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504 THE LEADER. CN<x 473, Ap ril 16, 185...
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C O M ME R G I A L.
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AUSTRALIA, INDIA, AND GOLD. The subject ...
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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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504 The Leader. Cn<X 473, Ap Ril 16, 185...
504 THE LEADER . CN < x 473 , Ap ril 16 , 185 f t .
C O M Me R G I A L.
C O M ME R G I A L .
Australia, India, And Gold. The Subject ...
AUSTRALIA , INDIA , AND GOLD . The subject to which we referred last -week in this part of our journal was mentioned iij the House of Commons on Monday . Mr . C . ViUiers asked the " Secretary of State for India whether there was at present any i-estriction on the importation of gold into British India ; and whether the tender of gold was lawful in payment of debt in that country ; and further , if these restrictions existed , whether at was the intention of the Indian Government that
they should continue ? Lord Stanley said that no restriction at present existed upon the importation of gold into British India ; but gold was not a legal tender there . The House would be aware thai the question whether gold should he made a legal tender or not in India was one of very great difficulty and complication , which had again and again been considered by those versed in finance . He could not say that at present it was the intention of the Indian Government to make any change in the present system .
and universal currency . They are as much the ordained measure of value , by which commodities , including all subsistences , ean be conveniently divided into very minute portions , or aggregated into vast masses , and readily exchanged and dis-r tributedj as motion , by which we learn distance is the ordained measure—and there is no other—of inches , yards , leagues , and degrees . Everywhere , accordingly , and almost at all times , they have been employed as money . They must be had ; and as population , wealth , and exchange all increase , the desire for them , and the
necessity to possess them , becomes more urgent in spite of the many inventions we adopt to spare them in use and diminish the cost of employing them . Everywhere the desire to obtain these metals , and the common use to which , they are put , established an almost uniform and general estimate of their value , which , as a phenomenon of-mind is itself a curiosity . It exists in almost all countries , and has existed for ages , and determines the relative value of these two metals to one another and to other things , and has made them the media of exchanging
cornchanges . To tell the merchant of either India or England that he shall use or . Iy one of the precious metals wherewith to buy and sell , is an attempt to dictate to commerce , after it has become free , if not the master , as Government dictated to its slaves . A . Just tender is what buyers and sellers agree on and it is the business of Government to make that whatever it may be , the legal tender . It may be sure that buyers and sellers will measure all their business by one or other , or both these metals , and that which they find most convenient should be recognised by Government as the leirnl means for acquitting the obligations of the people to the State , and to one another .
That a uniform coinage 13 advantageous cannot be denied , but this would be established , as the precious metals are invariably chosen for money , if Government did not interfere in the matter , or if , in interfering , it followed the light of nature . If the Government of India , acting on the old slave-derived prerogative of European Sovereigns , still dearly cherished by our'Chancellors '' the Kxehcqiier and some of our public writers , persists in retaining in its own hand ;? , the regulation of the ' , . coinage , though it cmv neither regahvte the quantity -wanted , nor the quantity actually in use , then it ought at once to set about supplying Ilindostan with a crold coinasre . Tt need not trouble
itself about legal tenders , or settling the relative value of the two metals , for whatever Jorin or size it may give its prold coins , commerce will soon determine their relative A-aliie to rupees , legal [ tenders , and other more useful things . Neither need it trouble itself about' securing the value of it ' s obligations , for the relative value of the * 1 mt > metals to one another and to other commodities , undergoes such small and slow alterations , that it neve :-exceeds , from the course of trade , 2 or : ) per cent , in the lite of a generation . IJsed all over the -world , and- at all times , nothing bought and sold is subject to such slight variations in value as ^ the precious metals , niul if the week ' s wages of the labourer , or the stock of the shopkeeper , cannot whshould
protected against such variations , y an attempt be made to protect the fixed incomes of landlords , or of Government annuitants , against them ? Tlic Government will , ii * It : be reasonable , leave all these matters to be settled bv trade , as it must in the end leave them ; nnd will think only of the means by which it can best cense to he an obstacle to the people of llindostan obtaining in the cheapest manner the use of n ¦ pjuld coinage . We contend that it should allow gold to bo used in all the business of bavin *? and selling in India , as well as silver ; nnd that it should no longer declare that ailver alone is 11 legal tender 111 such business . That the people would u . <« . « gold , it the Govermcnt did not stand in their way , us demonstrated . They did use it ; it is suitable to their
circumstances ; they are In close cuinijiurciu conncxiuii with other countries where it lsuwei ; lor large transactions it m infinitely preferable to silver 5 the weight of n silver currency , and tuo trouble and expense of moving it . irom pluoo to place , arc continually complained <> i ; tliu . so enoiunstnnccs' impose on the Government grout ami continued losses , nnd it would ho equally to tijo advantage of Government nnd people , umier oa .-isting circumstances , wore tliu ( Jovcrnmcnt w onco to supply Ilindostan . with a tfold coinage . It might erect one Mint nt Sydney nnd nnotuci nt Cnlouttn . There is no other mirion , we Iw » e \ c , but a desire to retain power , why it slioulu noi lmvo money coined for it in Auslralin . w wherever it bo coined , the Government riiouiu avoid our plan of dividing the pound troy o » , S " into forty-six sovereigns nnd $ , * a yoveroigi »¦—a oliahoo-boffottoiv frnotion . It should adopt p ol
bubly our alloy of gold , or whatever uiioy " " » . hardest nnd best , and should divide the pound troy of the standard into fbrty-oight , c « r |« ial pnns , making ovory one of its coins 120 grains ? j'ml so avoid thoso minute fractions which are the '"" ffl ^ J null tlio inconvenience of our sv ^ tein . J »« i puzzle antiquarians to- account ; lor them , ftnu moneychangers to reckon them . M in b call thoso pieces soveroitfiw , or mohiuv , 01 «« ft half-ounoo is a nearer approach to tuo u »«
modities amongst all the people of the earth . Alloy them , coin them , as Governments mfiyand they have made innumerable experiments— - these metals everywhere exchange for one another , and ¦ will only exchange for and command certain quantities of other commodities in proportion to their , fineness and their weight . Whether the coin be stamped with a fleur-de-lis , or an eagle , or the arms ' of England , and whatever may be its name , it will soon circulate for what it is worth by weight , and no more . The necessity of currency is indeed so insurmountable , that if an authority ,
respected by the people , and submitted to by them , limits the quantity in use , as our Government limits the quantity of the silver coinage , it may be made to exchange for more of other tilings than the metal iii it would naturally command . This , however , is a forced exception to the rule- —a political constraint which puts the community to inconvenience and expense ; and apart from such constraints the precious metals are , in the estimation of nearly all men , of a similar and equal value , determined everywhere not by coinage regulations , but by the inherent qualities of the metals .
