Messrs. Montagu's reports of August 19 contains the following The tone of the market has been distinctly good. India has been a buyer for shipment. There has also been some bear covering, China has taken a fair amount of silver for forward delivery, and has also bought at San Francisco, not on account of any change in the condition of her export trade but because speculation in exchange is still rife at Shanghai. The upward movement in the gold value of silver militates against the balance of trade moving in favour of China, and the outlook for Chinese commodities in the Western markets as yet shows no improvement, but of course it must be borne in mind that the Chinese is not averse from gambling.
There is an apparent check to the advance of the price of silver in the United States. Supposing that the quotation for alien silver rose above a dollar, the supplies might become swollen by the fact that domestic metal would be marketable at a profit over the Pittman - price. At today's U.S. exchange rate—3.6l—a dollar price per ounce represents about 61.1/2d. per standard ounce. Any serious fall in the U.S. exchange, however, would be more or less reflected by a substantial rise in our silver quotations here, so that to forecast the high water mark in the London price is equivalent to guessing the lowest possible drop in the U.S. exchange.
Continental supplies still arrive, though in not such large quantities as some few weeks ago.
The fact that the inquiry for cash: silver has been rather spasmodic accounts for the 3d. discount and the 4d. premium which has obtained different days.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.