Show INDIANS MONEY silver money so precious h it Is melted complete explanation of the poverty and the cruel stroke of england in pauperizing copper the principal used for years and yeara the people of india have been in the habit 0 taking the surplus silver rupees aud have cd and manufactured them into jewelry in preference to depositing their money in a bank and when times hard they would take the jewelry to the fiut and bave it coined into money again under abia system hundreds of mil llona t of dollars have been hoarded in the I 1 shape 0 jewelry fhe poverty in india hae caused the people to bring their jewelry to calcutta to be coined when lo 10 and beald england has closed the mints and the jewelry once money cannot be re coined again hence the great loss and poverty in india the following letter fully explains the matter f alter a residence of forty years in india during which I 1 have mixed wit halmet every class of the people forming its immense population of I 1 have naturally gained some experience ol 01 the great problems which affect 90 per cent of indias poverty et ricken imesch I 1 have just returned to calcutta from an extensive tour throughout the damice stricken districts of central and korth western india and budh where I 1 visited most of the famine relief works and the poor homes provided for the sufferers from the great eat ca which has befallen india under british rule the object of this leur is to draw attention ioa to a matter which affects noi so much the extremely desti tuo as the respectable class whose savings would have enabled them to have borne up against the present distress if it had nut been for the most cruel and unjust legis S latigu that was ever enacted by any government pretending to enact laws for I 1 M the good ol 01 the people I 1 mean the closing of the indian mints against the free coinage 0 biker which was enacted for the benefit and at the instigation of an interested clique but certainly not in any way for the benefit of the people in india I 1 wish to call the attention of the people of england to a phase of the subject which they do not understand because of the different customs of the t vo countries when once explained to them they will clearly understand wherein arises the cruelty and injustice 01 closing the mints and its great importance to the masses of the people of india at the present juncture owing to the pressure brought to bear through the famine to realize on their hoards of silver to provide themselves with food your readers must not overlook the baci that the people of india have not yet enjoyed forty years of internal and settled government for thousands of years before the advent of the british india bad been the prey of the alien conqueror and the internal freebooter hence the people have become the greatest hoarders in the world what savings banks insurance companies and kindred are to the people ol 01 england the practice of hoarding their savings by converting corner silver into jewelry or ornaments has been to tha thrifty artisans and peasantry of india when an indian artisan or peasant armer has saved up 10 or SO rupees he takes them to ahe village jeweler and has them baade into for the v te or children and such ornaments being made from coined silver could with open mints always exchanged again for almost their tell weight in rupees when bard enaes came round and the hoarder bad to reconvert his board icca into current coin practically all jewelry in india is mere y boarded money many of the wealthy natives have hoards of coined money yet though euch hoards are often large their number is small compared with the countless hoards of the great mass of the indian artisan and middle class leae antry the bulk of the indian pie now these are not the classes abich the government for as eustance ei stance oa charitable famine re lief works and but they are the classes whom the government has cruelly robbed of their savings by i deping the mints clofed abinet the free coinage of silver during my late tour throughout the famine stricken districts I 1 mixed largely with this class and beard their kiewe freely on the late currency legislation of the government most bitter are the coro plaints against the action of lord lande donnee government and frequent the predictions that the historian of the future will have to brand that act as one of the most cruel and unjust pieces of legislation that was ever enacted by any civilized I 1 will give your readers one out of many which came under my notice oi how the doling of the E nta i mints is robbing abe people of their savings in the city of Alla habad I 1 met u bian who had come in from one of the most ee verely stricken districts wilh dilver jewelry weighing ra 2000 which in former years he could have suld for about rg 1980 but owing to mints being closed abe who are the bullion merchants of india had offered him only re 33 for Rs weight of silver or only re COO for what had coat the poor man Rs 2000 and when I 1 remonstrated with the silversmith his reply was what can I 1 do itis not I 1 who wish to plunder the poor of their savings it Is the art of the government who have closed abe mints and will not coin silver jewelry into rupee aud in these famine time silver ornaments are of no use to me 1 can not eat them anat is only one case out of thousands the gold and ol 01 india are proverbial the greatest usurers in the country the proverb is in manufacturing ornaments or in making a bargain the eunar cold or silversmith would cheat his own mother the closing of the mints has put the thrifty end moat loyal classes ot india at abe mercy of those usurers rs who are not slow at laying the blame on the british government ern ment and I 1 must admit with too much reeson in this instance this incident caused me to have several conversation with of abe leading native bankers of Alla habad on the late legislation Rs ferring to those who had advocated abe adoption of a gold standard for india be said they are blinded by sell interest and have no thought whatever of the poverty ol 01 the great of the people people in england make their monetary calculations in gold but about 90 per cent of the people cf india are obliged to make thir money calculations in copper the calculations of the masses do not rise to the height of the depreciated rupee copper pice forms abe money of more than 90 per cent of the people but our foreign british government who have burdened the country with home charges and debt redeemable in gold appear to ignore this fact and to only to protect their own home remittance mit tance from the loss of exchange although poor the mass of the people of in are very thrifty and owing to their millions of rupees even now with closed mints are monthly withdrawn aiom circulation aud hoar dedard sd this tendency to board the silver and to calculate and operate in small change puts an enormous stran on abe copper currency ol 01 abe cauntay cau which the british government hac hitherto failed to recognize the native moneychanger money changer sits in an iron barred cage at the coner of every estreet charging pice per rupee or over 1 per rent discount for changing a rupee into copper or small silver coins which annually amounts to an enormous tax on the earnings of the starving poor in calcutta at the very poor of the currency office the moneychanger money changer sits growing fat on the one pice discount taken for the change of every rupee what would the working men 0 england eay it abe or baker to charge a farthing for abe change of shilling alter tah my friend went on there is another point of vast importance bearing os the closing of the mints no attempt whatever was made by the government to make the mass of abe indian people understand what effect this momentous change would nave on their customs and habits the people were allowed to go on converting ro illione of coined into yon er must know the vast amount of silver tent atom calcutta every year into the jute producing district not even fifty per cent of that silver ever finds its way back to calcutta to be exchanged for imported goods and more than fifty per cent ie absorbed by being boarded the chief part which remains in circulation being thu amount required to pay the land revinue I 1 will edve von one instance as on illustration for thousands last jute beason I 1 biad to visit in connection with the business of my firm and I 1 made the acquaintance of one landholder who had realized Rs for his crop of jute and only the day before I 1 met him he hd converted new rupees from abe calcutta mint into ornaments aud household utensils and when I 1 pointed out the lose he had unwittingly incurred through bis ignorance of the effect of the altered state of the currency law you can imagine surprise an d india calion against the government sovern ment abe closing of the mints have been an ex cellena thing for the anglo indians and their home remittances but it haa been a serious matter for the starving millions of india ibia is the opinion of one of the shrewdest shrew deat financiers in india and I 1 confirm and every line of it yours faithfully WM bon accord works 46 calcutta |