BI-METALLIO STANDARD. 



be disposed to unite to bring about a rehabili- 

 tation of silver by means of the free coinage of 

 that metal. For that purpose, and to guarantee 

 those powers against the influx of German sil- 

 ver, wliirli thev appear to apprehend, the Im- 

 perial Government would impose on itself the 

 following restrictions: During a period of 

 some years it would abstain from all sales of 

 silver, and during another period of a certain 

 duration it would engage to sell annually only 

 a limited quantity, so small that the general 

 market would not be encumbered by it. The 

 duration of those periods, and the quantity of 

 silver to be sold annually during the second, 

 would form the subject of subsequent negotia- 

 tions." 



The delegates for India, who appeared at 

 this stage of the proceedings, acted under the 

 following instructions : " You will explain that, 

 in sending a delegate to the conference, the 

 Government of India must not be held to com- 

 mit itself to the adoption of the principle of 

 the bi-metallic system in India, and that you 

 are not authorized, without further instruc- 

 tions, to vote on any question raised at the 

 conference. You will, however, add that, 

 while the Secretary of State in Council is un- 

 willing to encourage an expectation of any ma- 

 terial change at present in the monetary policy 

 of India, he would be ready to consider any 

 measures which might be suggested for adop- 

 tion in India as being calculated to promote 

 the re-establishment of the value of silver. It 

 is desirable that you should, so far as possible, 

 avoid giving any pledge on the part of the 

 Government of India which would in any man- 

 ner interfere with its future liberty of action ; 

 but in the event of your being pressed on the 

 subject, or your seeing reason to think it de- 

 sirable that such a declaration should be made, 

 you are authorized to agree, on the part of the 

 Government of India, that for some definite 

 term of years, not exceeding ten, it will under- 

 take not to depart in any direction calculated 

 to lower the value of silver, from the existing 

 practice of coining silver freely in the Indian 

 mints as legal tender throughout the Indian 

 dominions of her Majesty. Such a declaration 

 must, however, be conditional on the accept- 

 ance by a number of the principal states of an 

 agreement binding them, in some manner or 

 other, to open their mints for a similar time to 

 the coinage of silver as full legal tender in the 

 proportion of 15J of silver to 1 of gold, and 

 the engagement on the part of India would be 

 obligatory only so long as that agreement re- 

 mained in force." 



Mr. Fremantle and Sir A. T. Gait, as well 

 as Sir L. Mallet and Lord Reay, were present 

 after the plenary sitting of May 5th, but 

 stated that the English Government was thus 

 represented out of deference to the inviting 

 powers, and that its delegates, while willing to 

 furnish information, would not vote on any 

 proposition. The discussions were kept up 

 from time to (ime until May 19th, representa- 



tives of various governments explaining their 

 position. The German delegate stated that 

 Germany adhered to the single gold standard, 

 but was prepared to suspend its sales of silver, 

 and might increase the number of marks in 

 circulation, and possibly increase the amount 

 of silver per mark, and withdraw the live-mark 

 gold-piece. The delegates of Russia, Norway 

 and Sweden, Switzerland, and Greece, spoke 

 with reservation in regard to the acceptance 

 of the bi-metallic standard. The Spanish 

 delegate proposed an adjournment, to secure 

 fuller instructions, and reserved entire freedom 

 of action. On the 7th of May Mr. Piersen, of 

 Holland, made a speech advocating bi-metallism, 

 and M. Pirmez, of Belgium, replied. M. Seismit- 

 Doda, the leading delegate of Italy, declared in 

 the course of the proceedings that Italy was 

 there " to sustain the principle of bi-metal- 

 lism." On another occasion he thought the 

 conference " would not know how to separate 

 without having voted a motion affirming the 

 necessity of doing something in the interest of 

 the rehabilitation of silver, with the propor- 

 tion of 1 to 15." It was noted, however, as a 

 significant circumstance that, in passing the 

 act for the resumption of specie payments, the 

 Italian Chamber had declared that " it can not 

 be obligatory on private individuals to receive 

 silver money which does not bear the mint- 

 mark of the country." This was taken as an 

 indication of a disposition to be free from the 

 stipulations on which the Latin Union is based, 

 one of which recognizes the international char- 

 acter of the money coined by its members. 

 Among the propositions advanced was one 

 by the German delegate, suggesting that if 

 the United States, France, Italy, and Holland 

 agreed to an unlimited coinage of silver at the 

 ratio of 15 to 1 of gold, the other states might 

 observe certain conditions, such as not coining 

 gold in denominations lower than ten francs, 

 and improving the fineness of silver coins. On 

 the 19th of May the following order of the 

 day was adopted : "After having heard the 

 general discussion and examining the monetary 

 situation from an international point of view, 

 arid having regard to declarations made in the 

 name of certain governments, and in considera- 

 tion of the fact that several delegates desire 

 a temporary suspension of the sittings in order 

 to refer to their governments, the conference 

 decides to adjourn until June 30th." 



Before the adjournment, Sir Louis Mallet 

 made a statement of the views of the Indian 

 Government. It would engage, he said, not to 

 change the system of free mintage of silver dur- 

 ing a period to be settled by ulterior negotia- 

 tions, provided a certain number of the princi- 

 pal states undertook to maintain such free 

 mintage for the same period at the ratio of 

 15 . He claimed for India that she had done 

 more than any other country to prevent an 

 aggravation of the depreciation of silver ; for 

 the Calcutta and Bombay mints coined silver in 

 1879, the date of the last return, to the amount 



