India and China have always been
a market for the silver of Western
countries, because they are accus
tomed to require payment of their
bills m actual gold or silver coins.
They have always done business that
way and during the war many of them
became freightened and refused to
accept any other kind of money. In
India the situation was so serious that
the natives made a run on the Treas
ury, presenting notes for redemption
in silver rupees. Just then the sit
uation in India was so difficult for the
British Government to handle that
they appealed to the United States
to release a part of its vast silver
holdings. So the Pittman act was
passed, empowering the Secretary of
the Treasury to melt down and ship
abroad a maximum of $350,000,000
of Amerian silver dollars. Of this
amount $260,000,000 ras melted into
bullion and shipped to India. Large
quantities have since been shipped
to India, China and Japan. Early
in December silver was being export
ed to the Orient at the rate of a mil
lion dollars a day, but this was
stopped by the Government under a
law which forbids silver exports, ex
cept for the specific purpose of bal
ancing exchange.
Another reason why the price of
silver is high and why there is a
scarcity of coin for circulation is be
cause of the hoarding and melting
that is going on in various parts of
the world, and because of the with
drawal of gold coin from general use.
