────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1868–69. 1873–74. 1877–78. 1882–83. 1887–88. 1891–92. ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Wheat 100 637·41 2,313·47 5,152·36 4,914·37 11,001·44 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Opium 100 118·38 123·83 122·47 120·20 116·82 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Seeds 100 111·26 305·87 239·97 403·60 480·99 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Rice 100 131·66 119·84 203·28 185·55 220·36 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Indigo 100 116·91 121·57 142·17 140·76 126·33 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Tea 100 169·35 293·17 507·25 775·09 1,075·75 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Coffee 100 86·04 69·98 85·31 64·59 74·11 ────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Such was the contrast in the economic conditions prevalent in the two countries. This peculiar phenomenon of a silver standard country steadily progressing, and a gold-standard country tending to a standstill, exercised the minds of many of its observers. The chief cause was said to be the inability of the English manufacturers to hold out in international competition. This inability to compete with his European rivals was attributed to the prevalence of protective tariffs and subsidies which formed an essential part of the industrial and commercial code of the European countries. Nothing of the kind then existed in India, where trade was as free and industry as unprotected as any could have been, and yet the Lancashire cotton-spinner, the Dundee jute manufacturer, and the English wheat-grower complained that they could not compete with their rivals in India. The cause, in this case, was supposed to be the falling exchange.¹⁸⁶ So much were some people impressed by this view that even the extension of the Indian trade to the Far East was attributed to this cause. Already, it was alleged, the dislocation of the par of exchange between gold and silver had produced a kind of segregation of gold-using countries and silver-using countries to the exclusion of each other. In a transaction between two countries using the same metal as standard it was said the element of uncertainty arising from the use of two metals varying in terms of each other [pg 105] was eliminated. Trade between two such countries could be carried on with less risk and less inconvenience than between two countries using different standards, as in the latter case the uncertainty entered