INDIA. 



353 



Communications. The railroads in operation 

 (Mi .March 81. is'.i.l. had a total length of ls.s55 

 miles, of which 8,767 miles were *tate lines worked 

 by companies. 5.377 miles state lines worked by the 

 Mate. 2.5SS miles lines worked by guaranteed com- 

 panies. 40? miles lines worked by a^isted cmnpa- 

 nies. f>?2 miles lines owned by native states and 

 worked by companies, 146 miles lines owned by na- 

 tive states and worked by the state railroad agen- 

 cy. 839 miles lines owned and worked by the native 

 states, and 59 miles foreign lines. The capital cost 

 of the state railways was Rx 155.027.644; of state 

 lines leased to companies. Rx 31,185,523 : of guar- 

 anteed railways. Rx 49.788.o2s : of subsidized lines, 

 Kx 208.044: of assisted railways. Rx 6.088.092 ; of 

 lines belonging to native states, Rx 1 < >.">:> 7.806 ; 

 of foreign railways. Kx 1.688.186: of new sur- 

 veys. Rx 471.31? : 'of coal mines. Rx 808.440 : total. 

 Rx 255. 253.1 >:>!). The gross earnings of the rail- 

 roads in l^.n were Rx 25,508,856, against Rx 24,- 

 os?.54? in 1893. The working expenses were Rx 

 1 1.9S3.920. or 46-98 per cent, of the receipts, in 1894, 

 compared with Kx Il.3o4.806. or 47'14 per cent. 

 The net earnings were Rx 13.524.93G in 1894, giv- 

 ing a mean profit of 5'69 per cent, on capital, 

 against Rx 12.732.741, giving an average return of 

 5'46 per cent, in 1893. For 1895 the gross earnings 

 were about Rx 26,000,000 and the net revenue Rx 

 14,000,000, giving a return of 5 - 78 per cent, on the 

 capital invested. The length of railroads under 

 construction and authorized before March 31. 1896. 

 was 4.573 miles, requiring an expenditure of Rx 

 35,000.000, nearly one third of which was to be ex- 

 pended by the state and by private companies dur- 

 ing the ensuing year. During 1895-'96 there were 

 802 miles of new railroads built. The total length 

 of railroads either built or sanctioned was 26.466 

 miles on March 81, 1896 : the length open to traf- 

 fic. 19,677 miles. 



During 1894 the number of letters, postal cards. 

 and money orders that passed through the post 

 office of British India was 335.617.159: of news- 

 papers. 26.363.793 : of parcels, 2,339,416 : of packets. 

 14.702.587. The receipts were Rx 1,557,597: ex- 

 penses. Kx 1.558. 2^1. 



The Government telegraph lines had on March 

 31, 1895. a length of 44,648 miles, with 13s.25<; 

 miles of wire. The number of paid dispatches for- 

 warded during the year was 4.391,226 : receipts, 

 Rx 978.699 : expenses". Rx 807,881. 



Currency. The fall in the price of silver in the 

 course of twenty years has added greatly to the 

 burden of taxation on the people of India and to 

 the difficulties of the financial administration of the 

 Indian Government, because fixed charges amount- 

 ing to 16.000.000 have to be paid in England an- 

 nually, consisting of interest on loans, salaries of 

 the higher officials, pensions, etc. When 10 rupees 

 uniformly exchanged for a pound sterling the sala- 

 ries of the British civil and military officers and 

 their pensions were reckoned indifferently in Indian 

 or British currency. As soon as a discrepancy in 

 the former parity of silver and gold began to ap- 

 pear the Government decreed that the salaries and 

 pensions of the covenanted civilians and army 

 officers should be paid in gold at the old rate of 1 

 for Rx 1. in order that they should be enabled to 

 maintain and educate their families in England on 

 the same scale as formerly and lay by as much 

 money. With the rupee worth only Is. 4d. instead 

 of 2s. the Government has to raise Rx 24,000,000 to 

 meet the fixed charges in England where formerly 

 Rx 16,000,000 was enough. The difference is called 

 the loss by exchange. In 1892. when the exchange 

 value of the rupee fell to Is. Id., the English Gov- 

 ernment decided to attempt to establish the gold 

 standard in India as a means of relieving the in- 



VOL. xxxvi. 23 A 



creasing embarrassment of the Government fii,; 

 and the inconveniences and impedimenta caii-ed to 

 trade by the fluctuations in the gold value of silver. 

