CONFIDENTIAL.
Hongkong.
F
Jov 29799
My Lord,
REC
CO 224 19660
Rvc 3 JUN 07
Government House,
Hongkong, 27th April, 1907.
With reference to Sir Matthew Nathan's Confidential Despatch of the 13th July, 1906, and other correspondence on the subject of local currency generally, I have the honour to invite Your Lordship's attention to the grave disability, under which both the external and internal trade of China and of this Colony, is suffering, from the want of a proper standard coin and the substitution of a debased currency therefor.
2. Owing to the excessive issue of small coinage from the Canton Mint, the Mexican and British Dollars have been practically superseded in South China for business purposes, leaving a medium of exchange the bullion in which, weight for weight, is at most worth only eight-ninths of the dollar, and which fluctuates in commercial value from day to day.
THE RIGHT HONOURABLE
THE EARL OF ELGIN, K.G.,
&C...
&C.,
80 • 1
3.
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