4
There are, as follow, further issues by provinces, which issues are guaranteed by the provincial authorities, though no special reserve is held against them, nor their final limits fixed. The figures are approximate :---
Year of Issue.
Province.
Notes.
Amount
[This Document is the Property of His Britannic Majesty's Governort] 265
4135
[January 2.]
CHINA TRADE.
CONFIDENTIAL.
[218]
No. 1.
Sheria 12 FEC 09
1906 1907
"}
1908
13
Manchuria Hupeh
Cash notes
5
Shantung Canton
Dollar Cash
:7
19
30,000,000 taels. 10,000,000 20,000,000 dollars.
}}
7,000,000 taels, 5,000,000
Runav
11
21
4,000,000
נד
In spring 1908, the Peking Government attempted to eradicate these provincial issues. Apparently no means for their abolition could be devised, as the system has been allowed to continue and is now spreading further, being mere excuses for raising provincial loans, The redeemability of these notes is apparently not being questioned by the public at present, probably due to the fact that their conversion into cash is infrequently demanded, except in Manchuria where the public are fully aware that no cash can be obtained at the issuing office, and where the notes are recognized as inconvertible paper money. Although these unsecured provincial paper issues may function for some time without fear of disturbance, yet there prevails the danger of—
(a.) A repetition of what happened when the provincial mints were coining copper cash, taking place in respect to this paper money, resulting in depreciation with consequent loss to holders.
(b) Dissatisfaction and possibly upheavals arising among the population, (c) Consequent disturbance of trade, both native and foreign, followed by a shrinkage in the Revenue and Customs Returns, and general lowering of China's credit.
In order to prevent such disastrous results, imperative steps should be taken-
1. To strictly limit and regulate all provincial issues of paper money on a stable
basis, with an adequate cash reserve under Imperial control and guarantee.
2. To withhold or withdraw the privilege of issuing notes from private banks, difficult to control and liable to deviate from the regulations in furtherance of private gain, and to confine this right throughout China to large and powerful concerns, with adequate cash reserves under Imperial guarantee controlled by one Imperial Board.
In other countries, past experience has proved the necessity of jealously guarding the privilege of issuing notes, and it cannot be too strongly impressed upon the Chinese Government that it is absolutely imperative to adopt some restrictive measures with regard to their note issue in this country, and until regulations for safeguarding such issues have been drawn up, to immediately stop by decree the issue of any further bank-
notes.
Many private bank-notes now in circulation, readily lend themselves to fraudulent imitators. Being inferior in quality and printing, some of which are brought out by the local presses without check or proper means of limitation.
Shanghae General Chamber of Commerce, November 24, 1908,
0
Sir,
China Association to Foreign Office.—(Received January 2, 1909.)
159, Cannon Street, London, December 31, 1908. MY Committee desire to submit for the consideration of His Majesty's Secretary of State the inclosed Memorandum, prepared by the Chairman of the Association, upon currency matters in China.
The long-continued depression in the trade with China is no doubt in considerable measure attributable to the existing currency chaos, which threatens ruin not only to the trade of the Empire, but the welfare of the people, and even endangers the stability of the Chinese Government itself.
It is a bitter sarcasm that in the six years which liave elapsed since the conclusion of the Shanghae Treaty of 1902, not only have no steps been taken by China to fulfil her obligation expressed in Article 2 of that Treaty to "provide for a uniform national currency," but, on the contrary, by permitting an unchecked issue of depreciated copper coins, as well as an unlimited, unchecked, and improperly secured issue of paper money, she has brought about a state of currency confusion incomparably worse than that which already existed.
The Currency Edict of the 5th October expresses, it is to be hoped, an appre- ciation of the existing dangers and an earnest intention to deal with them. A considerable time must, however, elapse before the Edict can have practical effects, and meantime the peril engendered by existing conditions is so great and imminent that a special Delegate has been dispatched by Shanghae to Peking, to urge the Diplomatic Body strongly to remonstrate with the Chinese Government; and my Committee trust that such remonstrances and representations as may be made will receive the fullest support of His Majesty's Government.
I have, &c.
(Signed) C. GRENVILLE ALABASTER,
Inclosure in No. 1.
Memorandum respecting Currency in China.
Secretary.
HAD Lord Palmerston interested himself in the question of Chinese currency he might have propounded an even better conundrum than that of "What is a pound?" and floored the House of Commons (and every one else) with the question of "What is a tael ?"
"
In a Report upon the "Revenue and Expenditure of the Chinese Empire prepared by Mr. George Jamieson, late Consul-General at Shanghae, he states that he was explicitly informed by a Chinese official that (for revenue purposes any way) "a tael was not a tael in the ordinary sense of the word, but was such a sum as would enable the local authorities to lay down a tael of the standard weight and purity in Peking, and consequently included a meitage fee, loss on melting, freight and costs of transmission, and general office expenses!'
For currency purposes Mr. Jamieson's conclusions are pretty nearly correct also, for there are very few people in this world who can say what sort of a tael any given tael really is-what is its weight, its fineness in silver, and what its exchange value.
A currency tael may perhaps be defined as a varying weight of silver of varying fineness, the variations of both weight and fineness being governed by topical conditions and custom as well as by the nature of the transactious in which it is employed, for the tael weight current for the purpose of buying (say) a bale of cotton goods may be--and, indeed, often is quite different to that required for the buying of a picul of salt. A good illustration of this is given by Mr. Morse in his recent work, "The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire," in which he instances the conditions obtaining at Chungking, in Szechuan, where the taels in use are of three
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