While admitting the. plausibility of ow contributor's argtingets, there are one or two factors which must be taken as" iffiting and qualifying the conclusions he reached. In the first place a monsoon in Indin or a heavy export season from China in the autumn would call fora great deal eof silver. But according to our orrespondent's contention silver is available in such quantities—from the Continent that even this demanil would not, maintain its price. This, we fancy, is what likely to happen in the course of a number of years, but not for the time being.
For this there are two reasons. So long as the Pittman Act remains in operation in America, approximately one-third of the world's production of silver has to be purchased at $1 (gold) an ounce, and the fixing of this rate will naturally have an effect on the rest of the world's silver. Then as to Continental silver. It is only of use for the purposes of commerce when it has been melted into bars, and it has to be borne in mind that the capacity of London and th tinent for this is ex limited. The fact that it prevents an influx of additional silver upon the market at-a moment's notice, so a drop in price for this reason does not appear likely to operate until the lapse of perhaps a considerable time.
There are also the habits of those who deal in silver to be considered, well known to the brokers of Shanghai. But we shall not go into frvther details, contenting ourselves with pointing out that other factors must enter into calculations besides those which our contributer has mentioned.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.