The following is the Declaration of the Bimetallic League, alluded to in the extract made by its from the Saturday Review in another co'umn:—The serious and sudden action of the B tish Government in authorising the Indian Government to close the Mints in India to the unrestricted coinage of silver, for the Pipes to Is, 4d, and of maintaining it, if purpose of raising the gold value of the possible, at the nite fixed, renders it moun nent upon the Council' of the Bimetall League to issue a Special Declaration upon the subject.
The step.is a very grave one, and must ead to conseanences affecting more or less all the nations of the world.
Misapprelensions seem to exist in some quarters as to the relation between.this new Policy of the Government and the policy which has been, and is, advocated by the Bimetallic League. The Council of the League desire, in the clearest and strongest Jangnage, to disown any connection whatever between the two, It is true (and Bimetallists may be encouraged by the fact) that at last the British Government, has been compelled to recognise and to admit the existence of some of those evils which the League has for years pointed' out as the results of the rupture, in 1873, of the Bimetallie tie between silver and gold. It has also been forced to attempt a remedy so far as the finances and trade of India are concerned, Moreover, it is evident that the Government now admits the economic principle that it is in the power of legislation to secure a Par of Exchange between gold and silver moneys, and recognises that it is one of the duties of Governments, under certain circumstances, to take steps to attain such Parity.
These are important admissions, and they be of the greatest possible service in the The measure just adopted, however, aims at remedying only one particular phase of the Currency difficulty, and that hyne means the most important or the most comprehensive, The policy of the League, on the other hand, which it has consistently advocated, has been the establishment of One Money for the whole world, and the settlement of the Monetary Question upon a broad International basis.
The plan of the Government is a purely artificial expedient—an_experiment—which must, even if successful in attaining the immediate object in view, aggravate the difficulties of the situation in other important directions, It deliberately ignores the enormous and grave issues involved in the commerce of both England and India with the Far East, and with all the other silver using countries of the world. By lowering the gold value of silver it will increase rather than diminish the disturbance which British Trade has experienced since 1873, when the old ratio between gold and silver was destroyed; while, on the other hand, it will introduce an entirely new element of difficulty into the Foreign Trade of India,
of India will quietly accept a policy which remains to he seem how far the natives depreciates their hoards of uncoined silver and ornaments, and converts what has hitherto been practically a reserve of Money into a mere commodity. Under these new conditions, if they wish to use these hoards as Money, they must find both a purchaser and a price as best they can. Moreover, it must not be forgotten that this uncertainty will be a constant source of anxiety, as with every fall in the gold value of uncoined silver the "political danger would become more imminent.
But there is a more serious aspect of this question.
The Appreciation of gold has been the chief cause of the Depression which has for so long afflicted Manuluctaring. Agricultural and other Productive Industries. It is manifest that the new policy of the Government. in Inia. must aril further intensify this Appreciation. If the limited scheme of the Government is to sneeeed at all, and the rupee is to be maintained at its artificial value, India must increase her itnports of gold. To that extent there will bea new demand for gold, and if there is a new demand for gold it must still further appreciate the value of that metal. It is important also to remember that the effect of the actual accumulation of gold in India, however serious that may be, is insignificant compared with the danger inseparable from the increased veneral Scramble for Gold which this policy will naturally bring about, Then not only niust the gold price of commodities fall, but the burden of debt must be largely increased both vernments and individuals on whose financial stability and prosperity the commercial development of the British Empire so much depends. In any case, it is certain that there must he months, perhaps years, of disturbance; while, on the other hand, there. is no assurance that solid ground will at any time be reached, under 8 word and empirical system which mhsettes everything, and establishes nothing.
It may be said that the British Government had no option but to sanction the closing of the mints in India, seeing that this policy had been recommended and urged upon it by the Indian Government. But so far from is being the case, the fact is the Home Government has acted in direct opposition to the reiterated representations of the Go-yernment of India in favour of International Bimetallisin.
