e. an ounce of gold would exchange for
less than at present. And, assuming the price of silver to keep up as
heretofore, about 5s. an ounce, our sovereign would be valued less in
other countries, and all exchange operations would be sensibly
affected. The only countervailing influence in the reduction of gold
to, say, only double the price of silver, would be an increased
consumption in articles of taste and manufacture, which, however, can
only be speculative and uncertain. It is said by accounts from
California that five hundred miles lie open to the avarice of
gold-hunters, and that some adventurers have collected from 1,200 to
1,800 dollars a-day; the probable average of each man's earnings being
from 8 to 10 dollars a-day, or, let us say, L2. The same authority
avers there is room and verge enough for the profitable working, to
that extent, of a hundred thousand persons. And it is likely enough
before long that such a number may be tempted to seek their easily
acquired fortune in the golden sands of El Sacramento and elsewhere.
Now two pounds a-day for each man would amount to L200,000, which,
multiplied by 300 working days, will give L60,000,000 a-year! That is,
L600,000,000 in ten years! A fearful amount of gold dust, and far more
than enough to disturb the equanimity of ten thousand political
economists.
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