The Sun.
London, England, 1860-01-18 00:00:00

INDIAN SECURITIE ".

The transactions in Indian securities continue
on a large scale, and the financial reports by each
mail, instead of being unheeded, as in former years,
attract more attention than the advices from any
other country. The public, however, have not yet
acquired that familiarity with the topic which
would enable them to understand without reference
or explanation the various details referred to in the
successive telegrams, and a short outline of the
movements of the past year will be of service. At
the commencement of 1859 the Government of
India was urged by the mercantile community to
publish some definite statement, analogous to
the Home Budget, of its probable require-
ments for the coming year—namely, from May,
,1859, to May, 1860. Accordingly, by a special
Gazette, dated the 21st of February, 1869, notice
was given that a 5 per cent. loan would be opened,
payable half in cash and half in 5 per cent. paper,
and that the then open 5 per cent. loan, payable half
in cash and half in 4 per cent. paper, would be closed;
that the issue of Treasury or Exchequer bills bearing
41 per cent. per annum would be continued; that the
amount of money to be raised by loan in the Indian
markets for the period in question was 5 crorcs of
rupees, £5,000,000 sterling. When this was ob-
tained the 5 per cent. loan would be closed, but it
was mentioned that the sum to be received for Ex-
chequer bills was not counted as part of the
£5,000,000. In the autumn the financial position
improved so much that the Government, under
date Sept. 30, addressed a despatch to Sir Charles
Wood, in which, after giving a statement of ways
and means for 1859-60 and 1860-61, they counter-
manded a remittance of silver of £1,250,000 that
had been promised from England. In that despatch
their revised estimate of cash to be raised by loans
in India for 1859-60 is as follows :

From 5 per cent. loan, cash £300,000
51 do. do 2,500,000
Exchequer-bills, do 400,000

£3,200,000
This statement materially differs from that of
February, as the total requirement is made less by
£1,800,000, and the amount to be raised by Exche-
quer-bills is, for the first time, brought into the
account. The Government estimate an issue of
these bills in 1859-60 of £2,500,000, of which they
calculate on repaying £2,100,000, as the holders
have the option of claiming the amount in 12 or
3 months. But there are symptoms that the
result will be yet more satisfactory, and that this
new security will greatly facilitate all future arrange-
ments. The general opinion in India is described
to be much in its favour. From the first it was
believed that the Government would both issue and
keep afloat a far larger amount than they had
assumed to be probable, and experience has
strengthened that impression. The bills carry
interest daily at a rate equal to 41 per cent., and
►hen they have been out 12 months they are receiv•
able in payment of Customs and all other revenue
duties. But the Government were naturally so
uncertain as to the success of the experiment that
in the estimate of February last no results from it
were taken into account. On the recommendation
of the Chambers of Commerce, they now publish in
the Calcutta official Gazette a quarterly statement
of the sums paid into the open loans. On the 9th of
November the figures were given for the first two
quarters of the current year—namely, from the Ist
of May to the 31st of October, and the totals were
as follows :

Cash paid into 51 per cent. loan £1,321,000
For Exchequer-bills 2,099,000

£3,420,000
The return is defective in an important particular,
since it does not state the amount of Exchequer-
bills that. had been repaid, but it shows that
whereas the estimate of the 30th of September puts
down £2,800,000 as the sum to be raised from the
ordinary loan in the year, nearly half had been re-
ceived in six months, when the prospects of Indian
finance were considered discouraging, and that the
new security in the shape of Exchequer or Trea-
sury bills had become so popular that nearly
£2,100,000 had been issued in half a year, against
an estimated issue of £,2,500,000 in the whole
year. The impression is, moreover, that a large
amount of this issue is found to float, and will con-
tinue to float. The Goverament,in their September
despatch, estimated it at only £400,000, but the
Bank of Englaad alone holds £500,000, as shown
by its last published return. Finally, it is to be
remarked that the latest. Calcutta journals, as well
as the commercial letters, mention that wince the
publication of the Gazette statement large amounts
of cash and 5 per cent. paper were being paid in
for-the 51, per cent. loan, and that it was conse-
quently expected to be shortly closed. This con-
summation, which will perhaps be hastened by the
increased Customs' duties on the great importation
of cotton goods, &e., is desirable since the terms
are bad for the Government—one-half being re-
ceivable in 5 per cent. paper, which was at a dis-
count, and the principal not being redecinaVe
until 1879.—Times

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