The Correspondence between the Government of India and the Secretary of State, which has just been published, shows clearly that the Government of India still hold the same views on this subject as they expressed more than ten years ago. In a Despatch, dated Calcutta, 23nt March, 1892, they say, "We are desirous, as we have always beer of aiding in the settlement of the silver qu tion by International Ayreement.
But the Government of India did not! remain content. with indicating the only satisfactory and complete measure which in their judgment could relieve the Government and Trade of India from the inherent difficulties of the situation; they implored the! Home Government to alter its attitude of hostility to International Bimetallism, and 0 remove the only obstacle which stood in the way of its accomplishment. Tu another Despatch, dated Simla, 2ist June, 1892, after the meeting of the Brassels Conference had been arranged (but five months before it met), the Government of India say—
We fear that a refusal on the part of Great Britain to adopt the system of double legal tender may be fatal to an International Agreement for the free coinage of Leth gold and silver on a sufficiently wide basis. We deeply regret this state of affairs, both because believe that no other' country is so deeply interested in, or would benefit so greatly by a uniform standard of value throughout the civilised world as Great Britain, with her vast system of trade and the great extent of her finance, and because the final rejection of an International Agreement for the free coinage of both gold and silver wil leave this country face to face with a problem of the greatest difficulty."
There is even stronger evidence, however, of the unwavering opinion of the Governm of India in favour of an International Bimetallic Agreement. In their Despatch of 2nd August, 1892 which is devoted to an examina. tion of the possibility of introducing a Gold. Standard into India as an alternative policy, it is manifest that they could only bring then selves to recommend ity if a general agreement for the unrestricted coinage of both silver and old could nathe obtained. Driven to choose tween a course full of danger, and the "policy of drift," which they felt could out lean to disaster, they adopted'a Gold Standard Scheme, as a "policy of despair." At the end of this Despatch they say—"It would, we submit, be wholly unreal sonable if, in face of the calamities which we are now experiencing and of the still greater calamities which are likely to come upon us in the future, and of the fact that our difficulties must continue until England and India have the same standard of val Her Majesty's Government were to prevent the Government of India from making an attempt to introduce a gold standard into this country on the ground of the actual or possible appreciation of gold, and were at the same time to refuse to support, the proposal for a general system of double legal tender, on the yround that there had been no appreciation of gold in the past, and that there was no likelihood of any such appreciation n the future. If Her Majesty's Go-Verninent are not prepared to. accept the proposals which we have advocated for more than ten years as the best remedy for our difficulties, we consider that they ought not now to refuse to Jet us adopt the only otter remedy open to us, namely the adoption of the same monetary standard as that of the country with which we have our most intimate financial and commercial relations, that standard being, as we understand, cou-sidered by Her Majesty's Government to have worked so satisfactorily in England that they are not prepared to encourage any hope of " departure from it being approved by them."
The opinions of the Government of India are thus clear. The remedy they have con sistently and perseveringly recommended for more than ten years is an International Bimetallic agreement. Their only reason for sougesting the adoption of " Gold Standart for la instead of Bimetallism is, as Mr, Leonard Courtney (one of the members of Lord Herschell's Committee) declares in a Note to the Report, because "the British Government is the greatest obstacle, perhaps the only substantial obstacle, to the establishment of an International Avreement.".
The Bimetallie League remains unshaken in the principles it has always held. The Council must dissociate itself entirely from the novel and dangerous policy upon which the Government. has embarked. That policy is not Bimetallism. It is open to the objection hich are alleged ayainst the Bimetallic System without possessing its advantages. It introduces an artificial and restricted, instead of an automatic and free supply of money. It attempts to rate the rupee to the sovereign, without the security of a Fixed Ratio between Silver and Gold. Tt arbitrarily raises the gold value of the rupee, while at the same time it disregards the monetary conditions of the rest of the world, and gives no assurance of stability.
Whatever may be the immediate effect of the experiment which is now being tried, so far from the action of the Government being a solution of the question, it will, if persevered in, only lead toa Universal Policy of Gold
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.