This is a chart taken from http://goldinfo.net/silver600.html. This shows a 600 years of historical price of silver (see Blue). The Orange chart shows the ratio between gold and silver. A rising orange chart means that the cost of gold is several times the cost of silver. [Click to enlarge]

The apparent observation or should I say concern, is the decreasing value of silver over so many years. It was only in the recent years that the price rebounded fiercely from the low of 1992 ($4.73 per ounce), which the low I believe, was an aftermath caused by the Hunt brothers’ attempt to corner the silver market. Speculators were burned by silver and decided to dump it and stay away from it as much as possible. Before 1850s, gold costs about 15 to 20 times more than silver. At this time, with silver at US$28 and gold at ......