View source for Bimetallism

{{distinguish|bi-metallic coins}}
{{Short description|Monetary standard in which the value of currency is based on quantities of two metals}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2022}}
{{multiple image
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| header        = [[Croeseid]]s
| image1        = Kroisos. Circa 564-53-550-39 BC. AV Stater (16mm, 10.76 g). Heavy series. Sardes mint.jpg
| caption1      = <small>Gold [[Croeseid]], minted by King [[Croesus]] {{circa|561–546 BCE}}. (10.76 grams, [[Sardis]] mint) </small>
| image2        = KINGS of LYDIA. Kroisos. Circa 560-546 BC. AR Stater.jpg
| caption2      = <small>Silver Croeseid, minted by King Croesus {{circa|560–546 BCE}}. (10.59 grams, Sardis mint) </small>
| footer        = The gold and silver [[Croeseid]]s formed the world's first bimetallic monetary system {{circa|550 BCE}}. The exchange rate between the weights of gold and silver was 1 to 13.3 at the time.<ref name="WM49">{{cite book |last=Metcalf |first=William E. |title=The Oxford Handbook of Greek and Roman Coinage |date=2016 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-937218-8 |pages=49 49–50 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=trkUDAAAQBAJ |access-date=16 November 2018 |archive-date=7 August 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220807221605/https://books.google.com/books?id=trkUDAAAQBAJ |url-status=live }}</ref>
}}

'''Bimetallism''',{{efn|Formerly also written '''bi-metallism'''.<ref>{{citation |last=Wilson |first=Alexander Johnstone |location=London |publisher=Macmillan & Co. |url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006594733 |title=Reciprocity, Bi-metallism, and Land-Tenure Reform |date=1880 |access-date=1 January 2017 |archive-date=1 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170101162524/https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006594733 |url-status=live }}</ref>}} also known as the '''bimetallic standard''', is a [[monetary standard]] in which the value of the [[monetary unit]] is defined as equivalent to certain quantities of two metals, creating a fixed [[Exchange rate|rate of exchange]] between them.<ref>{{citation |contribution=bimetallism, ''n.'' |title=Oxford English Dictionary |url=http://www.oed.com/ |contribution-url=http://oed.com/view/Entry/19090 |access-date=1 January 2017 |archive-date=11 January 2008 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080111125659/http://www.oed.com/ |url-status=live }}.</ref> In all known historical cases, the metals are [[gold]] and [[silver]].

