Year: 1867

THE SILVER NUISANCE" AND OTHER MAT


In the Canadian House of Commons sew
eral measures have been introduced TO regu-
late the value of foreign silver coins. The
presence of some three or four millions OF
American silver coin in the commercial cir
cles of the Dominion, is there regarded as a
nuisance. Loud is the outcry from various
parts Of the provinces, as to the the injury in
flicted on their trading interests by the pres
ence of this silver money which we would so
gladly get; and in the new Currency bill,
which the government will soon bring in; it
is expected that the subject will receive spe-
below from the London, (Ontario) Free Press,
may give our readers some idea of the practi-
cal working OF this, TO us, novel " nuisance" /"
That paper says:


The silver nuisance" in Canada is caused
by the depreciation of the American silver
currency. In order to prevent the silver dol
lars from being melted down for bullion, the
American Government had the coinage so de-
based by the admixture of alloy, that it would
not pay to melt it for manufacturing purposes.
In some cases the standard value Of the
American dollar is reduced five per cent, and
in others even seven and eight per cent. As
compared with the gold dollar, the store-keep-
er who accepts ksilver at par is, OF course a
loser on every transaction, for, as all his pur-
chases are made on the gold basis, he has to
lose the difference between the Two values.
Many of our store-keepers lose from So to
SIS per day by taking silver at para loss, in
the present cutting down system OF business,
they can ill afford. The evil has been grad
ualy growing, and where once store-keeper
would get fair proportion of bank bills on a
days sales, he now rarely gets bill rendered
in payment. Most people having bills now
rush to some brokers' office, change their bills
for silver, pocket the premium, and then trade
off the deprecated silver on the store-keeper
at par, making him the loser of the sum they
have gained by shaving their bills. Anoth-
er evil attached to the present system is that
the circulation of bank bills is seriously i'm
peded, especially those of small denomina-
tions, and thus source of profit to the banks
is cut of, and discounts are necessarily re-
stricted.


The boards of trade of the various cities
have memorialized the government on this
subject, suggesting various plans of remedy
One of these is the imposition Of an import
duty of ten per cent on American silver
Under such aduty the wholesale importation
of the silver in boxes and kegs by the brokers
would cease, the merchants would pay theil
collections into the banks, the banks would
remit the drug to the States at loss, and
once over the line the duty would keen Il
there, enabling the displaced currency of tbe
| country to resume its circulation. Anothe,
proposal is TO make the coin legal tender
only at discount of 20 per cent. We hope
our neishbors will hit upon some plan tc
send us back the money for want OF which
we suffer serious inconvenience.


The new Postal bill was laid before the
Senate last week. 1t provides for three
cent letter postage uniformly throughout the
Dominion, and also for gradual reduction o


the newspaper postage. The Postmaster