PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
...... || ! ! ! | | | | | | | | |
Reference :-
C.O. 882
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH—NOT TO
7 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
90
APPENDIX:
APPENDIX No. 14.
MEMORANDUM on the Feasibility and Expediency of Establishing a Gold Standard in the Straits Settlements
and Federated Malay States. By J. BARR ROBERTSON,
The difficulties that have arisen in the silver money countries owing to the divergence between the par- chasing power of gold and that of silver owe their origin to the adoption of the gold standard in Germany in 1872. In order to introduce gold the German Govern- ment withdrew very large amounts of silver coins From circulation, and when they came to dispose of this silver, the French Mint, which was then open to both gold and silver at the ratio of 1 to 15, offered the readiest market for it. When the French Government saw that the silver of Germany would to a great extent be tendered at the French Mint, and that gold would thus auto- matically leave France to a corresponding extent, they closed their Mint to the silver of private holders. The par of exchange between gold and silver which France had maintained at the ratio of 1 to 154 since 1795 was consequently lost. At this ratio the value of the stan- dard ounce of silver was 60·84d., and the gradual fall in the gold value of silver, until it now stands at 22jd., would 30 years ago have been regarded as an impossi- bility. It was a time of profound ignorance on monetary questions, and leading stateamen gave their assurance that silver, if left alone, would right itself.
*
In the 84 years from 1795 to 1878, in which latter year the coinage of five-frano pieces absolutely ceased, France coined £47,673,077 of gold and £220,478,070 of silver, all on the basis of one pound of gold being the equivalent of 15 pounds of silver. There was a seigniorage on the coining of both metals, but apart from this no silver was accepted at the French Mint except at that ratio. France maintained the par of exchange between the two metals almost single-handed for the 84 years mentioned above, and the closing of its Mint to silver was a disaster to the world. Henceforth there was no par of exchange between the two metals, and one country after another demonetized silver until the area over which it circulated was very much contracted, and its gold value has now fallon to 22 d. per ounce, though, as will be shown further on, this fall is also due in a material degree to the scarcity of gold as compared with the increased demand for that metal.
The following figures are taken from the Report of the Director of the United States Mint for 1901, the latest available:-
COMMITTEE ON STRAITS SETTLEMENTS CURRENCY.
From the preceding table it will be seen that the produs tion of silver steadily increased, notwithstanding the closing of so many mints to the metal. In the meantime populations increased rapidly, and new fields for employ- ment of silver money were opened up by railways and other facilities for increased communication, while many of the more backward countries were brought within the influence of Western ideas and practice.
Col. I.
Mr. Sauerbeck's
Gold value of
YEAR.
91
It has been the fashion to attribute the fall in the gold price of silver to the excessive supplies of silver pressed upon the markets of the world, but this view ia found to be quite untenable when the facts are thoroughly examined.
The following table presents some leading facts bear- ing on this question:-
TABLE II.
Col. III.
EXCHANGE.
Col. IV.
Col. V.
Singapore Exchange on London.
Bar Silver
in London.
Average of Year. 100 60 84d. per Standard oz.
INDEX NUMBERS.
Col. II.
Mr. Sauerbeck's 45 Leading Com modities. Average of Year.
Gold prices of 1867-77.
Figures in Col. II. converted into Silver prices,
ladian Imports and Exports.*
Rupee prices
in
January and July.
Pence.
100
ཙྭ ཎྜ ཙྭ ཋ ཎྜ བྲྀ ྂ ཎྜ ཤྲཱ ྂ ྨ རྦ ཆེ ⌘ ⌘ ྂ སྟྲ ཾ
51
51
61
ཊྛ ཋ ཏྠུ ཀྑུ བྷཱུ བྷཀྑུ
1873 -
97'4
111
114
100
1874.
95'8
102
106
105
1875 -
93-3
96
103
98
1876 -
86'7
95
110
95
TABLE L
1877
90'2
94
104
08
The World's Production of Silver and Gold from 1873 to 1901, as given by the Director of the United States Mint. Converted at £15.
1878 -
80*4
87
101
54
1879 -
84'2
83
99
93
1880 -
85*9
88
102
98
45
000's omitted.
1881 -
85'0
85
100
93
44'50
Silver.
1882
84'9
84
99
89
43
YEAR.
Gold.
Fine.
Commercial value.
Coining value 16 to 1.
1883
83'1
82
86
43
1884-
83'3
76
BR
43
1885
79'9
72
90
81
41.50
Qzs. troy.
£.
£.
£
1886
74'0
1873
63,267
16,424
16,360
19,240
1874.
55,300
14,135
14,300
18,150
1887
73:3
1875 -
62,262
15,516
16,100
19,500
1888 -
70'4
70
1876
87,753
15,064
17,520
20,740
1877
62,648
16,048
18,200
22,800
1889
70'2
72
8 3 2 O
93
83
38'50
68
93
83
38:50
99
87
36
1878 -
73,476
16,029
19,000
23,800
103
95
36
1979 -
74,260
16,077
19,200
21,800
1890 -
78'4
72
92
94
1880 .
74,781
40
17,127
19,340
21,300
1891 -
74'1
72
97
69
1881
78,890
17,955
38-26
20,400
20,600
1882
86,470
19,6-48
22,360
20,400
1892
65'4
68
104
1883
89,177
19,797
23,060
19,080
94
34
1884 -
81,597
18,163
21,100
20,340
1893 -
58.6
68
116
1885.
91,652
19,513
23,700
100
30:33
21,680
1894
47'6
63
1886
03,276
18,554
24,120
132
101
25
21,200
1887
96,124
18,808
24,856
21,155
1895 -
49'1
62
1888
108,827
20,457
28,141
126
105
25'50
22,039
1889
120.214
22,480
31,086
24,698
1890 -
50'5
61
1890
126,095
26,480
32,606
121
23,770
103
26.19
1897 -
45'3
1891
137,171
27,100
35,470
€2
139
101
23'60
26,130
1892
153,159
26,061
39,003
29,330
1898
44.3
1893
165,473
25,824
42,789
64
145
93
31,499
23
1894
164,610
20,809
42,506
36,235
1609 -
45'1
1895
167,501
21,909
43,313
68
151
39,703
97
23:33
1900 -
46'4
75
102
1896
157,061
21,172
40,614
40,450
107
24
1897
180,421
19,251
41,483
47,215
1901
44.7
70
1898
169,055
19,949
43,715
157
111+
23
57,376
1899
168,337
20,201
43,530
61,345
1902
30-6
1000
173,501
21,525
44,888
69
174
50,91%
1901 -
174,999
21,000
45,252
62,675
India."
* Figures furnished by Sir Henry Waterfield, G.G.I.B., as compiled from Index Numbers in "Prices and Wages in + For January only.
{
No comments yet.
Private notes are available after approval.