For scholarly purposes, "proper" bimetallism is sometimes distinguished as permitting that both gold and silver money are [[legal tender]] in unlimited amounts and that gold and silver may be taken to be coined by the [[Mint (facility)|government mints]] in unlimited quantities.<ref>{{citation |last=Velde |author2-last=Webber |display-authors=1 |title=A Model of Bimetallism |location=Minneapolis |publisher=Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis Research Department}}.</ref> This distinguishes it from "[[Limping bimetallism|limping standard]]" bimetallism, where both gold and silver are legal tender but only one is freely coined (e.g. the monies of France, Germany, and the United States after 1873), and from "trade" bimetallism, where both metals are freely coined but only one is legal tender and the other is used as "trade money" (e.g. most monies in western Europe from the 13th to 18th centuries). Economists also distinguish ''legal'' bimetallism, where the law guarantees these conditions, and ''[[de facto]]'' bimetallism, where gold and silver coins circulate at a fixed rate.
[[File:MapCurrency-1907-0423.jpg|alt=Map of world currency systems. 1907 Countries with a gold standard are highlighted in yellow, countries with a silver standard are highlighted in blue, countries with a bimetallic standard are highlighted in green.|thumb|Map of world currency systems, 1907. Countries with a gold standard are highlighted in yellow, countries with a silver standard are highlighted in blue, countries with a bimetallic standard are highlighted in green.]]
During the 19th century there was a great deal of scholarly debate and political controversy regarding the use of bimetallism in place of a [[gold standard]] or [[silver standard]] ([[monometallism]]).<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Fay |first=C. R. |date=1933 |title=The Bimetallic Controversy of Fifty Years Ago |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/42864875 |journal=The Southwestern Social Science Quarterly |volume=14 |issue=2 |pages=99–108 |jstor=42864875 |issn=0276-1742}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last=Green |first=E. H. H. |date=1988 |title=Rentiers versus Producers? The Political Economy of the Bimetallic Controversy c. 1880-1898 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/572693 |journal=The English Historical Review |volume=103 |issue=408 |pages=588–612 |doi=10.1093/ehr/CIII.CCCCVIII.588 |jstor=572693 |issn=0013-8266}}</ref> Bimetallism was intended to increase the supply of money, stabilize prices, and facilitate setting exchange rates.<ref>{{citation |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |contribution=Bimetallism}}.{{clarify|date=January 2017}}</ref> Some scholars argued that bimetallism was inherently unstable owing to [[Gresham's law]], and that its replacement by a monometallic standard was inevitable. Other scholars claimed that in practice bimetallism had a stabilizing effect on economies. The controversy became largely moot after [[gold cyanidation|technological progress]] and the [[Witwatersrand Gold Rush|South African]] and [[Klondike Gold Rush]]es increased the supply of gold in circulation at the end of the century, ending most of the political pressure for greater use of silver. It became completely academic after the 1971 [[Nixon shock]]; since then, all of the world's currencies have operated as more or less freely [[Floating currency|floating]] [[fiat money]], unconnected to the value of silver or gold. Nonetheless, academics continue to debate, inconclusively, the relative use of the metallic standards.{{efn|For example, [[Charles Kindleberger]]<ref>{{citation |last=Kindleberger |first=Charles |date=1984 |title=A Financial History of Western Europe |location=London |publisher=[[Allen & Unwin]]}}</ref> and [[Angela Redish]]<ref>{{citation |last=Redish |first=Angela |date=1995 |contribution=The Persistence of Bimetallism in Nineteenth Century France |title=Economic History Review |pages=717–736}}</ref> have argued ''against'' and [[Milton Friedman]]<ref>{{citation |last=Friedman |first=Milton |date=1990 |contribution=Bimetallism Revisited |title=Journal of Economic Perspectives |publisher=American Economic Association |volume=4 |number=4 |pages=85–104}}</ref> and [[Marc Flandreau]]<ref>{{citation |last=Flandreau |first=Marc |date=1996 |contribution=The French Crime of 1873: An Essay on the Emergence of the International Gold Standard, 1870–1880 |title=The Journal of Economic History |volume=56 |number=4 |pages=862–897}}</ref> ''for'' the inherent stability and usefulness of bimetallic standards.}}

==Historical creation==

From the 7th century [[BCE]], [[Asia Minor]], especially in the areas of [[Lydia]] and [[Ionia]], is known to have created a coinage based on [[electrum]], a natural occurring material that is a variable mix of gold and silver (with about 54% gold and 44% silver). Before [[Croesus]], his father [[Alyattes]] had already started to mint various types of non-standardized electrum coins. They were in use in Lydia and surrounding areas for about 80 years.<ref name="WM49"/> The unpredictability of its composition implied that it had a variable value which was very hard to determine, which greatly hampered its development.<ref name="WM49"/>

===Croeseids===

[[File:Croeseid equivalence.jpg|thumb|300px|[[Croeseid]] bimetallic equivalence: 1 gold Croeseid of 8.1 grams was equivalent in value to 10 silver Croeseids of 10.8 grams.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=William Bayne |last2=Gershevitch |first2=I. |last3=Boyle |first3=John Andrew |last4=Yarshater |first4=Ehsan |last5=Frye |first5=Richard Nelson |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA616 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |date=1968 |pages=616–617 |isbn=978-0-521-20091-2 |access-date=17 November 2018 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115110042/https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA616 |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
{{main|Croeseid}}
Croesus (reigned {{circa|560}}–{{circa|546}} BCE), king of Lydia, who became associated with great wealth. Croesus is credited with issuing the [[Croeseid]], the first true [[gold coin]]s with a standardised purity for general circulation,<ref name="WM49"/>

[[Herodotus]] mentioned the innovation made by the Lydians:<ref name="WM49"/>

{{quote|"So far as we have any knowledge, they [the Lydians] were the first people to introduce the use of gold and silver coins, and the first who sold goods by retail"|Herodotus, I94<ref name="WM49"/>}}

