India's Experience

The following statement of the eondition of affairs in India is made by Alexander P. Brown, a retired business man of Philadelphia, recently returned to the city after completing a tour around the world, and who spent last winter in India: The Depreclation in Silver Coinage. "The industrial eondition of India when compared with that of our country shows a state of affairs interesting and profitable to all thinking people. In India today there is business paralysis, financial depression, low prices and cheap labor. The causes of all this are not dimcult to seek. "India is a silver country absolutely. "In the ten years ending in 1893 the India mints coined over 800,000,000 of rupees. The silver rupee'was supposed to be worth 2 shillings, or 50 cents, before the repeal of the Sherman law in 1893. But its gold valué has sunk today to 1 shilling 1 pence, or about 27 cents. Many people there are followiug the silverites in the United States in their ingenuity to have the government open the mints and coin rupees on their own account. They urge tbat, notwithstanding the fluctuation in the price of silver and the expense of the mint, the profit to the government would be large, and this at a time when the government would reap a great advantage when mouey is so urgently wanted. Sorne of the best-informed money traders in Calcutta and Bombay say that if the government adopta such a policy the rate of exchange will go iower. But if free coinage should be adopted and the mints then opened to the public, the value of the rupee will be reduced. India can no more escape her fate in this rejjard than any other country. Condltlon of Commeree. "She is in the same commercial condition as we are, and she cannot be exempt from the regulations of the balance of tra de, which sends the rate of foreign bilis up or down. If India can increase her exporta and decrease her imports exchange must rise, and conversely. If the India governmeut ehould purchase silver for legitímate coinage the price of the metal might rise. Every rise in the price of silver would make her exchange higher. If it restricted Imports it would also prevent the undesirable extensión of wearing silver ornaments and increase the balance of trade in tha country's favor. Many of the natives wear silver rings on the ankles and toei, and they also bury their rupees when they have enough saved. And if ever gold comes into tlieir hands it passes out of circulation forever. "Ever since the English have occupied India the mints have been In operation. It is a known fact that up to the year 1893 a certain quantity of rupee have been coined annually. Absolutely a Silrer Country. "India is absolutely a silver country. Maj. Buchanan Scott, master of the mint at Bombay, and other financial experts, are trying to solve the silver problem. The medium of exchange in India is a huge inconvertible token coinage of about 2,000,000,000 of rupees and rupee paper. "The government of India has always struggled for international bimetallis'm as the only solution of its monetary difficulties, but whenever any stimulus has been given to her export trade it has betm c-lainied that it was drie to the" rilling rates of silver. The fall in value of the rupee hns had a paralyzing nfluence on the raihvay extensión. The state polïcy always advoeated extremely low rates of transportaron. The Rajputana raihvay, which bisects the heart of India, has always carried wheat, rice, opium and indigo at low rates, which gave the eovernnieut general control ovtr the rying rates of lateral lines, and this led to general reductions, but now this is changed to sorne extent, as the railway has been secured by a company whicb. is trying to make ai mueh profit as possible. Carrency in a Deplorable Way. "The fall of the rupee affecta all the people of India, but those wlio feel the pincli the most are the urmy and the English oflicers who have their children at school in England, and any business men carrying on foreign transactions and who must pay at present doublé ratos for sterling bilis on Londcrn. "The currency of India is in a deplorable way. The silver countries of Japan and China will nöt even reeeive her silver in the settlement of indebtedness, because no country knows how much lower will be its fall in the future, and it will be impossible to maintain any artificial valué of the rupee. Those engaged in the East India trade at home feel the depression, and most of the merchants are clamoring for a return to a joint stantlard on which stability can be baséd. When I was in Calcutta and Bombay business seemed to be at a standstill, and exchange had fallen to a point lower still than when the mints were just closed. India stands out today as a country that illustrates fulty a country based on a. depreciated silver basis. Deluding the Massel. "The silver leaders in this country are trying to delude the fireside judgment and homebred undèrstanding of the masses into a belief that the shutting up of the mints in India against tree coinage increased the burdens of debt due to England, and its ulterior design was the destruction of debtor coimtnes. This is neither truth nor fact. The liabilities of the Indian government have always been settled in gold on the London exchange while India was on a silver basis. And they always have been settled in the same way since 1893, when the Madras, Calcutta and Bombay mints were closed. When I was in Caloutta in March last, there was an artificial stimulus given to the value of the rupee, which rose to 29 cents, and within the last month it has risen to 32 cents. "The significance of the quotations Is that an artificial value is given to the circulating coins in India by an attempt made on the part or the banking interest to limit the supply. We tried to adopt the same policy after the ropeal of the Sherman law. The result was that the price of the rupee in March last in India was 27V per cent. above the actual value of the rupee, and the price, I believe, today is even higher. Produce in India has risen since the mints have closed, a contrary state of affairs from what the Bryan followers predict when we shall have free coinage. The price of silver il iteadily fallins in India."- Traffic. , ,