in general circulation or not would serve (which is the point I desire to emphasise) to check the rise of the exchange above the Gold point, whatever that might be, and thus prevent the fall of Silver beyond the price corresponding to the exchange on the 6·34033 francs per ounce.
I say 'whatever that might be,' because the 'Gold Point' itself fluctuates slightly in correspondence with the agio (if there is an agio) on the metal.
All that the open Mint in France could do was to give 6·34554 francs for an English ounce Standard, which is reduced, after deducting discount, to 6·34033 francs; and if 6·34033 francs an ounce is worth in this country less than 60·232 pence an ounce, the price may full accordingly to the sum in pence which those francs may be worth, unless the English demand sustains it.
At the period in question, i.e. between April 1872 and September 1873, the demand did so far sustain it, that it never practically fell below the point where the operation of the French Mint would have come into play—never reached the impassable[1] barrier which that Mint had set up.
Well, now, to come to the questions above stated on p. 151: Did Silver fall during that period from the par price of 60·232d.?
- ↑ The barrier is impassable, wherever it may stand at any given moment; but it may shift its place (by centimes, as the exchange rises or falls) from hour to hour; I exclude, however, this element of speculation on the part of buyer and seller and say that no man would sell his Silver for a less price than he believed he could or should get by sending it to Paris and drawing for the value in francs at the quoted exchange.
