CONCLUSION 239 



remote markets by placing home growers at an actual 

 disadvantage in respect of costs of conveyance. 



No legislation can transform those elements of agricul- 

 tural depression which depend on natural causes. So far as 

 the currency affects the question, the increased production 

 of gold will, on the one side, diminish its purchasing power, 

 and, on the other, restore its relative value to silver ; while 

 a decreased yield of the silver mines would deprive Indian 

 corn producers of their advantages in the cost of production, 

 and corn merchants of their speculations in rates of ex- 

 change. No other remedy, except the introduction of an 

 international monetary standard, suggests itself for currency 

 disturbances, though the issue of 11. notes, payable to 

 beai'er on demand, might reduce the existing appreciation 

 of gold, and, in the face of present prices, it might possibly 

 prove good policy to suspend forced sales of silver on 

 behalf of the Indian Government. Cheap freights im- 

 mensely increase the stress of foreign competition. If 

 trade revived, foreign goods would no longer arrive as 

 ballast or for nominal charges, and hopeful signs are 

 manifest that the long frost of commercial languor is 

 breaking up. In the last quarter of 1887 everything rose; 

 pig iron, coal, copper, tin, lead, wheat, barley, oats, 

 rice, beef, mutton, cotton, jute, petroleum — all realised 

 better prices. 



But though legislative aid may mitigate artificial 

 hindrances to agricultural revival, and though one of the 

 natural causes which intensify the stress of foreign com- 

 petition appears to be passing away, self-help affords the 

 best aid to agriculturists. Too many farmers slumber in 

 their empty corn-bins, dreaming of Protection. If they 

 cannot revise the fiscal system, they can at least revise 

 their practical ideas. The reduction of the size of holdings 