===Achaemenid coinage===

[[File:Achaemenid bimetallic equivalence.jpg|thumb|300px|Achaemenid bimetallic equivalence: 1 gold Daric was equivalent in value to 20 silver Sigloi. Under the Achaemenids the exchange rate in weight between gold and silver was 1 to 13.<ref>{{cite book |title=DARIC – Encyclopaedia Iranica |url=http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/daric |language=en |access-date=20 November 2018 |archive-date=29 April 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429180102/http://www.iranicaonline.org/articles/daric |url-status=live }}</ref>]]
{{main|Achaemenid coinage}}
Many ancient bimetallic systems would follow, starting with [[Achaemenid coinage]]. From around 515 BCE under [[Darius I]], the minting of Croesids in [[Sardis]] was replaced by the minting of [[Daric]]s and [[Sigloi]]. The earliest gold coin of the [[Achaemenid Empire]], the [[Daric]], followed the weight standard of the Croeseid, and is therefore considered to be later and derived from the Croeseid.<ref name="CHI">{{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=William Bayne |last2=Gershevitch |first2=I. |last3=Boyle |first3=John Andrew |last4=Yarshater |first4=Ehsan |last5=Frye |first5=Richard Nelson |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA617 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1968 |page=617 |isbn=978-0-521-20091-2 |access-date=20 November 2018 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115110044/https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA617 |url-status=live }}</ref> The weight of the Daric would then be modified through a metrological reform, probably under Darius I.<ref name="CHI"/>

Sardis remained the central mint for the Persian Darics and Sigloi of Achaemenid coinage, and there is no evidence of other mints for the new Achaemenid coins during the whole time of the Achaemenid Empire.<ref name="CHI619">{{cite book |last1=Fisher |first1=William Bayne |last2=Gershevitch |first2=I. |last3=Boyle |first3=John Andrew |last4=Yarshater |first4=Ehsan |last5=Frye |first5=Richard Nelson |title=The Cambridge History of Iran |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA619 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |date=1968 |page=619 |isbn=978-0-521-20091-2 |access-date=20 November 2018 |archive-date=15 January 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230115110044/https://books.google.com/books?id=BBbyr932QdYC&pg=PA619 |url-status=live }}</ref> Although the gold Daric became an international currency which was found throughout the Ancient world, the circulation of the Sigloi remained very much limited to Asia Minor: important hoards of Sigloi are only found in these areas, and finds of Sigloi beyond are always very limited and marginal compared to Greek coins, even in Achaemenid territories.<ref name="CHI619"/>

==Argentina==

In 1881, a currency reform in [[Argentina]] introduced a bimetallic standard, which went into effect in July 1883.<ref name="acbsms46">{{cite web |last1=della Paolera |first1=Gerardo |last2=Taylor |first2=Alan M. |title=The Argentine Currency Board and the Search for Macroeconomic Stability, 1880–1935 |url=https://www.nber.org/chapters/c8835.pdf |publisher=University of Chicago Press |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140116100913/http://www.nber.org/chapters/c8835.pdf |archive-date=2014-01-16 |pages=46–48 |year=2001 |url-status=dead}}</ref> Units of gold and silver [[peso]]s would be exchanged with paper peso notes at given par values, and fixed exchange rates against key international currencies would thus be established.<ref name="acbsms46"/> Unlike many metallic standards, the system was very decentralized: no national monetary authority existed, and all control over convertibility rested with the five banks of issue.<ref name="acbsms46"/> This convertibility lasted only 17 months: from December 1884 the banks of issue refused to exchange gold at par for notes.<ref name="acbsms46"/> The suspension of convertibility was soon accommodated{{clarify|date=June 2017}} by the Argentine government, since, having no institutional power over the monetary system, there was little they could do to prevent it.<ref name="acbsms46"/>

