297
:
The preference for the older coin, so long as
it continued to supply the market, was defensible
on the grounds of sentiment and custom. The se
claims however fall to the ground in the case of the
new export trade dollar with which the Mexican Gov-
ernment proposes to replace it; and the question
therefore arises whether the moment has not now ar-
rived for considering more closely the needs of the
time.
To yield up the position already secured by
the British dollar, and to leave Mexico, who has no
trade interests in China, to supply so important
a part of the currency requirements of the country
seems, as Sir James Mackay points out, a retrograde
step and one to be deplored. It may be safely as-
sumed that the seigniorage to be charged on the pro-
posed new coin by the Mexican Government will in-
clude a substantial margin or profit, upon which
the cost necessary for turning out a tolerably fin-
ished coin will be allowed to encroach as little as
possible. The tendency of the Mexican dollar has
been
and the issue of re-
been, in fact, to deteriorate;
cent years, known as the "new Mexican dollar" has,
owing to the carelessness and inferiority of its
workmanship, become so discredited in northern and
central China, that the bulk of the coins now find
their way to Hongkong and the southern markets for
defacement and conversion into "chop" dollars.
Assuming the proposed new Mexican dollar however to
show a substantial improvement in quality of work-
manship, there still seems no obvious reason why the
British Government should not be in a position to
supply an equally good coin, with equal profit to
itself, which would moreover enter the competition
with the advantage of an established reputation.
A supply of British dollars sufficient to meet
the currency requirements which have been shared in
the past by both British and Mexican dollars, would
clearly be beyond the capacity of the Bombay mint to
undertake, even assuming that some modification could
be arrived at with regard to seigniorage;
and al-
though
વ