The Irish standard., 1896-08-15

pure silver to lO0 parts OF dflOy, VIII colIl
SIS. go in standard silver dollars of the
existing weight These sixteen ounces
of silver can be purchased today at the
rate of 70 cents per ounce, which would
be for the sixteen ounces $11.20. On an
investment of $11.2o, therefore, there
would be under free coinage profit to
the investor Of $7.40. That Is to say, any
man could go into the market, purchase
sixteen hundred ounces of silver bullion,
which can be purchased today for $1,120,
and from this there can be coined $1,S60
of full legal tender quality. That guam
tity Of silver bullion under free coinage
could be taken to the mint and the
holder would realize profit OF $74O on
an investment of $1,120.
The reasoning in the above is all right
so far as it goes. but there is another side
to the question, says the Peoria Journal.
How much more would gold be worth than
silver If it were deprived Of mint privt-
leges the same as silver is deprived? In
order, however, not to bicker or beg the
question, let us look and see who would be
benefited were silver given the same priv
ileges at the mint as gold, and secondly,
who would be the loser. Granted for ar
gument sake that the mine owner would
be the first person benefited, let US look a
tr;fle further and see who else would be
benefited. Let us consider the effects of
cheap silver in diminishing the exports Of
American wheat and other farm products.
First let us suppose that the moneys en-
ployed in England and India are the same
as those in the United States; and that,
twenty-six years ago in England an India
dollar could and would buy just as much
wheat or other farm products, or anything
else for that matter, as gold dollar. Let
us also suppose that wheat was one dollar
per bushel in India. An English importer
of wheat buys five hundred bushels. It is
of no consequence to him whether he sends
five hundred silver dollars or five hundred
gold dollars. Both kinds of dollars are
the same. A few years unfriendly legis-
lation has caused a depreciation of forty
per cent of the silver dollar In Great Brit
ain compared with the gold dollar, while
no change in the value Of the silver dollar
has taken place in India. If now the Eng
lish importer desires to import wheat into
England he no longer sends gold dollars
but silver ones. If he does not have them
he exchanges his Ave hundred gold dollars
for seven hundred silver dollars and sends
them to India, for the simple reason that
he can buy two hundred bushels more of
wheat with these than he could If he sent
gold ones. This is precisely what has hap
pened, for the simple reason that the legal
as well as the market value of silver has
declined in England but not in India, while
the legal value Of silver has not declined
in the United States. consequently the
English importer Is the gamer by purchas-
ing wheat and cotton in India instead of
the United States. In England the Inn
porter can buy silver rupees, which are
legal tender money in India in any amount,
"a fact of which the Wall Street News is
only too we'll ALVAREZ at their market
value, and sends them to India and ex-
changes them at their legal or mint value,
which is forty per cent greater for wheat
in that country, and gains this much by
the operation. II this same English Inn
porter could in some way get hold of Amer
.can silver dollars at what such papers as
the Wall Street News term their bullion
value" in England, he would gain Just as
much in buying wheat here as in buying it
IN India. He can, ii necessary, however,
get hold of the silver bullion at it's market
value, which In due course Of time Is
turned into rupees, which are legal tender
IN India, 50 he prefers to buy our silver
bullion instead Of our wheat and cotton.
But it is not necessary for him to purchase
the bullion. The bullion brokers Of LON
bard street, London, purchase the silver.
It may be worth while to explain how the
wheat importer gets hold of the rupees. 1t
Is the simplest thing in the world. The
English government sells them to him.
But how does the government get them
The government Of india Is q debtor to
England for taxes, and these are paid ii
silver. The payments are made into the
English treasury In India, but, instead Of
sending the silver to England and then re-
shipping it In payment for wheat, cotton
and other commodities, bills Of exchange,
or '.India council Bills" as they are called,
are sold BY the English government in
| London, which are paid for IN gold, and
which entitle the holders 70 silver rupees
- - 10.