==France==
[[Image:France, 20 francs 1851 and 5 francs 1850, Second Republic.jpg|thumb|260px|right|Gold coin 20 [[French franc|francs]] and silver 5 francs, period of the [[French Second Republic|Second French Republic]]. Weight 6.41 and 24.94 g. The ratio of gold to silver 1:15.5.]]
A French law of 1803 granted anyone who brought gold or silver to its mint the right to have it coined at a nominal charge in addition to the official rates of 200 francs per kilogram of 90% silver, or 3100 francs per kilogram of 90% fine gold.<ref name=Leavens>Dickson Leavens, Silver Money, Chapter IV Bimetallism in France and the Latin Monetary Union, page 25</ref> This effectively established a bimetallic standard at the rate which had been used for French coinage since 1785, i.e. a relative valuation of gold to silver of 15.5 to 1. In 1803 this ratio was close to the market rate, but for most of the next half century the market rate was above 15.5 to 1.<ref name=Leavens /> As a consequence, silver powered the French economy and gold was exported. But when the [[California Gold Rush]] increased the supply of gold, its value was reduced relative to silver. The market rate fell below 15.5 to 1, and remained below until 1866. Frenchmen responded by exporting silver to India and importing nearly two-fifths of the world's production of gold in the period from 1848 to 1870.<ref name=Levens26>Dickson Leavens, op. cit. page 26</ref> [[Napoleon III]] introduced five franc gold coins which provided a substitute for the silver five franc coins which were hoarded,<ref>John Porteous, Coins in History, page 238</ref> but still maintained the formal bimetallism implicit in the 1803 law.

==Latin Monetary Union==

The national coinages introduced in Belgium (1832), Switzerland (1850), and Italy (1861) were based on France's bimetallic currency. These countries joined France in a treaty signed on 23 December 1865 which established the [[Latin Monetary Union]] (LMU).<ref name=Levens26 />  Greece joined the LMU in 1868 and about twenty other countries adhered to its standards.<ref>Robert Friedberg, Gold Coins of the World, fourth edition, page 11</ref>  The LMU effectively adopted bimetallism by allowing unlimited free coinage of gold and silver at the 15.5 to 1 rate used in France, but also began to back away from bimetallism by allowing limited issues of low denomination silver coins struck to a lower standard for government accounts.<ref name=Porteous241>John Porteous, op. cit.  page 241</ref>  A surplus of silver led the LMU to limit free coinage of silver in 1874 and to end it in 1878, effectively abandoning bimetallism for the gold standard.<ref name=Porteous241/>

==United Kingdom==

Medieval and early modern England used both gold and silver, at fixed rates, to provide the necessary range of coin denominations; but silver coinage began to be restricted in the 18th century, first informally, and then by an [[Act of Parliament]] in 1774.<ref>A. Redish, ''Bimetallism'' (2006) p. 67 and p. 205</ref> After the suspension of metal convertibility from 1797 to 1819, [[Peel's Bill]] set the country on the gold standard for the remainder of the century; however advocates of a return to bimetallism did not cease to appear. After the crash of 1825, [[William Huskisson]] argued strongly within the Government for bimetallism, as a way to increase credit (as well as to ease trade with South America).<ref>B. Hilton, ''A Mad, Bad & Dangerous People?'' (Oxford, 2008) p. 303</ref> Similarly, after the banking crisis of 1847, [[Alexander Baring, 1st Baron Ashburton|Alexander Baring]] headed an external bimetallist movement hoping to prevent the undue restriction of the currency.<ref>É. Halévy, ''Victorian Years'' (London: Ernest Benn, 1961) p. 201</ref> It was, however, only in the last quarter of the century that the movement for bimetallism gathered real strength, drawing on Manchester cotton merchants and City financiers with Far East interests to offer a serious (if ultimately unsuccessful) challenge to the gold standard.<ref>P. J. Cain, ''British Imperialism'' (2016) pp. 155–6 and p. 695</ref>

