Lanterna Rally

Author: H. T. Easton

Publisher:

Published: 2015-07-26

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 9781331990918

Excerpt from Tate's Modern Cambist: A Manual of Foreign Exchanges and Bullion With the Monetary Systems of the World and Foreign Weights and Measures The science of exchange, or, to use the old word, cambistry, has always been a subject of great importance. When countries traded with each other it was necessary for them to have a medium by which they could exchange goods. From the earliest periods in the worlds history gold and silver formed the medium of exchange. There was also a substitute found in the shape of bank-notes, which, within certain limits, were a convenient method for discharging debts between individuals. In addition to these modes of payment bills of exchange have been utilised for the same purpose. These documents were used by Italian merchants as early as the twelfth century, and circulate largely throughout Southern Europe. With regard to international trade, we find, however, that the final adjustment of debts must be in the shape of bullion. We have, therefore, movements of bullion from one country to another for the purpose of discharging international indebtedness. Now, bullion exists either in the shape of gold or silver, and is sold in the market like any other commodity, but with this important distinction, that a fixed price has been given for gold, so that fluctuations in price are somewhat limited. Silver, however, fluctuates considerably, in accordance with the laws of supply and demand. In consequence of great production throughout the world the price has fallen in recent years from 60d. to 25d. per once. This great fall in value has been the cause of many countries adopting a gold standard, in order to avoid fluctuations in the price of commodities, and also to enable such countries to trade more successfully with those nations which have that standard. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.