⁵⁶ For the original purpose of this defunct proviso, _see_ Peel’s Speech on the Bank Charter Act, dated May 20, 1844, Hansard, Vol. LXXIV, pp. 1334–35. ⁵⁷ In theory Holland had adopted bimetallism in 1816. But the legal ratio of 15·873 to 1 had undervalued silver so much that it had made gold the chief circulating medium of Holland. ⁵⁸ _Report of the U. S. Silver Commission of_ 1876, p. 68. “For many reasons given by Lord Liverpool, it appears proved beyond dispute that gold coin has been for near a century the principal measure of value; but this is, I think, to be attributed to the inaccurate determination of the mint proportions. Gold has been valued too high; no silver can therefore remain in circulation which is of its standard weight. If a new regulation were to take place, and silver be valued too high … gold would then disappear, and silver become the standard money.”⁵⁹ [pg 29] ⁵⁹ _Works_, p. 271 And it is possible that mint proportions rather than popular preference⁶⁰ could have equally well accounted for the preponderance of silver in India.⁶¹ ⁶⁰ Mr. Dodwell, in his otherwise excellent article, op. cit., seems to convey that silver was substituted for gold in Southern India as a result of the natural preference of the people for the former metal. So eager is he in meeting the contentions of writers like Mr. Doraiswami that he fails to see how his own facts controvert his own thesis. ⁶¹ The total coinage of India from 1800 to 1835 was, according to Mr. F. C. Harrison’s estimate in the _Calcutta Review_, July, 1892:— ──────────────────────────────── Gold 3,845,000 ounces Silver 3,781,250,000 ounces ──────────────────────────────── N.B.—In the case of silver, rupees are converted into ounces for comparison.