==United States==

In 1792, Secretary of the Treasury [[Alexander Hamilton]] proposed [[price fixing|fixing]] the silver to gold [[exchange rate]] at 15:1, as well as establishing the [[United States mint|mint]] for the public services of [[Free Silver|free coinage]] and [[currency]] [[regulation]] "in order not to abridge the quantity of circulating medium".<ref>2 Annals of Cong. 2115 (1789–1791), cited in [[Arthur Nussbaum]], [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1116782?seq=3 The Law of the Dollar] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201115131926/https://www.jstor.org/stable/1116782?seq=3 |date=15 November 2020 }}, ''[[Columbia Law Review]]'', Vol. 37, No. 7 (Nov., 1937), pp. 1057–1091</ref> With its acceptance, [[s:United States Statutes at Large/Volume 1/2nd Congress/1st Session/Chapter 16|Sec.11]] of the [[Coinage Act of 1792]] established: "That the proportional value of gold to silver in all coins which shall by law be current as money within the United States, shall be as fifteen to one, according to quantity in weight, of pure gold or pure silver;" the proportion had slipped by [[Coinage Act of 1834|1834]] to sixteen to one. Silver took a further hit with the [[Coinage Act of 1853]], when nearly all silver coin denominations were debased, effectively turning silver coinage into a fiduciary currency based on its face value rather than its weighted value. Bimetallism was effectively abandoned by the [[Coinage Act of 1873]], but not formally outlawed as legal currency until the early 20th century.  The merits of the system were the subject of debate in the late 19th century. If the market forces of supply and demand for either metal caused its bullion value to exceed its nominal currency value, it [[Gresham's law|tends to disappear from circulation]] by hoarding or melting down.

===Political debate===

In the United States, bimetallism became a center of political conflict toward the end of the 19th century. During the [[US Civil War|Civil War]], to finance the war the U.S. switched from bimetallism to a [[fiat money]] currency. After the war, in 1873, the government passed the [[Coinage Act of 1873|Fourth Coinage Act]] and soon resumption of specie payments began (without the free and unlimited coinage of silver, thus putting the U.S. on a mono-metallic gold standard.) Farmers, debtors, Westerners and others who felt they had benefited from wartime paper money formed the short-lived [[Greenback Party]] to press for cheap paper money backed by silver.<ref>R. B. Nye, ''the Growth of the United States'' (Penguin 1955) p. 599-603</ref>  The latter element—"[[free silver]]"—came increasingly to the fore as the answer to the same interest groups' concerns, and was taken up as a central plank by the [[People's Party (United States)|Populist movement]].<ref>H. G, Nicholas, ''The American Union'' (Penguin 1950) p. 220</ref> Proponents of monetary silver, known as the [[silverite]]s, referred back to the Fourth Coinage Act as "The Crime of '73", as it was judged to have inhibited inflation, and favored creditors over debtors. Some reformers, however, like [[Henry Demarest Lloyd]], saw bimetallism as a red herring and feared that [[free silver]] was "the [[cowbird]] of the reform movement", likely to push the other eggs out of the nest.<ref>Quoted in R. B. Nye, ''the Growth of the United States'' (Penguin 1955) p. 603</ref> Nevertheless, the [[Panic of 1893]], a severe nationwide depression, brought the money issue strongly to the fore again. The "silverites" argued that using silver would inflate the money supply and mean more cash for everyone, which they equated with prosperity.  The gold advocates claimed that silver would permanently depress the economy, but that [[sound money]] produced by a [[gold standard]] would restore prosperity.

[[Image:1896GOP.JPG|thumb|380px|right|1896 Republican poster warns against free silver.]]

Bimetallism and "[[Free Silver]]" were demanded by [[William Jennings Bryan]] who took over leadership of the [[History of the United States Democratic Party|Democratic Party]] in 1896, as well as by the Populists. They were joined by a faction of Republicans from silver mining regions in the West, known as the [[Silver Republican Party|Silver Republicans]], who also endorsed Bryan.<ref>R. B. Nye, ''the Growth of the United States'' (Penguin 1955) p. 603</ref>  The [[History of United States Republican Party|Republican Party]] itself nominated [[William McKinley]] on a platform supporting the gold standard, which was favored by financial interests on the East Coast.

