The fluctuations with bimetallism may also be con-
siderable. Bimetallism of some sort was the attempted
practice of the world for centuries, but this did not prevent
great fluctuations in exchanges or the price of silver.
Lord Liverpool, writing in 1805, says —

" The price of silver in dollars has varied in twenty-two years,
that is, from the end of the year 1774 to the 31st of December,
1797, llxTT V^^ cent., and even in the course of one year, that
is the year 1797, no less than 9\ per cent. The variation in the
price of silver bullion appears to have been still greater, by another
account, with which I have been favoured, by the late Mr. Garbett,
an eminent merchant and manufacturer at Birmingham ; it there
appears that the silver purchased by him, as a refiner, with bank
notes, varied, according to his calculation, in the course of ten
years, to 1793, more than 19;J^ per cent., and in one year only
more than 13g^ per cent."^

Apart from its bearing on the particular point in hand,
this quotation may, perhaps, be useful in convincing people
that great fluctuations in silver or in exchange with
silver-using countries, are not so novel as they have lately
been assumed to be.
What, then, is the increased steadiness of exchange
which bimetallism can give ? And of what advantage
will it really be ? The answer to the first question appears
to be that, in certain circumstances, in some countries,
bimetallic regulations would help to steady the exchanges.
When a change in the relative value of the two metals is

(1) Lord Liverpool on the Coiiix of the Realm, p. 150.
