Page:The Economic Journal Volume 1.djvu/772

 750 THE ECONOMIC JOURNAL half a crore of this annual disappearance was due to melting. Since then the population has probably increased by 30 per cent., and its material wealth still more rapidly, whereas the balance of imported bullion available for the arts has not been large. It is therefore probable that for the present time an estimate of a crore of rup.ees annually melted is within the truth. Personally, I am of opinion that the consumption is considerably greater; but in making estimates where guessing, more or less scientific, predominates, it is better to mderstate the truth. Having now touched upon the causes of disappearance ancl reappearance of the rupee, it will be convenient to exhibit all the figures in one table (p. 749). The next step necessary is to determine the composition of these totals. The sea export is mainly from Bombay, and may therefore be taken to be of about the same composition as the coin circulating in that Presidency. The inland export has been supposed to consist of something between the Simla and Darjeeling circula- tion and that of the western frontier. Hoarding falls mainly on the older coin, and may, perhaps, be calculated upon the Central Provinces average. Accidental loss and remintage are taken at the combined average. Loss from melting, if regard be had to the supposed fct that one-third takes place in large cities and the rest in the interior and hills, probably falls on a circulation somewhat older than the combined average by which I have computed it. Reappearance may be taken to be in each case of export from stratas of coin one year older than those affected by the export. It will be seen that no attempt has been made to vary the figures for hoarding and melting according to the prosperity of the year, although in a year of scarcity considerable quantities of old coin must reappear from hoards, and new coin must suffer less loss from melting and hoarding. Some of the figures given upon page 736 in Table I have been .corrected upon these lines, and are given on the following page.  For the composition of the circulation in different places, see Appendices B and G.