32 



For the purposes of exchange, cotton, cloth or salt are as ex- 

 changeable commodities for sugar or rice as either gold or silver. 

 Hence the idea that cotton goods or salt are changed internation- 

 ally for silver and not for other commodities is a delusion. Ex- 

 ports and imports, so far as they are induced by trade, are 

 correlative. Each is the cause and complement of the other, 

 and to impose any restrictions on the one will necessarily lessen 

 the other. So long as India wants our cloth and we want her 

 wheat, and their are ships and men able and willing to transport 

 them from the one country to the other, they will be exchanged 

 for each other, regardless of the price of silver or the rate of 



Do WE LOSE BY ChEAP SiLVER AND LoW EXCHANGE ? 



The idea prevailing among Bi-metallists is that cheap silver 

 and low rates of exchange entail a loss upon us in our trade with 

 India. If these causes do really affect our trade or our profits, 

 it will, I think, be difficult to show that we suffer any loss. 

 During the last ten years ending in 1885 the average annual 

 import of goods into India amounted to over 46 millions sterling, 

 while the average annual export of goods from India for the same 

 period averaged over 72 milhons sterling. If it be a loss to us, 

 as the Bi-metallists contend it is, to sell our exports for cheap 

 silver, it must by a parity of reasoning be a gain to buy our 

 imports with the same metal ; and as we have during the last 

 ten years bought from India over 260 millions worth of goods 

 more than we have sold to it, we ought, according to the theory 

 I am speaking of, to be the gainers thereby. 



Why have Prices Fallen ? 



Now, whether the fall in prices has been caused by a rise in 

 the value of gold is a question that I cannot enter upon very ex- 

 haustively. That gold is in greater demand and that the annual 

 supply has fallen off is unquestionable. But many other causes 

 have been at work which will account to some extent for a fall 

 in prices. The wonderful inventions of our time, tlie greater 

 use of labour-saving machinery, the lower cost of transit, the 

 saving of the use of capital by means of the telegraph, the dim- 

 inution of stocks, the lessened jirofits caused by keen competi- 

 tion, the quicker and better distribution of merchandise, are all 

 of them causes which have contributed to the fall in prices. But 

 is the fall a calamity ? I think not. No doubt stability of value 

 is greatlv to be desired, but if there must be a change I am of 

 opinion "that a fall is more beneficial to the community than a 

 rise. 



