258 Mr. Faraday on 



of the American Silver Act of July 14, 1890, and 

 consisting partly of coined metal drawn from the- 

 currencies of the Central and South American States,, 

 did not exceed 13,000,000 ounces at the maximum, and at 

 the present time is reported less than 6,000,000 ounces ;.. 

 that is, there has been a floating surplus stock of from 

 ^1,000,000 to, at the outside, ;^2, 500,000 worth of silver in New 

 York. But the Mincing Lane men alone would require from 

 ;£"34,ooo,ooo to ;^40,ooo,ooo of silver to pay for their 

 own imports, to say nothing of the demands for the 

 payment of Indian exports to other parts of the world,, 

 amounting in all to about ;^90,ooo,ooo in round figures. 

 Even with the aid of the Council drafts in settling the 

 balance of trade there has been an average export of 

 ;£"7j50o,ooo of silver per annum to the East during the 

 last ten years via Southampton, Venice, and Marseilles. 

 There would, therefore, be far more buyers of silver than 

 sellers, a demand vastly beyond the available surplus of 

 uncoined silver; nay more, the demand would greatly 

 exceed the total production of new silver from all the 

 mines in the world. The price would, therefore, necessarily 

 rise until it became worth while to take the rupees from 

 the banks for shipment back to India, and, this stage being 

 reached, the Lancashire exporter, the Indian Government,, 

 and the Mincing Lane importer, would of course proceed to 

 save the cost of moving the rupees from India to London, . 

 and from London to India, by selling and buying drafts on 

 the basis of the par value of the rupee. The only difference 

 from the existing conditions would be that the Lanca- 

 shire exporters and the India Council would no longer be 

 practically forced sellers of rupees in a market where they 

 are demonetised, any more than the holder of Australian- 

 sovereigns is at present a forced seller ; and the Mincing 

 Lane man would no longer be in the position of the buyer 

 of a commodity which is of no use to the seller. 



