way of business, for instances, is allowed or petty bribery, an employer
more than
of labour
more still, and so on :
system works smoothly, but the export of the coin has always been done.
5.
This Colony
It would in many ways be more convenient to this Colony to keep the coin here, but no means of doing so could be devised.
It must not be forgotten that Hong Kong is very badly provided with currency,
and for this reason the managers of the Banks have repeatedly asked me not to allow the Colony to be left, as it used to be, for months at a time, with small coin unobtainable.
A shipment of $50,000 would arrive perhaps once in two years, and, however charily distributed, it was absorbed in a fortnight. Change was given only as a favour; a request for it was often regarded as unreasonably.
7.
264
When I took charge of the Post Office, twelve years ago, it was regarded as the normal and almost legitimate state of affairs for the Shroffs employed to sell stamps never to have any change. Of course, the real reason was small coin at a high premium; they put aside all they got from the public sale to money changers and others, and no consideration of the inconvenience to the public or on their employers deterred them from doing this.
It is only of late years that I have been able to insist upon change being kept both in the Post Office and in the Stamp Office. As the premium on small silver coin, under ordinary circumstances, is now only about 3 per mille, the temptation to make away with it surreptitiously does not exist to a great extent.
8.