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Show t'HINA AND SILVER Another important step in the valorization of the historic his-toric metal, silver, took place last week when China nation- lized the metal The step was taken by the Oriental people peo-ple as a measure of self preservation. The nation was threatened with virtual bankruptcy due to the drain of her silver reserves. The metal had, been flowing flow-ing out of the country in such quantities as to endanger her monetary structure. Earlier in the year a tax had been imposed im-posed upon exports of silver, but this had failed to stop the flow entirely due to the high price of the metal in outside markets. In nationalizing silver, China has called all the metal just us this country did when it nationalized gold. The white metal will be placed in government vaults and currency issued is-sued against it. Whether the nation will revalue the metal at a higher figure seems likely as its stocks of the metal will be small in relation to currency requirements. This is an encouraging move to those who have long (supported silver as a basic money and coincides with the policy of the United States government. Now the United States is not the only nation to place a higher value upon the metal as money and, the danger of dumping all salver upon the United States has been lessened. China has realized the value of silver as a basic money and in doing so has demonstrated demon-strated again the need for the white metal as a basic money. When it is considered that there are only 14,000,000,000 ounces of silver available for monetary purposes throughout the world compared to the( world-wide need for metallic monetary base, the actual scarcity of the metal can be visualized. visua-lized. Silver, joined to gold on a certain ratio, would go a long way toward, creating a sound basic behind currencies of the world in other nations besides the United States and China. Senator Key Pittman of Nevada, a veteran advocate of silver money, hails the move of China as a significant turn in the history of the white metal. He again predicts that silver will eventually reach $1.29 an ounce in the United States. Mineral Survey. o |
