All I Can Handle

The silver to gold ratio refers to how much silver one needs to buy gold. For example if you need 10 grams of fine silver to purchase a gram of pure gold, the silver to gold ratio is 10:1.  During the latter half of the 19th century, the Casa de Moneda de Manila began minting 21 karat gold coins. Each peso coin weighed 1.6915 grams and was also available in bigger denominations such as two and four pesos.  Source: https://en.numista.com/catalogue/pieces34262.html To complement the peso gold coins, the mint also created 90% silver centimo coins in denominations of 10, 20, and 50 centimos . The 50 centimos coins weighed 12.98 grams. This means that 25.96 grams of 90% silver were equivalent to 1.6915 grams of 21 karat gold. So if a 90% silver coin weighing 25.96 grams was equivalent to a 87.5% gold coin weighing 1.6915 grams, how many grams of 100% silver were needed to purchase a gram of 100% gold?  The answer is 15.79 grams of 100% silver were equivalent to 1 gram of 100% gold.  In o

Are high sugar prices a preview of what is to come? In this article, we are going to take a look at how much sugar prices have gone up since May. Since it is hard to remember the price of every single thing we buy at the supermarket, it is easy not to notice price increases. But did you know that sugar prices have gone up by almost 20% since May? You may not have noticed it but ever since I started buying groceries online, I have been able to track the recent series of price increases in sugar. In May 2022, white sugar was at 65 pesos. In June, it rose to 71 pesos per kilo. And the last time I bought sugar, it again rise to 77 pesos per kilo. That is an increase of around 20% in just two months! While a 20% increase in two months may not be noticeable to many people, this may just be the beginning.  Aside from soda, sugar is also used in making disinfectants as well as rhum and brandy.

I recently discovered this term through an article about the impending sugar shortage in the country. Literally, it means 'dead time'. But apparently, it is used in the sugar industry in Central Philippines to refer to the off-season of sugar or the time between planting sugarcane and waiting for the harvest. I find it very interesting how deeply embedded the Spanish language is in this industry that dates back to the Spanish era. The phrase 'tiempo muerto' is also memorable to me because about ten years ago I googled what 'idle time' was in Spanish (tiempos muertos). To be honest, I don't even remember why I did that but it's amazing that our subconscious mind can retain insignificant information that we have come across only once in our lives. The unfortunate story of the looming sugar shortage began last year when unfavorable weather conditions (La Niña) and high fertilizer costs resulted to a reduction in our sugar production. High global sugar pric