Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-09-10
THE Sill YER QUESTION.

Nhl LIE blsANb bOl4lAh - NON NOhlh Will
sEyENTY-oNE CENTS A PLAIN STATEMENT OF
THE WHOLE QUESTION.
GFrom the New York Commercial Adyertiser.l
When the Bland bill was passed, in 1878,
silver sold in London at 81 pence per ounce.
At the beginning of the present year its price
was a. This fall OF pence in eight years
was an extraordinary event, and silver states
men, who in 1873 had predicted a rise Of the
90-cent dollar to par value aS soon as the
Bland law should go into operation, we're put
to their wits end to explain it. They con-
tended that the purchasing power Of gold
had risen as compared with silver; that sill
yer had been arthcially derauged in price by
the hostile action of Germany, but that its
value would eventually be restored by the
compulsory coinage in the United States and
the demand in the great commercial markets
of India and the east. Yet the fall Of
pence in eight years, startling as it then
seemed, has been completely overshadowed
by an astonishing decline of pence per
ounce in the eight succeeding months. On
Saturday last ~ pence was the highest price
bid, and the silver in the Bland dollar is to-
day worth exactly Il cents.
The phenomena of this last decline cousti-
tute a new chapter in the history of finance,
and if rightly viewed throw flood of light
upon the much. mooted and lttle-understood
time immemorial silver has been the unques-
toned standard of India and her oriental
neighbors. There emed to be no limit to
the capacity of these nations to absorb the
surplus silver production of the world. For
years England had drawn from India its
products OF grain and luxuries, paying part
in her own Manchester goods, and the rest in
an enormous export of silver. In the ten
years from 1876 to 1886, London's annual ex-
port of silver to India averaged over E25,-
! 600, 600. For the same period the export
from Msrseilles TO India and China averaged
c307, Sj5, and that from Venice $40 100
The United Safes has always, in spite of it's
comparatively small direct India trade, float
ed large amounts OF its silver in that coun-
try. In the fiscal year 1885 we sent there
| 81, 4GS $50 in silver bullion, $40, 800 in
trade dollars and $3lS, 600 in foreign dollars
This wholesale absorption of the metal by
| India has been of the foremost Importance
in the worlds silver problem. Compared
with the influence exerted by it, the demone-
tzation of silver by Germany was but 81 a
| drop in the bucket.
1t is only in the last year that India has
shown distinct evidences of silver repletion
| When they came the signs of the times were
unmistakable. Prices, the unfaing barome-
ter of a depreciating currency, went rapidly
up, and London exchange on Iudia CORE
spondingly declined. But statesmen educat.
ed in the belief that Indis's power Of Ab-
sorption was limitless resolutely shut their
eyes to the facts. 1t happened that meas
ure to repeal our compulsory coinage act was
just then being agitated in Congress, and
British fnanciers chose to regard this as the
bugbear which frightened down Indian ex
changes. In April the bill against the Bland
law WAS defeated by an unexpectedly large
| ~
in expectation of an immediate rise in Indi.
an exchanges. But no such advance came.
Exchanges remained at the same level AS be-
fore. Dstrusting the rates of exchange at.
ter this disappointment, the merchants be.
gan to ship their own silver to India to draw
against. This falling of in demand fol-
council bills on India caused further decline
in rates of exchange. The commercial val
ne of the rupee was pushed to a lower figure
and, as consequence, silver fell again This
operation was repeated a score of times, and
on each occasion silver, in its feverish and
unsettled market, found lower price.
Meantime the Indian importers, who had
/ shared the infatuation of the British fnan
ciers, had loaded up with Manchester good
in expectation of an upward turn in Londor
exchanges and the value of silver. In the
event they were left with an excessive stooI
on hand, salable only in rapidly deprecat
ing coin and stared in the face by ruin, they
were forced to shut down upon further i'm
ports from London, except at prices so low
as to transfer the risk to the Manchester ex
porters Its trade paralyzed, its banks shak
ing, its staples and necessaTies of life risin(
steadily in price, and further forced inAul
of the depreciating metal threatened by tn,
financial operations of the European nations
such is at the present moment the deplora
| BILE condition of India
This crisis in the oriental nation has
warning for us. Our Independent govern
ment has large enough credit to set arbitra
rily, for our domestic traffic, the value o
our equally depreciating silver coin. We d.
not look TO another nation to fix our value
for us by rates of exchange. We have golt
enough to maintain our foreign commerce
and credit enough to carry on our home traf
fic. But experience has taught us that on
greatest danger lies in over. confidence. Plaii
figures show that our gold ia being hoarde,
and is passing largely out of circulation, AM
the failure of a seasons crop would speedil
send abroad large share of what is left
} Our credit is high at home and abroad, an,
I on this We justly count Yet who could in
sure our future in this regard if statesmen o
the Morrison school were to force the pay
ment of our bonds in silver, and thrust th
same cheap metal upon the reserve for tn
United States notes2 II we husband Gus re
sources, and place ourselves on an equal foot
ing with our European neighbors the tim
will come when a few such episodes as tn
crisis in India will compel an internations
adjustment of the silver question. II we de
plete our treasury Of gold, impair our oredi
and for few years more pile up silver dol
lars in the government vaults the hnRncia
storm under which India is now prostrate
may break with most disastrous consequences
over our heads.