The American Handicap; A Little Common Sense, Truthful History, and Mathematics Applied to the Money Question

This historic book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1903. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... V. The Indian Rupee. India is a dependency of Great Britain, and has a population approximating 300,000,000 people. The area of arable land per capita is very small 'compared with the United States and Russia. While the land is more highly cultivated than with us, the proportion of product that can be spared from home consumption, for export, is comparatively small, and yet, under our British Financial System the Indian Exports exert an important influence upon our prices of farm products. Its monetary Unit is the Rupee, containing 165 grains pure silver, and prior to 1898 it was the common unit of exchange for vast myriads of Asiatics, beside the Indian people. All valuations in India are made in Rupees, taxes are levied in Rupees and the consideration in all contracts is expressed in Rupees and fractional divisions of it. It is an ancient Unit, not greatly dissimilar in weight and size to the obsolete Jewish Shekel we read of in Holy Writ, or the 30 pieces for which Judas sold his Master. There are Boards of Trade in Calcutta and Bombay where daily records of prices of commodities are made the same as in Chicago or New York. The Indian Government maintains a Bureau of Statistics which collects these records, tabulates and prints them for the information of itself, the British Government and the English Merchant. I am indebted to one of these reports for the information now laid before you. The average price of a bushel of wheat in Calcutta for 26 years, 1873 to 1898, was a trifle more than 2]/ DEGREES Rupees, equivalent to 371.25 grains pure silver. The gold exchange value of the Rupee in London and New York varied from 46 cents in 1873 to 26.5 cents in 1895. While prior to 1893 the coinage of the Rcpee was unlimited, it was never free, a mint charge of 6 ...