Arizona silver belt., 1891-04-04
s Fruitful Cause of the yepression of
 silver
lFinaneIal ana Mining Record. ]

Financial and Mining Record
 The British Indian Government re- ceiyas its entire reYet etue in silver and has no other form of money that 1t can employ in disbursements and for do- nestle expenditure. In payment of Gil salaries in India, and for labor or supplies of ali descriptions found upon Indian home territory the rupee is en- tifely adequate, or as efficient .as it ever wasi Bat the Indian Government owes and has to pay every year large sums to or through the British Government in Europe. These payments are called home charges They comprise not only pensions but all military supplies that have to be sent from the British arsenels, and they have come to range annually from $50, 600, 900 to S70, 000, 003 and even higher These home charges are paid, of course, 10 the home Government II gold but, were the In dian Government obliged to repay the amount ill metal, they would have to exchange or sell the silver that is re- celNel in payment for all taxes and revenues at tho European market value tg raise the requisite amount of gold. Of caugse, the Indian Government dc not send specie to Europe but have de. vised process ci this character; The British Government draw bills upon the Indian Government payable in sIl- yer which are sometimes sold on the London Exchange but generally by the Bank of England. every week to mer. chants who otherwise would have to discharge their debts to India by re. hitting silver. These bills are sold yearly for goii value on the London Exchange to meet all the disburse- meBts known as "home charges, Ii is to be perceived, however, that as the rupee purchases in India or is legal tender there for q fraction over two shillings, the purchaser of one of these conncil drafts or bills paying, as al present. less than one shilling and six pence tol the rupee, in effect, pays of debt in India of thousand dollars, for example, with seven hundred and fifty dollars in gold iii London while thereby also saving all the expense and charges of transmitting the money. h o'her words, any English merchant wishing to import cargo of Indian wheat, by merely purchasing and re- hitting council drafts at present rates, enters the Indian wheat market witls, sd 20,009 rupees that will pur- chase as much wheat as that sum oI rupees would ever do in India-and which really cost in London 15, ,00O rupees, or 9 pr cent below the value q hich they are used in Indial
 In this way, or by means of these India Council Bills, the larger part oI the products of India wh cn are export. ed to Europe, annually, to so large an extent, are paid for. rather than by sil. yer which was formerly used almost exclusively in the settlement of such trade ballances, Hence, radically, the effect is the same upon the price of sil yer bullion in London as if the amount of silver produced from the mines had been increased yearly as much as the sum total of these same council drafts.
 Herein, therefore, manifestly, is one of the most potential causes or in fiuenees which steadily depress and keep the price of silver depressed il London. That is to say, if is not the amount of silver bullion which is wor every year from the mines of North and South America, that has lead tc depreciation, but the yearly selling there of species of silver certificate issued by the British Government tc meet the increasing Governmental ex. penditures, especially in connection with the building of railroads.