Financial Legislation and its Limitations. 5^ 



a point where it possessed nearly as many looms as England, 

 which was ceasing to be the " workshop of the world." What is 

 more, cotton manufactories were starting in India, where they 

 have existed ever since in spite of a vicious excise imposed at the 

 instance of the English manufacturers. Was not all that enough 

 to put the price down to the Lancashire manufacturer? He sufferi^ f^m 

 could not control the number of establishments on the Continent ; '^"*f,p"^J't\°"''* 

 but he partially limited those in India, and then appealed further 

 to remedial legislation, hoping through it to manipulate the inter- 

 national exchanges to his benefit. Frequently remedial legisla- 

 tion is but war of economic interests, which strive to compensate 

 themselves for financial losses from unsuccessful competition by 

 taxation of the community. It is, at bottom, undignified alms- 

 taking. The great advantage of legislation over war is that it is 

 a peaceable means of extortion. English bimetallism was the 

 long abandoned protectionism reappearing under a new garb. 



Again, Farrer points out, instead of the balance of trade being 

 in favor of India, it was in favor of England. The former 

 country is ruled by English proconsuls with the assistance of a 

 large civil service and with the support of an army partly com- 

 posed of Englishmen. They are paid out of taxation of natives ; 

 and when the Britons break down in health or reach the age 

 limit, they are pensioned and return to Europe to spend their 

 old age in England, or in the cheaper, quiet, residence towns 

 of the Continent. But India still continues to pay their allow- 

 ances, which count as a perpetual unfavorable balance. The 

 Hindoos, however, having an especial fondness for silver, do not 

 send it on balance, but goods, raw cotton, straw plait, spices, 

 and spasmodically, wheat, and other products. Consequently 

 the importation of silver into India is not in any way caused by 

 the balance of payment being in favor of that country, for it is 

 the other way, but because the Hindoos prefer silver as an import. 

 It is an additional expense to them to guard the silver they have 

 while procuring more to flow in, for what they appear to gain 

 on the exchanges they lose again in the diminished purchasing 

 power of their exports in foreign commodities. 



One reason that is alleged for their great demand for silver is 



165 



