It is asserted that the fall in the value of
silver will have such -an.effect in Nevada and California that the production will only be £6,000,000 a year, instead of £9,000,000, and that as the panic diminishes the value of silver must go up. As the American silver had never reached the London market, this is not certain, while it is certain that the Home Government, by its increased draw- ings, has diminished the Indian demand for silver by some £10 000 000 a year,—substituting, in fact, paper for the metal. The point, therefore, is the effect of that substitution, and as yet the market replies clearly, by refusing to offer more than ls. 70. for Government bills on India,—that is, the keen dealers who buy these bills think a rupeee worth some 19 per cent. less than 2s. The supply of silver is not the whole question. There is the -demand for it also to be considered, and this the India Office, unavoidably perhaps, has enormously reduced.
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