July 24, 1909.]
THE HINTERLAND OF HONGKONG.
CHINA OVERLAND TRADE REPORT.
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71
Certainly there has been no flourish of trum. | weighing from 492 to 417.707 grains troy, pets about the erection of the latest big is the largest and heaviest coin which has brewery at Laichikok which started operations ever been dominant in the currency of the a few months ago. A large amount of capital world. The Chinese Tael if converted into has evidently been put into the venture, and in the interests of the development of the
a coin would weigh at least 580 grains troy, Colony as a manufacturing and industrial and would certainly, be unpopular with a or more at the proposed alloy of 900 fine, centre we wish the new Brewery better people who eagerly welcomed the old Carolus luck than its three or four predecessors in Dollar of 417.7 grains. The objectiɗng to the Colony experienced. Several manu- the tael coin proceeds, then, from very facturing industries on a smaller scale real and tangible grounds, such as the employing the most modern machinery are contemplated by enterprising Chinese in perience capable of judging correctly, and Chinaman is especially from his daily ex- the Colony: while in the neighbourhood of Canton enterprises of considerable import him to the same conclusion as his equally we see that his practical experience leads ance are developing, one of the latest being practical brother, the user of the coin in the manufacture of fabrics from ramie. Europe. Perhaps the creation of new industries in the New Territory is not to be expected until the railway is open, but as the signs of the times point to a great development of manufacturing industries in China, we think the shipping and railway facilities which this Colony will afford for the distribution of produce and manufactures encourages a belief in the future of the Colony as a manufacturing and industrial centre.
CHINA AND THE GOLD
STANDARD.
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(Daily Press, 20th July.) In a brief report of the speech which LORD CREWE, Secretary of State for the Colonies, delivered at the annual dinner of the Corona Club, in London last month, occurs the following paragraph :-"They found the Hinterland of Hongkong eager to extend its sphere of industrial operations by the great railway movement which was taking place in China, the ultimate results of which must be to bring the civilisation of the West into the heart of that great mysterious Empire." The New Territory ceded by what is known as the Kowloon Extension Agreement of 1898 is sometimes referred to 28 "the Hinterland of Hongkong" but the Hinterland to which LORD CREWE refers is evidently a territory of much greater area, -nothing less, in fact, than the southern provinces of China which are to be tapped by the great trunk railway from Hankow to Canton. As regards that part of the Hinterland of Hongkong known as the New Territory, or Kowloon Extension, an area of of about 280 square miles only, it cannot be said that much eagerness is yet being shown "to extend its sphere of industrial enter- prise." At least, one hears very little of it; but in the older portion of the Colony as well as in the Canton district there cer. tainly are signs of growing eagerness to
Daily Press, July 21st.) extend the sphere of industrial operations, It can hardly be said that as yet there is and the sooner the New Territory is brought much sign of China spontaneously adopting within this sphere the better for the Colony an imperial standard gold currency. China as a whole. Three or four years ago Sir MAT-probably has much to learn beforehand and THEW NATHAN in one of his Budget speeches impressed upon the Colony the importance of the maintenance of existing industries and the creation of Dew ones. His EXCELLENCY pointed out that with the increase of Dock accommodation in the Far East and the construction of railways to the Treaty Ports, this Colony could not always hope to maintain its past trade preponderance, and he expressed the convic- tion that if it is to advance at the rate at which it had hitherto a dvanced it would have to take full advantage for industrial pur- poses of "the nearly inexhaustible supply of cheap labour that can be attracted to it and of the convenient sites for carrying on manufacturing businesses which exist in the New Territories." The only development of this kind down to the present that has taken place in this territory is a mining enterprise, but since it was announced in the Legislative Council two years ago that it was apparently advancing beyond the prospecting stage, nothing has happened to again bring the enterprise prominently to the public notice. In addition to this mining enter- prise there is another Chinese venture on the north shore of Mirs Bay, where silver and lead are being mined. We have heard recent rumours also of the discovery of gold in the New Territory, but whether it exists in paying quantities has yet to be determined, In Old Kowloon we have seen the commence. ment and unfortunately the speedy extinc- tion of the flour milling industry, and the only other new industry on a large scale that has since been started is the brewing industry. Probably the mention of this will recall to some readers the reference of the cynical SIDNEY SMITH to there being no two ideas more inseparable than Beer and Britannia. "What event," he asked, "is there more awfully important to an English From reasons of convenience no silver Colony than the erection of its first brew- coin much over 400 grains troy in weight house?" It is a long time ago that the has ever succeeded in becoming current to first brewery was started in Hongkong and any large extent. Even the British Crown perhaps the initial attempt to establish this weighing about 436 grains never became industry was considered more "awfully popular, the public always preferring the important" than the subsequent attempts. I more nimble half-crown. The Dollar,
The
ideas the tael is hardly likely to be adopted But equally from sentimental with avidity as a satisfactory standard by any considerable section of the Chinese. True, the weight itself has enjoyed a life seldom afforded in the annals of any country the neighbourhood of 580 grains; and this to a currency, and still remains as at first in
is due to the fact that the Government had English "pound" of silver, at one time the never had anything to say to it.
