supplies and the minting of gold francs and dollars as the gold-silver ratio went below 15.5, pushing France and the United States into the gold standard with Great Britain during the 1850s. The benefits of the gold standard were first felt by this larger bloc of countries, with Britain and France being the world's leading financial and industrial powers of the 19th century while the United States was an emerging power. By the time the gold-silver ratio reverted to 15.5 in the 1860s, this bloc of gold-utilizing countries grew further and provided momentum to an international gold standard before the end of the 19th century. Portugal and several British colonies commenced with the gold standard in the 1850s and 1860s France was joined by Belgium, Switzerland and Italy in a larger Latin Monetary Union based on both the gold and silver French francs. Several international monetary conferences during the 1860s began to consider the merits of an international gold standard, albeit with concerns on its impact on the price of silver should several countries make the switch. The international classical gold standard, 1873–1914 Rollout in Europe and the United States The international classical gold standard commenced in 1873 after the German Empire decided to transition from the silver North German thaler and South German gulden to the German gold mark, reflecting the sentiment of the monetary conferences of the 1860s, and utilizing the 5 billion gold francs (worth 4.05 billion marks or 1,451 metric tons) in indemnity demanded from France at the end of the Franco-Prussian War. This transition done by a large, centrally located European economy also triggered a switch to gold by several European countries in the 1870s, and led as well to the suspension of the unlimited minting of silver 5-franc coins in the Latin Monetary Union in 1873. The following countries switched from silver or bimetallic currencies to gold in the following years (Britain is included for completeness): 1816, British Empire: one pound: from 111.37 g silver to 7.32238 g gold; ratio 15.21 1873, German Empire: one North German thaler or 1 South German gulden of 16.67 g silver, converted to 3 German gold marks of 3/2.79 = 1.0753 g gold; ratio 15.5 1873, Latin Monetary Union franc: from 4.5 g silver to 9/31 = 0.29032 g gold; ratio 15.5 1873, United States dollar, by the Coinage Act of 1873: from 24.0566 g silver to 1.50463