The Royal British Commission, appointed August, 1885, to inquire into the causes of the depression of business, made world-wide inquiries and was composed of twenty-three members, a number of whom were distinguished statesmen and economists. They agreed that gold had greatly appreciated in value and that the rise in the value of gold was caused by the demonetization of silver and the falling off in the supply of gold, and it was the leading cause of the general depression in trade and industry. But it was added:
“This country [England] is largely a creditor country of debts payable in gold, and any change which entails a rise in the prices of commodities generally—that is to say, a demonetization of the purchasing power of gold—would be to our disadvantage.”
Archbishop Walsh (Dublin, 1893): “Of all conceivable systems of currency, that system is sure to be the worst which gives you a standard steadily, continually, indefinitely appreciating, and which, by that very fact, throws a burden upon every man of enterprise and benefits no human being whatever but the owner of fixed debts.”
Count Leo Tolstoi (Russian philanthropist): “Only by means of money do some people command the labor of others nowadays; that is, into slavedom. Money tribute has become a chief means of the subjugation of men, and by it are determined all the economic relations of man.”
Cernuschi (French economist): “The purchasing power of money is in direct proportion to the volume of money existing.”
Professor Chevalier (France), speaking of the increase of money, says: “Such a change will benefit those who live by current labor and enterprise; it will injure those who live upon the fruits of past labor.... It has been wisely said that there is no machine which economizes labor like money, and its adoption has been likened to the discovery of letters.”
Sauerbeck (German statistician): “The propositions of some economists, that we have quite enough money in our country, or that there is sufficient gold to carry on the trade of the world, are valueless. They assume that there is a certain quantity required that need not be increased. Of course there is enough gold, and we could perhaps do with half the quantity. It only depends upon the state of prices.”
Fichte (German philosopher): “The amount of money current in a state represents everything that is purchasable on the surface of the state. If the quantity of purchasable articles increases while the quantity of money remains the same, the value of the money increases in the same ratio. If the quantity of money increases while the quantity of purchasable articles remains the same, the value of money decreases in the same ratio.”
Herr von Barr, speaking of the loss to German miners by the demonetization of silver, says: “This direct loss, important as it is, is nothing, however, compared with the indirect loss resulting from the fall of prices.”
M. Edouard Cazalet, banker of Milan (“Bimetallism,” page 14): “Since the value of all articles of commerce is represented by the currency, the value of these articles must fall in proportion to the reduction in the volume of the currency. Otherwise the moneyed currency could not possibly do the work which the two metals combined have previously performed.”