People's Pilot, Volume 3, Number 38, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 March 1894 — SILVER’S SLUMP. [ARTICLE]

SILVER’S SLUMP.

Its Price the Lowest Ever Known in London— Indian Complications. A late cable from London stated that council bills and silver bullion had reached the lowest prices ever recorded. Bar silver sold in quantities at 29 13-16 d per ounce, and rupee paper at The price of rupee paper or council bills was below the rate of exchange between India and England, and the fact that the Indian council was reduced to the extremity of selling below the market rate for exchange on its own bills gives some idea of the crisis which has been reached in Indian finances. All the London papers published lengthy articles on the extremeljr low price of silver and the inability of the Indian council to maintain the parity between silver and gold. The Chronicle regards the muddle into which the Indian council has placed Indian finances as hopeless. The Times said that of an aggregate production of £17,795,000 worth of silver in 1893, India absorbed £7.052,000 worth of the metal. “India now pauses in her absorption," said the Times, “and until a strong and new demand arises it is to be feared that the accumulation of stock will tend to depress the value of silver. It is evident that the nations will not combine to protect silver. It is only certain that the cheapness of silver will both curtail the production and extend consumption until the decline is arrested and probably reversed.”