Mohave County miner. [volume] (Mineral Park, A.T. [Ariz.]) 1882-1918, 1901-05-04

in Asiatic trade-directed to London
dealers to ship it to the mints of India
and China (which were under British
contror, where it has been steadily
coined at the ratio of l6 to into rupees
and yens, and then used to pay the
Hindoo and Chinese merchants for the
produce they shipped to the west.
As these eastern lands have always
sold to the civilized nations more than
they bought from them, there has been
invariably balance of trade in their
favor, for which nothing would be ac-
cepted but silver. The reason for this
was that the Asatic merchant bought
what he shipped TO Europe from the
Asiatic producer in the interior, where
silver has been the only currency;
again, the commodities so bought came
into the seaport in innumerable small
lots of too little value in most cases to
be worth the smallest even of gold
coin.
Bullion dealers therefore have been
acting through all these years as the
agent for innumerable small producers
of silver in the new world and for few
large and wealthy consumers in the
old. Naturally their interests have
been with the latter, and the effect
has been TO keep the price of silver
down to the lowest possible notch. As
( long as free coinage was in force among
the nations, the fact constituted las it
| does with gold) an unlimited demand
the price could not recede below the
figure resulting from the ratio adopted
between the two metals. When, how
ever, that bar was removed a natural
state of trade ensued; and as producers
were not united aud each one sold his
metal when he pleased, the buyers nat
urally have been able to set the value.
During the last twenty years, by the
rapid and marvellous growth OF the pre-
cious metal industry in the United
States each year has witnessed the
passage of larger and larger proper
ton of the silver product of the new
world through the hands of American
refiners, until at the present time all
of the metal yielded by the mines of
North America, and more than half of
that from South America, comes to
New York for sale to Europe.
In the organization of the American
Smelling & Refining company the Lon
don bullion dealers hold enough of the
stock ana the paper of the company to
compel the selling of this metal
through their hands. But, before the
consolidation with the Guggenheims
could be arranged this control had to
be resigned. The latter corporation
declined to join until arrangements
were perfected, insuring the selling of
the silver in New York. The litigation
that ensued was an attempt to prevent
the contamination of this deal. The
American Smelling & Refining COM
pauy is now entirely in the hands of
Americans whose interest it is to act
more strongly for the producers of the
metal than for its consumers, and who
can make more money on a rising sill
yer quotation than on a falling one.
Consequently one may confidently
look for an advance in the price, but it
is yet too early to predict with any de-
gree Of accuracy to what extent this
advance will be, and what may follow
should the market value of the metal
once again equal its coinage ratio.
Every American miner, however, will
feel pleased in knowing that from now
on the price of the white metal will be
determined in the United States, and
not across the water-Western Miner.
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