Since being received there from a local Bank, I think it best to explain back matters, lest an unfavourable impression might be surely conveyed of the prospects of the Mint at a time when the action of Your Majesty's Government in reference to the Charter is under consideration.
2.
The £50,000 of bullion received there have been transmitted by the Treasury to Assistant Commissary General Long for general purposes, and as he informs me, without any instructions referring to the Mint. We also told me that he cannot send it for coinage into dollars without a heavy loss, which he has no authority to incur.
3.
At present the charge for seigniorage has been reduced to half, experimentally, as I informed your Lordship in my 11th January Despatch No. 185 by last Mail. The fact, therefore, that the Head of the Commissariat, with every disposition to aid the Mint, feels that he cannot send bullion there for coinage at even half the usual expense, I fear, is a most unfavourable commentary on the probabilities of the Mint's future success.
In reference to the 10,000 taels in silver, it is true that they have been sent by the Chartered Mercantile Bank for conversion into dollars, but the transaction is alleged to be of an exceptional character. The object of the Bank is simply to ascertain the likely average value of...