8. The effect of these successive changes has been to make the old system of circles virtually inoperative. With notes of Rs. 100 universal legal tender it is difficult to see what can prevent the public from using them for purposes of remittance if they should wish to do so. The “circles” can no longer serve any useful purpose, and it would help to make clear in the public mind the nature of the Indian note issue if they were to be abolished in name as well as in effect. 9. There must have been many occasions under the old system, on which ignorant persons suffered inconvenience through having notes of foreign circles passed off on them; and a long time may pass before distrust of the notes, as things not readily convertible, bred out of the memories of these occasions, entirely disappears. But, in combination with other circumstances, the universalising of the notes has had already a striking effect on the volume of their circulation, as is shown in the figures given below. It should be explained that by _gross_ circulation (in the Government Statistics) is meant the value of all notes that have been issued and not yet paid off; that the _net_ circulation is this sum less the value of notes held by Government in its own treasuries; and that the _active_ circulation is the _net_ reduced by the value of notes held by the Presidency banks at their head offices.[25] For some purposes the _active_ circulation is the most important. But it is the reserve of rupees held against the _gross_ circulation which is the best indication of the surplus volume of coined silver available, if necessary, for the purposes of circulation. The following table gives for various years the average of the circulation on the last day of each month:— ┌───────────┬───────────────────────┬────────────────────────┐ │ │ (In lakhs of rupees.) │(In £ million at 1s. 4d.│ │ │ │the rupee throughout.) │ │ ├───────┬───────┬───────┼────────────┬───────────┤ │ │Gross. │ Net. │Active.│ Gross. │ Active. │ ├───────────┼───────┼───────┼───────┼────────────┼───────────┤ │ 1892─1893 │ 2710 │ 2333 │ 1953 │ 18 │ 13 │ │ 1893─1894 │ 2829 │ 2083 │ 1785 │ 19 │ 12 │ │ 1899─1900 │ 2796 │ 2367 │ 2127 │ 18½ │ 14 │ │ 1900─1901 │ 2888 │ 2473 │ 2205 │ 19½ │ 14½ │ │ 1902─1903 │ 3374 │ 2735 │ 2349 │ 22½ │ 15½ │ │ 1904─1905 │ 3920 │ 3276 │ 2811 │ 26 │ 18½ │ │ 1906─1907 │ 4514 │ 3949 │ 3393 │ 30 │ 22½ │ │ 1908─1909 │ 4452 │ 3902 │ 3310 │ 29½ │ 22 │ │ 1909─1910 │ 4966 │ 4535 │ 3721 │ 33 │ 25 │ │ 1910─1911 │ 5435 │ 4648 │ 3875 │ 36 │ 26 │ │ 1911─1912 │ 5737 │ 4949 │ 4189 │ 38 │ 28 │ └───────────┴───────┴───────┴───────┴────────────┴───────────┘