Fluctuations in the value of the precious metals and their effect on trade

Abstract

I need hardly apologise for introducing this subject to your notice. The trade of Great Britain is the source of her national wealth, and therefore anything that even remotely affects it must be of interest to a society like ours. I know it is the fashion to say that changes in the value of the precious metals have but little effect on the whole community; for that, while they may alter the relative position to each other of classes, like possessors of fixed incomes and traders, such changes leave unaffected the wealth of any country that does not produce silver and gold.