HC Deb 18 July 1893 vol 14 cc1830-2
MR. EVERETT (Suffolk, Woodbridge)

I beg to ask the First Lord of the Treasury whether there is any precedent for doing what is now being done in India—namely, artificially limiting the supply of the coins with which alone the people can meet their legal obligations?

MR. W. E. GLADSTONE

In answering this question I must demur, at all events, to the statement that at present there is an artificial restriction of the coinage of silver in India. That appears to me to be a matter open to dispute. With regard to the question generally, I have to refer my hon. Friend to the Report of Lord Herschell's Committee, where he will find instances which present very strong points of analogy with the present situation. With regard to the intentions oE the Indian Government, there is no doubt that it is a more or less provisional and intermediate position, and that must be allowed for in estimating what has been clone. I am given to understand that there is a very close analogy in the case of Austria. In the years 1879–91 the silver coin was there still, as the representative of the old system, the metallic legal tender of the country; but the Mints were, at the same time, closed to the private coinage of silver. In 1891 the gold standard was introduced. With respect to the present condition of the Indian Mint, what I understand is that the quantity of silver coined is not to be regulated by the convenience of the Government, as in this country, but by the wants of the country—the real demand of silver for the purposes of circulation.

MR. CHAPLIN (Lincolnshire, Sleaford)

Do I understand the right hon. Gentleman to say that, in the opinion of the Government, the closing of Indian Mints to the free coinage of silver places no limit on the supply of the coin as compared with what has been the case hitherto?

MR. W. E. GLADSTONE

No; certainly not. Whereas the coinage of silver heretofore has been dependent entirely upon the will of the person bringing the bullion to the Mint for that purpose, it now depends on the estimate which the Government of India have the means of forming of the real wants of the population, just as in this country the quantity of silver coinage is similarly regulated.

MR. CHAPLIN

To that extent, I understand, it will be artificial?

MR. W. E. GLADSTONE

If the right hon. Gentleman likes to apply that epithet—but I do not so apply it. I think it is rather a step on the road towards what is natural.

MR. CHAPLIN

I should like to ask the Under Secretary of State for India, or, in his absence, perhaps the right hon. Gentleman can say, when the Evidence of the Departmental Committee on Indian Currency will be laid on the Table? We have been waiting for it a long time, and it has been frequently promised.

MR. W. E. GLADSTONE

I have no means of answering that question without referring to the Under Secretary of State.