WHERE THE GOLD GOES.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume III, Issue 181, 23 August 1872, Page 3

WHERE THE GOLD GOES.

In the reign of Darius gold was : thi?• teen times more valuable, weight for weight, than silver. ' In the ' time of Plato it was. ten times more valuable. In that of .JuJius Ceesar, gold was only i nine times more-valuable, owing, perhaps to the enormous quantity of gold seized by him in his wars. It is .-a' natural question to ask —What became of tht) gold and silver ? A pap-jr read before the Polytechnic Association i>v - Dr. {Stephens, is calculated to meet the enquiry. He siys of our annual gold product, fully 15 p«3r cent is melted down for manutact'ire ; 35 per cent, goes to Europe; 25 per cent, to Cuba ; 15 per; cent, to Brazil; 5. pe: cent, for circulation in Grreat "Britain. Of that which goes to .Cuba; the : West Indies, and Brazil, fully 50 per <*ent. find ifs way to Europe, -deducting a large per centa -e used in 'mauu-. Picturing,-foil'' "-fifths of the remainder is exported to Indi:-L ' "Here the-transit of the precious metal is at. an end. Here the supply, howev. r vast, is absorbed, and never returns to the civilised woi-hl. The Orientals consume i but little, while their productions--are | ever in demand among the "Western j nations. As mere.irecipients these'na- I tions have acquired the desire of accu- i ■mula-tion and hoarding, a fashion common alike to all classes among the Chinese, Egyptians, arid Persians. . A French economist, says, itihis the termer nation alone can hide-awn v twenty million dollars of gold and silver annually, and the present Emperor" oi is reported as so addicted to this avaricious mania that he has filled 17 large chambers with the precious metals. The passion' of princes, it is not surprising thnt the same spririt is shared by their subjects, and it is in this predilection that we discover the problem as to ultimate disposition of the precious metals. This absorption-by the Eastern nations has been uninterruptedly going on since the most remote historical period. According to Pliny as much one hundred million dollars of gold was, in his'day, annually exported to the East. The balance of trade in favor of those nations i 3 now given at eight million dollars.