Europe in the sixteenth century a great supply of the precious metals,
and this change in the use of money reacted powerfully upon industry.
Money, being itself one of the most important of the industrial
conditions, is affected by and in turn affects all others.

§ 4. #The precious metals as money#. Certain of the metals early began
to show their superior fitness to perform the monetary function. The
metals first used as money were copper, bronze (an alloy of copper
with nickel), and iron. These were truly precious metals in
early times for they were found only in small quantities in a few
localities. They, therefore, were widely sought and highly valued as
ornaments and for use as tools and weapons. But as the great ancient
nations emerged into history, these materials were already being
displaced in large measure. Their value fell greatly as a result of
greater production due to somewhat regular mining. As wealth grew, as
trade increased, as the use of money developed, as commerce extended
to more distant lands, the heavier, less precious metals failed
to serve the growing monetary need, especially in the larger
transactions. Silver and gold, step by step, often making little
progress in a century, became the staple and dominant forms of money
in the world, while copper and nickel still continued to be used for
the smaller monetary pieces. Every community has witnessed some stages
of this evolution. In this contest silver had proved itself a few
centuries ago to be on the whole the fittest medium of exchange for
most purposes, though gold was at the same time in use in larger
transactions and in international trade.

§ 5. #Gold-using countries#. At the beginning of the nineteenth
century nations were divided, in accordance with the metals they used
as standards, into two great groups, silver- and gold-using. Since