The Sun.
London, England, 1857-12-24 00:00:00

DRAIN OF SILVER TO THE EAST.

(Front the Daily News.)
During a period of eighteen months the value of
money has been unusually high, varying from 511
up to 10 per cent. Setting on one side the extra-
ordinary pressure witnessed during the last two
months, which must be regarded as altogether ex-
ceptional and transient, it may be interesting, in the
last days of 1857, to draw attention to the most re-
cent fea,tures,of a movement which has powerfully
contributed to the maintenance of a high rate of in-
terest. We allude to the drain of silver to the East,
which each year in'reases in severity. From the an-
nual tables prepared by Mr. James Low we have
compiled the following statement, showing the total
quantity of gold and silver shipped direct from
England in each month during the year 1857, by the
steamers of the Peninsular and Oriental Company :

. Gold. Silver. Total.
January ... £9,973 £787,550 £797,523
February
March 19,486 1,560,261 ],579,747
April
May 4,588 1,207,634 1,302,222
Juno 7,457 ],896,772 1,904,229
July - 1,395,177 1,409,031
August. - 21,727 2,086,250 2,107,977
September - 22,209 1,341,175 1,363,331
oe'lob3r
November
December

Total £269,275 £16,795,232 £17,084,507
The following table shows the destination of
these enormous supplies, despatched during the
year 1857 :
To Gold. Silver.
Alexandria £2,280 nil.
Aden
Mauritius .....
Coylon. 76,496 1,136
Bombay
Madras 97,783 403,616
Calcutta
Penang
Singapore
Hong Kong 950 2,048,795
Cant0n.......
Shanghai nil. 2,398,723

Total £269,275 £16,795,232
The total shipments of specie from Great Britain
to the ports mentioned for seven yews are thus
stated :
Gold. Silver.
1351.
1852
1853
1854
1355
1856
1857

TJtal for 7 years... £4,700,816 £17,513,115
Even these figures, however, do not represent
the full extent of the Eastern drain, for the fol-
lowing additional remittances have been despatched
to the East from the Mediterranean—i.e., from
Marseilles, Gibraltar, and Malta, but chiefly from
the first-named port—during the last fivejyears,
viz.:—

1853
1854 ~
1855
1856 ~
1857 ..

Gold. Silver.
£93,528 £848,362
48,456 1,4)1,014
213,239
74,039
2.59,986

WTee tatihiunss
aTir;;;.. at t7lll9e24foBllowing astonishing
£9,164.221
facts :—During the year now closing more than 16
millions and three-quarters sterling in silver have
been despatched from Southampton to the East ;
including the sums remitted via Marseilles, the
silver absorbed by the East in 1857 exceeds 20
millions sterling ; and during the last seven years
the amount taken from various parts of Europe by
Asia is 56,677,3331.- This is altogether exclusive of
gold.
There is no movement in the history of commerce
more deserving of study than this, for its influence
upon the money market is direct and important,
and every branch of trade is thus affected by it. It
upsets, too, many of the prevalent theories respect-
ing the probable influence of the gold discoveries ;
for of the twenty millions in silver 'transmitted to
the East from Europe in 1857, the larger propor-
tion has been drawn direct from the circulating
medium of countries which have a double standard
of value. It may be asserted that the amount of
silver absorbed this year by Asia is nearly equal to
the combined production of gold in Australia and
California. In so far, then, as the year 1857 is con-
cerned, the new gold drawn from the bowels of the
earth, though of such enormous amount, does little
more than fill up the vacuum occasioned in the sil-
ver circulation of Europe by the Eastern demand.
Under the stimulus imparted by the production of
gold a vast fabric of new trade and speculation has
been reared up ; but during the last year or two the
new gold seems to have become insensibly dispersed
throughout Europe, merely occupying the room of
the silver displaced. An accumulation of gold in
the European banks has thus been rendered impos-
sible; a return to low rates of discount has been
every where prevented ; and the immense transac-
tions, commercial and speculative, which have been
entered into have been, to a great extent, deprived
of the expected support. The disastrous commer-
cial collapse of the autumn of 1857 is in no small
degree traceable to these considerations.
It is interesting to remark, however, that the
crisis which set in at the close of the year has given
a considerable check to the drain of silver. In the
first quarter of 1857, the shipments of that metal
from Southampton were 3,971,091/. ; in the
second quarter, 4,703,258/. ; in the third quarter,
4,822,6021., and in the fourth quarter, 3,293,2811.
Of the latter sum ono million formed an exceptional
remittance. being despatched by the East India Com-
pany. In the single month of August no less than
2,086.2501. in silver was sent from Southampton,
whilst in December the amount was 737,1691.
Indeed, deducting the half million remitted for the
Indian Government, the mercantile remittances in
December have been only 237,169/. This is not
surprising, for at a time when the stringent opera-
tion of the Bank Act was hurrying the country
into the vortex of panic, and when there was a
prospect that the maintenance of the law would
bring the entire commerce of the country to a stand-
still, and the whole community, including the Bank
of England and every other bank, to suspension of
payment, there could be little inducement to send
silver to India. Latterly, too, the parties engaged
in these bullion operations have either found money
too difficult of obtainment, or have been satisfied
to employ it at ten or eleven per cent., without en-
tering into fresh transactions in connexion with the
East. Now that the rates of discount in the open
market have virtually fallen two per cent., and that
a reduction of at least two per cent. in the terms
of the Bank of England is confidently expected,
the restriction placed upon the silver drain will be
in some degree removed ; and it becomes a question
of interest to what extent will the movement re-
vive ? No announcement has yet been made of ani
intention on the part of the East India Company
to send out fresh sums in silver, but Government
have already clopped a lrint that Parliament may
be called upon to extend to the Indian Treasury
some " temporary assistance." In this case, fresh
remittances of silver to the East, on State account,
may be hereafter witnessed. It must not be for-
gotten, too, that the East India Company at pre-
sent draw scarcely any blls on India, keeping up
their rate of exchange at a point almost prohibi-
tory, with the express object of deterring such ap-
plications. This circumstance operates as an in-
ducement to remittances of silver Eastwards. It is
very possible that the news of the crisis here, and
of the fall in the value of produce, may give the
Eastern Exchanges a turn in our favour, as was the
case after the panic of 1847 ; but, bearing in mind
the large remittances that must be made to India
for account of the various railway companies, it
would be very hazardous to assume, as some per-
sons are disposed to do, that silver will flow back
to Europe from the East. We are rather inclined
to look for a continued efflux, but upon a less active
scale.

SUICIDE WITH VITRIOL. —Yesterday a very determined
act of self-destruction, committed under very frightful
circumstances, was brought under the notice of the co-
roner for West Middlesex, by Mr. Davis, the summoning
officer for the district. It appears that the deceased, a
woman named Margaret Pervil, aged about 60 years,
resided at 1, Margaret-row, Marchmont-street, Bruns
wick-square, and there had never been any thing material
in her manner which could lead to the supposition that
she would commit so dreadful and rash an act. However,
as she did not make her appearance at the usual hour on
Tuesday morning, her room was entered, when the hap.
less woman was found lying in the bed quite dead. A
bottle, which had contained some oil of vitriol, was by
her side, and her mouth and throat, on being examined
by the medical man who was called in, fully testified to
the fact that she had swallowed a quantity of that
burning fluid. No cause whatever can be assigned for
the determined act. An inquiry, it is expected, will be
held on Saturday into the dreadful affair,