CO882-(6-8) — Page 89

PUBLIC

།། '། ‛། །

RECORD OFFICE

19

Reference :-

C.O. 882

7

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-

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7. The dollar is divided into one hundred cents, and the following subsidiary coins are made legal tender under the Order in Council of the 2nd of February, 1895:-Straits Settlements silver pieces of 50, 20, 10 and 5 cents of 800 millesimal fineness, and Straits Settlements copper or mixed metal pieces of one cent, a half-cont, and a quarter-cent. The limit of legal tender in the case of silver subsidiary coins is two dollars, and in the case of copper or mixed metal coins one dollar.

8. By enactments in the different Federated Malay States the same currency is established, with the exception that the Hong Kong dollar is not placed on the same footing as the standard coin.

9. As regards Johore, the Committee have no definite information as to what is legal tender in that State, but they understand that Johore has no currency of its own, and that it uses all the coins that are accepted as legal tender in the Straits Settlements-the whole trade of the State being with Singapore. The Agreement with Johore of 1885, which deals with the If supply of subsidiary coinage to the State, has already been referred to. it is decided to establish a gold standard in the Straits Settlements, and if Johore is included in that scheme, it would be necessary that a definite understanding should be arrived at as to the use of the Straits currency of unlimited legal tender in the Johore State.

NOTE ISSUES.

10. The Government Note Issue in the Straits Settlements is regulated by Ordinance No. 4 of 1899. These notes may be for the following denominations:-one, five, ten, twenty, fifty or one hundred dollars, and for any multiple of one hundred dollars. They are legal tender in the Settle. ments for the amount expressed therein, except a tender by the Com- missioners of Currency at their office or a tender in redemption of its own notes by any bank lawfully authorized to issue notes, but no Government notes of the denomination of one dollar can be legal tender for a greater sum than ten dollars. No notes of one dollar have yet been issued.

11. The Government notes of the Straits Settlements have been made legal tender in the Federated Malay States by local Enactments subject to the same limitation in the case of one dollar notes (if such notes were issued).

12. The Government notes are covered by a reserve partly in coin and partly in securities. The minimun legal coin reserve was originally two- thirds of the whole. Its reduction to one-half of the whole has lately been sanctioned.

13. There are two banks in the Colony authorized, subject to certain conditions, to issue notes payable to bearer on demand, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank, and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia and China. The notes issued by these Banks are not legal tender in the Straits Settlements, though they circulate freely. The authority to issue expires in December, 1904, in the case of the Chartered Bank, and in August, 1908, in the case of the Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank.

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14. It may be mentioned that under Enactments in the Federated Malay States it is unlawful for any bank to make or issue within the States bank notes payable to bearer on demand. This does not prevent the circulation of the bank notes now in question.

*RECENT HISTORY OF CURRENCY IN THE STRAITS SETTLEMENTS,

15. On the transfor of the Straits Settlements from the charge of the Indian to that of the Imperial Government, which came into operation in 1867, an Ordinance was passed by the local Legislature repealing all laws

* Full information as to the history of currency in the Straits Settlements will be found in the "History of Currency in the British Colonies," by Robert Chaliners (Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1893.)

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for making Indian coins legal tender, and declaring that from the 1st of April, 1867, "the dollar issued from Her Majesty's Mint at Hong Kong, the silver dollar of Spain, Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, and any other silver dollar to be specified from time to time by the Governor in Council, shall be the only legal tender," with the exception of certain subsidiary coins.

16. Subsidiary silver and copper coins were supplied from the Hong Kong Mint, but on the closing of that Mint in 1868, two years after its opening, it became necessary for the Straits to provide their own subsidiary coinage, and since 1871 the subsidiary silver coins have been struck at the Royal Mint. The total amount of such coias struck at the Royal Mint from 1871 to 1901 inclusive was 6,462,000 dollars, and a further amount of 750,000 dollars was struck in 1902, up to the 17th of November. the Mint are aware, all these coins are still in circulation. The value of the different denominations of subsidiary silver coins struck since 1871 will be found in Appendix 19, Table IX. The subsidiary copper coin issued in the Straits Settlements in the years 1871-1902, amounted to the nominal value of 1,887,500 dollars.

So far as

17. By order of the Governor in Council of the 10th of January, 1874, the American Trade dollar, and the Japanese yen were admitted to unlimited legal tender.

18. Under Order in Council of the 21st of October, 1890, all laws regula- ting legal tender in the Colony were repealed. The Mexican dollar was by that Order constituted the standard, and the American trade dollar, the Japanese yen, and the Hong Kong dollars and half-dollars were made unlimited legal tender. The Straits Settlements half-dollar, and other subsidiary silver coins, of 800 millesimal fineness, were made legal tender for an amount of two dollars, and the Colonial copper or mixed metal coins were made legal tender for an amount of one dollar.

19. Under Ordinance No. 2, of 1891 the Governor in Council was given power to prohibit the importation into the Colony or the circulation therein of coins not being legal tender. The importation of certain copper or bronze coins which had ceased to be legal tender under the Order in Council of the 21st of October, 1890, was subsequently prohibited under this Ordinance.

20. The Orders in Council of the 2nd of February, 1895, and of the 20th of October, 1898, which regulate the existing currency, have already been referred to. It is only necessary to add that under the first of these Orders the United States trade dollar, which had ceased to be struck in 1878, became no longer legal tender, whilst the demonetization of the yen under the Order in Council of 1898, was the result of the establishment of a gold standard by Japan, and the demonetization of the silver yen in its country of origin.

The

21. Ordinance 11 of 1898, prohibited the importation of yen. penalties imposed by the Ordinance did not apply to Japanese yen imported for transhipment under a licence from the Colonial Secretary.

ACTUAL CIRCULATION.

22. The actual circulation of the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States and Johore at the present time is composed of—

I. British, Mexican and Hong Kong dollars.-The amount of Hong Kong dollars still in circulation is so small that it may be neglected. It is impossible to form a reliable estimate of the number of British and Mexican dollars circulating in the Settlements, the Malay States and Johore, but the Colonial Treasurer roughly estimates the number at 30,000,000 dollars. This total, which is only put forward as a guess, includes the specie reserve against the Government Note Issue and cash in the banks,

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