These processes have been gone through is not very great. It is to this circumstance that I attribute the fact that Mexican dollars can generally be bought in the markets of San Francisco as cheaply as they are, relatively to their intrinsic values.
The assertion as to the eagerness with which the Chinese take the subsidiary coin is best answered by instancing the state of the Colonial Treasury at the present moment - upwards of a hundred thousand dollars lying there, and the Colonial Government is obliged to borrow money at 8% interest to meet its daily disbursements. The Chinese will no doubt take a small quantity of the one and twenty-cent pieces sufficient to be an important element in connection with the success of the Mint, and any attempt to force the coinage into existence can only have the effect of depreciating it.
Having answered the various points raised in Mr. Mackenzie's letter, there is one other subject not mentioned in any previous correspondence on the Mint question to which I wish to draw attention. It is the mode in which the Chinese Government treats all gold and silver bullion passing through its hands. Mexican dollars are the Government currency of China, and I am given to understand that all silver of whatever...