Burying Gold and Silver
The practice of burying treasure in the earth has uniformly prevailed in all countries harassed by intestine commotions, or exposed to foreign invasions. Of sums so deposited a very considerable proportion has been altogether lost; and this has, no doubt, been one of the principal means by which the stock of the precious metals has been kept down to its present level. Every one is aware that, during the Middle Ages, treasure-trove, or money dug from the ground, formed no inconsiderable part of the revenues of this and other countries. And though the burying of money has long ceased in Great Britain, such has not been the case with our neighbours. Wakefield tells us that, down to 1812, the practice was common in Ireland; and though much fallen off, it still continues to this day to be occasionally resorted to in that part of the kingdom. It has always prevailed, more or less, in almost every part of the Continent. The anarchy and brigandage that accompanied the Revolution of 1789 made the practice be carried to an extraordinary extent in France; and there, owing to various causes, it still maintains a broad and firm footing. Dupuynode, in 1853, estimated the sum at 40 millions thus rendered sterile. Yet, we doubt whether the burying of treasure be at present as prevalent in France as in many parts of Germany, and in Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain, and European Turkey. The feeling of insecurity that has prevailed in all these countries, especially since 1848, has given a stimulus to this practice. Of the many millions that were distributed among the countries round the Black Sea, during the late campaigns in that quarter, the greater portion is believed to be as much withdrawn from circulation as if it had never been dug from the mine.
It is impossible, of course, to form any estimate of the sums that are thus annually, as it were, placed in mortmain. They are always greater when wars or revolutionary disturbances are in progress; when their occurrence is anticipated, or but little confidence is placed in the permanence of existing institutions. There can, at all events, be no question that the sums which have been disposed of in the way now stated in the different Continental countries of late years have been enormous—greater, perhaps, than those absorbed by any of the usual channels of expenditure. But the practice has been carried to a greater extent in India, Persia, Turkey in Asia, and other eastern countries, than anywhere in the western world. Despotism and a want of security have always prevailed in these countries. The inhabitants have been, in consequence, accustomed to regard the money they have committed to the earth as their only real wealth, and have availed themselves of every opportunity to place portions of their means beyond the grasp of their avaricious and tyrannical masters. And as many of the hoards so deposited will never be brought to light, the practice has, undoubtedly, been a principal cause of the constant flow of bullion to the East.
Bernier, “that most curious traveller,” as he is called by Gibbon, has some remarks on this subject, in which he calls the empire of the Mogul an abyss of gold and silver, which the people buried to escape the injustice and exactions to which they were exposed. At a later date, Mr. Luke Scrafton refers to the same practice. “In India,” he says, “the Hindoos bury their dead under-ground, often with such secresy as not to trust their own children with the knowledge of it; and it is amazing what they will suffer rather than betray it. When their tyrants have tried all manner of corporal punishments upon them, and that fails, resentment prevailing over the love of life, they frequently rip up their bowels, or poison themselves, and carry the secret to their graves. And the sums lost in this manner in some measure account why the silver of India does not appear to increase, though there are such quantities continually coming into it, and none going out.”
The comparative security that was lately enjoyed by the natives in most parts of India may have done something to lessen this habit, in the countries directly under the Company’s government; but there was in Oude, and many other parts of India, previous to the late insurrection, a good deal of disorder, oppression, and robbery. And since that unfortunate outbreak, insecurity and disorders of all sorts have immeasurably increased, and have proportionally stimulated the practice of hoarding. The rebellion in China led to similar effects; and we have been assured by those who, from experience and observation are well qualified to form an opinion on such a subject, that it may be moderately estimated that in India and China, during the half-dozen years ending with 1857, a sum of not less than 100,000,000l. sterling has been consigned to the earth.—J. R. Macculloch; Ency. Brit., 1859.
Thirty years ago, hoarding coin went on in England to a considerable extent, and greatly augmented the scarcity, and consequently the value, of the precious metals. Even the old practice of making a stocking was by no means given up in rural districts. A writer in the Quarterly Review, 1832, states, “We ourselves, but a few days back, personally witnessed an old crone, the wife of a small and apparently poor farmer, in a wild pastoral district, bring no less than three hundred sovereigns in a bag to a neighbouring attorney, to be placed by him in security; her treasure having accumulated till she was afraid to keep it longer at home. Such examples are by no means so rare as may be imagined. The failures of so many country banks in 1825 destroyed the confidence of country-people in the bank-notes of the present banks, and causes their preference for gold. The failure of many attorneys, as well as of country banks, which received and gave interest on deposits, and, (with the exception of the savings’-banks, which are very limited in the amount of the deposits they allow,) the total absence, in the rural districts of England, of any safe and accessible depositaries for the savings of the economical, such as the invaluable Scotch banks, have tended most injuriously to discourage economy; and where that principle was strongly ingrafted, have converted it into a practice of hoarding—have caused it to stagnate in unprofitable masses, which, spread through proper channels, would have stimulated new industry and new accumulations, and added both to the wealth of the owner, and to the general stock.”