would still be better than the seven per
cent. export duty the Government would practically levy were exchange
forced up to 1s. 4d., and obviously very much better than the twenty-one
per cent. export tax which the Government evidently look forward to, for,
as we have seen, it is aiming at a 1s. 6d. rate. A large saving, too,
might be effected by going back to the old system of having a local
European force in India. Let anyone consider these points, and weigh the
remarkable and interesting statement quoted from Sir William Hunter, and
he will at once see that the condition of India generally is full of hope
(or at least was so till the monetary policy was announced), and that its
taxational resources are by no means exhausted. It should also be
considered that as the Government has not only spent large sums in recent
years in defensive works and public buildings, and at the same time paid
off debt to the amount of twenty-three millions, it would be perfectly
justified in borrowing, if it were necessary, in order to meet temporary
difficulties.

Now let me turn to what is the dominant cause of the monetary policy of
the Government--the dread that if the Sherman Act were repealed exchange
might sink even as low as a shilling per rupee.[70] What if it did? Let us
examine the consequences of that to India considered as a whole. The
apprehension in question was proclaimed in the Viceroy's speech of June,
26th, 1893, and in considering the consequences of a 1s. rate of
exchange, he pointed out that this would entail an increase of Rs. x
7,748,000 in the remittances required to be made for the home charges of
the Government, being, curiously enough, almost the exact sum which the
people of India would lose on their exports were exchange forced up to
1s. 4d. by the monetary policy of the Government. But as the producers
of India would gain largely by the 1s. rate of exchange, the total
account would stand thus:--loss to the Government say, for the sake of
round figures, seven millions; gain to the producers, twenty-one millions;
total gain to India, considered as a whole, fourteen millions. So that if
the very worst anticipations of the Government were realized India would
be a large gainer by the fall to a 1s. rate of exchange, and the
finances could be squared by increased taxation, which, if levied
considerably on imports, would be distinctly a popular measure. And, in
any case, the agitators could have no ground to go upon