Ch. 1: Gold and Silver in 1918

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	GOLD AND SILVER.	731

	IMPORTS AND EXPORTS. Value of gold and silver imported and exported, in 1918.



	DOMESTIC SUPPLY. The remarkable gain in domestic supply of gold indicated by the great excess of $530,200,000 in imports over exports for 1916, or $76,000,000 more than the world's total output of new gold for that year, was due to the fact that this country has been a creditor nation since the last great movements of its gold abroad. This movement was much less conspicuous in 1917, though the excess of imports of gold in ore, bullion, and coin amounted to more than $180,000,000, owing largely to the imports of foreign refined bullion. In 1918 the excess of gold imports was only about $21,000,000, and this was due mainly to the gold contained in foreign ore and base bullion. The United States is now the largest creditor nation in the world, but very little gold is available to settle trade balances, and the imports of gold are not likely to be in excess of exports in 1919. For the first six months of 1919 the excess of gold exports has been more than $46,000,000. The continuation of large exports of silver to the Far East, and especially to the Entente nations in Europe, was due largely to the demand for exchange and for the coinage of silver money to pay troops in the field. The value of refined domestic silver bullion exported was about $236,400,000, or more than five times the silver contained in imported foreign ore and base bullion and about $170,000,000 more than the value of the domestic production. The total quantity of silver dollars remelted up to July 1, 1918, under the Pittman Act, passed by Congress in April, 1918, was 260,000,000 ounces, and most of the bullion was exported to India and China. The domestic supply of new gold comes chiefly from dry or siliceous gold ores, treated mainly in gold mills by amalgamation or cyanida-tion, or both, and partly by smelting, and from placer gravels worked largely by dredging. As shown on page 761 these ores and placer gravels supplied 87.3 per cent of the yield of gold in 1918. Examples of gold milling ores are those of the Homestake mines of South Dakota, the Goldfield mines in Nevada, the Grass Valley and Mother

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