BIMETALLISM.
[To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."] SIR,—In view of your article on Bimetallism and Mr. Gibbs's letter, perhaps you will permit me to draw attention, in a very few lines, to a result of this Oriental tendency to hoard money, which tendency has alone created the "silver question," and continues to upset the currency theories of the older economists
Howcomes it that silver has depreciated here in Europe, while yet the rupee has fully maintained its purchasing power in India ? It was always assumed by Mill, Fawcett, and others that the fall in the gold price of silver would bring more and more Indian produce here, and by taking silver off this market, would eventually inflate the currencies of Asia till prices there rose correspondingly. But the Indian currency has failed to inflate, because the imported silver, instead of remaining above-ground to circulate in the channels of trade, is buried under their hearthstones by 250,000,000 of people.
Recently, when in India, the case was brought to my notice of a native cultivator who died considerably indebted to a local sowkar for money borrowed at 2 per cent. per month ; on Ins house being searched, there was found under his floor a hoard of rupees which would have paid his debt ten times over !—I am, Sir, &c.,
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