le from
cheap silver will yield wide-spreading consequential benefits far beyond
the reach of calculation. This, too, is the case as regards India; we
require for it a Government which can appreciate, and act up to, this view
of the situation.

FOOTNOTES:

[61] "Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee appointed to inquire
into the Indian Currency, 1893." "Report of Committee appointed to inquire
into the Indian Currency, 1893." "Indian Currency Correspondence between
the Government of India and the Secretary of State, 1893." "Abstract of
the Proceedings of the Council of the Governor-General of India, the
Viceregal Lodge, Simla, Monday, June 26th, 1893."

[62] I may mention that formerly anyone could take bullion or ornaments in
silver to the mints and change them for rupees.

[63] It is very difficult to form an accurate opinion on this point.
Returns seem at first sight very conclusive, but you require a knowledge
of facts which the returns do not disclose. For instance, in the
Government return quoted in the "Economist" of September 30th, 1893, it
would appear that, compared with 1873, there had been an enormous rise in
the price of ragi--a millet which is the staple food of the people of
Mysore. In the table, the prices of 1873 being taken as equal to 100, the
rise from 1876 to 1880 is 209, from 1881 to 1885 the ratio falls to 103,
and remains at that till 1890. Then, in 1891, it rises to 138, and in 1892
to 177. From this return the writer in the "Economist" concludes that the
purchasing power of the rupee is now about 30 per cent. lower than it was
in 1873. But to my mind the rupee price of ragi, judging by the returns
and omitting periods of famine and scarcity, has probably only risen 3 per
cent. The high price of the 1876-80 period was caused by the great famine,
and the price in 1891 is to be accounted for by the partial failure of the
ragi crop in that year--the country being on the brink of a famine--and
this circumstance of course affected prices in the year following.

[64] The amount that the Government would save is about 1,570,000 Rs. x.

[65] The reader will see that, for the sake of making even figures, I have
taken the value of the exports at upwards of eleven millions less than
they really are. The return of the trade of British India for 1891-92 is
as follows:

Rs. x
Private imports 81,310,119
Private e