Secondly, what has been the influence of this divergence of the commercial from the legal ratio upon France's store of precious metals? It has been exactly similar in effect and force with that wielded by similar trains of event and circumstance, in the monetary history of France during the four preceding centuries. The exact official figures of the import and export of gold and silver are not obtainable before 1822, and in a continuous stream not before 1830 (separably for the two metals, that is to say).[15]
FRANCE: BIMETALLIC EXPERIENCE, 1803-75
From the latter date, however, the testimony of the figures is as explicit as it is forceful. From 1830 to 1850, while the ratio remained continually below the legal 15 1⁄2, there was a profit on the import of silver, and a persistent and heavy import took place. In 1830 the (balance of the) silver imported amounted to a matter of 6 millions sterling, in
1831 to 7 1⁄4 millions, in 1834 to 4 millions, in 1837 to over 5 1⁄2 millions, in 1838 to nearly 5 millions, in 1841 to nearly 5 millions, in 1843 over 4 millions, in 1848 to over 8 1⁄2 millions, and in 1849 to nearly 10 millions. There was not a single year that was not accompanied by this import, and over the whole twenty-two years the total of importations reached the enormous figure of, approximately, 92 millions sterling. It must be clearly understood that this sum represents not the gross but the net importation or balance of imports over exports, and that the money passed into the currency of the country, taking its place as such and displacing gold pari passu. The movement of gold in the same time is represented by the red line in the accompanying diagram. Within the limits of very considerable exceptions, the correspondence of its fluctuations with those of gold is clearly perceptible. The silver, on whose coinage a profit or premium was offered by the existing French law to individuals, could only be bought or paid for by the export of gold or services and goods. During these years, 1830-50, it was quite apparently by the latter method, namely, by remittance of goods, as on the whole period there is a slight gain of gold, nearly 3 millions, contrary to what bimetallic law would have led to expect. The correspondence, however—a simultaneity—of the two movements, of import of silver and export of gold, is strongly marked in the years 1834-39 and 1841-48, and the failure of correspondence of the totals is to be explained by the statistics of French foreign trade balances during the years named.
With the year 1852, the decisive change in the ratio sets in with the new gold influx.
The ratio rises above the 15.5 of the French law, and the profit on the importation and coining of silver vanishes. Its place is taken by a corresponding profit on the importation and coinage of gold. The fourteen years during which the ratio remained above the legal 15 1⁄2 witnessed the importation into France of a total net (or balance) of gold to the amount of 135 millions sterling, and a total net or balance of exportation of silver of 66 2⁄3 millions sterling. The coincidence of actual fluctuation will best be seen by the graphic representation of it in the table. With 1865 the final and, so far as the nineteenth century is concerned, the fatal change of the commercial ratio sets in. It sinks persistently and increasingly below the legal 15 1⁄2, in face and spite of the united mintings of the Latin Union, and at once the premium on the importation and coinage of gold changes into one on silver. From 1865 to 1875, one year before the abandonment of the coinage of the 5-franc piece and the consequent relinquishment by France of the bimetallic system, her net imports of silver amounted to 56 millions sterling.
As far as these figures of import and export are concerned, they show only the final results of the action of bimetallic law. The metal on whose importation and minting a premium was obtainable was imported, and in large quantities. That is the single fact standing out in large. The reciprocal fact—of a corresponding export of the metal over whose
head the premium offered—does not emerge so distinctly, simply by reason of the complication of the subject of exports of metals with the wider general movement of trade balances. It also is, however, distinctly perceptible and demonstrable. But this is to speak only in large and of final results. What the intermediate course of events—of see-saw and flux, was, can only be adequately grasped from the records of the mintings, conjoined with the records of net import or export of the two metals.
TABLE OF THE NET IMPORTS OR EXPORTS OF GOLD IN FRANCE UNDER THE BIMETALLIC LAW, 1822-75.
| Year. | Net Import (Francs). | Net Export (Francs). | Year. | Net Import (Francs). | Net Export (Francs). | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1822 | 4,000,000 | ... | 1852 | 17,000,000 | ... | |
| 1823 | ... | 19,000,000 | 1853 | 289,000,000 | ... | |
| 1824 | 37,000,000 | ... | 1854 | 416,000,000 | ... | |
| 1830 | 10,000,000 | ... | 1855 | 218,000,000 | ... | |
| 1831 | 10,000,000 | ... | 1856 | 375,000,000 | ... | |
| 1832 | ... | 39,000,000 | 1857 | 446,000,000 | ... | |
| 1833 | 24,000,000 | ... | 1858 | 488,000,000 | ... | |
| 1834 | ... | 7,000,000 | 1859 | 539,000,000 | ... | |
| 1835 | ... | 20,000,000 | 1860 | 311,000,000 | ... | |
| 1836 | ... | 14,000,000 | 1861 | ... | 24,000,000 | |
| 1837 | ... | 6,000,000 | 1862 | 165,000,000 | ... | |
| 1838 | ... | 4,000,000 | 1863 | 12,000,000 | ... | |
| 1839 | 24,000,000 | ... | 1864 | 125,000,000 | ... | |
| 1840 | 49,000,000 | ... | 1865 | 150,000,000 | ... | |
| 1841 | ... | 5,000,000 | 1866 | 465,000,000 | ... | |
| 1842 | ... | 12,000,000 | 1867 | 409,000,000 | ... | |
| 1843 | ... | 41,000,000 | 1868 | 212,000,000 | ... | |
| 1844 | ... | 6,000,000 | 1869 | 275,000,000 | ... | |
| 1845 | ... | 14,000,000 | 1870 | 119,000,000 | ... | |
| 1846 | ... | 9,000,000 | 1871 | ... | 214,000,000 | |
| 1847 | ... | 13,000,000 | 1872 | ... | 53,000,000 | |
| 1848 | 38,000,000 | ... | 1873 | ... | 108,000,000 | |
| 1849 | 6,000,000 | ... | 1874 | 431,000,000 | ... | |
| 1850 | 17,000,000 | ... | 1875 | 454,000,000 | ... | |
| 1851 | 85,000,000 | ... | ... | ... |