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

e0IlLltu Lie DllNNl NSuNoNiNh'
to British Trade and Manufactures" by
=. George Jameson, Esq, II. b. Ms con-
sul-general at Shanghai, China, bearing
upon this subject. and from which we
quote nearly in full. 1t appears that
the article in question was called forth
bv prize offered by Sir Henry M.
Mevsey-Thompson, Bart, NJ. z. MIR.
Mevsev-ThompsUn, in his preface to the
pamphlet, says:
In introducing to the public the 1ol-
lowing excellent papers on the SUBJECT
of the injury done to the trade ana man
ufactures of England by the divergence
in value between gold and silver. l Will
saw only "A very few words in eXplana-
ton of my reasons for Offering prize.
Fifteen years ago had come to the
conclusion that if the value OF gold, AS
measured by silver and commodities,
were TO continue to rise, the inevitable
consequence must be the Punishment of
all our great manufacturing industries
from England, to find a home in the sill
ver-using countries of the East and else
where.
This theory and others proclaimed
from the housetops, but we found that
we might as well have been crying in the
wilderness no one would listen to us.
Yet the theory is very simple, and
seemed to us quite conclusive.
What is the question? 1t is one sim
ply and solely of locality. The manu-
factures of the world will certainly be
--carried on sonlerhere where is that
S0mephere to be?
Now, we have all to make up our
minds
% Do we qcisb that the home and
principal seat of the great manufacture
ING industries of the world-the cotton,
woollen, wOrsted, linen, iute, iron and
steel, machinery, leather, clothing, pot
terry, glass, and many others, Including
all our existing agricultural Industries
should continue to be in the United
Kingdom. as hitherto, and that they
should be carried on by English. Scotch,
Irish, and Welsh workmen or do we
qcish to see them banished to the soil of
India. China. Japan and Mexico. and
carried on by Indian, Mexican, Chinese,
and japanese wOrkmen:
(2) Is it certain that our present
monometallic policy must drive these in
dustries away from the soil of the nlted
Kingdom, and cause them to be carried
on, instead on the soil of India, China,
Japan and Mexico?
Let us compare England and China in
Lut year lCOJs anu again III AD'Hs w NttiNS
round Quarter-Ccntury of time. Let
us suppose that an independent capital
list, resident. say, in America, and caring
nothing either for England or China,
were hestating in which country to set
up a mandatory. Let us suppose that
he made inquiry as to the cost of labour
i'm the two countries. and that he was
told the amount of labour required to
make a given quantity of cloth would
cost him one sovereign i'm England, or
ounces of silver in China, he would
say: "'rhe value of silver is 5s. per
on: / ounces of silver cost FL my soy
ereign would purchase the same amount
of labor either in England or China.
prefer England"
Now let us look at 1894. Gold wages
have certainly not fallen in England;
we have conclusive evidence that silver
wages have not risen in China; there
fore, if the same man inquired now, he
would still be told that the labour re-
quired to make given amount OF cloth
would cost him one sovereign in Eng
land, or / ounces of silver in China. lie
would say "Silver has fallen from 5s.
to less than IS. Cd. per or; thel efore,
for h0lf-d-sOrercign | can buy ounces of
silver, and. as far as the cost of labour
is concerned, can now get as much
cloth made in China for half-a-sOveretgn
as can get made in England for SOW
ereign. prefer China
The public would not stop to listen;
but ''dogged does it," We hammered
away, making "A convert here and there,
until now even Sir William Harcourt adj
mits that the professors of Political
Economy are on our side. During the
last two years, have had information
sent me from many parts of the world,
that thn manufacturing and AGRICULTURAL
industries in silver-using countries are
advancing by leaps and bounds while
in England and other gOld-using cOun-
tries they are mostly stagnant and de-
clining.
The article by Mr.. Jameson is as fol-
lows:
Viewing the world as whole, the OBJ
served facts during the past twenty
years may be stated as follows:
% Prices (wholesale) of nearly all
commodities have fallen in gold-using
countries. This fall concided roughly,
step by step, with the fall in the gold
value of silver up to the end of 1892
Since that date silver has fallen more
rapidly than commodities, but the latter
appear to be still falling.
[2) Wages, rents, and taxes in gold
using countries have not varied or have
NdIleu only Mllnln udIIoN lllhlbei uuC W
temporary and local causes. Agricul-
tural rents should, perhaps, be excepted ;
but these are subject only to periodical
revision.
(3) Retail prices Unto which wages,
rent, and taxes enter largely have not
fallen to the same extent as wholesale
prices, in many cases they have not
fallen at all.
"a Prices <whoesale) of all commo-
dities in siver-using countries have re-
NAMED approximately steady during the
period, and this whether the articles
were produced in the country itself, or
imported. In the case of articles lm-
ported from gold-using countries, how
ever, there has been, since the middle of
1893, rise in silver prices, correspond
ing to the divergence between silver and
commodities noted in No. /.
(5) Wages, rent and taxes have not