In support of the cause, Bryan gave the famous [[Cross of Gold speech|"Cross of Gold" speech]] at the National Democratic Convention on July 9, 1896, asserting that "The gold standard has slain tens of thousands." He referred to "a struggle between 'the idle holders of idle capital' and 'the struggling masses, who produce the wealth and pay the taxes of the country;' and, my friends, the question we are to decide is: Upon which side will the Democratic party fight?" At the [[peroration]], he said: "You shall not press down upon the brow of labor this crown of thorns, you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold."<ref>R. B. Nye, ''the Growth of the United States'' (Penguin 1955) p. 604</ref>  However, his presidential campaign was ultimately unsuccessful; this can be partially attributed to the discovery of the [[Gold cyanidation|cyanide process]] by which gold could be extracted from low-grade ore. This process and the discoveries of large gold deposits in South Africa ([[Witwatersrand Gold Rush]] of 1887 – with large-scale production starting in 1898) and the [[Klondike Gold Rush]] (1896) increased the world gold supply and the subsequent increase in money supply that free coinage of silver was supposed to bring. The McKinley campaign was effective at persuading voters in the business East that poor economic progress and unemployment would be exacerbated by the adoption of the Bryan platform.<ref>H. G, Nicholas, ''The American Union'' (Penguin 1950) p. 222</ref> 1896 saw the election of McKinley. The direct link to gold was abandoned in 1934 in [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]]'s [[New Deal]] program and later the link was broken by [[Richard Nixon]] when he [[Nixon Shock|closed the gold window]].

===Economic analysis===

In 1992, economist [[Milton Friedman]] concluded that abandonment of the bimetallic standard in 1873 led to greater price instability than would have occurred otherwise, and thus resulted in long-term harm to the US economy. His retrospective analysis led him to write that the act of 1873 was "a mistake that had highly adverse consequences".<ref>Milton Friedman, ''Money Mischief'' (New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1992) 78.</ref>

{{Commons category|Bimetallism in the United States}}

==See also==

{{Columns-list|colwidth=30em|
* "[[Crime of 1873]]"
* [[Free silver]]
* [[Gold as an investment|Gold]] and [[Silver as an investment]]
* [[Gold standard|Gold]] and [[Silver standard]]
* [[Gresham's law]]
* [[Metallism]]
* [[Political interpretations of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|Political interpretations of ''The Wonderful Wizard of Oz'']]
}}

==Notes==
{{Noteslist}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
====Primary sources====
* ''Campaign Text-book of the National Democratic Party'' (1896) by Democratic Party (U.S.) National Committee: this is the '''Gold Democrats''' handbook; it strongly opposed Bryan.
* Walker, ''International Bimetallism'' (New York, 1896)
* [[Robert Giffen]], ''Case against Bimetallism'' (London, 1896)
* [[Joseph Shield Nicholson]], ''Money and Monetary Problems'' (London, 1897)
* [[Samuel Dana Horton]], ''The Silver Pound'' (London, 1887)
* Walker, ''Money'' (New York, 1878)
* [[Francis Amasa Walker]], ''Money, Trade and Industry'' (New York, 1879)
* [[Elisha Benjamin Andrews]], ''An honest Dollar'' (Hartford, 1894)
* Helm, ''The Joint Standard'' (London, 1894)
* [[Frank William Taussig]], ''The Silver Situation in the United States'' (New York, 1893)
* [[Horace White (writer)]], ''Money and Banking'' (Boston, 1896)
* [[James Laurence Laughlin]], ''History of Bimetallism in the United States'' (New York, 1897)
* [[Langford Lovell Price]], ''Money and its Relations to Prices'' (London and New York, 1896)
* Utley, ''Bimetallism'' (Los Angeles, 1899)
* [[Roger Q. Mills]], ''[[:s:What shall we do with silver?|What shall we do with silver?]]'' (''[[North American Review|The North American Review]],'' Volume 150, Issue 402, May 1890.)

