2
3
93
e heard of, the Throne will be at once moved to inflict the severest punishment.
there shall be a legal tender which Chinese and foreigners shall in China use to pay a species of taxes and duties and every other sort of expenditure, but that payment should cash shops, pawnshops, licensed hougs, trading shops, in receiving and paying Imperial Maritime Customs duties shall still be reckoned in Haikaan taels-it is proper his currency dare to make differential rates and squeezes, they shall likewise be
soon as possible to settle the standard currency, so that it may be used throughout whole country.
severely punished according to law without any mercy.
If scoundrels should counterfeit
first of the K'u-ping tael pieces minted in Hupeh, and bearing the inscription Great Ching Silver Currency" in Manchu in centre, and in Chinese around it, wit foreign inscription, province, name, and year and weight in addition all entered on or face, and the other face encircled by dragon pattern with "Minted one tael," so as to easily recognized and dealt with. For receipts or payments the coin will be reckoned g the Hupeh Treasury 103-6 K‘u-pʻing rate and for issue and receipt will be taken as pa
And whereas I have now applied to the Throne to make trial, and received permiss this coinage to the disturbance of the nation's currency, they will be seized and brought
silver.
It is therefore proper at once to carry out the scheme so as to show respect for t Constitution and to advantage traders and people, and I have now ordered the Mint coin and issue to the Hupeh Government cash shops to put in circulation, receipts a payments being reckoned Hupeb Treasury 103-6 K'u p'ing rate, and coins taken as p silver, not the slightest variance being allowed, whereby it is hoped that the coins w be current in all provinces, and the currency for ever maintained accordingly. Wher ever the people have to make payments for land tax and regular Government contribnij tions, or for customs duties and ti-kin and any sorts of levy whatever, and wheners district Magistrates, oflices, and stations have to forward revenue to the treasuries and bureaux of the Commissioners and Taotais, all the funds shall be reckoned according the Hupeh Treasury rate of 103'6 K'u-p'ing taels. This will have no prejudicial effect o standing regulations. As regards extra payments under existing rules on remittance] apart from the regular items payable at treasury touch, such as
"extra weight" "meltage loss," "remittance charges," these will be payable in addition to the amounts. reckoning the silver coins as Ku-p'ing silver. For the districts have, apart from the treasur touch regular amounts, been allowed to make extra levies, which must of course remitted separately in making payments to the Commissioners' and Taotais' treasuria, so that the existing miscellaneous charges and expenses may continue. But it is fo bidden to extort any further charge on account of short weight or deficient touch of the coinage, and where there are no existing miscellaneous charges, it is still more to make any pretext for additional exactions.
forbidde
In short, in forwarding funds, this currency is to cause no addition; in receiving funds it is to canse no decrease, so as to avoid objection by clorks and underlings.
If one wishes to get change at a Government cash shop into cash or copper pices or other sorts of raw silver or the old silver dollars, the amount will be reckoned accord. ing to the Hupeh Treasury 10-6 Ku-p'ing rate for fine silver without any deduction « ! addition whatever.
The old silver dollars, weighing 72 K'a-ping, coined in various provinces, were coined in imitation of foreign countries' silver currency. This was a temporary measure of expediency, not a permanent uniform system. Henceforward the old silver dollars be taken as uncoined silver, and the people may use them as usual, the value rising and falling with the market price; they cannot be looked on as national currency.
The old silver dollars in style and inscription differ from this class of uniform silver currency, and they are quite apart in size and weight, so that they cannot be mixed as the same. Thus, the distinction between national currency and all the different, sert of uncoined silver is manifest.
I am ordering the Commissioners and Taotais, the Customs' offices and all district offices li-kin, duty and contribution bureaux, to carry out this system alike in paying and receiving.
It is further my duty to issue a public notification.
Whereby take notice, ye merchants and traders, soldiers and people alike. Ye mus understand that this coinage of silver K'u-p'ing taels is a Government national legal currency, which in all accounts, whether public or private, and in the dealings of officers and people, are to be reckoned for receipts and payments at the Hupeh Treasury rate of 103-6 K'a-p'ing fine silver tael, the coins being of uniform value, and quite unlike a other species of uncoined silver, which, when changed, are charged for short weight and discount, and which bucksters and clerks can manipulate so as hereafter to cause all sorts of loss on them. This is indeed an important step for the benefit of trade and the advantage of the people. Should the officials and clerks concerned, when rates and taxe are paid by the people, make pretexts for objecting to this currency or refuse to accept it at the rate of 103-6 K'u-p'ing fine silver, so soon as complaint is made or such act
to trial, when the capital punishment will be at once inflicted.
All should obey with fear and without fail.
A Special Notification.
Published the 19th January, 1905.