Deo. 1, 1898.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
405 
very rigoroua task was exacted, snoh as ia certainly 
quite unobtainable from the cooly of 1808, and a 
fuller value to the producer was undouVjtedly obtained 
for the same wage. The argument of the apparent 
uniformity of the wage at the period preceding Tea is, 
therefore of little account. The coffee enterprise, 
while favoured by the exchange may be compared to a 
ship with a favoring breeze struggling vainly against 
a Maelstrom. Indeed, so disastrous to labor was the 
ruin of oolfee that, notwithstanding the collapse of 
Silver which accompanied it, wages that should have 
risen in accordarice with a natural law, were actually 
lower, estimated in the balance of earnings available 
to the cooly than they were when the exchange was 
at par. The natural result of all this was that the 
country was being rapidly denuded of coolies. 
With these conflicting influences at work, it is idle 
to assume that the uniformity of wage had, up to 1885, 
anything necessarily to do with the question. 
Period 4. — Subsequent to 1885 the uniformity of 
wage argument is still further discounted by the 
altered circumstances to the cooly in tea. Whereas 
ia coffee, a large proportion of the labor force was 
paid off to return to their homes at the end of crop, 
the women that remained worked half time, and the 
children not at all, the whole 'J'amil family finds, in 
tea, a constant full wage all the year round, and the 
women and children — the least useful laborers in 
coffee — have become the labor most in request in tea. 
The wage continues the same, " three days' labor for 
a rupee," but the earnings of the Tamil family have 
increased fully 40 per cent., or very nearly, if not 
quite the equivalent of the fall in the Gold value of 
Silver, which the Planters' Memorial contends has had no 
Buch result. These advantages to the cooly (equivalent 
to a direct rise in wages) have been further added to hy 
improved journey facilities to India. The Southern 
Indian Riilway to Tuticorin, made in 1875, gave the 
cooly direct communication with his Indian home, sup- 
erseding a toilsome march of many hundred miles by 
the circuitous Northern Ceylon route via Mannar, a 
route which was quite impracticable for weakly women 
and children. I am satisfied that this view of the 
question has been entirely overlooked hitherto, and that, 
if it is fairly sifted, it will be found that the cooly has 
been more than compensated for the fall in the pur- 
chasing power of his wage by the increased volume of 
wage earnable, and by easy access to his country. 
'Tne contention of the Planters' Memorial — that 
prices have remained unaffected by the fall iu Silver — 
can be similarly tested in the history of the Rice 
market. This article, less than any other produce, 
lends itself to remeasurement with the rise or fall of 
the precious metal used as currency, because it is 
cultivated on lands that can grow little else. 
It will be found that previous to the great famine 
in 1876, rice was selling iu Kandy at R3 per bushel 
and in 1895 previous to the last famine at R3'50, or a 
rise of 115 per cent. The latter price, however, by no 
means represented the real rise in value paid to the 
Indian producer, for his cost of transport in 1896 had 
been enormously reduced by railways and cheaper 
freights. If allowance is made for this it will be found 
that the price received by the Indian Rice grower in 
1896 was some 30 to 40 per cent, higher than in 1875, 
BO that here again the natural law of remeasurement 
of the commodity in the currency had been at work. 
In these two main instances — the cooly wage and 
the price of rice — a nominal but deceptive sameness 
of rate in Ceylon is used as an argument to support 
the contention that these commodities have not re- 
measured themselves in Silver, and therefore will not 
re-moasuro themselves in Gold if the latter currency 
is resorted to. I arrive at the opposite conclusion, 
and am of opinion that if the depletion of the Indian 
Original Currency — Silver — is rectifted by an influx 
of Gold to restore the equilibrium between currency 
and commodities that the Producer, equally with 
all other classes — will be benefited. Mr. Allan Arthur, 
in his Standard letter, has shewn the disadvantages 
certahi to recur by a partial reopening of the Mints 
to Silver, which is what the Ceylon Memorial ad- 
VOcatga, The result to Ceylon Tea o£ such a policy, 
would be to foster the existing over-production which 
is likely, in any case, for some years to be a greater 
hindrance to profits than the recent high Exchange. 