equivalent of the weight, has, we all know, depreciated more than two-thirds to 1746 grains, and this is nothing to the old French livre, which, starting at the same standard, now weighs only 77 grains. But the in- genuity of the manipulators was equal to the occasion. Though they preserved the weight they surrounded it with so many difficulties and restrictions that in the end there are nearlyas many distinct taels as there are trading centres, so that in the confusion first of all has to be convinced that there
commerce has to bear the brunt of innumer- would be any advantage accruing to her in able exchanges. A fael in China conveys changing the standard from silver to gold.
no idea, in fact, of a tixed standard; and Accepting as a fact this dislike of the country fixity of standard is just the one thing most at large to altering its conceptions of what needed. Now it is remarkable that one of actually constitutes money, we can begin to the very first acts of the great administrator comprehend the very. decided preference the First Emperor, TaiN SHI Hwangti, on shown by many statesmen who have, so far formally assuming the rôle of Emperor was as their lights went, carefully studied the to issue a proclamation calling for uniform- monetary question, for what is practically ity of weights and measures. This was in the dollar over the tael. Though for matters the year B.C. 221. Unfortunately within of current account for thousands of years the the next two years the Empire fell into con- tael has been the accepted standard, for fusion with his approaching old age, and loss matters of actual currency and general of energy, and though the edict was renewed convenience for the couple of hundred years by his son and successor, his murder in 207 since it was first introduced, the dollar has BC. put an end to the dynasty, and with it always been the coin best known to the of most of SHT HWANGTI's most cherished Chinese; and is intimately associated in schemes of amendment. Since that time every Chinaman's mind, from the Greatno statesman has arisen till the present time Wall to the frontier of Tongking, with his idea of money as a tangible form of cur. rency. Although the Chinese have been for some thousands of years accustomed to reduce everything to a decimal system, But, after all, these schemes for the reform whether land, weights and measures, or money, the Chinese have curiously never
of the currency do not go beyond China's internal wants, while, of course, her most displayed in so marked a degree as the pressing need at the urnment is to accommo- purists of Europe what may be called the date her currency with that of the rest of superstition of decimalism. To the swan- pan using Chinese the multiplication or which the most advanced financier in China the world. This is, however, a problem division by seventy-two constitutes no bug has not as yet even ventured to discuss; bear: he hardly notices the operation, which With the accumulated experience of some he performs perhaps a thousand times a day; twenty-five centuries, during which silver, with him it is merely instinct, and calls for
so far as he had the opportunity of commer no mental exertion whatever. But if the cial intercourse, has continued the sole money of account and the money of use be currency of the world; he had in fact little. thus different, the calculation is nothing temptation to do so. compared with the likewise differeut standard opened up in the early centuries to His nation had of copper money, which to a greater extent | Chinese commerce the whole of Asia' that the difference of dollar and tael affects to the basins of the Tigris, so that it his daily life in a far more intimate manner than the other.
with sufficient grasp of intellect to carry through the scheme phaned out upwards of two thousand years ago by one of the master winds of the world.
could hardly have been accused of want with gold coins, nowhere bad they found of enterprise; and though they had met a gold currency. Even the celebrated gold Daric of old Persia was little better than a token, and its value was regulated, not by its intrinsic value but by its exchangeability for silver, That is then, not unnaturally, the manner in which the native financier
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