Coins In Lucknow Mus. Vol 01 [56 MB - IndianCoins.org

62" The grounds upon which the Calcutta Mint Committee havecome to the conclusion that the Madras mint may be abolishedwithout injury to the public interests are as follows It :appearsfrom their report that since 1882-83 the annual average importationof bullion into the territories of your Government by sea has beenabout 44 lakhs, while the average annual export has amounted to63 lakhs, showing an excess of export by sea to the amount of 19lakhs. From this fact they are led to conclude that the localcurrency, as far as required for domestic purposes, has not beenderived from foreign bullion. They next proceed to inquirewhether any large source of supply is furnished to your mint bythe inland trade, and they state that the average import of bullionfrom the interior does not much exceed 4 lakhs of rupees a year, sothat, unless the receipts from the Government revenue itself affordthe materials of the coinage which takes place in the mint, verylittle of the business carried on there can arise from the coinagenecessary to meet the internal demands of the Madras territories.The recoinage from the Government revenue they consider mustbe very small, as even in the Calcutta mint it does not amount to3 lakhs of rupees a year on an average." The average amount of the coinage at the Madras mint from1815 to 1820 was 50 lakhs a year, and, from 1817 to 1828, 68 lakhs,but during the latter part of the period, from viz., May 1825 toMay 1828 it was only 42 lakhs." The net annual export of bullion from Madras, it has been seen,is 19 lakhs of rupees, and as there are no mines in the country andthe import from the interior in the course of trade is only 4 lakhsa year, the immediate inference would be that nearly the whole ofthe net export of 1 9 lakhs must have been made in the current coinof the country. But itappears in fact to have been even muchlarger. The Calcutta Mint Committee state that the averageannual export of silver coin, intending, it is to be presumed,Madras rupees, for the last 4 years has been nearly 50 lakhs ;consequently the bullion imported has been re-exported in theshape of coin, and the mint has been employed very unnecessarilyin charging its at a gratuitous wastage and expense. TheCommittee then observe that the export of coin from Madras waschiefly on public account. In 1824-25 and 1825-26 large sumswere sent to Ava for the purpose of paj'ing the Madras troopsemployed in the war, and a large supply goes also annually toBombay, which, now that an effective mint has been establishedat that presidency, might as well be sent in the shape of bullion.The average amount of coinage requiredfor domestic circulationunder the Madras Presidency will therefore, it is said, not be morethan 10 or 15 lakhs a year, which, if it were coined at the Calcuttamint and forwarded thence to Madras, would render it practicableto effect an annual saving, by abolishing the Madras mint, to theextent of at least 60,000 rupees a year."We have carefully considered the facts and reasonings broughtforward by the Calcutta Mint Committee upon this subject, andwe think that the conclusion to which they have come is a justone. We cannot indeed admit the propriety of their statementthat the Madras mint ' has been employed very unnecessarily in