Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1895-09-13

mand, and consequently the price fell to
the level of the lowest market. Again,
the exchange value of the rupee falls to,
say, Is. Id. Indian wheat can now be
laid down in London at nearly half the
sterling price of 1873 (costs of transport
having also in the meantime been greatly
reduced), and consequently the price of
wheat all over falls to corresponding
point.
This is a fair illustration of what has
been going all over the world. We draw
our supplies from all countries wherever
they can be procured most cheaply. BY
each successive drop in the gold value of
silver, greater and greater amount of
produce has been admitted from India
and other silver countries, and always at
a cheaper rate. Had the rupee retained
Its old value of Is, it Is perfectly GER
tain that no wheat could be imported
from India at present rates. There Is no
reason to suppose that the rupee price in
Bombay would have been materially diff
ferent from what it has been. Had the
gold value of the rupee not fallen, the
area of grain supply would never have
widened as it has done, demand and sup
ply would have been more evenly bal
anced, and the variations in price would
have been confined within small limits.
The same reasoning that applies to
grain applies to every other article that
can be supplied freely from silver-stand-
ard countries. The silver prices in those
countries have, as the experience of
twenty years has shown us, remained
approximately steady, and necessarily
the gold price has fallen. In no article,
however, has the correspondence be-
tween the price of silver and the price of
81, 81. ,1.t.
IN 1873, when the price of silver was
God, wheat stood at 54s. Today silver
is 2S5d. and wheat 24s., being drop in
the one case of 90 per cent, and in the
other of 55.G per cent.
1t is simply the old law of supply and
demand. Increase the area of supply,
and you haye, for the time being. the
supply outrunning the demand. With
an excessive supply the cost of prOduc-
ton IN the cheapest area must determine
the price of the whole. So long as In
dian wheat can be laid down at 23s.
quarter it is impossible for English farm
ers to get higher price, quality for
quality. India, by itself of course, could
not provide enough wheat to supply the
whole English demand, but that is not
the point. All the other sources. whence
England drew her supplies before the
fall in silver still continue to send wheat
forward, and it is the cheap rate at which
the excess supply from India and other
silver countries Is offered that governs
the market. The lower silver goes the
cheaper and cheaper does this excess
supply become. And there is no help
for it, until either silver begins to rise
again. or until some portions of the
earth are thrown out of wheat cultiva-
ton, and the demand again oyertakes
the supply.
But 1t may be said, granting that the
cheapening of produce is hard on the ag-
riculturist, it must be a very good thing
for the country at large, especially for
the manufacturing portion, who get the
same wages, and therefore can live so
much better. This seeming prosperity,
however, can be but shOrt-lived, for
III. The rise in the value of gold holds
out an immense temptation to the capt
talistS of silver countries to develop their
coal mines, and to erect machinery for
the purpose of supplying themselves and
other silver countries with the manu-
featured articles which this country has
long been in the habit of supplying them
with.
The inducement to this lies in the fact
that wages in all sllver-using countries,
formerly cheap. have now, by the fall in
silver, become fifty per cent. cheaper,
relatively to gold wages, or, to put it in
a different form, that wages in gold
using countries have, through the APP
probation of gold, become 100 per cent
dearer than they were relatively to sill
yer wages.
Prices of commodities regulate them
selves automatically, and from day to
day Given an equilibrium OF prices at
any moment between a silver-using and
gold-using country, any subsequent
fall in silver must have one or other of
two results either the gold price must
fall, or the silver price must rise. The
eXchangeable value of any article is.
within certain limit. representing costs
of transport, necessarily the same all
the world over. a bale of cotton, for
example, has the same exchangeabe
value in Liverpool, Bombay or New Or
leans, allowing for a certain fixed mar
gin, representing costs of transport
merchants profit and duty, if any. IN
bulky articles this margin is of course
considerable, but that does not affect the
principle. Whenever the article, for any
reason, becomes cheaper in one place
than i'm another, there is profit in eX-
porting it. \ flow sets in from the
cheaper to the dearer, until the ordinary
equilibrium Is restored.
With wages, however, ii is different
The price of days labour in Bombay
bears no relation to the price in Liver
pool, even assuming the quality to be
equal. If, indeed, we could import a
cargo of coolies as easily as we import \
bale or cargo of cotton, the adjustment
would be rapid. But the standard of
wages IN any country is regulated on
very different principles. The law of
supply and demand, which governs
wages, is not international, like the law
for commodities, but national or even
provincial. And in England where the
rights of labour are so well guarded by
tradeunionism, and a sympathetic legis-
lature, even the law of supply and de-
mand has not free scope. An employer
of labour must pay the recognised wages
or close his mill Adjustments In the
direction of fall can only be brought
about by concerted action, and usually
after a strike or lockout. or other pain
full and expensive process.
IN hf I