All , then , that Governments have to do , or ought to do , in forming a coinage , at any time , and at all times- ^ -and this principle which applies to India nt this moment and to England , will at once supply a clue out of the present difficulties—is to divide the metals into aliquot parts , by weight , and by thoir image and superscriptions certify that the p ieces are of a certain weight and fineness . Whether people buy and sell by means of one metal or the other , is no business of'Government , any more thnn it , is its business to prescribe what they shall buy or sell , or that they shall use the
precious metals as money . A different rule of conduct grew from the fact that Government was established by conquest ; and though this rule has now no foundation in reason , the people of England and IJindostan equally suffer from this old and improper rule being continually acted on . As the services which bondsmen were nccustamod to pay in kind , or in the direct produce of hibour , to their masters , woro commuted . into ; fixed money payments , ' the masters , or the Government , fixed the quantity and fineness of the precious mctnl they would receive for thoso services . For the conqueror , or master , this was lognl payment , nnd TMrt i ^ intnl lirt arilnrt-f r \ t 1 o rwl nrwtfrij- i / l \\ w * \\ t-kr * ti \\ - \ r \ 111
* 4 »*** l *«* W « Jt * Jh * AW MV * VUVVVI M (** V * tfrUAVVi * , * * \ S * U W V * ** ¦ ' ^} •** his view , a legal tender . In modern times , in our country , tlie idea of commuting the services of slaves into taxes for tho Crown has passed into oblivion , and tho money which tho Crown , or the Government , requires for the services it renders to the people is levied by taxes . As this chnngo took place , the Government was , nnd is now , obliged to content itsolf with receiving the money used by tho merchant , nnd of which the value is determined by commerce . Practically , it eottlod thq ^ legal tender for oonunuting tho porsonnl services of its retainers , but it could never settle tho terms on which commerce should make its
ox-The regulations on this point , then , are , as we stated last week ; and the evil consequences of those regulations nobody will deny . That , as Lord Stanley says , the question , " whether gold should be made a legal tender or not in India , " is one of very great difficulty , we readily ^ adroit , as long as it is encumbered by all the false theories and antiquated claims of prerogative on which the Mint regulations , both of England and India , are founded . ^ Whatever evils they may avoid they cannot be so disastrous as the continual waste x > f the present system . The well-informed public needed not the evidence supplied by the transmission of s-old from Australia to-England
where-¦ mtk to buy silver here and send to India , instead of sxuj > plying an indispensable coinage for India by gold direct frqm Australia , to learn that the Mint regulations of both countries are founded on false assumptions and long-ascertained -errors . They had been detected and exposed before gold was discovered in Australia , and before the confirmation of them which it supplied came to astonish and confound the sup ] 3 orters , in the press and in Parliament , of ' those , high prerogative regulations . These consequences were wholly unlookecl for . Nobody
could foresee that gold would be found in great abundance in two places witlun a comparatively short distance from India ; and that these regulations would operate to' prevent India getting at a small cost a continual and indispensable supply of the precious metals , of which she prbduccs little or none "herself , and ha $ always a great need of them . Before these consequences were icnown , the Act of 1844 , passed in violation of the . principles of free trade , while the authors and advocates of that measure claimed credit as free
traders , was denounced because , in conformity to the claims of old prerogative , it confirmed . here , justifying the continuance in , India of coinage regulations which have eventuated in the cU'cumlocutbry waste we noticed last week . Considex * ed in relation to these regulations in . both countries , the theories on which they wore founded , and the ' habits of our statesmen and public writers , I , < ord Stanley is quite correct in saying , the
question of making * gold a legal tender in India is a very difficult one ; but , considered in relation to the great facts of existence , which will dominate equally over writers and statesmen , in spite of all they can say and do , and which intelligent men , out , of office always consult rather than theii * theories and habits , the matter is extremely simple and scarcely requires an hoiu' ' s Consideration to arrive at a sound practical conclusion . 1
Discarding , then , tho theories' which require Governments to supply a Standard or measure of value , and enforce the visa of that alone ox > all their subjects , in nil buying and selling , — the same Government selecting gold in England and silver in India , enhancing' the exchangeable value of the former hero and of the latter there , and by regulations increasing tho flow of one jnqtal fxither and the flow 6 f anot . her thither , — and disregarding tho claims pf old and high prerogative to regulate money as it used to regulate , or rather attempt to regulate , eveiy kind of trade—tho fact is that tho precious metals are natural , neoossary ,
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 16, 1859, page 24, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse2.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_16041859/page/24/
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