Second Conference
The second conference was held in 1878 in Paris. A great fall in the relative price of silver as measured in gold, in progress since 1873, had affected the relations of silver-using countries, and disturbed the level of prices. Indian interests as well as those of United States producers of silver suffered, while the management of all double-standard currencies became a task of increasing difficulty. The government of the United States invited the representatives of the leading powers to meet in Paris for the purpose of considering (1) the desirability of retaining the unrestricted use of silver for coinage, (2) the adoption of international bimetallism, by the acceptance of a ratio to be fixed by agreement.
Eleven nations sent delegates, Germany being the only great power unrepresented. After somewhat protracted discussion and the presentation of a large number of documents, the European states accepted the United States' proposition “that it is necessary to maintain in the world the monetary functions of silver,” but declined to bind the discretion of particular states as to the methods to be employed. They further declared it impossible to enter into an agreement for a common ratio. The conference, therefore, separated without any result being obtained.
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