GOLD AND SILVER.

Inangahua Times, Volume X, Issue 1632, 27 November 1885, Page 2

GOLD AND SILVER.

Gold in its relative valup to silver lias varied greatly at d:Qor«nt periods. In the days of the patriarch Abraham it was one to eight ; B. C. 1000, it was one to twelve ; B. C. 500, it was on* to thirteeu ; at the commencement of the C!:ristiun era, it was one to time ; A. D- 500. it was one to eighteen ; in 1100. it whs one to eijjlit; hi 1100, it was one to eleven ; in 1545, it was one to six ; in 1551, it wa* on« to two : in 1900, it was one to teu ; in 1627, it was one to thirteen; in 1700, it was O!!e to drVen and one-half ; itheM the laUer l-jitio, with l.nt slight vrtiiation, until 1872, when it lietran to rise, and in 1876 it rose to one to twentvjii then gradually declined, and now stands at oue to nineteen and onehalf.

j (jokl to the amount of £216,000, 000 is estimated to . have been in existence at the commencement of the Christian era. At the period of the , discovery of America it had diminished |to £25,000,000. After that event it gradually incifftsrd, and in 1600 it attained to £34,000,000; in 1700 it j [ reach, d £776,000,000: in 1880 it' ; amounted to £231,200.000 ; in 1853 it , attained to £066,000,000 and at the

present time the amount of cold in ex* i-teuee is estimated to be £1,233,000, 000, which if melted into one mass, coulu be contained in a cube of thirty feet Of the amount of gold in esiotenco £ 1,200,000,000 is estimated to lie in coin and bnllion, £200,000,000 in watches, and the remainder in jewellery and ornaments. Of the hmouui of #«>ld in existence £474, 000,000 is estimated to have l*-en obtained from North America, £367, 000,000 from South America, £371, 000,000 from Asia (iucluding Australia, New Zealand, and Oceania), £188.000,000 from Europe, and £250, 000,000 from Africa The amount of the precious nietuls now in existence estimated to i>e £'2,732.000,0D0.