LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.
THE GOLD PRODUCTION OF THE WORLD.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—The Times, which is usually quite reliable, issued a
statement with reference to the present yield of gold which has been quoted in your columns and by other papers. I quote the passage below, and as the Times will not permit its.
correctness to be called in question, perhaps the importance of the subject will justify the attempt to state the case fairly and briefly. You have quoted the passage thus : "As to the gold production of the world, the yield is yearly increasing, and that of 1891 was the largest ever recorded."
Sir Louis Mallet, at p. 120 of the "Report of the Royal Commission on Gold and Silver," gives the world's yield of gold from 1852 to 1859 at the yearly average of £28,270,000, and the year 1852 at 236,550,000. In Patterson's "New
Golden Age" (p. 423), substantially the same estimate is given. Soetbur, at p. 9 of said Report, gives the average yield of gold from 1851 to 1885 at E25,428,000. Del Mar, in. "A History of the Precious Metals," estimates the average- yield of gold from 1852 to 1861 at e28,280,000. The yield of
1891, as estimated in the Times at 6,033,000 ounces, amounts to 223,45300.
When estimating the results from the large yields men- tioned above, we should bear in mind that,—
France coined gold from 1846 to 1880, as per Re- port (p. 44) ... £280,000,00() Germany, per Report (p 56) ... S0,000;000 United States, 1866 to 1885 (p. 10) ... 124,000,0W Britain and Australia (say) 60,000,000 Used in the Arts, £7,000,000 per annum in forty
years (p. 12) ... 280,000,000, Austria requires ... 50,000,000,
.874,000,000'
These demands would seem to absorb the extra supply of gold
which has been obtained during the last forty-five years..—I. am, Sir, &c.,
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