People's Pilot, Volume 6, Number 14, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1896 — The English Motive. [ARTICLE]

The English Motive.

That silver was stricken down tor a purpose there is no question. Had there been no purpose for so doing there would have been no opposition to the restoration of the free-coinage laws as e'xisted previous to 1873. There were several reasons for the prohibition of the free coinage of silver, thereby shifting the debts of the com try from the double standard to the single gold standard, and one of the chief of these was to enable the exchange dealers of England to have a steady and profitable exchange on the silver standard countries with a falling market. Another purpose was to cheapen the securities cf the silver Countries as measured by gold, this class of securities alone having, as a consequence of the fall of the gold price of silver, depreciated over £200,000,000. To the competition in the price of cotton, hides and. other products, thus enabling England and other European countries to get cheap food stuffs and raw material, was also another principal purpose for bringing about the fall in the price of silver as measured by gold. The by which the prices of raw material were cheapened was to get quotations from India on wheat and cotton, and thereby regulating the price of the American product in

Liverpool. The dealers would also get quotations for hides and wool from South America and thereby regulate the price of these commodities in this market for American and Australian hides and wool. In order to arrive at a proper understanding of this matter, it is necessary, to know that the silver price of cotton and wheat in India as measured by the rupee is practically the same as in Silver being the standard in India has, therefore, not depreciated in that country. The same principal holds good in South America, as wool and hides were purchased' on the silver basis. In 1873, and before the fall in silver, the gold sovereign could only purchase in exchange 10 silver rupees. Consequently the gold sovereign could not purchase any more wheat and cotton iu'lndia than could be purchased for 10 silver rupees. Therefore, just in proportion, as more silver could be * ‘tucked” in to a gold sovereign, so much more Indian wheat and cotton could be purchased with the sovereign. In 1873, and some time after, a gold sovereign could purchase only about four bushels of Indian wheAt delivered at Liverpool; but for many years, owing to the cheapness of silver, the Liverpool wheat buyer has been able to exchange his gold for cheap silver, and is so enabled to obtain seven bushels of wheat delivered in Liverpool for his gold sovereign. The result of the fall in the price of silver was at once to cause a corresponding fall in the agricultural products, and the •land of Great Britian; Australia, Canada and the United States. It also caused a fall in the price of such other kinds of real e&tate as are situated in the agricultural districts of those countries, the loss entailed being variously estimated at from 300,000,000 to 500,000,000 sterling. ‘ Gilt edge securities have not of course depreciated in value, though there has been a great loss by the liquidation with the lesser grades of gold securities.