658 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
- Now supposing the exchange to-day, when we are discussing the thing, was 1s. 8d., I take it you would urge the same ground for 1s. 8d. being confirmed as you have for 1s.
6d. being confirmed ?—Yes.
So whether exchange had gone up to 1s. 6d. or not the ground would prevail irrespective of what other countries have done ; and irrespective further of how that point was reached ?— May I just explain it in my own way ?
If you please.—The way in which I look upon this problem is this. To-day we have 1s. 6d. That to my mind means a certain price level. If you want us to go back to 1s. 4d., it seems to me we have to raise our prices. Without increasing the volume of currency we certainly cannot reach 1s. 4d., it seems to me we have to raise our prices. Without increasing the volume of currency we certainly cannot reach 1s. 4d. gold. Therefore the complete question to my mind is, shall we raise our prices from what they are today, so that we can go back to 1s. 4d. ? Now I being a member of the labouring community, feel that falling prices are better. That is my view of the matter.
Let me take it the other way. You say, as you put it, that, being a member of the labouring community, that means from the point of view of the labouring class it is undesirable ?— Yes, and I may go further and say that from the national point of view too falling prices are better than rising prices.
Now I suppose you heard the arguments that are being advanced that a high exchange, an exchange which is worked up to a higher point than where it has been 15 or 20 years at a stretch is undersirable in the interests of the producer. What would you say to that ?—All that it means is a depression of profits. I do want to make a distinction,—I do not know how far people will appreciate that,—between depression of industry and depression of profits. I think that distinction was made by Professor Marshal in his evidence before the Gold and Silver Commission. There might be a depression of profits, that is to say, the enterprising class may not get all that they would get if prices were to rise ; but it does not necessarily follow.