666 DR. BABASAHEB AMBEDKAR : WRITINGS AND SPEECHES
- I will put you another question, a little bit imaginary. We will take 6 months to write out our report. Within the next
6 months if the ratio becomes 1s. 8d. I suppose you would be justified in taking that according to you as the basis of your calculation ?— Then I would again say, you should strike an average.
- Between 1s. 8d. and 1s. 6d. or 1s. 4d ?—Between 1s.
8d. and 1s. 6d.
And you think that would be a sound financial polity ?— Well I don’t know. You have to strike some sort of average. You can’t do justice to each individual contract. For instance, if you take the example of the American War of Independence and the monetary fluctuations that took place then, all that the Americans could do was of course to do this kind of thing.—to strike an average and to dissolve all contracts on that basis. They could not do justice to each individual contract. It is impossible.
(Sir Henry Strakosch.) Dr. Ambedkar, I want to refer back to some statements which you made in regard to the undesirability of introducing a gold exchange standard. At one period of your evidence you stated that the convertibility into exchange would not limit the issue of the currency and would therefore not produce stability of internal prices. That was one of the objections you raised and then at another point you said that the gold exchange standard is not a desirable standard because prices would be less stable under it than under a full-fledged gold standard ?—Yes.
Now, you are a student of economic affairs and you have no doubt followed the proceedings of the Genoa Conference ?—Well, I did when I was in London. Recently of course I have not. But I know that the gold exchange standard was proposed.
Well, you will remember that the Genoa Conference an International Conference adopted unanimously a proposal enjoining the countries to adopt the gold exchange standard with a view to stabilising the purchasing power of gold and that they recommended for that purpose the co-operation of central banks ?—I don’t suppose they did it with a view to stabilising the purchasing power of gold ; they did it to stabilise their own currency.