Lightweight WATERPROOFS
An easy fitting light weight waterproof cut on generous lines, sewn seams and edges re-inforced buttons, collar.
SPECIAL VALUE
$19.50
storm
Less 10° discount for cash.
31
OTHER QUALITIES
From $28.50.
Mackintosh's
DON'T TAKE RISKS
Dry cleaning is an important part of any family's programme of thrift, BUT
"BEWARE"
of cheap DRY CLEAN- ING. So called CHEMI- CAL CLEANING is soap and water with a little Such spirit spotting. methods do not preserve cloth from moth and other insects,
"What is GENUINE DRY CLEANING ?" Removal of all dust, apota, and soiling of a greasy matter by special spirit soaps and pure PETROLEUM BENZINE which can only be used in special machines installed in a fully licensed building approved by the GOVERNMENT. There is only one large installation in the COLONY,
THE STEAM LAUNDRY WORKS, MONGKOK.
After cleaning the cloth is sterilized and pressed with the latest steam presses. All SUITS, OVERCOATE, and orders to the value of $3.28 sent during May 1931, will receive ONE IMPROVED SANETEX MOTH PROOF BAG. After June, 10th. (date of arrival)."
There is no surer method to preserve your clothes during the SUMMER than GENUINE DRY CLEANING and SEALING in a MOTE PROOF DAG.
THE STEAM LAUNDRY
Head Offico-Mongkok.. Kowloon Hotel Depot, Hankow Road. Hong Kong Depot:-16, Stanley St., Kowloon Dept, 19. Canton Road,
Tel. 21279.
Peak Holel Dopot. Hong Kong Hotel (Visitors only).. Valeteria Bervice:--864, Nathan Road, (next door MAJESTIC THEATRE)
:-2, Peninsula Hotel Arcade.
WHITEAWAYS
FOR
BATHING SUITS
THE
"VIKING"
ENGLISH MAKE ALL WOOL COSTUME
FOR
LADIES or GENTS.
Plain Colours, Two Colours and Coloured Stripes.
All Sizes:
$17.50 to $25.50.
INSPECTION CORDIALLY INVITED.
WHITEAWAY, LAIDLAW & CO. LTD.
HONG KONG DAILY PRESS, WEDNESDAY, MAY 27, 1931.
GOLD STANDARD OR AN EGG STANDARD?
INSTRUCTIVE ADDRESS ON "THESE MONEY THEORIES" AT ROTARY CLUB.
of
INTEREST DESCRIBED AS A SUPER-ILLUSION,
Mr. O: Chumpkin was the speaker at the Notary Club luncheon held in Lane, Crawford's Restaurant yesterday. The speaker dealt at length on many fallacies connected with ironey theories, and, in the course of an extremely witty address had much to say that was interesting and instructive.
There was a very good attendance at the luncheon, there being Keveral non-Rotarian guests as well as several visiting Rotarians. The meeting was presided over, in the absence of Sir William Hornell, by Hon. Dr. S. W. Tso.
PUZZLE OF THE GUERNSEY MARKET.
ri
commodities,, may' ba due, to the or-" dinary play of supply and demand, aniversal or general price changes ure only to be accounted for by changes in the pries equation of money that is, in the real value of gold,
"Under our imperfect "system "the" rent value of gold in a gold stand- ard country is regulated-or, ag some would any, is wangled-by in- terest, and, of course, to a certain extent by egg-as I shall presently explain.
Who Invented Interest?
I have spend the best years of my life trying to find out who invented interest and why. Interest is the auper-illusion of the theorists In. more enlightened times the Roman Church condemned interest as erimo comparable only to murder.
