April 26, 1909.]
that they are in league with the numerous bodies of coiners who infest the Empire. Unless with the aid of some such powerful body to place the forgeries on the market, it is hardly conceivable that any body of private coiners, however well equipped in other particulars, should be able to place their forgeries in appreciable quantities in the markets without being at once discovered. It is, in fact, scarcely possible to take up a dollar's worth of subsidiary coins in any locality, without discovering that one or more are absolute forgeries, and have never been issued from any of th regular mints. The provincial mints doubtless in the first instance led the way in debaking the alloy, aud barbarising the patterns, but public opinion always put some limit on both, and the worst specimens clearly point to their being the work of private coiners without such a command of dies and implements as would be in the possession of the worst equipped official mint.
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fried on between Macao aud San Francisco and we understand that the Syndicate which has the scheme in hand is composed mostly of Chinese merchants who have "made their pile" in San Francisco, and returned to spend the remainder of their days in the Heungchow is admittedly intended to dram district of Heungshan. The new port of
by Macao, and it is stated that the new port away a trade which has long been enjoyed. will have among its first residents some of the salt-6sh merchants who have long been carrying on business in the Portuguese Colony. People who suffered by the floods in the West River districts are also to be offered inducements to settle there, but as these people are mostly agriculturists, and the site of the new city of Heungchow is an unrelieve i stretch of sand-dunes, there does not seem to be any alluring prospects for tillers of the soil. Furtherinland the country is fertile; but it is also fairly well populated. Within a radius of three miles of Heung- chow there is a population of 5,000 or 6,000 persons, and we may assume that for the present there are labourers there
as many agricultural say that it would be difficult to find as are needed. If we
in the Delta a more
neighbourhood of the Canton Heungchow for the development of a unpromising site than great seaport town, we may possibly be asked whether something very similar was not said of Hongkong when the British took possession of it. That is true enough, and no doubt, the founders of the port of Heungchow are encouraged by their know- ledge of the fact that the magic wand of Hongkong, and a mudflat at Shanghai into commerce transformed a barren rock at
seaports of commanding importance in the world within a period of less than fifty
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
of China; and the run was kept up as Chi- nese in a panic only can do, for two days. There was here an object lesson which Chi- nese men of business, had they taken thought of the matter, had no excuse for not as- similating. The position of the bank was known to be sound, its accounts having been regularly kept and properly audited; and the other Banks, in consideration of this, permitted it to draw freely on them for the moment till the rush was over, so that for all the foolish panic, which is the great dan- ger in such a case, no one was a dollar the worse, except that the people who withdrew their money had trouble in replacing it again. Now, suppose even the Provincial Bank of Kiangsu, which is at the moment undoubtedly sound, were to have to undergo such a trial of its stability, would it be able to look for equally ready accommodation ? The Foreign Banks who would have to go through certain formularies in making a loan would hardly be able on the spur of the Now with regard to the new issues moment, to provide the funds, for such a of paper
money, we see રી very thing must be done instantly to be of servicc, similar process of gradual deterioration and the native banks could hardly on the already setting in. Many of the notes have spur of the moment put up the required been issued by the Provincial Governments, sycee, so notwithstanding the perfect sound- and if issued under proper safeguards and ness of the Bank, it would momentarily regulations, and subject to half-yearly, or have to ask the note-holders to wait,--perhaps even annual audit, by a regularly constitut-ouly a day, or even a few hours. Now with ed board of audit would effect a very con- a foreign bank such a thing would con- siderable economy in the annual expenses of stitute an act of bankruptcy, and would the province, besides acting as a convenient possibly entail an entire winding up of the and useful medium of exchange. But this whole concern, besides exciting a local com- is exactly what under present conditions the|mercial crash. provinces will never of themselves do. Ex- In case of the Chinese bank, the eventual perience of Peking and Peking ways has consequences to the individual holders might long impressed on the Provincial authorities possibly not be so great, but public con. the absolute necessity of concealing all their fidence would, under the best of circum. accounts from the too prying eyes of the stances, have received a severe blow, from Metropolis, and the mere change from which it might take months to recover. The syces to bank notes, however convenient it monetary position in China at the close of may