oscillation—change of ratio, and the least alteration of the condition of one metal made it a lever for operations upon the other. These operations were arbitrage merely. They had no relation to the ebb and flow of commerce as modern arbitrage transactions have. It was a financier's opportunity of private gain, and for private gain the system was worked. The ebb and flow of European currencies, which the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries witnessed, were as unnecessary (i.e. for the purposes of her commerce) as they were disastrous.
It is sufficient to indicate the tendency of this argument, and to leave the illustration of it to the following pages.
To return to the yield of precious metals during