Sir John Lubbock, whose recent bereavement we heartily deplore, explains
elsewhere that, in his opinion, while Govern- ment can by taxation raise the price of its silver coinage, which is a manufactured article, it cannot raise that of silver as an article of commerce. We did not mistake his meaning,. though we rendered it rather clumsily; but the point we want to know is this : Is not the present silver difficulty con- fined to the value of silver coinage—that is, the manufactured article P If so, the Governments of the world can raise its. price by taxation, as they could that of tobacco. There is the risk of illicit coinage of course to be faced, but so there is now, our token silver coinage being worth nearly 30 per cent. more than the metal in bars. We do not doubt that there is some final objection to this scheme, as to every other yet pro- posed ; but, for the life of us, we cannot see what it is.
Previous page
