greater than anywhere else. The common estimate has been ninety in one hundred. There is nothing mysterious in this result. It is the natural consequence of a fluctuating and unreliable currency. Notwithstanding this greater stability of the English currency, as compared with that of the United States, it is still so essentially defective, so alloyed or adulterated with the element of credit, that it produces in degree, though not in extent, the same evils suffered in the United States. The commerce of the vast empire of Great Britain is kept in a state of continual perturbation. The "reserve" of the Bank of England is watched with the greatest solicitude: as it rises or falls, so every business man in the nation is affected. This has become more strikingly apparent within the last twenty years. The fluctuations in the bank rate of interest have been more frequent and violent than previously, and seem to be growing worse from year to year.

We annex a Table VIII., showing the bank reserve for each year from 1844 to 1858, and the corresponding rates of interest charged by the Bank of England, together with a diagram, No 10, representing the same.

TABLE VIII., showing the Rates of Interest each Year in the Bank of England, with the Amount of the Bank Reserve at the corresponding Date, from 1844 to 1858, inclusive, and the Suspensions of the Bank Act.

Observe the correspondence between Diagrams No. 9 and 10. The rate of interest in both countries is evidently affected by the same disturbing force, though in different degrees.

EFFECTS OF MIXED CURRENCY UPON AMERICAN AGRICULTURE.

Unfavorable as the influence of mixed currency is upon all branches of industry, the agriculture of the United States is especially injured by it, because, as a people, we have a large surplus of agricultural products, that must find sale in foreign markets. Whatever such surplus is worth for export, determines the price of the whole crop; and the value or price is determined by the value or price of gold. Such products are virtually sold for gold. It is always a matter of choice with the merchant whether to send wheat, for example, or gold, as a remittance. The produce of the farmer, then, must be sold at a gold standard; but all he purchases for himself and family is bought at currency prices. How much difference this may make is seen at the present time, when commodities in general are one hundred and twenty per cent above par, while gold is but forty.

The currency is now (1865) a credit, or inconvertible one; but we are to inquire whether the principle does not hold good at all times, under a mixed or partially convertible currency. We therefore refer to the statistical tables of the Financial Report of 1863, as heretofore, for prices, and construct a table which exhibits the price of flour and the price of cotton for fourteen years prior to 1860. We also give the general prices of certain commodities, as shown in our Table V., previously given (see page 178,) and also the volume of the currency, per capita, at corresponding dates:

Wheat may be taken as an exponent of all agricultural products exported.

YEARS.

TABLE IX., showing the Price of Flour and Cotton from 1846 to 1859, inclusive (14 Years), with the Currency per Capita, and General Prices at corresponding

Dates.

The foregoing table shows conclusively, that, while general prices conform remarkably to the existing quantity of currency, flour and cotton do not rise and fall with its fluctuations. Flour, for example, in 1846, with a currency of 9.94, was at $5.06; while in 1851, when the currency had risen to 11.86, an advance of twenty per cent, flour was at $4.50, a decline of ten per cent. Cotton was at 12 cents, under a currency of 10.39, in 1850, and but 9 cents, under a currency of 14.95, in 1854. But we need not point to these facts; they are quite apparent throughout the whole table, and show beyond cavil that the prices of agricultural products in the United States are not governed by its mixed currency, as other products are which the agriculturist must purchase for consumption. Hence he is always a sufferer, as compared with the manufacturer and all other classes whose productions are not exported; for the commodities of the latter, while they are advanced in cost by currency inflation, are also, unless they come especially into competition with foreign products, correspondingly enhanced in price in the home market.

Ordinarily, this operation of a mixed currency is not apparent to superficial observers; but the effects are, nevertheless, always as certain as at the present time, when they are seen by every one.