, 1876-08-09
THE SILVER QUESTION.
From the TImes.)

Is. Wu0u Lu6 NlkNGE SOIllHLGJCO was dPN
pointed, its members were anxious to i'm
press upon the world that the order Of
reference to them was too sharply limit
ed. They were charged to discover why
the value of silver had fallen, and what
effect the fall had produced upon the Elk
change between India and England-and
nothing more. The consideration fanny
policy that should be adopted in conse-
Quence of the fall of Silver, the examina.
ton of any legislative or administrative
measure that might obyiate or mitigate it,
was beyond them. The Report Of the
Committee is now published, and its first
sentence is a disclaimer of any duty beyond
that of inquiring into the causes of the fall
of Silver and its effect on the Indian EX-
changes. The Committee commence by
declaring that they have steadily kept in
view the limits of the simple task %intrust.
ed to them and we hasten to do them
the justice of saying that they have not
gone an inch beyond it in any direction.
Any ambition they may have felt to over
leap its borders has been vigorously re-
pressed; they have been content to be
usetAf in preparing the field OF statesman
ship for others, and their mode>ty has led
them to devote to the first branch of their
duty-the inquiry into the causes Of the
fall of Silver-a degree of attention Anglo
Indians may be tempted to think dispro-
portiOnate compared with that paid to the
second branch Of their task-the iuqqiry
into the effects of the depreciation upon
the Indian Exchanges. We shall not Join
in this complaint. 1t may be difficult to
ascertain why Silver has fallen, but the
effects of the fall are written in the Indiaa
Exchanges in figures no n can fail to ap-
preciate.
It is an elementary proposition of the
economists that if the labour necessary to
produce o given quantity Of any commodi-
ty is diminished, the value Of that COM
modify falls. If, through a discovery Of
richer deposits of the metal a miner can
obtain upon on average with a weeks la
bour an ounce of gold whereas a few years
since he could obtain with the same la.
bour no more than half an ounce, gold
will have fallen to something like half its
former value. The statement of this
elementary proposition will perhaps be ex-
cused whom it is remembered that there
are many persons quite willing to allow
that the conditions Of the production Of
gold have been materially changed during
the last quarter of a century who are I'M
perturbably satisfied that the value Of
gold has not changed at all in the inter-
val. Starting from the proposition that the
value Of a commodity falls when the pains
of producing it are diminished, we hold
that the first question to be asked, when
we find the value ofanything declining,
is whether any change has happened 10
the conditions of its production. Silver
is falling. Is it prodQced with greater faci-
lily than formerly 1t is certainly pro.
duced in greater quantity, and this OF it.
self affords some presumption that it is
more easily found. Between 1852 and
1862 the annual production of silver was
estimated to range between eight and nine
millions steEling. In 1868 it had risen to
nearly IL millions. 1t is now at least IA
millions, and is perhaps nearer 16 millions.
The. increased supply comes from the
United States, where the yield has risen
from 100000 in 1859 to 96,4O0, 600 in
1875. The State of Nevada is the agenti-
ferrous field of the Union, where, according
to the Director of the United States Mint,