The gold standard: How it came into the world and why it will stay. A historical sketch with some practical reflections thereon.

The gold standard by Horace White is an economic essay and historical sketch written in the late 19th century. It examines monetary systems and policy, arguing for the single gold standard over bimetallism. The likely topic is how gold became the dominant standard across major nations and why it would endure.

The work surveys England’s shift from a troubled double standard to legal gold monometallism, the United States’ move from early bimetallism to a de facto gold basis after 1834 and its formalization in 1873, and Germany’s post-1871 reform, all driven by silver’s bulk and market instability. It traces France’s path from the 1803 silver-based law to practical bimetallism, the gold influx of the 1850s, the Latin Monetary Union, and the 1873–76 closure of mints to silver; Belgium, Holland, and Austria followed similar trajectories. The author rejects claims that Germany caused silver’s collapse, portrays gold’s rise as a natural evolution reflecting commercial preference, and explains the failure of international bimetallic efforts. He argues against turning back, contends that falling prices mainly stem from productivity, not gold scarcity, disputes the idea that mortgages and public debts are unjustly burdened, and defends the 1873 coinage reform against charges that it “unwittingly” stripped the public of a right.