be from a Provincial point of view, does the last year was one of intense strain, and not remove the inconveniences of laying had such an additional blow as the failure open provincial secrets to metropolitan pry-of a large bank of issue come to intensify ings, made, as till the other day they invariably were, with the sole object of extracting further irregular fees. Now it is noteworthy that the first issues of these new notes are in each case instances of very elaborate and careful engraving, and bear the mark of a carefully worked-out-scheme, and we have no doubt whatever have been issued by the Provincial authorities in per- fect good faith; but here the weak point of the present administrative system comes out. So long as the Viceroy, or the high official in charge of the issue is in a position to personally superintend the issue, affairs will probably go on all right; but incessant change is the watchword of the Chinese official system, and no sooner does a high official become thoroughly conversant with the details of his office than he is incontin- ently transferred to some other, possibly distant, part of the Empire, where all his former experience is thrown away, aud an- other, entirely unskilled, is sent to take up his post. The result, as far at least as the
(Daily Press, April 24th.) financial concerns of the office are concerned, a heavy downpour of rain would permit, With all the pomp and circumstance that is that helplessly these drift into the bands Heungchow, situated less than five miles. of unskilled underlings, whose main object from Macao, was on Thursday opened by is to exploit the situation to the greatest the Viceroy of Canton as a commercial port. personal advantage; and the precautionary Heungchow, at the present time, is a desert rules of the original contriver of the sys-waste, with hardly a hut to be seen; but tem are thrown to the winds. Up to the present the notes issued have been paid on presentation, but that proves nothing as to the stability of the issuing bank, as no time of stress has as yet come, The Chinese themselves some three years ago took it into their head in their sheep-following- sheep sort of way to institute a run on their own foreign managed bank, which enjoys the privilege, for what it is worth, of being permitted to call itself the Imperial Bank
the situation, there is no saying what a financial crash would have come about. The question then for all to consider in this matter of currency, is not, whose money is supplying the needful circulating medium which is a matter of little or no consequence to any one; but is there the money at all? Our Chinese friends are pre-eminently men of business, and if they will only think over these things, and ponder them well, they will sea that not only in this question of bank notes, but in many other affairs where they have permitted the professional agitator to lead them off the track, they have been following but the ghost of a shadow. China for the Chinese may seem a very plausible cry; but carried to its logical issue it will be found to result in nothing but the exhausted leavings falling to their lot.
A NEW CHINESE PORT.
years.
seaport is a good harbour.
An essential requisite of a thriving would make an admirable seaside resort, but Heungchow while the smallest of the shallow-draught steamers which ply between Hongkong, Canton and Macao are unable to approach within a mile of the shore at Heungchow, be rapid. We understand, however, that the development of the place is not likely to the Syndicate has strong financial backing has not been overlooked in their scheme. and that the necessity for deepening the bay Railway connection, presumably with Canton and other cities iuland, is also contemplated. Time alone will prove whether the builders of the new city are likely to realise the hopes they now entertain. appear that Heungchow is to be opened to It does not
foreign residence, though the place is to be governed much in the same way as is the Foreign Commercial Settlement at Tsinan, the capital of Shantung, which was the first city in the Chinese Empire to be voluntar- ily opened by the Government of China- that is to say Heungchow is to have a Municipal Council on foreign lines and a it may the more successfully compete with municipal police force. And in order that Macao, it is to be made a free port, 80 the rumour goes.
father to the thought. As soon as a foreign The wish is doubtless. trade begins to develop at Heungchow, the Imperial Maritime Customs will be expect- the fact that, in spite of the heavy rains, ed to establish a station there; and any some thousands of persons from the neigh failure on the part of the Customs authori- bouring districts attended the inauguration ties to do so is certain to evoke a strong widespread interest of the Chinese in the Peking. We cannot doubt that a deter- ceremony is a sufficient indication of the protest from the Diplomatic Corps in
project. Especially noteworthy was the mined attempt to divert the trade of Macao presence of the Viceroy. The project, how is intended, and it is very doubtful whether brain. For years past the idea has been authorities now to prevent it. The respon- ever, is not a conception of the official it is in the power of the Portuguese maturing in the minds of Chinese mer-sibility rests not so much with the Colonial chants interested in the trade which is car-authorities as with successive Governments