Trade relations with China would lundoubtediy be assisted materially! lby a greater measure of stability in the price of silver, and to this ex ent there is much to commend the proposals for silver stabilisation, Te must, however, be borne in mind chat. fluctuations in the price of silver fare in a certain degree necessary to adjust China's balance of interna ional payments, Moreover, any stabilisation scheme that counts Jon China as the. only remaining buyer' of silver for currency pure pores is bound to fail after a very short period, and" China would Fnavdly be likely to be interested im such '& scheme, except, possibly, in order to bridge over the period be. fore. she changes to, some form of the gold standard. The fundamental principle of any' metallic currency frystem is the international mavket= ability of the basic metal in untimit= fed amounts. Without this itis quite valueless for a country that wants fo do, foreign trade, Unless China has the guarantee thay it can settle eventual adverse foreign trade baltances. by selling silver" this metal fs, from the currency" standpoint, not. worth" more than uncovered paper money. In some ways it is leven. worse. than. paper currency, because in the ease of the latter the suing government has control over the quantity "Tssued,, whereas. in the ease of silver any producer owner of silver can pump this. metal nto China and inflate the Chinese Jeurreney as long" as he is' willing sell az the market price, This means tha, any overproduction of silver, or any stocks for sale, will thrown automatically on China tong as China's foreign trade baltance, "and the resulting, exchange Fate, give a price which the selling party is willing to accept, "As regards the bimetallic proposals so. recently, disinterred, need only ask whether it is reason fable to expect the world to consider changing. the world's currency fyutem, not for the sake of improv ing that system, byt in order influence the price of silver. China is now the only important country remaining ona liver currency Danis, All the rest of the world has fadopied gold, and, though these countries have now for the most part temporarily "abandoned " the fold standard, their aim will probae bly' be to return to gold at some ime in the. future when circum stances permit. Tt is. inconceivable that the world ax whole will con der changing its currency. stand ard for the purpose of helping. sil er, mor have we any" reason to he-Tiewe that. substantial progress. towards world recovery can be obtain= fed through the medium of such schemes as the rehabilitation of sil= ver.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.