Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-10-04
THE SILVER QUESTION.
CONTINUED from last week. j
IAN AnupndiX to MIR. Battelps letter.

manufacturers are meeting the same OBJ
stacles as in China. In Japan there was
n decrease of FL ,302 ,02O In the value OF
British imports in 1891; IN 1872 the de-
crease was cps, l03 and the separate
reports of the various c0nsuls show mat
i'm 1893 the same tendency was visible
At the same time the imports OF lhe
country in general increased. all the
growth being in goods from other silver
countries. Mr.. Spring Rice, of the To-
kio legation. points out that in lS92 En-
plish manufacturers received the same
return in sterling for lis yards of piece
goods as they did for los yards in 1870,
a very apprrciable loss. Consul Iroup,
of Yokohama, writing in May last, saws,
"Since the further fall in exchange,
which has taken place since the close OF
last wear, the import trade in manufac-
lures has been stagnant and to what eX-
tent the Japanese consumer VIII oe pre-
pared to rise to the advanced dollar price
of imports is not yet evident. 10 say
the least the trade in imports seems
likely to suffer great restrictions anu IN
the case of articles which come into
competition with home japanese manu-
features. probable eXtincttion. At sew
eral of the japanese ports the arrivals
of English cotton cloths have dwindled
to nothing. Similar reports cone from
Corea, in which our trade interest is now
quite microscopic. though it was OF some
value before the fall in silver shut us
ont of the market. From other Eastern
countries we receive the same story.
Reporting on the trade of the Straits
Settlements in 1892, the governor re-
ferred to the reduction in the imports OF
cotton pieces. and of European goods
generally, as due to the decline III eN-
l. Ia, faY,,
tale. Acting-C Consul Jolly. at Macao.
attributes the decrease in imports from
England to the fall in silver. The peo-
pie in Macao are poor and must have
cheap goods. and ours are beyond their
pocket Hence they have turned first TO
cheap German stutls and still more to
Japanese manufactures.
Leaving Asia for Central and South
America we encounter precisely similar
evidence. Unfortunately, the statistics
of imports are not so careful, trust-
worthy. or up to date as those in China,
but our consuls do their best to make up
for the shortcomings of native officials.
From Mexico. Mr.. Tional Garden some
time ago sent an exhaustive report on
the effect of the fall in silver, In which
he dwell on the increasing cost of for
eign goods in the native currency, Civ
inc elaborate tables which showed how
the purchasing power of the population
is curtaipd at each fall i'm the value of
the dollar. Consul Chapman, at Vera
Cruz, testifes to the decline of British
trade and expresses a belief that it must
90 on diminishing unless some change
speedily takes place IN the monetary
conditions. He illustrates how import
ing houses. while obtaining bigger
prices in silver, suffered ian actual loss
when the profit has to be accounted for
IN gold" In Costa Rca we find the dol
lar value of English goods rising while
the sterling yield is diminishing. From
Guatemala and Venezuela our consuls
send similar walls over the decay of
British trade, and in fact the experience
is universal in countries on a silver basis,
countries many of them only half de-
velOped and partially eXploited-the very
markets in which we should have eX-
pected our commercial dealings to eX-
pand as years went on, but for this
lnsuperable obstacle of exchange, which
is greater bar to trade than the most
comprehensive and onerOus tariffs, for it
knows no free list. a glance through
the figures of our exports to silver
countries i'm the last ten years, as given
in the iStotiSticm Abstract of the United
Kingdom Just published, will show to
thc must N"NHdI ''NNi WI INV l"hhlOOiS
more profitable our trade with them was
in 1880 and lS9l' the two most recent
years of high silver. than IN any imme-
diately before or alter
Ihat British manufacturers ana eN-
pOrterS are not only losing money from
the fall in silver. but are actually losing
established markets, seems undenlahle
IN the hight OF ihe figures already cited.
1t falls now to examine now tar we are
being >uPphuled n siiNer-u~lng coun-
tries in other words, how far our loss
OF trade is likely 10 be permanent. II l.
well known that The cotton spinning and
weaving industries Of bombay were
brought into existence and io-tered by
the fall IN silver Wages were paid in
silver and thus the cost OF production
was so much smaller that bombay yarn
became dangerous competitor with the
Lancashire article in all Eastern mar
kets. To-day III turn, me bombay man
utacturcrs find serious rivals in the cot
ton mills of lanHu and China. II does