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This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Government.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
No. 1.
374
[September 25.]
SECTION 2.
C.O
36641
RECE
Sir E. Satow to the Marquess of Lansdowne.--(Received September 2012
(No. 252.) My Lord,
Peking, July 1965 OCT LV my despatch No. 242 of the 11th instant, 1 had the honour to fransmit to your Lordship the translation of a Memorial of the Board of Revenue respecting the issues of different currencies by the provincial mints.
I was not satisfied with the proposals in this Memorial, and, on the 14th instant, I wrote a letter to Chao Erh-Hsin, the Chinese Minister of Finance, with whom I had the conversation reported in my despatch No. 150 of the 2nd May, drawing his Excel- loney's attention to some obvious deficiencies and objections. A copy of this letter is inclosed for your Lordship's information.
Since my conversation of the 2nd May, Chao Erh-Hsin has been appointed Tartar- General at Mukden, and it appears that the Memorial was the work of his successor at the Board of Finance. Yesterday Chao Tajen cune to pay me a farewell call before leaving for his new post, and said that he had communicated my letter of the 14th instant to the Board of Finance. He gave me to understand that be also was dissatisfied with the contents of the Memorial, which would have been very different if he had been still in charge of the national finances.
Your Excellency,
I have, &c.
(Signed) ERNEST SATOW.
Inclosure in No. 1.
Sir E. Satow to Chuo Erh-Elsün,
July 14, 1905. ON the 21th April I had the honour to hold a conversation with your Excellency on the subject of currency reform in China, when your Excellency was good enough to inform me of the general lines upon which you had memorialized the Throne on this question, and to promise me a copy of this Memorial.
I have recently noticed in the "Tien-tsin Daily News" copy of a Memorial frou the Board of Revenue, praying that the minting of copper coins in the provinces should be duly limited, and that a uniform currency should be established. This is, no doubt, an excellent suggestion, but it scarcely goes far enough, for it contains no provision for insuring that uniformity shall be adhered to. Nothing is said, for instance, about the weight of the new ten-cash piece, nor the quantity of copper to be contained in each, and the quantity of alloy. Uniformity requires also that these provincial mints should he inspected by trustworthy Delegates from the Board of Revenue, who must be possessed of the necessary technical knowledge.
Another point which causes me great concern is the order given to each provincial mint to furnish annually a fixed number of myriads of taels to the Tien Ping Chu. Surely the Board of Revenue must be aware that, though profit may be made at the What is being done is to give a outset on this new copper coinage, it cannot last, fictitious value to the coin, and when more is issued and the people come to know this, the market rate falls, and where, then, is the profit?
Another thing is that the coins do not bear the same inscription, and that they are not current throughout the Empire. This is certainly bound to be injurious to the people, because they cannot transmit the new coin without loss from one province to another.
Again, this Memorial does not touch upon the introduction of a uniform silver currency, to which your Excellency alluded in the conversation above referred to. Your Excellency then said that the copper coinage was to be considered as the fractional coinage of a Treasury silver dollar, that 100 ten-cash copper coins would be the equivalent of this silver coin, which would be uniform in all the provinces of the Empire, and that ultimately—perhaps in ten years or more--this silver dollar might become the fractional part of a Treasury gold dollar.
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