The Switch

In 1910 the British GOI increased the import tariffs on silver from 5% to 11%. A market report in 1912, by Pixley & Abell, a gold wholesaler, pointed to a 28% fall in silver demand in the Indian bazaars in the three years following the increase. They attributed this to not just a fall in demand for silver due to tax increases, but also a substitution of gold for silver in people’s savings as gold became more attractive on a relative basis.Between 1910 and 1930 net imports of silver in India fell from 98m ounces to 31m, according to British Geological Survey reports. After this time India gradually became the world’s largest gold consumer, a position it finally lost to China in 2015.