114 



Coin and Currency in [No. 9, new series. 



drain of silver to the East continued steadily to increase. Hum- 

 boldt states that of the Sp. drs. 43,500,000 worth of gold and sil- 

 ver annually brought to Europe from America before the Revolu- 

 tions, Sp. drs. 25,500,000 went to Asia — 4 millions by the Levant, 

 17J round the Cape, and 4 through Russia. McCulloch says that 

 in 1851 the drain had ceased, and Asia was even exporting silver ; 

 but I think this can only have been true of China. Now, at 

 any rate, large quantities of silver are imported into India and 

 China. I shall quote a recent article in the Daily Neivs, (July 4 J 

 to show the present state of the " Balance of Trade" between 

 Europe and Asia. 



" As it is certain that the Money Market has of late been 

 greatly affected by the flow of silver to the East, it may be useful 

 to glance at the statistics of this movement for the six months 

 terminating on the 30th June, 1857. The subjoined table exhi- 

 bits the aggregate shipments from Southampton by each fort- 

 nightly packet : 





Gold. 



Silver. 



Total. 



Jan. 4 



£2,091 



£428,105 



£430,196 



„ 20 



7,882 



359,445 



367,327 



Feb. 4 .. 



18,388 



952,940 



971,328 



„ 20 .. 



6,775 



670,340 



677,115 



Mar. 4 



8,231 



783,929 



792,160 



„ 20 .. 



11,255 



776,332 



787,587 



Apr. 4 



7,998 



780,686 



788,684 



„ 20 .. 



11,777 



733,188 



744,965 



May 4 



2,460 



548,691 



551,151 



„ 20 .. 



2,128 



748,943 



751,071 



June 4 



5,314 



756,299 



761,613 



n 20 .. 



2,145 



1,140,471 



1,142,616 



Total.. 



. .£86,444 



£8,679,369 



£8,765,813 



" Our table proves how essentially this is a silver movement, 

 for the remittances in gold have amounted to scarcely one-hundredth 

 part of the total. Supposing that the shipments in the second half 

 of 1857 be equal to those of the first half, the drain will have as- 

 sumed the astonishing proportions of seventeen millions and a half 

 sterling per annum, without taking into account the considerable 



