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Memorandum as to the advisability of establishing a Gold
Currency in Hong Kong.
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579
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On 23rd December 1902, I forwarded to the Secretary of the Chamber of Commerce the following statement of my views on this
sábject, viz:-
*I am in favour of a gold currency for all countries except
for Hong Kong until China adopts either a gold currency or a gold
standard. If we adopted a gold currency in Hong Kong, the exchange
"banks would be driven to open branches and do their business in
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Canton, and with the departure of bank business, other business
"
7
*
4
would follow, and the result would be that the trade and indus-
tries of Hong Kong would suffer a severe blow. The prosperity of
this Colony has been built upon very slight foundations, and I
do not think we should be wise in running any risk of hurting it.
"Whatever Singapore may decide to do is no criterion for
Hong Kong. The conditions there are different from those here.
They chiefly depend upon countries using a gold standard, but we
upon a country using silver exclusively.
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"I fully sympathise with those people of moderate means who
particularly feel the pressure of increased cost of living. This,
however, will be only temporary, wages out here have risen and
will continue to rise as the sterling value of dollar falls, and
$
ery
if a man received for his dollar less to remit home than he did
'before, he will, on the other hand, have more dollars with which
to buy his remittance, so the thing remains as broad as it is
long. As the sterling value of silver falls, so, I think, will
the cost in dollars of labour and commodities and though in a
lesser degree perhaps, of land and other property, rise. These
conditions will thus continue to adjust themselves until the li-
mit, which cannot be very far off now, is reached",
I have since carefully considered the arguments which were
put forward by Messrs Osborne, Playfair, Wilcox and others in