Update time! I hope I got the economic effects right.
Party Seventy-Eight: Silver
The Silver Depression:
Beginning in 1885, the discovery of new deposits of silver and gold in northern Kootenay reinvigorated the gold rush in the northwestern United States. Combined with other major silver discoveries around the world such as at Castroveta in southern California[1], silver production increased drastically from the 1880s to the end of the century. Annual global extraction of silver had been at approximately 30 billion ounces for most of the century, but annual production jumped to 120 billion ounces in the later decades. The Castroveta mine alone produced over 6 million ounces of silver between 1883 and 1900. The rate of silver production increased so quickly during the 1880s and 1890s that it caused a sudden collapse in the value of silver. Silver had stayed at approximately the same value from the 1780s to the early 1880s, but between 1886 and 1888 it lost almost a quarter of its value[2].
The sudden drop of the value of silver had a ripple effect that traveled around the world in the following years. The first sign of what would become a cascade of bankruptcies in the United States was the collapse of the Wheeling and Allegheny Railroad in March of 1886. The following year saw the collapse of several other railroads which had overextended themselves in the previous decade, and precipitated numerous bank runs as the value of the dollar continued to fall due to its connection with the price of silver. In early 1887, Secretary of the Treasury Morgan Comstock advised that the United States increase the amount of silver it purchased in order to increase the price of the metal. While a bill was passed by Congress to buy an addition million ounces of silver per month, it was not enough to counteract the fall of silver prices. Additionally, the effects of the Silver Depression in the United States had begun to spread abroad.
The first countries to be affected were those in east Asia and some of the Mexican states that were still on a silver standard. Japan and China were the worst affected countries in the late 1880s. Korea was quick to adopt the gold standard after it secured reparations from China after the Sino-Korean War and was less affected. When the depression hit Europe, most countries were only somewhat affected at first. Russia's economy barely fell during this period because of concurrent gold rushes in Siberia and Alyeska. But despite the depression ending in the United States in 1891, American and global economic growth remained sluggish for the next two decades. It would not be until the outbreak of the Great War that the global economy would completely recover from the effects of the Silver Depression[3].
Party of the People:
The end of the 19th century also saw a rise in the newly formed People's Party. Founded in 1886, the party sought to appeal to the many agricultural workers in the Great Plains and Old Northwest states. Like the Redback Party, the People's Party advocated for the removal of any metallic standard and the adoption of a paper currency. Other issues that the People's Party took up as part of their platform were the direct election of senators as opposed to state legislatures and women's suffrage.
Like many minor parties in the United States, the People's Party found much of its success through running for elections on fusion tickets. During its formative years, the People's Party co-opted the platform of the more established Redback Party in many states in order to gain at least some representation in the state and national legislatures[4]. In the 1888 and 1892 elections, the People's Party nominated James B. Weaver of Iowa for president together with the Redback Party. The success of the Redback Party in the Old Northwest and the People's Party in the Great Plains helped both parties nationally even though they were extremely small compared to the Democrats and Republicans. During the 1890s and 1900s, however, the People's Party began to absorb the Redback Party as the two parties' platforms became almost identical.
The People's Party gained traction during the Silver Depression as voters flocked to its populist platform. Like the Republican Party at the time, the People's Party pushed for better conditions for workers and business regulations. However, while the Republicans mainly tried to pass legislation for the betterment of industrial working conditions, the People's Party emphasized miners and farmers. Throughout the Panic of 1886 and the following recession, unemployment in the United States rose to over 12 percent. The People's Party benefited from the hard economic times, and by 1900 the People's Party had become a force on the national stage. In 1901, the People's Party changed its name to the name it holds to this day; the Progressive Party.
[1] The OTL Silver King Mine in Arizona
[2] This is what happened to the OTL price of silver. I don't have specific dollar values because the data I found was in OTL 1998 dollars, and I'm not sure how much inflation will happen before modern day.
[3] The Silver Depression has elements of the Long Depression and the Panic of 1893 in its cause and effects. My reasoning is that since the Long Depression was averted earlier, it has greater effects now.
[4] Fusion tickets will be popular among smaller parties, either with other minor parties or with the bigger ones.
