULATION AND IN BANKS IN ALL EUROPE.

The only countries of Europe not named in the above list are: Netherlands, population, 3,674,400; Luxembourg, population 197,500; Norway, population 1,741,000; Greece, population 1,457,000; Turkey in Europe, including Montenegro, Servia and Roumania, with a total population of 15,747,000, and Portugal, population 4,249,000, making an aggregate population of 25,600,000, not embraced in the table. In the Netherlands there is great wealth, but in all the other countries great poverty. If, therefore, we make an estimate of $18 per capita as the average coin in circulation and in banks in these countries, it would give an aggregate of $460,000,000. In the Netherlands and in Greece silver is the standard, and it would be a liberal estimate to say that $100,000,000 of the whole was gold coin and bullion in banks and in circulation. With these additions

we should have the total of each kind of money in Europe about as follows, viz.:

The figures for the metallic circulation, and especially for the gold, fall so immensely short of the commonly received estimates of the amounts in use as money in Europe, that it is only after several careful reviews of all the premises that I venture to commit them to paper; and though the rule I have adopted, of assuming the annual revenue of each country to be the measure of from 38 to 40 per cent of its entire monetary circulation, may not produce results corresponding to some popular notions, it is at least logical, and seems the only one available for application in all countries.

But when we come to sum up the whole matter we find that the total monetary circulation of Europe, including the paper money (of which I think the total volume has heretofore always been underestimated), gives for the 300,500,000 total population of Europe an average of $21.40 per capita, or $1.40 more per capita than the total of paper and coin per capita in the United States.

In Austria, Russia and Italy, with an aggregate population of 145,000,000, or nearly one half of all Europe, specie payments have been suspended for many years, and the depreciation of the legal tender paper money would have a tendency to drive gold and silver out of circulation. In the other countries, as in Belgium, Sweden and the Netherlands, where there has been no suspension of specie payments, but where silver is a legal tender in

any amount, the decline in the value of silver as compared to gold in the last year would have the effect to displace gold with silver. In Russia and Austria silver is the only standard, and the only legal metallic money of account, and under any circumstances, whether specie payments were suspended or not, silver would be the only coin in circulation to any considerable extent, except the token coinage. The operation of all these causes (and particularly the change in the relative values of gold and silver in the last year) has been to drive the gold out of other countries of Europe and concentrate it in Great Britain, France and Germany. In Germany this influx of gold has gone largely into general circulation in place of silver, which was demonetized under the new monetary system of the empire. In France the monetary circulation being already very large, it was not wanted in popular use and it went into the Bank of France. In Great Britain it went partly into circulation, but also accumulated to a considerable extent in the Bank of England.* The increase of specie in these banks has, I think, led to exaggerated estimates of the increase of gold and silver in use in Europe as money. Still another cause of exaggeration has been that those who undertook to estimate the amount of gold in the world could think of no other place for it.

Chevalier estimated the total of gold, in its various forms of coin bullion and personal ornaments, in the world, in 1848, at about $2,830,000,000, and various other accepted authorities estimated the amount of gold

*The effect of the movement of specie from all other parts of Europe to Germany, France and Great Britain, has, I think, contributed more than anything else to increase the specie reserve of the national banks of these three countries. This increase of specie in the banks of England, France and Germany, which has been ascribed to the increased production of gold and silver,