GOLD 



Trade 



Mergui. 



Uses. 



Medicine. 



Trade. 



Imports. 



Declining. 



Indian 

 Produc- 

 tions. 



Dividends. 



GOLD LEAF AND WIRE 



of the richest in alluvial gold in the world. [Cf. Nisbet, Burma under Brit. Rule 

 and Before, 1901, i., 347, 397 ; Rec. Oeol. Surv. 2nd., 1892, xxv., 129 ; 1893, xxvi., 

 7, 48, 163; 1894, xxvii., pt. i., 10-11, 117, 122-3.] 



Uses. Gold is largely employed by the richer classes in India for the purpose 

 of personal adornment or in the ornamentation of sacred buildings, palaces, etc. 

 The most important art industries for which it is employed are, therefore, coins, 

 jewellery, gold-leaf, gold wire and thread (used in the fabrication of cloth of gold 

 (kinkhabs), braids, lace, etc. Stein (Ancient Khotan, 1907, 192-4, 210, 224, 381, 

 496) discusses the gold-digging at Yotkan and mentions the instances where he 

 found gold employed by the artists of the sand-engulfed ruins. These date from 

 the 3rd to the 8th centuries. While he found gold-leaf extensively employed 

 in the ornamentation of the idols, statuary, etc., he makes no mention of having 

 come across an example of fabric with gold wire (thread). He met with Chinese 

 and Tibetan brocaded silks, but no examples of the Indian kinkhab. 



For the uses of gold in MEDICINE, the reader should consult Dutt (Mat. Med, 

 Hind., 1900,57-61). [Cf. Ain-i-Akbari (Jarrett, transl.), iii., 315-6; Mukharji 

 Art Manuf. Ind., 1888, 97-144 ; Ind. Art at Delhi, 1903 : Gold and Silver Plate, 

 31-42, Gold Brocades (kinkhabs, etc.), 319-38, Gold-wire, 416-8, Gold and Silver 

 Embroidery, 419-24, Jewellery, 489-93. The following enumeration, province 

 by province, of the publications that deal with the Indian industries that employ 

 gold may be found useful : BENGAL : Mukerji, Monog. Gold and Silver Work, 

 1905. ASSAM: Henniker, Monog., 1905. UNITED PROVINCES: Hoey, Monog. 

 Trade and Manuf., 110-3, 157, 184, 194, 196-7 ; Charles, Monog., 1905. PANJAB : 

 Maclagan, Monog., 1890. CENTRAL PROVINCES : Nunn, Monog., 1904. BOMBAY : 

 Burns, Monog., 1904. MADRAS : Havell, Rept. Arts and Manuf., Govt. Proc., 1886, 

 5, 6, 13, 15. BURMA: Max and Bertha Ferrars, Burma, 1900, 107-11.] 



TRADE. If Max Miiller and others be correct in identifying 

 India with the Ophir of Scripture, the present production is possibly only 

 a tithe of what it has been. According to Napier (Metallurgy of the Bible), 

 King David derived, through the trade of Ophir, gold to a valuation of 

 600,000,000. But another opinion fixes Ophir in West Arabia. Pliny 

 speaks of Indian gold coming from the country of the Narese (the Nairs 

 of Malabar), and thus practically the Mysore mines. 



" Within the past few years the net imports of gold have apparently 

 diminished. Thus the excess of imports over exports during the ten years 

 ending 1891-2 averaged about 729,900 oz., while during the following ter 

 years the average did not exceed 442,400. The reduction 'is mainly due 

 two causes. Large imports of gold had been made by banks to be exchange 

 for silver, and the accumulation of gold coin having been found incon- 

 venient by Government for gold does not circulate freely in the counti 

 the surplus was shipped by the Government to London, where at tl 

 same time considerable purchases of silver were made for additions to the 

 coinage. Secondly, the Mysore gold-mines now send to London large quan- 

 tities of gold every year, and this export reduces the net imports shown 

 in the trade returns. It is probable that on the whole there was no real 

 decline in the demand for gold in India, which is in value about half of 

 that of silver. In 1902-3 the net imports rose to 1,417,000 oz., and in 

 the following years to 1,566,237 and 1,516,991 " (Imp. Gaz. 1907, iii., 292). 

 JF! Holland (Rev. Min. Prod., I.e. 47), commenting on Indian production, 

 observes, " For the six years under review the value of gold extracted was 

 11,310,038 or 60 per cent, of the total value (18,687,818) extracted in the 

 twenty-one years since the commencement of work under European super- 

 vision. With the increase in output dividends have also increased, rising 

 from 739,114 in 1898 to 1,019,347 in 1903, or an increase of 38 per cent. 

 The total dividends paid during the six years were 4,988,793 or 60 per 

 cent, of the dividends (8,287,071) paid since 1882, indicating that dividends 

 and output have advanced pari passu." [Cf, O'Conor, Rev, Trade 



568 



