Knowledge that Transforms

THE publication of the results of the last quinquennial census of France, taken in the year I896, gives renewed evidence of the almost stationary state of French population. The total population for the eighty-seven departments included in the enumeration is 38,5I7,975, showing a gain of I75,027 on the year 189I, and of 299,072 for the decade I886-I896. But the real situation is only partly disclosed in these totals. For only twenty-four of the eighty-seven departments show any increase, the remaining sixty-three having experienced an actual decline of numbers, aggregating over 385,ooo, as compared with I89I. The explanation of this phenomenon is the continued drift of population from the rural districts toward the larger centers. Cities of over 30,000 inhabitants show an aggregate gain of 327,000, the three cities, Paris, Lyon, and Marseilles alone being credited with almost half this increase.

Enthusiasts who hope for concessions from Great Britain in order to further an international bimetallic agreement would do well to con? sider whether there is any real ground to hope for even the opening of the Indian mints. In the first place, since the closing of the mints, the rupee has been maintained at a higher value than the value of the silver it contains (although not as high as the legal rate of i6d.). At present the fluctuations in exchange are not so extreme, and, therefore, not so productive of uncertainty in the budget as they were before June 26, 1893. To open the Indian mints without practically absolute cer? tainty of the future control over the world-price of silver would be to give up a present advantage for a future uncertainty. Unless the pro? moters of an international agreement can promise more than is likely to be believed, it is quite unlikely that the gains already accrued from the closing of the Indian mints will be sacrificed. The comparison between the rates of exchange on India (payable in India in rupees) and the price of the silver contents of a rupee is striking and suggestive. The rupee is now a token coin, circulating at a nominal value far above the value of its contents as bullion. Opening the mints would at once lower the value of the coined rupee (and the rate of exchange) to the value of the silver it contains; just as free coinage in the United States, or France, would bring the dollar, or the five-franc piece, to the worth of the bullion in each coin. The fluctuations of exchange are now on a higher level than those of silver; and opening the mints would bring a new disturbance. And as a compensation there is only the remote contingency that possibly enough states might unite to con? trol the world-value of silver. Conservative statesmen are not likely to rise to this fly.