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THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[Marc i, 1898. 
other preventible charges are greater, and have served 
no more useful purpose. Short rainfall, bad harvests, 
floods, fires, earthquakes, and other misfortunes affect 
the welfare of the people, and such calamities will, no 
doubt, recur from time to time, but so far no public 
meetings have been called to pray for legislation to stop 
the loss which they occasion, or to make those who do 
not suffer pay up for those who do. Such losses are 
regarded as not pi'eventible and are borne resignedly. 
Loss by exchange, however, has come to be regarded, 
by Government officials particularly, as a preventible 
loss, which roust be avoided at any price. The Govern- 
ment in endeavouring to get quit '■f the loss by 
exchange at this stage of the country’s progress, are 
not a w'hit more reasonable than the directors of a 
steamship company would be in giving orders to their 
Commander to leave no room for the coal, but fill the 
space up with cargo, and then expect the steamer to 
proceed on its journey. No matter how the Govern- 
ment may avoid this loss in their accounts, the people 
of the country have got to pay the bill, and the bill 
comes to a great deal more than the saving to Govern- 
ment. I am quite sure that the Secretary of State had 
no conception of the harm that would be wrought by 
the closing of the mints. The course of starvation 
which had to be adopted to bring the rupee into subjee* 
tion was not explained, or was not contemplated, by the 
authors of the policy. The measure was ostensibly to 
prevent the further fall of the rupee, but the Govern- 
ment have, instead, striven to raise the value to a 
point at which it cannot remain without breaking the 
backbone of the country, which is its trade. 
It is this desperate ambition to have Is 4d exchange, 
at any sacrifice that has wrought 
THE FAILUKE OF THE CUEEENCY LEGtSLATION OF 1893. 
and brought the people to the verge of ruin 
and discontent. What confidence can there be 
in a policy that buys rupees for Is 4 l-32d and 
sells them a few days after at Is 3 l-32d or declares 
that a limited amount of Telegraphic Transfer will be 
sold out of the 40 lakhs Councils offered and two weeks 
after sells the whole amount in that form ! Can any 
business man have the patience to anticipate such 
vagaries, or to believe that they are working for the 
common good of the country ? I think not. It is 
evident, too, that the Government have lost confidence 
in their ability to prevent fluctuations in exchange, and 
to maintain the rate at Is 4d without utterly upsetting 
their revenues. The condition into which India has 
fallen may be gathered from a few words which fell 
from the Finance Minister’s lips on 14th instant. 
He said : — “ It must be understood that we are not 
rolling in wealth while we are refusing aid to others, 
and our inability to advance money is due, not to any 
wilful obstinacj', but to want of adequate means. The 
Secretary of State cannot draw on us for more than 
we are able to pay. The fear is, threfore, that 
the market may reach a point where money 
will become actually unavailable, and merchants will 
find it impossible to sell their bills.” The Govern- 
ment claim the right to do what every sound trader 
does, but it strikes me that a sound trader could 
not expect to get assistance on such a statement of 
his accounts. There was, therefore, not much prrs- 
pect of the Indian Taper Currency Act of 1898 whi' h 
came into force on the 21st instant being of much 
help to the people. Its intention is to give relief 
in cases of dire necessity by allowing for the speedy 
introduction of foreign capital to the country. Council 
wire and bills might, at any time, be insufficient to 
meet the demand for money, and a panic would ensue 
v.tvi; no other means available to get a supply of 
coin. It nnist be assumed that before the benefit of 
(his Act. could be taken adcanlage of by the people, 
the greatest measure of confide nee would be required 
by the parties whose gold is to give the relief. There 
was not oire weird of encouragement given. “The 
(ii.ver) ment flht rrot know, end ]ierhaps they need 
),i . ■hi':)K,i' the facility w*uld actually be 
a liu cl of or not.” That was all. To know that 
ih. (- Vra- a life-boat on the east coast of Scotland 
would give as much prospect of rescue to a sailor 
drowning in the Hooghly. The Exchange Banks, it 
is admitted, are not benevolent institutions, and are 
not likely to pay Is. 4 5-32d. in gold in London to 
get one rupee here, unless their way is clear to make 
a profit on the transaction. The Banks’ position is 
such that they do not require accommodation of the 
sort for their own safety, and they assuredly do not 
intend to sell their gold for rupees at the topmost 
limit of the market until they first have the definite 
promise of mercantile bills at a covering fate. Ex- 
porters, in the same way, are not endowed with 
srrrplus charity, and are content to sit idle, rather 
than by produce, payment of which has to be nego- 
tiated at the maximum rate of exchange. The result 
is that prices of produce are driven down in the 
Indian markets until the level of security for the 
exporters is reached. This is what is happening 
today with all Indian produce, now in season, as 
sellers of indigo, jute, cotton, tea, gunny bags, cotton 
yarns, and other articles can tell you. 
IS THE GOVERNMENT BLIND TO THE CONSEQUENCE. 
Is it possible that the Government of India see 
no danger to their revenues if such a state of things 
be allowed to continue? Do they still persist in 
holding that this country, as a whole, makes no loss 
in its international trade by an appreciation of its 
standard, since the lower price received for its exports 
is balanced by the lower price paid for its imports ? 
The fallacy of this theory in its application to India 
needs no better illustration than what is happening’ 
in our maakets for export produce, the condition of 
which I have just described. How long can growers 
go on accepting fewer rupees for their produce while 
they have to pay the same rent, the same wages, 
and taxes with an increasing burden of debt at an 
increasing rate of interest ? How long will the 
money-lenders suffer repayment of their advances to 
fall into arrear ? The agricultural population of this 
country display great, even dogged patience at their 
toil, but the money-lenders have the doggedness 
without the patience. The village grogshop harbours 
the result — a dissolute and heart-broken peasant, once 
a thriving ryot. His loss to the land is the loss of 
revenue to Government, for the people canrot con- 
tinue to cultivate land which gives no retui-n. As a 
practical illustration of the effect of stringent money 
and depressed prices, I am informed by some of the 
largest indigo producers in the North-West that they 
will not sow next season. The land thus released 
may not be cultivated, for other products are about 
as profitless as indigo. 
MANUFACTURES HAMPERED. 
It is not in agricultural pursuits alone that the 
stringency of money is felt. Manufacturing industries 
are hampered in their operations by the inability or 
unwillingness of bankers to advance funds either 
for further extensions or for the purchase of raw 
material. The manufacturer to get money has, there- 
fore, to dispose of his goods as he makes them at 
the best price the market will pay for them. Im- 
porters, too, have cause for complaint, for buyers 
take delivery of goods only under compulsion owing 
to the absence of demand in retail. The fact is, 
the masses are uur.ble to buy to the same extent 
as when money was cheap and plentiful. Theyhar# 
barely snfficient to purchase the food required to keep 
body and sold together. Comforts, such as new cloths, 
are out of the question. Some amelioration of the' 
lot of the people is required, for nothing is so dis- 
posed to make a man discontented and rebellious as 
the stoppage of the wherewithal to buy Ihese little 
comforts, which give some colour to the dull grey 
monotony of an Indian workman’s existence. Lan- 
cashire men are quite aware that an artificial 
rate of exchango has done endless damage to 
their cotton piece-goods and yarn trade.s. Bimetal- 
lism for India is now the cry of these competi- 
tors with the Indian cotton mills, their rapacity is 
not satisfied with a Is 4d rupee. It was believed that 
the Government of India would readily tumble 
into the trap that was laid for them by the enthu- 
siasts of France and America, hut as the records 
of currency literature show, the attempt to raise 
the rupee to Is lid was promptly refused. There 
