120 AGRICULTUEAL DEPEESSION, 1873 TO 1887 



Hector Hay's evidence before the Silver Commission of 

 1876 ' sliows that the production of gold was steadily 

 decreasing:, and the evidence laid before the Select Com- 

 mittee on Depression of Trade in 1885^ establishes the 

 same fact. To untrained eyes it also appears significant 

 that in the years 1877-81 the exports of gold from Eng- 

 land exceeded the imports by 11,160,000L^ As gold 

 became dearer, prices fell ; its purchasing power increased, 

 and produce was cheapened by the scarcity of the precious 

 metals. At the same time silver was depreciated in value. 

 The resumption by ^imerica of a double standard tem- 

 porarily raised its price, but it fell again, partly abso- 

 lutely owing to the increased yield of silver mines, partly 

 relatively to the enhanced value of gold. Under ordinary 

 circumstances the silver of the world is absorbed in the 

 East. But the process has been extraordinarily slow. 

 Meanwhile, as it appears to unscientific observers, the 

 English farmer suffers both from the glut of silver and 

 the famine of gold."* The Indian rupee, once worth 2s., is 

 now worth scarcely Is. 5c/. Corn producers benefit by the 

 fall in paying wages ; and merchants importing Indian 

 produce can afford to speculate in the exchange, and under- 

 sell home markets. The use of a single gold standard 

 possesses undoubted merits, but it is complicated by our 

 possession of an Eastern empire which has adopted the 

 single silver standard.^ 



' See Appendix VIII. Table 1. ^ Ibid. Table 3. 



2 Ibid. Table 2. * Ibid. Table 4. 



* The disturbance in the wheat trade in fact results from the disloca- 

 tion between the values of English gold and Indian silver, though Eng- 

 land has the advantage in the exchange. The British currency gives a 

 fixed value of 2^d. to the grain of fine gold. When the Indian rupee 

 was Is. lO^d., 10^ grains of fine gold purchased 165 grains of fine silver ; 

 now 8 grains of fine gold purchase the same amount of silver. 



