The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1896-09-08

so cents in gold in the worlds market,
basis, then one of two things must
happen; depending upon the purchas-
| ing power of the silver dollar in the
country where the wheat was grown.
| If the purchasing power of that dollar
| has fallen to the bullion value of the
| metal and prices have arisen accord
ingly, then the seller of the wheat
| gets so cents in gold in Liverpool,
which is worth 81 in his own country.
But that dollar taken into the market
| will buy only so cents worth of other
commodities. He is precisely where
| he was before, and there is no slim
illus to production or export. If the
purchasing power of his dollar did
not decline correspondingly, there
would be some chance of gain to the
exporter, but only at the expense of
| the farmer who raises the wheat.
| This has been the case to some ex-
| tent in India and elsewhere. Farmer"
| does not mean there what it does
here. The Indian farmer is the ryot-
the miserable wretch who tills the
ground at about cents day. If the
capitalist. the exporter and the money
lender can compel this man, through
| his ignorance and helplessness, as they
have done at times, to take so cents of
| silver at the rate of 81, while they sell
his product for gold. they pocket the
balance. That Is the only possible
gain to agricultural production from a
silver standard. When it is realized
it goes not to the producer, but to the
money broker, or to the middle man;
and it presupposes the existence of
class Of tillers Of the soil unutterably
ignorant and degraded, and therefore
could never apply to the United States.
Thus far we have dealt with the
general and particular features of the
theoretical side of the question. The
| free silver argument is pretty much all
| theory, and has an especial horror of
fact. There are facts concerning this
question which are not difficult of ac-
cess. The great authority on the con-
d1tion of India with reference to it's
currency is the report Of what is COM
monty known as the Herschell COM
mission, which was submitted in 1893,
| That report was printed as a part of
tue documents of the senate of the
United States, and is exhaustive as to
the effect of free silver coinage in
India. 1t was on the basis of this
| statement that the minis of that coun-
| try were closed to silver by the British
government This report, which car
rles with it the signatures Of seven
men Of the highest ability, with the
name of the lord high chancellor at
their head, and was rendered after an
exhaustive investigation, contains the
| following paragraph, which we repro
duce IN full, because it is the highest
authority on this subject:
| II IS said that the tendency of falling ex-
| change is to stimulate exports; that, mas
r n.ioa as more silver, L. e., higher silver
price is received in respect of the same gold
price whist wages and the other factors in
the cost OF production do not increase in the
same proportion. production becomes more
prohtable, and is therefore stimulated AS
stunning tnls to be true, the effect of each
| successive fall must be transitory and can
COiIlHuS only until circumstances have
| brought about the inevitable adjustment AL
though one may be inclined, regarding the
matter theoretically, to accept the proposition
that the suggested stimulus would be the re-
suit or falling exchange, an examination
| OF the statistics of exported produce does not
| appear to afford any substantial foundation
for the view that in practice with this stmu-
lus assuming 1t to have existed, the progress of
| the export trade has been less with a rapidly
falling than with a steady exchange. For
example, from 1912 to 1857 the gold
foil cto 4Ixy
23l26d. to 2O.508d., or about liz per cent;
! the exports of merchandise were actually
| less in the latter year than in the former, al
though in 1857 their rupee value exceeded
| by about 10 per cent that of the exports of
! either 1901 or 1928. From 1879 to
| 1SS4-S5 exchange was fairly steady the
| age rates varying only between 19.961d. and
| 19.30Sd. per rupee, or about 81 per cent; and
| during those six years the exports rose by no
less than 361a per. cent: Again, between
very rapid, from 19.308d. to 16.379d., over
| Is per cent, and the exports increased during
those four years by 161s per cent; but in the
| Improvement in the exchange, the exports
| increased by than 61a per cent. 1t Is
said, too that whilst falling exchange tends
| to stimulate exports, there Is corresponding
| tendency to check imports Here again. sta
! tistics do not seem to show that diminished
imports have been coincident with lower
exchange. Taking the same periods be-
fore, from 1S7l-72 to 1857, when exchange
fell liz per cent, imports of merchandise
! into India increased by IL per cent; from
| 1888 to 18S4-85, when exchange was steady,
the increase of imports exceeded Al per cent;
| between 1SS4-85 and 1889, when the rupee
! fell about Is per cent, the imports were aug
mented by nearly % per cent; while in 18S9-90,
when exchange slightly rose, the imports
were rather less than in the previous year.
Upon the whole we cannot see any evidence
! that the effect of falling exchange on the
country at large, in influencing either ex-
ports or imports, has over a series of years
been very considerable. Some trains Of a
! priori reasoning would seem to lead to he
same conclusions, and also to the further
conclusion that, even If fall in the gold
value of the rupee does stimulate exports,
| the result is not necessarily. to the benefit Of
| India as whole, though it may temporarily
benefit the employer at the expense Of the
wage-earner, because wages rise more slowly
| than prices.
We append, in confirmation Of
this, a table taken from page
500 of the same report, giving the ex-
ports of wheat from India, their guam
tity and value year by year, together
with the average rate of exchange,
which means the value in gold of the
silver rupee for each year.
Years ended Average Rate
March 81. Quantity. Value of Exchange.
1877 5000. 5,5S7Ooo 1,s5, 900 S51
| 1878 & 272 non 7s4 00n I 3 70