consented and passed the Pittman Act, under which the Government of India acquired a substantial volume at 101½ cents per fine ounce. The total silver purchased during this period was as follows: ³³⁷ Act XIV of 1918. ³³⁸ Acts IV of 1918 and XXI of 1919. ³³⁹ First issued on December 1, 1917. ³⁴⁰ First put into circulation on January 2, 1918. _TABLE XLIV_ _Rupee Coinage, 1915–20_ ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Year. Silver purchased Silver purchased Total in Open Market, from U.S.A., Standard Standard Ounces. Standard Ounces. Ounces. ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1915–16 8,636,000 — — ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1916–17 124,535,000 — — ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1917–18 70,923,000 — — ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1918–19 106,410,000 152,518,000 — ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── 1919–20 14,108,000 60,875,000 — ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── — — — ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Total 324,612,000 213,393,000 538,005,000 ───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── Now, recalling the fact that from 1900 to 1914 the Government had coined about 532 million standard ounces of silver,³⁴¹ it means that the coinage of silver by Government during these five years exceeded the amount coined in the fourteen preceding years by five million ounces. ³⁴¹ Cf. the figures given by L. Abrahms in his evidence to the Currency Committee of 1919. Mit. of Evid., Q. 37–41. Thus the fall in the gold value of the rupee is an inevitable consequence of the exercise of the power to issue inconvertible currency in unlimited quantities. This is the fate of all inconvertible currencies known to history. But it is said that an exception must be made in the case of the rupee [pg 220] currency, for if the Government has the liberty of issuing it in unlimited quantities it has also resources to counteract the effects of a fall when it does occur. We must therefore turn to an examination of these resources.