ABSTRACT
The year 1851 is that of the Australian discoveries, and that also about which the supplies of Californian gold began to be of importance. During a period of depression, at low water of the commercial tide, the prices of 118 commodities or varieties of commodity, comprising nearly all the great staple articles, stand 10 per cent higher than they did before the gold discoveries. The general average variation of the whole thirty-nine commodities may be taken as an approximate representation of the great fluctuations in speculation and investment which we have before considered. The permanent elevation of prices, due to gold depreciation, will then be more apparent to all. By the French law of the 7 Germinal, year 11 of the Revolution, an attempt was made to combine gold and silver in the French currency.