K. M. A.
CERAMIC & REFRACTORY PRODUCT
CLINKER PAVING, BUILDING
& FIRE -BRICKS
STONE-
-WARK
PIPES &
GLAZED
TILES
Ask for our Blustrated Catalogue-Compare our Prices and faspect our wide Bango of Samples THE KAILAN MINING ADMINISTRATION DODWELL & 00, LTD., Agents, Hong Kong,
with regard to the settlement of
No nation, merely by zoumulat
We find the Chairman of the Mid- Mr. Chupkin's address was as follows: feel rather diffident Innd Bank telling us as recently' as about addressing you on the subject a month, ago-" According to. our Up to 1871 the charging of interest these money theories treeause 1 experience of the working of the was a criminal offence in England. am sorry to say that I am rapidly gold standard, the flow of gold I very much doubt if it is quito legal losing the faculty of regarding into creditor countries should have now, for there it sound juristic money from the viewpoint of caused an expansion of money súp. authority for the principle that theory, Money presents peculiar plics. The stimulating effect on when a loan is made the property aspects from certain angles and it prices would in turn have enabled in the thing lent for the time being has been my lot to regard it some-debtor countries to dispose of their passes to the borrower. This was what directly from an angle of my products to greater advantage, but reaffirmed as late as 1020. How then in fact the movement of gold has ean a man demand interest from 1d no such offect. As a conse another who is merely using that I am not, of course, so unreason- able to hold that all doctrinaire quenco France has offered as little which is his own! To charge in- theories about money are wrong resistance to the fall in wholesale terest is to sell time and who can merely because I know that none of prices as this country, which has re- claim any ownership in time? No them are right. The most I hopeceived no accession to its stock of Mahamedan will charge interest on for, in the few minutes at my dis-gold. It is clear, therefore, that the a loan. He will accept milla, or posal, is to lead you to a more gold standard is not working as we commission, or anything else that the work in Government notes, ponderate to the heavier will not. brings in a better return than any infidel could hope to got, but he will not charge interest, and very rightly
OWN.
เ
kindly appreciation of that simplo | anticipated.". truth so well expressed by Mr. Henry Ford-"All theories aro punk!"
Let us examine, in the light of recent events, one particular aspect of money that has latterly become, rather obscured and see if we can put to the test of experience a be lief that is even now accepted sa
Rospel by people who are, young
enough to know better,
Quantity Theory.
Kink in Gold Standard: Well, of course, it is quite pos sible that the gold standard has
our own currency proble, when ing stocks of gold, can add to its the recently departed Colonial Cur-income. It may add to its poli- rency Commission presents its re-tical safety by filling a war chest, but it does not add to its true part a few years henco
national wealth. Real wealth is not. Lord Passield's Dictum,
money, but money's worth. The Lord Pomfield says: To many balance that matters is not of ex- an humble student of money prob-ports over imports but of produc- lems the Guernsey Meat Market tion over consumption. seems to have been exempt from
This is no modera discovery; that servitude to capital in which Locke, writing in teat puts it in the whole creation groaneth. By this way: He that would make the sinplo.expedient of paying for
the lighter seale on a balance pre-
eventually redeemed out of the
to the lighter as by taking old gold market revenuss, all tribute to the easily do it by adding now gold capitalist was avoided. In face of from the heavier and using it to this successful experiment, the tact
supplement the lighter, for then that we, in England, continue to half the quantity will do it Not only is interest clearly imraise loans and subject ourselves to Wealth does not consist in having moral, decidedly illegal and devilish dragging a lengthening chain of inconvenient, but it is totally un-interest
BO.
suddenly developed an inexplicable kink, but it is, at least, equally
seems BD perplexingly possible, that the whole theory is wrong because it runs counter to necessary. Let me quote in support foolish as to be inexplicable."/
of this view the classic case of the Well, that's all right so far na! Guernsey Meat Market.
the fact timt commodity prices are not generally an effect of money
cause
com-
it goes. It bears out all that wo
more gold, but by having enough
to procure for ourselves a greater
plenty of the conveniences of life
than comes within the reach of our
supplics, but more frequently a A hundred years ago the bur-know about the essentis! absurdity neighbours. If the quantity of gold. The quantity theory de gesser bourgeoisie, or whatever of interest. It shows quite clearly in the world became twice as much doubled wo should not be one jot pends entirely, on the elementary the parish council of Guernsey call that Lord Passfield in a man of as it is and our share of it was
A sudden affairs untrammelled by tradition, We are all familiar with that law of supply and demand na it themselves-devided, on notable fallacy euphoniously termed affects money and it presupposes impulse, to create an artistic Meat but, as if to prove that he has not the richer. The true value of money the "quantity theory" of money. that the same law governs com Market. Now, creative art, as you irrevocably cut himself off from the is found only when it passes from
ing.
