578 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
weekly sales,* and are managed through the Bank of England, which issues an advertisement on every Wednesday on behalf of the Secretary of State for India, inviting tenders to be submitted on the following Wednesday for bills payable on demand by the Government of India either at Bombay, Madras, or Calcutta. The minimum fraction of a penny in the price at which tenders of bills are received has now† been fixed at [1]32 nd of a penny. The council bill is no longer of one species as it used to be. On the other hand there are four classes of bills:
(1) ordinary bills of exchange, sold every Wednesday, known as “Councils”; (2) telegraphic transfers, sold on Wednesdays, called shortly “ Transfers ”; ‡ (3) ordinary bills of exchange, sold on any day in the week excepting Wednesday, called “ Intermediates” ; and (4) telegraphic transfers, sold on any day excepting Wednesday, named “ Specials.” Now, in what way does the Secretary of State use his machinery of council bills to prevent gold from going to India ? It is said that the price and the magnitude of the sale are so arranged that gold does not go to India. Before we examine to what extent this has defeated the policy of the Fowler Committee, the following figures (Tables LI and LII, pp. 579 and 582) are presented for purposes of elucidation.
From an examination of these tables two facts at once become clear. One is the enormous amount of council bills the Secretary of State sells. Before the closing of the Mints the sales of council bills moved closely with the magnitude of the home charges, and the actual drawings did not materially deviate from the amount estimated in the Budget. Since the closure of the Mints the drawings of the Secretary of State have not been governed purely by the needs of the Home Treasury. Since the closure, the Secretary of State has endeavoured§ :—
“(1) To draw from the Treasuries of the Government of India during the financial year the amount that is laid down in the Budget as necessary to carry out the Ways and Means programme of the year.
- From January 22, 1862, when the Sale of Council Bills under the authority of the Secretary of State first took place, up to November, 1862, the sales were effected monthly. From November, 1862, the sales were effected fortnightly ; and in August, 1876, they were made weekly.
† From January to march, 1862, the minimum fraction was a farthing ; it was reduced to [1] / 8 th of a penny in March 1862, to 1/16th in January 1875, and to
1/32nd in 1882, at which fraction it has continued since then.
‡ First introduced in 1876.
§ Cf. Memorandum on the Sale of Council Bills, by F. W. Newmarch, to the Chamberlain Commission, App. Vol. I, No. VII. p. 222.