Prior to 1871 Germany had the single silver standard, but as she could
not transact business with silver alone, she used for her international
and wholesale trade a heterogeneous assortment of gold coins, partly
domestic and partly foreign, including napoleons, pistoles, guineas,
eagles, Russian imperials, Friedrichs d’or, ducats, crowns, &c.,
passing as commercial money. The question of a reform of the currency
had been under discussion by the economists and publicists of Germany
for nearly ten years, but until 1868 the question under debate was a
question of _uniformity_ of money rather than of the metallic standard.
Dr. Soëtbeer had indeed published two articles in 1863 and 1864 in
the _Vierteljahrschrift für Volkswirthschaft_ on the gold standard,
but it was not until after the Paris Monetary Conference of 1867
that the commercial classes began to take an active interest in the
question. This Conference was held, at the invitation of the French
Government, to consider the question of uniformity of coinage. Nearly
all the governments of Europe were represented. The United States were
represented also. One of the earliest questions to be decided was that
of a standard. The first vote was on the question of adopting the
single standard of silver. This was rejected unanimously. Then the
single standard of gold was adopted with only one dissenting vote--that
of Holland. Nobody proposed bimetallism. The action of this Conference
shows that even at a time when the two metals were at an equilibrium
according to the French ratio, France and all her allies of the Latin
Union were inclined to adopt the single gold standard, and also that
Germany, Austria, Russia and the Scandinavian countries, all of which
at the time had the single silver standard, were of the same mind.
After this event a great many publications appeared in Germany showing
an unmistakable tendency in the public mind to the gold standard. The
most important of these is the report which Soëtbeer made at the Ninth
Congress of German Economists in the year 1868. This Congress met in
Hamburg and pronounced in favor of the unification of German money, and
of the gold standard. Its action was ratified soon afterward by the
united commercial bodies of the North German Confederation, and would
have been carried into effect at once but for the war with France. This
event postponed the reform one year.