Arizona republican., 1893-11-29
SILVER HOARDS IN INDIA.
Millions of Dollars Withheld from Circulation.
A Very Large Per Cent. of the Native Mintage in the Hands of Persons Who Are Holding It for Rise
 in Value.

The extent to which the natives of India have boarded. silver is matter of great importance in the considera- tion of the whole silver question, says the New York Sun. Earl Northbrook, one of the Earrings of London, at one time viceroy of India, and there fore reputed authority on the sub feet, estimates the silver hoards in the hands of the people of India at about one hundred and fifty millions of pounds sterling. J. B. OConnor, a well-known Anglo-Indian official, says that there are no very large hoards of silver in India outside the vaults of the India currency department, and that the bullion stored in those vaults only waits it's turn to pass into the hints, as does the great bulk of silver imported into India.
 Anyone who will turn to the finance and revenue accounts issued by the British government in India can see for himself what is done with the great quantities of silver which India imports. In the half century-1S42-43 to 1s91-92 the aggregate net imports of silver into India amounted to 3,241, ,- 57s, ,390 rupees.
 In the same fifty years the silver re- ceived in the hints amounted to 3,169,- 529, ,3sO rupees. From this latter sum should be deducted 179, 433, 40 rupees, being the value of old rupees recoined, and then we have the sum of, say, 2,990, 100000 rupees, representing the silver received at the hints in this period of fifty years. The difference between this sum and the net imports amount to only 800 rupees. That is, the annual average of silver passing into the hints has been about 598 laos, and the annual average of sil- yer not passing into the hints has been only about 61 laos. In fact, more than 92 per cent. of the aggregate imports has been coined in the hints of India. But it must not be supposed that even the relatively small sum mentioned as not having gone into the hints has not been coined. It is not assuming too much to say that the whole of the 30 crores which did not pass through the hints of the British government passed through the hints of the native states.
 F. c. Harrison, another Anglo-Indian official of position in the finance de- partment, surmises that the native mintage of silver since 1885 exceeds 70 crores. But whether the native coin age is 30 crores or 70 crores, what is clear is that practically all the silver received in India is coined in the hints of the government and of the native states. That there are vast hoards of silver in the country is certain, though it is permissible to doubt whether they are quite so vast as some people think, or very widely distributed among the people. These boards, however, con sist not of uncoined metal, but of coined and current rupees, and their value will certainly not be diminished by change in the monetary standard which does not deprive the rupee of it's character of full legal tender. On the contrary, any effect which may be pro- duced by the change just made will be in the direction of reducing the prices of commodities, and so far as that eff feet is produced the possessor of hoard ed rupees will find that his hoard has | increased in value.