Just before the Great World War there were violent fluctuations in silver, caused first by the cessation of supplies from Mexico at the outbreak of the revolution there, and by the subsequent supplies from that country, which had been accumulated, being forced upon the market; and later by the unsettled European situa¬tion which, during the latter part of July, made silver unsaleable, and there was no quotation for this com¬modity for many days. Read the rest of this entry »

In India also silver is greatly used, the standard coin being the silver rupee, worth about Is. 4d. The annual output of silver is roughly about £25,000,000. India was recently the scene of an audacious attempt to corner silver.

A movement known as “Swadeshi” was initiated by native-born inhabitants of India with a view to conserve within their own hands the management of Indian affairs. The movement comprised the forma¬tion of banks, the officers and capital of which were all native; and The Financial Times thus describes the attempt and failure of one of these banks to corner silver:
” One of the most important of these institutions was the Indian Specie Bank, the capital of which was enthusiastically subscribed and whose Directors in¬cluded Maharajas and other prominent native person¬ages. Under these favourable auspices, the concern found no difficulty in obtaining an important share of native business, and enjoyed the advantage of a sub¬stantial amount of deposited funds. The managements devolved into the hand of Mr Chunilal Saraya, whose experience and abilities appear to have compelled the “Bank in the long run to entrust him with unchecked control over the operations and funds of that institution. This gentleman set himself to dominate the silver market in Bombay. Flattered by success and imbued with the idea, so fascinating to the Indian mind, of Napoleonic ventures in finance, he conceived the idea of cornering the world’s supplies of silver.

/’Mr Chunilal Saraya was doomed to failure for several reasons. He miscalculated the date when the Government of India would enter the market. He overlooked the fact that the production of silver is not only large, but automatic, for it goes on whether wanted or not, being mostly a by-product in the mining of other metals. He also forgot that the metal is ex¬ceedingly costly to carry when the stock assumes large proportions.

” In three or more years he found that, in order to keep up the value of his stock, he had to be constantly in the market as a buyer, and thus ever adding to his commitments. It is probable that at one time he must have been responsible for £6,000,000 of silver either in the form of actual silver or forward contracts. The accumulation of this vast quantity involved enormous expense in the form of interest and the cost of pro¬longing contracts for delivery and also necessitated the provision of margin.

” The only hope of retrieving the situation lay in the prospect of purchases by the Indian Government. These long-expected purchases were made at length, and the Indian Specie Bank succeeded in selling £3,000,000 to the Government in 1918 before the purchases were completed.
” On the 1st December last year the Indian Specie Bank came to the end of its resources and closed its doors with £3,000,000 of silver still in its hands.”

China has rigidly adhered to a silver standard. One of her great officials recently stated the reasons. Here are his own words :
“As to the gold standard, we all know that it is a good standard, but China cannot adopt it, firstly because the amount of gold in China is not enough to make gold coins for circulation. Read the rest of this entry »

Silver exists in most countries side by side with lead, but the chief mines are in South America, and those of Pachuca in Hidalgo, Mexico, are said to be the first mines in which the Spanish forced slaves to work for them. Near there, is the Real Del Monte, where Peter Terreros, originally a poor muleteer, after a long labour found silver to the value of £3,000,000 sterling, and was rewarded with the title of Count by the Spanish monarch for the loan of £1,000,000, which was never repaid.

Terreros invited his Majesty to the mine, promising him that wherever he should alight from his carriage it should be on a pavement of silver, and that wherever he lodged, it should be lined with the same metal. The King did not go ;   but when Terreros’ own childrenr were baptized the procession is said to have walked on bars of silver.

Equally romantic was the finding of the Comstock Lode,-and the subsequent rush to that spot, the enor¬mous amount of money spent upon development and the colossal failure of the enterprise at the finish. The stories of the Leadville and Silverland Mining Enter¬prises are also fascinating ; but all these belong to the romance of mining rather than of commerce.

Long, however, before the silver of the West was known to Europeans it was being worked in Spain by the Phoenicians, and Diodorus Siculus states that the anchors of ships returning from Spain were of silver. Earlier still is the record that in the days of Abraham silver was being used as a medium of exchange, not coined, but weighed.

Gold was early adopted by nations as a currency, but it was not adopted in England until 1257, the first gold coins being of the weight of two silver pennies, valued at twenty pence and called gold pennies. In 1344 a gold piece called a florin was struck. Later came ” nobles,” worth 6s. 8d., still used as a lawyer’s fee; “marks,” worth double that amount, and ” angels,” worth 10s. each. Read the rest of this entry »

Slightly different were the methods of the Portuguese with the Indians of Brazil, whom they found adorned with gorgeous ornaments of gold. The former demanded of the latter that they should be shown the gold locality. When the natives refused, one of the Portuguese poured some spirit, which the natives thought was water, from a flask, and set fire to it, saying that he and his comrades would set fire to all the rivers in their country if they did not show them where the gold was to be found.
Still rougher were the Spaniards with the natives of Peru and Mexico.

Both in ancient and medieval societies, however, the mining for gold was not considered honourable toil, but only to be performed by slaves ; and where the Phoenicians mined their gold, whether in Spain or in Rhodesia, to which they penetrated, crushing stones and mortar holes have been found at which African slaves wore out their miserable lives. Recent research has  demonstrated that to  the  Phoenicians  we  owe the numerous galleries and pits found throughout Rhodesia, particularly in that neighbourhood of which Mr Rider Haggard has drawn his sketch King Solomon’s Mines. When they abandoned these mines they walled them up.

As far back as the time of the Phoenicians, those redoubtable pioneers of commerce and exploration. Ophir and Tarshish (probably in Spain), and the coasts of West Africa appear to have been exploited for their gold. In the days of King Solomon we are told that ” silver was nothing accounted of ” by Eastern princes and monarchs, whose palaces and thrones were decked with gold, either brought from India, where the aborigines slaved for their princely conquerors from the north, or from Africa and the west by the Phoenicians. Read the rest of this entry »

A short time ago the Society of Antiquaries announced some interesting discoveries made during excavations at Hengistbury Head, Hampshire. Among the curiosities was a collection of many thousand gold, silver and bronze coins which had once been used by the ancient Britons and the Gauls. Read the rest of this entry »