====Secondary sources====
* Epstein, David A. (2012). Left, Right, Out: The History of Third Parties in America. Arts and Letters Imperium Publications. {{ISBN|978-0-578-10654-0}}.
* James A. Barnes, "Myths of the Bryan Campaign", ''Mississippi Valley Historical Review'', 34 (December 1947) online in JSTOR
* David T. Beito and Linda Royster Beito, [http://www.independent.org/publications/tir/article.asp?issueID=22&articleID=261 "Gold Democrats and the Decline of Classical Liberalism, 1896–1900"], Independent Review 4 (Spring 2000), 555–75.
* Bordo, Michael D. "Bimetallism". in ''The New Palgrave Encyclopedia of Money and Finance'' edited by Peter K. Newman, Murray Milgate and John Eatwell. 1992.
* Dighe, Ranjit S. ed. ''The Historian's Wizard of Oz: Reading L. Frank Baum's Classic as a Political and Monetary Allegory'' (2002)
* Flandreau, Marc, 2004, The Glitter of Gold. France, Bimetallism and the Emergence of the International Gold Standard, 1848–1873, Oxford, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 343 p.
* Friedman, Milton, 1990a, "The crime of 1873", ''Journal of Political Economy,'' Vol. 98, No. 6, December, pp.&nbsp;1159–1194 [https://www.jstor.org/pss/2937754 in JSTOR]
* Friedman, Milton, 1990b, "Bimetallism revisited", Journal of Economic Perspectives, Vol. 4, No. 4, Fall, pp.&nbsp;85–104.  [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1942723 in JSTOR]
* Friedman, Milton, and Anna J. Schwartz, 1963, ''A Monetary History of the United States, 1867–1960'' Princeton University Press. {{ISBN|0-691-00354-8}}.
* Jeansonne, Glen. "Goldbugs, Silverites, and Satirists: Caricature and Humor in the Presidential Election of 1896". ''Journal of American Culture'' 1988 11(2): 1–8. {{ISSN|0191-1813}}
* {{cite book| first=Richard J.| last=Jensen| author-link = Richard J. Jensen | title=The Winning of the Midwest: Social and Political Conflict 1888–1896| url=https://archive.org/details/winningofmidwest0000jens| url-access=registration| year=1971| isbn=9780226398259}}
* {{cite book| first=Stanley L.| last=Jones| title=The Presidential Election of 1896| url=https://archive.org/details/presidentialelec0000jone| url-access=registration| year=1964}}
* Littlefield, Henry M., 1964, "The Wizard of Oz: Parable on Populism", American quarterly, Vol. 16, No. 1, Spring, pp.&nbsp;47–58.
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20060113112224/http://www.eh.net/encyclopedia/article/redish.bimetallism Angela Redish, "Bimetallism"]
* Rockoff, Hugh, 1990, "The Wizard of Oz as a monetary allegory", ''Journal of Political Economy'', Vol. 98, No. 4, August, pp.&nbsp;739–760. [https://www.jstor.org/stable/2937766 in JSTOR]
* [https://ssrn.com/abstract=377760 Velde, Francois R.  "Following the Yellow Brick Road: How the United States Adopted the Gold Standard" Economic Perspectives. Volume: 26. Issue: 2. 2002.]
* {{cite book | author=Richard Hofstadter | title=The Paranoid Style in American Politics and Other Essays | chapter=Free Silver and the Mind of "Coin" Harvey | publisher=Harvard University Press. Harvard. | year=1996 | isbn=0-674-65461-7| title-link=The Paranoid Style in American Politics }}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20050306155051/http://www.micheloud.com/fxm/MH/Bimetalintro.htm The Bimetallic Standard], a series of pages on bimetalism from Micheloud & cie.
* [https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/1005 Speeches before the 51st Congress (1889–1891)] regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research).
* [https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/308 Speeches before the 52nd Congress (1891–1893)] regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research).
* [https://fraser.stlouisfed.org/title/289 Speeches before the 53rd Congress (1893–1895)] regarding "free silver", digitized and available on FRASER (Federal Reserve Archival System for Economic Research).
* [https://www.researchgate.net/publication/226650015_The_French_Crime_of_1873_An_Essay_on_the_Emergence_of_the_International_Gold_Standard_1870-1880 The French Crime of 1873: An Essay on the Emergence of the International Gold Standard, 1870–1880 (PDF)]

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[[Category:Metallism]]
[[Category:Numismatic terminology]]
[[Category:People's Party (United States)]]
[[Category:Monetary economics]]
[[Category:Gold]]
[[Category:Silver]]
[[Category:Currency]]
[[Category:Economic history of the United States]]