CH"
4
2. Rather more latitude can be allowed in regard to the copper currency, and it is proposed to permit the provincial mints already working to temporarily continue their operations, but they must do so with what machinery they now have, and must not add to it or increase their output. No applications to start new mints will be granted. The touch of the copper coins shall be 95 per cent, copper and 5 per cent, spelter; but if it is preferred, 1 per cent. tin alloy may be used. The weight shall be as follows:----
(z) 20-cash pieces
(b.) 10-cash
(c) 5-cash
(d) 2-cash
→
71
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Kuping taels.
.0
+1
-04
Model dies shall be issued by the Board, and shall be identical with those used at the Tien-tsin Mint, except that, for purposes of identification, the obverse of the coins shall bear an additional character indicating the mint of origin. At each separate coining the mints shall send samples of the coin to the Tsai Cheng Chin and the Board for assay, and the latter will from time to time appoint officials to go and inspect the mints. Any infringement of the Regulations will involve the immediate prohibition of further operations, and the compulsory recall within a fixed period of the pieces issued for destruction.
3. The Government undertakes the issue of a currency for the convenience of its subjects. The 20- and 10-cash pieces cannot be used by the people for buying articles of small value, and an over-production of these would be disadvantageons. To remedy this defect, the Regulations of the Head Mint provide for 5- and 2-cash pieces. It is now proposed to regulate the production of the provincial mints as follows:---
Of the daily output of each mint, 50 per cent. shall be 10-cash pieces, 20 per cent. each 2-cash and 5-cash pieces, and 10 per cent. 20-cash pieces. Subsidiary to the 2-cash pieces, the old small cash may be used.
4. Steadiness in the value of the currency can only be maintained by adjusting the amount in circulation to the needs of the people. The provincial offices for the issue of cash and copper coin (Kuan Ch'ien Kung Ku Chu) should be instructed to observe the money market and fix the exchange in relation to silver of the new coinage accordingly, and to issue and recall coin as circumstances require. Good faith must be exercised, and the new coinage placed on the same footing as the old cash at their face value. Brokers must not be allowed to make any discount, nor the mints to issue the coin below its face value in order to make a greater profit. Minting shall be stopped when there is an excess on the market.
5. The copper coins minted in each province shall first be issued in places in the same province where there is a deficiency of cash. The wholesale export of copper coin to another province, so as to create a surplus there, shall not be allowed. Provinces which have need of copper coin must send the price of the amount they require to the Head Mint at Tien-tsin, which will furnish them with it in return, but distant provinces will be allowed to obtain such supplies from the nearest provincial mint.
6. Every three months the Governments of provinces where copper or silver mints have already been established shall furnish to the Tsai Cheng Chu and the Board of Revenue a Report stating the number and country of origin of the machines in their mints, the number of stamping machines, the cost-price of the machinery and of the buildings, number of staff, "daily working hours, and the amount of silver and copper produced. An annual Report shall also be furnished, showing the amount spent on purchasing materials, the working expenses, and the amount of net profits after deducting these.
7. When the coinage of silver is started at Tien-tsin the amount of bullion required will be very large. If this has to be sent to the mint from the Board of Revenue, much useless expense will be incurred in freight. It is therefore proposed that the Board. shall select those provinces whose sycee contributions to the Imperial Exchequer are of finest touch, and instruct them to send their contributions direct to the Mint. The Mint officials shall at once weigh such consignments and report immediately to the Board, who will return a sealed acknowledgment to the Mint. The investigation of these provincial contributions is the duty of the Revenue and Kiangnan Departments of the Censorate. But the old procedure will need a satisfactory adjustment, in view of the
5
554
transmission of the contributions of some of the provinces to the Ticu-tsin Mint direct. In order to avoid delaying the officials who accompany the contributions, and to save time, those officials will in future not be required to present the acknowledgment of the Board to the two Departments for inspection; but as this investigation is very important, the Board of Revenue should at every half-year report to the two Departments of the Censorate the amount of contributions received by the Mint from the provinces, and the Provincial Governments should at the same periods also report the amount they have forwarded, so that the two reports may be compared. In this way strict supervision can be exercised, and complications in the old procedure avoided.
8. Many merchants, seeing that the minting of copper coins is a lucrative business, have made applications for permission to mint coins, offering a large royalty. It is requested that the Peking and provincial Yaméns may be instructed to refuse all such applications. Inspection should from time to time be made whether private capital is invested in the mints, in which case the operations of such mints should be immediately stopped.
9. The coins minted by the Head Mint shall be current in all the provinces. When the Board of Revenue Bank is established, ail the coins minted by the Head Mint, with the exception of those required by the Board of Revenue, shall be handed to the Bank for circulation in such places where there is a scarcity of cash.
10. It has been the custom of the provincial mints to purchase Japanese copper blanks, which merely require stamping before they are put into circulation. As foreign labour is dearer than Chinese, and as these blanks are very cheap, it seems probable that they are not of the requisite standard, and it is also likely that the importers smuggle large quantities for sale to counterfeiters. A standard has now been settled, and the mints, having been established for some years, should be able to produce sufficient blanks for their own use. The Memorialists have already called on the Provincial Governments to stop the purchase of these blanks, and now propose that these instructions be repeated, and the Commissioners of Customs directed by the Wai-wu Pu to enforce a strict prohibition of the importation of them.
August 22, 1905.
(Translation.)
Inclosure 2 in No. 1.
Memorial.
MEMORIAL of the Financial Commission (Tsai Cheng Ch'a) and the Board of Revenue, transmitting a concise statement of the proposed operations of the Tien-tsin Head Mint.
(Feiyang Kuan Pao," September 7.)
Précis.The memorialists state that, in obedience to an Imperial Decree, they had undertaken the foundation of a Head Mint at Tien-tsin, and had from time to time reported the progress they had made. A contract had been entered into with Messrs. Arnhold, Karberg, and Co. for the supply of modern minting machinery from America. The proctors in charge of the undertaking and the Tien-tsin Taotai Wang had hurried on the construction of the necessary buildings, and were able in the spring to announce that they were ready for use. The machinery ordered from the foreign firm had also been supplied in consigments, and had been put together as it arrived by the workmen who had been engaged, and is now complete. The first trial minting had been made on the 10th June. The memorialists, Nat'ung and Chang Po-hsi, have at different times during the present month gone to Tien-tsin and inspected the Mint, and find the machinery very ingenious and the buildings very suitable.
The output of coin per diem originally contracted for was over 600,000 pieces of all kinds, copper and silver, but as yet the machinery does not run smoothly, and the workmen are not yet proficient, so the output for some time will not be so large, but will gradually be increased with practice.
In addition to the two plans of the Mint, and the specimens of the four kinds of copper coin produced at the Mint which have already been sent, the memorialists beg to present herewith a statement, in eight sections, of the proposed operations of the Mint, for the information of Their Majesties. The memorialists will exhort the officials in charge of the Mint to be energetic in their operations, and as soon as it is in good