It was quite true that, if you yoked a cart-horse to a racer, the strength of both would be increased but the speed of the racer would be sacrificed.
Gold is the "racer" whose "speed" must not be sacrificed, no matter how much injury may be effected by its tendency to greater and greater gain.
The weight of the enormous burden which is imposed on gold can not be better illustrated than by a statement of this same Sir Lyon Playfair, made in the same speech. According to the London Times of April 19, he said that—
The liabilities of the banks of Great Britain to the public amounted to £621,000,000, or about the amount of the national debt of England; but the amount of coin or bullion to meet this liability was only £35,000,000; or, deducting from each side of the account £8,000,000 locked up in the Notes Department of the Bank of England, it was £27,000,000; or only 4½ per cent. of liabilities.
On the same occasion Mr. Goschen, Chancellor of the Exchequer, delivered an able speech, in which he gave his facts, his eloquence, and his logic to the struggling masses of his countrymen by maintaining the wisdom of remonetization of silver, but gave his conclusions and his policy to the creditor classes by recommending no disturbance of present conditions.
I have contended—
said the Chancellor of the Exchequer—
and am prepared still to contend, that I should prefer the currency of the world to depend upon two metals rather than upon one metal. To those views I gave expression in 1878. * * * I have always looked upon silver and gold not as antagonistic to each other; not as being metals the price of one of which would necessarily fall when the other rose, but I have looked upon them as partners who together were doing the work of the currency of the world.
The English creditor classes have not been without able coadjutors in this country. We have noticed for the last twelve or fourteen years that zealous advocates of the gold standard, the advantages of which are not confined to Great Britain, are to be found among the creditor classes of the United States.