CHAPTER XIX.--THE INDIAN SILVER QUESTION.

On June 26th, 1893, gold standard introduced and mints closed to free coinage of silver.

Movement originated in India by the servants of Government, and from no other class whatever.

Some merchants afterwards joined in the agitation. Gold to be received at the mints at a ratio of 1s. 4d. per rupee. Sovereigns in payment of sums due to Government to be received at the rate of fifteen rupees a sovereign.

Cash effects of the measure. For benefit of English reader figures given in pounds sterling, a rupee taken at 2s. Rupee prices little changed in India, China and Ceylon. Difficulty of forming exact estimates as to this.

If gold value of silver can be forced up from 1s. 3d. to 1s. 4d., Indian Government will gain about one and a half million sterling on its home remittances, and the people lose about seven millions on their exports.

The Indian Finance Minister contemplates a rise to 1s. 6d. eventually.

A rise to 1s. 6d. would give the Exchequer a gain on home remittances of £4,500,000 and entail on the people a loss £21,000,000, equal to a tax of 21 per cent. on the exports of India. Effects of this on the producers.

The producers of coffee in Mysore alone would lose £56,000 a year were exchange forced up to 1s. 4d., and £156,000 a year were it raised to 1s. 6d. All producers in other parts of India of articles of export would be similarly affected.

If the rupee is artificially forced up by the State, the shock to confidence will repel capital and injure credit. The first effect will show itself in a lessened demand for labour.

The effects of increased employment on the finances. The bearing of the measure on famines and scarcity. It will intensify the effects of both, and make them more costly to the State.

The measure has arrayed all classes against the Government, except its own servants and a very few of the merchants.

The effects of the measure on the tea-planters of India and Ceylon. It must heavily affect both. If Ceylon establishes a mint, tea-planters there will have advantages over their rivals in India.

Coffee planters of India and Ceylon will he prejudicially affected in their competition with silver-using countries. Evil effects of the measure on the trade, manufactures, and railways of India.

The measure rotten from financial, political, and economical points of view.

The Viceroy and the supporters of the measure have admitted that it must be injurious to the producers of India. Sir William Hunter's admirable survey of the former and present financial condition of India.

The Viceroy has publicly declared that cheap silver has acted as "a stimulus" to the progress of India.

The unfair action of Lord Herschell's Committee. Not a single representative of the producing classes examined. But the majority of witnesses were dead against the monetary policy of the Government. The Currency Committee reported against the weight of the evidence. The most important points not inquired into at all by the Committee.

The Indian Government and Currency Committee financially panic-stricken, and in dread of effects of repeal of Sherman Act. The financial condition not such as to warrant panic. Taxational resources not exhausted.

Sir William Hunter's statement proves that the financial conditions were full of hope. The dread that the repeal of the Sherman Act might reduce rupee to 1s. Examination of the subject on that supposition.

By a rate of 1s. a rupee the Government would lose about seven millions on its home remittances, and the people of India gain fourteen millions on their exports. Mr. Gladstone's Government adopted Home Rule Bill, and Currency Measure in one year. Both forced on by tyrannical action. Gladstonian action as to Opium Commission equally tyrannical.

The monetary measure a policy of protection for the benefit of the silver-using countries that compete with India.

Some of the evils the measure, if successful, must cause. The Indian Finance Minister declared that "it ought not to be attempted unless under the pressure of necessity." No necessity arisen. An independent body wanted to efficiently check the Government. The Duke of Wellington's opinion.

India and Mexico compared. Mr. Carden's Consular Report.

Cheap silver advantageous to Mexico. The losses to the Government and railways which arise from gold payments are, comparatively speaking, a fixed quantity, while the gain to the people from cheap silver, produces consequential benefits far beyond reach of calculation. These remarks equally applicable to India. Wanted, a Government that can see this.