Messrs. Samuel Montagu & (o, report The year 1907 opened with fair prospects for silver.
Tie price had never fallen below twenty-nine pence during the previous caving steadily risen to this level Jump in 1902, growing confidence began to prevail that the evil days of silver were safely past, and that most of the damaging blows possible—such as fresh countries adopting a gold standgrd—had now been dealt, and their effec spent, Asa matter of fact, with the important exception of China, there is now no country in the world whose currency is based pon silk Moreover, we had become accustomed to the ever advancing tide of prosperity currency of small denominations, which is a necessity to a huge population whose wealth, though large in the aggregate, is individually small, The Indian Government, impelled by chronic shortage of currency, dominated the silver market, and such fluctuations which took place, merely punctuated the intervals between the issue of its buying orders, or indicated sharp up-wand movements when the Indian Bazaars, or some Continental orders, forced the Indian Government to yield the " pas" for a while.
The price, which was fixed at 32fd. on January 1, kept within about one penny below that figure until the middle of March, and then fell away to 29}¢d. on May 8; from that date the quotation rose and kept round about 31d. until July, when it began to mount toward 32d, On August 14 it touched 3244. for cash, and 32{d. for forward—the highest prices since the beginning of the year.
Throughout that month and the next, prices moved downward to 31; until at the close of September, ominous reports came to hand of rain deficiency in parts of India, and a just-completed Government order was not renewed.
So unexpected was this unfavourable state of affairs, that the Bazaars had bought unusually heavy shipments for the end of October settlement la Bombay, and were therefore ill-prepared to meet a reduced demand from up country.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.