623
purposes of China. On the other hand the Government dollar
will disappear in time if no more are imported and it is
not known yet if the proposal for the trade dollar will be
acted on and if acted on whether the seigniorage charge for
the new dollar and its altered form will not make it less
acceptable than the old Mexican Government coin. It is true
again that if effect is given to Article 2 of the British
Commercial Treaty of 1902 and the Chinese Government adopt
a uniform currency for the whole Empire there will be no
place for the British dollar. On the other hand, as stated
by Sir Ernest Satow in his Despatch of the 26th. June,
1905, "it appears doubtful whether China will, within any
measurable period, unify her currency in accordance with
the undertaking she has entered into with Great Britain,
the United States and Japan no matter how much diplomatic
pressure is put upon her".
11.
All these circumstances point to
the fact that though at the present time a large capital
expenditure on a mint to coin British dollars would not be
justified, existing mints should, pending further develop-
-ments of the currency question in China, be utilized to
assist the Eastern Banks in putting the British dollar
into