A RETURN TO THE GOLD STANDARD 589
silver and the great margin between the respective prices of bullion and the rupee, would not Government by manufacturing rupees for itself make sufficient profit to meet at least a substantial portion of the present deficit ? It seems to me to be a legitimate source of revenue and one capable of materially easing our finances.”
But Sir James Westland, who was then in charge of the finances of India, replied*:—I
“I must confess to a little surprise in finding the proposal put forward by one of the commercial members of your Excellency’s Council that we should buy silver at its present low price, and coin it for issue at the appreciated value of the rupee …… I shall certainly refuse myself to fall into this temptation.”
Again, 1898, when some of the followers of Mr. Lindsay desired that Government should coin rupees to relieve the monetary stringency, Sir James Westland remarked†:—
“ ……in our opinion the silver standard is now a question of the past. It is a case of vestigia nulla retrorsum. The only question before us is how best to attain the gold standard. We cannot go back to the position of the open Mints. There j are only two ways in which we can go back to that position, We can either open the Mints to the public generally, or we can open them to coinage by ourselves. In either case what it means is that the value of the rupee will go down to something approaching the value of silver. If the case is that of opening the Mints to the public, the descent of the rupee will be rapid. If it is that of opening only to coinage by the Government, the descent of the rupee, may be slow but it will be no less inevitable.”
The Hon. C. E. Dawkins was equally emphatic in his denunciation of the project of Government coining rupees. When he was tempted to acquiesce in the proposal by holding out the prospects of a profit from coinage, he replied‡:—
“I think I ought ….. to beg my hon. friend not to dangle
- Financial Statement, 1894-95, p. 123. † Ibid., 1898-9, p. 169.
‡ Ibid., 1900-1, p. 163.