91 



37. Another proof of the fact tliat India has not been im- 

 poverished but enriched l.y foreij^n trade is 

 jTi^^oiU:!^ '"' tound in the large imports of' gold and 

 silver since 1850. The value of gold 

 imported into India from Europe and not re-cxpoiced from 

 1565 to 1835, a period of 27U years, has been estimated at 112 

 millions sterling. Mr. Claremont Daniell in his Industrial 

 Competition of Asia conjectures that of this amount about 50 

 millions were probably taken over to China and other places. 

 Including the gold obtained from China, Burma and other 

 Asiatic sources, the total gold in India in 1835 is estimated 

 at 140 millions. Since 1835 and up to the end of 1S90-91, the 

 net imports of gold have amounted to upwards of 140 millions, 

 and nearly the whole of this amount has been imported since 

 1850. As gold is not used for purposes of currency in India, 

 the imports have been made for the purpose of manufacture 

 into ornaments or hoarding. The total annual production of 

 gold at present is estimated at 20 millions sterling, of which 

 one-fourth is sent to India. The total net imports of silver 

 into India since 1850 amount to 302 millions lix. The value 

 of silver coined in British India has been estimated at 317 

 millions Ex or Es. 15 per head of the population. If India 

 had chosen to take the imports in commodities instead of in 

 gold and silver, it would not show that she was deriving no 

 advantage; on the contrary, it would doubtless be a great boon 

 to the country if the value that is locked up in ornaments and 

 coinage were turned into capital useful for industrial under- 

 takings ; but the large quantity of imports of gold and silver, 

 amounting to a considerable proportion of the total prcKluction 

 of the precious metals, unquestionably shows that India is not 

 losing but gaining by international trade. 



88. The complaint that European exploitation has had the 

 , . . effect of driving out natives from their legiti- 



European exploitation. j/>ii p • t j • ^ , • • , 



mate helds oi industrial enterprise is not true 

 of the Madras Presidency, nor is it true of other parts of India to 

 any great extent. The chief undertakings in which Europeans 

 are engaged are the cultivation of coffee, tea and cinchona, and 

 gold-mining, and these are all fields which were previously 

 unoccupied, and which would not be occupied if it were not for 

 the importation of European capital and enterprise. We have 

 already seen that indigo manufacture in this Presidency in 

 which Europeans once took part has now, to a great extent, 

 passed into the hands of the natives of the country. Coffee 

 cultivation has not been remunerative of late years, and it has 

 also, to a ^considerable extent, passed into native hands. The 