The Capital Levy. Familiarity with it has bred con-modities, but it does not. It affects know, is usually the outcome of a old gang of "quantity theorists," one to another in buying and well- tent, and as a bright and chatty them-or most of them-but it does community's impulse, but this parti- Lord Passfield add: It prices in cular Meat Market was the im- Guernsey rose, even by one-half-
And now, Gentlemen, I have no topic for discussion after an excellent not govern them,
pulse of the community's income-penny in the shilling,-if eggs, for time to do more than a brief re- The governing factor in tifin on a hot day nothing could
or rather of its lack of income. instance, sold twenty-four for a ference to a popular misconception be more pleasing than the quantity modity prices is the real valus of
Levy. It is intimately concerned theory. Yet if experienco is the gold in a gold standard country, They needed funds and ni Meat shilling, instead of twenty-five-thin of that very able and statesmanlike name we give to our mistakes we and of silver in a silver standard Market seemed a promising way of represented a burden on the Guern measure, known as the Capital The difficulty was sey consumers exactly analagous to with our money problems and has should have enough knowledge of country, but if we elect to regard getting some. it to marvel that it still survives. gold as a standard, we have to in that they had not the money to pay a lax of four per cent on their egg the approval of most of the leading after all, a very modern conception. The quantity theory was perhaps vest it with an artificial value. for it and they could not even rates purchases. Instead of paying in-economists of our time-for it is, our finances and the fantastic chose to pay more for their egge. best, expressed by Dr. Johnson When we assume that a stable gold enough money to pay interest on pterest on a loan they unwittingly arising out of the appalling state of
amount of interest, roughly Interest and Eggo,
million pounds a day, that we have. generally identified as the eminent standard stabilises prices, we are
to pay on War Debts alone! lexicographer." You will remember assuming something that is 11.
You will particularly notice,
It is most unfortunate that fo. In these rather trying circum-
economic measure that when he visited Beatland he contradictory. The relationship of hmught back with him two very regold with other commodities is a stances they had the good sense to Gentlemen, how persistently interest important au markable additions touur knowledge matter of comparative, not of ab-consult a shrewd exchange broker, and eggs are identified with econo- should be bandied about in the the Capital Levy should be gen- that have had a profound bearing solute values. The only way to and following his advice they issued nie problems. If I have dealt with confusion of party politics and that on the science of economies for stabilise prices is to establish three thousand one-pound notes and this case at length it is because Ierally associated with the singing fluctuating standard for gold, or if made them legal tender, with the think it is not unreasonable to asof The Red Flag and similar dis sume that the ultimate solution of cordant manifestations that, how- ever properly they may belong to our credit is sufficiently good, we provision that cach note would be
our own currency difficulties may the House of Commons, are out of can operate on a" managed" cur-destroyed na it was received by the conceivably be found in the total place in assemblies of thinking cenes of paper, controlling our sup- Council in payment of rent from abolition of interest in this Colony People.
more than a century.
The first, of course, is the know- ledge that it is possible for an Englishman visiting Scotland
to
loan,
Guernsey Meat Market.
33
Thi
bring back anything at all! (Laugh. Plica, not by our metallic reserves, the Market stallholders. Within and the establishment in Hong Capital Levy is that it means con.
ter.)
but solely by the needs of the market as indicated by the rising or falling tendency of our index number of price levels..
Supply and Demand.
The common fallacy about the five years the laat of the notes had Kong, not of a stable good stand. fiscation. Nothing is further from been' paid in and destroyed and ard, but a fluctuating egg stand-the truth. It means relief from an intolerable burden of laxation and The second, is contained in an
Guernsey was possessed of the ard.
And now I would like to refer to a return to business grosperity. I I don't entry in his Journal Egga are
artistic and solidly built Mcat
a common fallacy that money is am not talking. politics. four pennies a score, not because
Market that stands to-day a silent wealth. It is responsible for a take the slightest interest in poli- eggs are so plentiful in this wretch-
I do not mean, of course, that witness to the infamy of interest. good deal of confused thought, tics.. I assure you I haven't any ed country, but because pennies are
wheat, judged by a comparative It earns three hundred pounds a especially with regard to over-pro idea as to whether we are at the duction, that, as Mr. Henry Ford moment laboriously suffering under so damned scarce." (Laughter.)
would tell us, is only to be met by a Conservative Government, or cop- Here, in a nutshell-or perhaps I standard, would maintain ita price year and it cost nothing to build.
