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Show Silver Reaches Highest Point Since 1907 Boom Shortage in Bank of England Comes at Time When Europe and Orient Are Demanding White Metal; Mexican Crisis Opportune. WITH on-third of the world's available supply of silver, from ilex ico and Australia, thul off; with Purope hoarding its soM and increasing fto silver coinage; ulth the, smallest silver reserve In history; ivLLh the orient coming Into the silver market once, more, and shipments of silverware sil-verware Increasing 1o South America--the nrlcfi ,f silver meiaJ has climbed upward or' ;:") per cent In the pa ft five months, from under 7,'i cents Is si Nu ember to aimve 7." cents p.?r fine ounce, says the X"iv York Commercial. This Is the hl.'iest price for silver since September. 1!j7. A jump of rents per ounce overnight Is the erea test single day's advance In many years. The International Silver company has announced a 10 per t ent advance in prices "f all silverware. All silverware manu-tHcturors manu-tHcturors have advanced prices since the first of the year. They report an unprecedented unprec-edented amount of business in South America, but add that this may bo due to our taking over business formerlv handled by Germany. Predict ?t Silver. N Those who' profess to be "in the know" claim to see T.r.-cent silver in sight, and .ome extremists even claim silver for tne near future. Not since the palmy (for silver) davs of 1W3 and the younger days of Brvan, bus the price of silver over seen either of those heights. The price of silver in New lork in recent years has been as follows fol-lows (per Troy ounce. 1000-inooths fine): Year. Cents. Tear. Cents. Year. Cents. liUi, 1i.7 I f03 63.5 1892... 7 7 1AM. . . .54.8 1W2. ...52.2 1S91. .. US 9 IM't. . . . r,7.S 11)01. . . .AS. 9 1890. . . .S1.0B l!tl3 60. S 1900 fil.4 ' 1SK9 93 5 19U ..33.:: 18951.. . .59.6 1 8 88. . . .94.0 2l '3-5 1898. ...68.2 1887. ...98.0 1909 61.fi 1897 69.8 1886 99 5 1008.... 52.9 1RPS....67.1 1885. . . .$1.06 19".... .S7.fi 1K95....63.S 1884.... Ul 190R. . . .(;. s 1S94. . . .P3.0 188 1 U 19DS. . . .0. 1R93. . . i7g.0 1SS2. .. . 1.13 1904 57.2 The causes underlying the present boom in silver metal are not due aione. nor even primarily, to the choking off of the Mex can supply. The present embroglio in .Mexico has undoubtedly plaved a strong pan In forcibly awakening the silver market mar-ket but the fact is that the shrinkage In Mexican silver output was even greater in 191 R, 1914 and 1915 than now, vet during dur-ing those years the price of silver declined from above 60 cents to 47 cents per ounce. l lalnly, therefore, the present shrinkage shrink-age In silver output from Mexleo ja 0f small proportions, and cannot be compared com-pared with the shrinkage of previous years. Tn no sense is It an underMng cause of the recent spectacular advance in the price of silver metal from 50 cents to above 73 cents since the beginning of the year. Tf the shrinkage of silver output out-put trom Mexico were a cause of advancing advanc-ing prices for silver metal, one should have looked for advancing prices In 1913, 1914 and 191.1. more than now. Silver production of Mexico, the United States, anrl the world, in recent years 1 1 as been as follows: MeMco. U. f?. World ounces. ounces. ounces. 1.9! 7- lS.0u0.lfOo 76.371.400 196.U00 U00 lf,H -JS.OnO.000 67,929.700 700 yi)4 l:M3 49,461.103 66.&0LSUO 214,91,0S5 i'' 1 3 82. 506.1163 62,369,y03 250,679.368 1-U 87.07S.764 57,796.117 2il,y08 780 I'MO 78,435, 38 1 ."v7.137.imhi 240,222,720 lH'i!) 72.653,534 53.849,000 217,614,569 ICWS 72.5:7.04 52.440.800 212,569 837 I9-.-7 66.G00.00O 58.850.615 193,642 331 i:'"6 6,500,000 66.51 7, 9ti0 184,552,343 19u5 70.838,066 ;S,dU..s::9 1S9.S30.120 1904 67.008,448 67,7S6,mo 182 -62 376 1903 67.832,760 64.300,600 170,128,471 1902 57,982,335 66.500,000 164,560, 3.S 1901 65.162.340 55.214.000 174,851.391 1S96 47,985.914 68.488,810 176,706,718 1891 .... 40,936.002 58.249,006 143.352 886 1SS6 25,488,45-9 29,391. 226 92.989,912 1SS1 .... 21,376,008 S3,212,2u3 fe,912,13u Revival in Demand. A revived demand In India and China, anil a demand for coinage purposes In Great Britain and Kurope demands which have lain comparatively dormant for fiveml years account in large part for the bulge in silver. The Bank of F-ugland. w hlch normal! v carries about $5.000.00fi 1n silver, shows but $760,000 in recent returns. Silver bullion brokers place the London floating supplv at under $300,000, compared with $5,000,000 six months ago. The British and continental mints are coining a large amount of silver. The "seigniorage" affords these countries a considerable Income, and any income is sorely needed In these war times. As gold is aaelduouWy hoard od, silver coinage is really necossaiy. The British India contingent of soldiers Is accustomed to no other form of money. The Indian bazaars are coming into the silver market, after a quiescence of several sev-eral years. Recently a single consignment consign-ment of i350.0o0 In sliver was forwarded to Bombay from Shanghai, one of the largest In ten years. China in Market. China Is coming Into the market, too. China is standardizing her money system, sys-tem, and will need 150,000,000 ounces of silver if she maintains the silver standard. stand-ard. The gold standard, proposed a few-years few-years ago. has not yet been definitely accepted ac-cepted and Die reactionary movement in the Celestial empire indicates that China may continue the silver standard. In her monetary reorganization. The present Mexican situation is a mere 'coincidence, almost, although it cannot he denied that the Mexican crisis broke at a psychological moment for tho silver metal market. If Villa were "eliminated" and Mexico pacified tomorrow morning, the Mexican silver mines and smelters would still be unable to reopen to full capacity before 1917. At most, the Mexican situation has 1 been no more than the match which has set the silver metal market afire but tiie conditions for the conflagration were ripe in Mexico. |
