Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/768

 746 THE ]ECONOMIC JOURN,r; bullion. Of late years, however, the quantity of such coin available for secretion has naturally decreased, x and therefore, though the habit is less universal, there is a considerable drain upon the present currency yearly. This would no doubt be of serious extent were it not the case that the depreciation of silver has largely induced the habit of hoarding gold in preference to the discredited white metal. Taking into consideration these facts, and that the native princes chiefly responsible for this drain can and do ho.ard their own coin or that of their neighbours in preference to ours, I am disposed to put the arereal quasi-permanent disappearance of Govermnent rupees due to this cause at less than half a crore. I would put it even lower, but there is reason to believe that in Southern India the priestly trustees of temples still accumulate the offerings of pilgrims. The second kind of hoarding, practised by the bulk of the people, I propose to neglect, and treat the amounts, thus tem- porarily withdrawn, as still in circulation. The currency, as indeed is shown very clearly by the low rate of wearage,  circulates very sluggishly; it. is probable that the major portion is or less detained by each household. Some keep it to tide intervals between harvests until it gradually disappears; more over some retain it for payments of their rents, while others more provident or better off lay it by until the stress of famine first robs them of this, then of their wives' ornaments, and lastly of their plough cattle. The occasional expansion of the circulation due to this cause could perhaps be traced through the Tables C and I), on pages 728, 730, as the proportion of the older mintage should in years of distress, owing to their reappearance from these hiding places, be greater or show a slower rate of disappearance than is normal. This and other interesting questions may possibly be capable. of determination when the volume circulating each year has been ascertained with a fair degree of precision. Accidental Loss.--It is perhaps hardly worth while to form an estimate of the destruction or loss of rupees. Much of this occurs out of India, and is therefore taken account of in the export statistics. A little may be lost in the river or near the sea coast when a country boat is upset or wrecked by a storm. Some is, no doubt, charred m the conflagrations that are very  A leading bullion broker in Calcutta informs me that maay of the sicca rupees released from the Burdwan vaults are still in the market, where there is a demand for them as ornaments and for hoarding purposes. - I have elsewhere calculated this to be abont-06 grain yearly.