News travelled slowly in those producing more. Overproduction servatively suffering urder & Labour is one of those loosely applied Government. I look on this matter should say in an eggshell-is the in a year of exceptional crops, nor "quantity theory" of money. It is that silver would fail to respond to days, but when this thing became terms that are very apt, under the purely as a money problem-na an on sound and reasonable based on the well-known maxim an artificial restriction of output. known amething akin to panic influence of a politically minded actuarial adjustment of our fin Generally speaking, what is refer- lines, free from injustice and fair that nothing succeeda like excess. The law of supply and demand is seized the money thearists. This Press, to lose their real meaning. ances It seeks to prove that "other things not discredited by a comparative handful of parish councillors-half red to as over-production in simply to everybody Why should a levý, confiscation that death duties paid remaining constant"-which, by standard. It will always have como foreigners at that had cast down under-consumption and that is by paid, once and for all, by any more It does not follow that because once and for all, or Income Tax the way, they never do-"price effect, but the governing effect on the idol interest that men had worno means the same thing.
ng distinguished from shipped for so long! They had vio- fussia is dumping wheat and tim- paid year after year! levels vary directly with the supply general,
War Debts. particular commodities, will always lated the sanctity of overy economie her in England that Rusin is grow- of money."
modities that have a greater real Anation that seeks to pay off a In other words, when money is rest on the real value of gold. You tradition by getting something for ing wealthier by exporting com- plentiful.commodity prices rise and have a daily illustration of this nothing! There was no end to value to the underled and poorly War Debt of these gratesque dimen we find it difficult to live within fact in China where conditions are their rascality. Learned econo-housed peasantry of that country sions by crippling industry with a reversed. Here wo have a silvermists wrote theses on the Guernsey than to the present actual con- crushing burden of annual taxation our means. On the other hand,
standard and gold is a general Meat Market and other learned
written other / Overproduction Fallacy. whrea money is scarce things are so
commodity.. When your exchange économiste, have
This over-production idea is the cheap that wo find it impossible to broker tells you that gold bars are these at regular intervals, since. spend our earnings. As a matter
the favourable, trade balance, Capital Levy is the most puzzling of experience wo find nothing of the Upwhich I fear he has been toll-For a century, the theorists, have foundation of the fallacy, known as confiscation
ing you with monotonous regularity tried to prove that there was that lays down the astonishing prin- to me. lately--what he really meane is that catch in it somewhere and for a cipla that when two nations trade. It is impossible now to discus It tells us that the too much on, bur time, but if you France Accumulates Gold.
silver is down, because gold bars century the good people of Guernsey together, one must gain and the the matter as it would encroach
other Jose, When the gold stocks of England in Chius are almost entirely un-havs simply replied "Well, anyhow nation whose exporis exceed its im can keep the subject clear of poli- ports necessarily becomes richer by ties and confine it solely to in- the balanes transferred, in trea terest and perhaps eiso to eggs-I were depleted after the war, as a affected by the law of supply and there's the Meat Market!!!
Now, we in Hong Kong are noture. The term " favourable trade think you might find it a very pro- result of thei unfortunate decision demand. to restore the gold standard at any Mr. Roberts, of the National altogether, disinterested in this balance" is a misnomer. Whether fitable topic of enquiry and discus- cost, wo did not find it more City Bank, presented this iden very Meat Market affair, bechuss one of exports excred imports or vice-versa sion at one of your future meet ternational trade, as each obtains gentlemen, for the patient hearing economical to live in England than concisely in the course of a recent the learned economists who has attach country enriches itself by in inge. I am greatly obliged to you, in France that steadily accumulated address to the American Instituto tempted to explain it is Lord Pass-what it wants and gels rid of the you have given me.(Applause) the gold that England lost. On the of Mining Engineers. He said:feld; à former prominent member surplus that it doesn't want unleas, At the close of Mr. Champkin's the Shenton, on behalf of Rotarians, the normal and works contrary it became considerably While price changes in single of the Fabian Society, who will of course, it strikes a tangent from addrers, the Hon. Mr. W. E. L
aliar lines followed by Russia. thanked the speaker → cheaper ta- live abroad...
↑ | probably-have-Bo
kind!
commodities, or in
sumers.
оп
#2
is like a man that keeps on taking. his temperature instand af taking his medicine Of all the crass and muddled theories about money this theory of the