 In accordance with the recommendations of a com- 

 mittee over which the English Lord Chancellor 

 presided the Governor General carried through the 

 Legislative Council on June 26, 1893, a bill provid- 

 ing for the closure of the Indian mints to the coin- 

 age of silver for the public and establishing l.s-. \<l. 

 for the rupee or 15 rupees to the sovereign a> tin- 

 rate at which gold coin or bullion would be received 

 at the mints and English sovereigns of full weight 

 at the treasuries. Coinage on Government account 

 was still continued. Silver has been the legal 

 standard since 1835, and large amounts were coined 

 annually before the closure of the mints. Silver 

 also passes current by weight, and since 1893 the 

 native princes have coined silver rupees to such an 

 extent that the Indian Government concluded to 

 take measures to arrest the importation of silver 

 bullion by the imposition of an import duty. Gold 

 is coined in small quantities by the Indian mints, 

 but it is not current as money and is not legal 

 tender. The Calcutta and Bombay mints iss 

 Rx 13.163.474 rupees of silver coi'n. in 1892 the 

 coinage was Rx 5,553,974, and in 1893 it was Rx 

 12.691.526 : in 1894 it was reduced to Rx 4.812.500. 

 and in 1895 to Rx 94.595. A Government paper 

 currency has been issued for limited districts, within 

 which it is legal tender, since 1861 : the amount of 

 these notes in circulation on March 31, 1895. was 

 Rx 30,700,010. The value of the rupee is not de- 

 termined by the market price of silver since the 

 closure of the mints and the placing of an import 

 duty on silver, but the changes in the exchange rates 

 for the rupee have had an important influence on 

 the silver market, if indeed this has not been the 

 dominant factor. A wide, and apparently widening, 

 distance is established between the bullion and the 

 exchange values of the rupee, and their fluctuations 

 have not coincided. During 1896 the exchange 

 rates for the rupee remained steady, with an upward 

 tendency. While the Indian mints were opened 

 and the United States Treasury was a purchaser of 

 04.000.000 ounces of silver, India and the United 

 States were the only large consumers of silver in 

 the world, but when both these outlets were closed 

 India remained a large wholesale market for silver, 

 the only one still open. The imports of silver in 

 1896 were rather more than half as large as they 

 were before the closure of the mints. Before the 

 closure most of the silver imported went into the 

 mints, but it was only for the purpose of obtaining 

 material of ascertained purity for the manufacture 

 of ornaments, into which a large proportion of the 

 rupees were commonly converted as soon as they were 

 coined. The manufacture of ornaments goes on 

 unabated, but, rupees being now too dear, imported 

 liars and coin are used for the purpose. This de- 

 mand for silver in India for ornaments takes abbut 

 one sixth of the world's annual production and 

 has hitherto been the only constant and uniform 

 demand since demonetization. Every material rise 

 in the sterling value of the rupee is followed by an 

 active demand for and fresh importations of silver 

 bars, and thus produces an approximately equivalent 

 rise in the price of silver. In February. 1896. A. J. 

 Balfour announced that the British Government 

 would be willing to consider in conjunction with 

 the Indian Government the reopening of the mints 

 of India if such a measure could be made part of a 

 satisfactory scheme of currency reform. In Decem- 

 ber. 1896. the Legislative Council voted to add 2 

 crores of rupees to the paper-currency reserve, 

 making it 10 instead of 8 crores, and thus releasing 

 Rx 2.000,000 of coin in order to relieve the existing 

 monetary stringency. 



