The great West. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1889-18??, 1893-10-27
SILVER IN INDIA.
xhe Real Reasons Underlying the Aetioa of
the Governments In Closing the 1Iints.


Tho Real Reasons Underlying the Aetioa Of
the Governments In Closing the 1dints.
The more we learn Of the circumstan-
ces attending and of the reasons given
for the action Of the Indian government
in closing the minis Of India to the coin
age of silver for individual account, the
more apparent it becomes that the de-
cisiOn to take that course was hastily
reached and the action ill advised. Pro
fessor j. s. Nicholson, an able financial
writer. has an article in The Contempt
rary Review entitled 'sThe Indian Cur
rency Experiment" which throws new
light upon the subject.
When the financial world was startled
by the announcement of the order of the
Indian government. which was instantly
followed by the extraordinary fall of the
gold price of silver in the London mar
ket, the American bimetallists were de-
moralized for time, and the gold ring
cried with one voice that it would DO
foolhardy for this country to attempt to
sustain silver any longer. The white
metal, they insisted, is doomed, and the
sooner we recognize the fact the better
it will be for. our financial standing be
fore the world.
But now that the motives and reasons
which actuated and controlled the In
dian government are made known we
find that the Indian minis were closed,
not because the government had any de-
sire to abandon bimetallism or to adopt
the gold standard, but because Of the
fear that the United States was about to
throw silver coinage over and that there
would consequently be further fall of
the price of silver in London. For 10
years, as Professor Nicholson points out,
the government of India has hoped for
an international return to bimetallism.
And in the very plan propounded by Sir
David Balfour to be adopted by India
for the introduction of gold standard,
he concludes with strong argument
and appeal for the double standard and
with the expression of serious doubt az
to the possibility Of effecting the proposed
change.
The experiment of closing the Indian
minis to silver and of attempting to fix
an arbitrary gold value of the rupee was
forced upon the government Of India by
the necessity of doing something to stay
the further fall of silver which was ap-
pretended from the action Of the United
States. The president had recommended
the abandonment of further purchases
and had not recommended other legisla-
ton looking to silver coinage.
India pays to the home government
SIT ZOO, 900 annually. This amountmust
be RENTED in gold or exchange equiva-
lent. The entire revenues of the Indian
government are paid in silver rupees.
It was feared that when the United
States should deal the final blow to sill
yer the remittance could no longer be
made; hence the attempt to fix an arti-
fetal gold price for the Indian coin.
The result of the experiment is now
known to the world. And so signal has
been the failure Of the whole scheme for
forcing India to the gold standard that
the attempt has not been pursued. It
has been found that the inherent con-
servatism of the teeming millions Of In
dia is an obstacle not to be overcome by
an order of the Indo- British council. It
is about as difficult to change the money
Of people as it is to change their reli-
gion.
Professor Nicholson does not attempt
to predict the outcome of the Indian cur
rency experiment. But he presents a
view of the matter as it bears upon the
commercial and industrial world beyond
India. 1.-The closure of the Indian mints
to silver" he says, sis certain to intensi-
fy the evils that followed on the closure
Of the minis Of Europe. There must be
further appreciation of gold-in other
words, a further fall in general prices,
with an intensifcation of the burden of
Indebtedness, increasing difficulty in the
adjustment of wages, contraction Of en-
terprise through falling profit and liqui-
dations on large SCALE"
These striking words present a picture
of the results which would flow from the
abandonment of silver by the United
States.-San Francisco Chronicle.