On the other hand, the introduction of a Gold 
Standard will have the following beneficial effects. 
It the transfer is made at a fair rate, and I con- 
sider a fair rate to be that which was ruling before 
the American Legislation which led to the closing 
of the Indian Mint in 1893 and which I will take 
for this and other reasons, at Is. 3d. per Rupee — the 
results to the Tea Producer will be (a) he will have 
a fair amend made to him for the unduly high 
rate recently forced upon him ; (b) the stringency of 
the money market, as evidenced by prohibitory Bank 
rates of interest will cease ; (c) the English investor 
will acquire confidence and lend money on mortgage 
in Ceylou at 5 per cent where he would not aow 
(unier the uncertainty of ever getting his capital 
back) lend it at 10 per cent; (d) there will be a 
mitigation if not an end to the recurring periods of 
inflation and depression which has been most in- 
jurious to sound enterprise and must continue to 
occur with an untrustworthy currency medium. There 
will be less phenomenal profits but they will be con- 
stant, (e) The transition to Gold will furnish the 
opportunity for reconsidering the cooly wage. If 
the Southern Indian rate of 4 annas for men and 2^ 
annas for women commands a full supply of Labor 
there, the Ceylon rates of 6 annas for men and 5 annas 
for women, taken in connection wit'n the new journey 
facilities, would appear too high. At any rate the 
subject would hive to be reconsidered, if only to 
supersede the custom ot making profits on rice which 
has always been a considerable factor in Ceylon in 
the wage question. These profits are likely to be 
very considerable if rice comes to be reraeasured in 
Gold, and, being always open to misconception, it 
would be better to abandon them in favour of a reduced 
wage, (f ) The steadiness given to the cost of produc- 
tion would induce the Planter — instead of looking to 
the fall of Exchange to help him— to develop his own 
latent economies. There is no doubt that Labor is 
not nearly as eflicient as it might be, estates having 
been flooded with new and untrained coolies super- 
vised by young men from England who are gaining 
their experience at the expense of the Industry, (g) 
When these results have been worked out, it will be 
found that there is little to fear in the competition 
from Silver-using countries on which so much stress 
is laid in the Planters' Memorial. 
Our China competitor.s will be unsupported by cheap 
capital, as in Ceylon, and Rice — the food of the China 
cooly — must rise in price as the Gold countries 
purchase it. The quality of China Labor must also 
deteriorate in proportion as it is ill-paid and ill-fed. 
I have ventured to suggest the transition from 
a Silver to a Gold currency at the rate of Is 3d. 
per Rupee not only because it appears a just rate, 
but also because it will lend itself better than any 
other to the double necessities of England and India, 
seeing it would be represented by a Gold coin the 
equivalent of 12s 6d in England and R12 in India. 
The present stock of Rupees is not more than suffi- 
cient for token requirements, and it must be re- 
membered that the burden of currency work in the 
East will always fall on the token coins, e.g. in 
monthly payments for Labor the individual wage after 
deducting food supplies but seldom reaches RIO. This 
fact disposes of the idea that the demand for Gold for 
circulation in India will ever in any way compare 
with the like demand for it in England where the Labor 
wage is so much higher and food is not made part of 
the 'erms of payment. 
This letter of course accepts the theory that tho 
Indian Government was justified by the cyclonic 
disturbance to the currency created by American 
legislation, in contracting tha Indian currency to 
meet a special danger, but the object having been 
served, it ia bound to revert to a sound principle 
wbi' b at the present stage can only mean a bona 
liila <! )ld Currency for India. — I have the honour to 
1)0, Sir, your obedient servant, 
E, HAlvgOURT SKRIl^E, 
