CO129-059 - Sir Bowring - 1856 [11-12] — Page 127

CO129 Colonial Office Hong Kong Records 理藩院香港檔案 All AI Reviewed

owing both to the large Annual loss caused by the co stamping and melting practised

in China, and to their extensive dispersion among people, they are found to be wholly insufficient for the Ordinary requirements of trade.

"Nevertheless, the Chinese, averse to change, and attached to a coin with whose fineness, uniformity and inscriptions they have become familiar; and which moreover seems to be of the value best suited to their wants, are now so scarce as to refuse to do business with any other. At this moment not only our commerce with them, but the interior traffic of more than fifty millions of this people, is seriously encumbered by this prejudice.

The natural remedy for such an evil is, that the Imperial Government of China should cancel the use of foreign coin and provide a suitable substitute from its own mints. But, this it has not done. Indeed we may safely say that it cannot do it, since it can act only through officers who are notoriously inclined...

124

...who are notoriously inclined to corruption.

has been adjusted to 1. correct minor OCR errors (e.g., "Thina" to "China", "busings" to "business", "com" to "coin", "s" to "substitute"), 2. fix spacing and punctuation for better readability, 3. rejoin broken sentences where necessary, 4. maintain original paragraph structure as closely as possible, 5. output in HTML format as requested.

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2026-05-18 06:23:21 · NVIDIA / meta/llama-4-maverick-17b-128e-instruct

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owing both to the large Annual loss caused by the co stamping and melting practised in China, and to their extensive dispersion among people, they are found to be wholly insufficient for the Ordinary requirements of trade. "Nevertheless, the Chinese, averse to change, and attached to a coin with whose fineness, uniformity and inscriptions they have become familiar; and which moreover seems to be of the value best suited to their wants, are now so scarce as to refuse to do business with any other. At this moment not only our commerce with them, but the interior traffic of more than fifty millions of this people, is seriously encumbered by this prejudice. The natural remedy for such an evil is, that the Imperial Government of China should cancel the use of foreign coin and provide a suitable substitute from its own mints. But, this it has not done. Indeed we may safely say that it cannot do it, since it can act only through officers who are notoriously inclined... 124 ...who are notoriously inclined to corruption. has been adjusted to 1. correct minor OCR errors (e.g., "Thina" to "China", "busings" to "business", "com" to "coin", "s" to "substitute"), 2. fix spacing and punctuation for better readability, 3. rejoin broken sentences where necessary, 4. maintain original paragraph structure as closely as possible, 5. output in HTML format as requested.

Baseline (Original)

6. owing both to the large Annual loss caused loss caused by the co stamping and melting practised in Thina, and to their extensive this numerous dispersion among people, they to be wholly insufficient for the Ordinary requirements of trade . "Nevertheless, the Chinese, averse to change, And attached to a coin with whose fineness, uniformity and inscriptions they have become familiar; and which moreover seems to be of the value best suited to their wants are now so scarce as refuse to do busings with any Sc 124 other _ At this moment not only our commerce with them, but the interior traffic of more than fifty millions of this people, is seriously encumbered by this prejudice . The natural remedy for such an evil is, that the Imperial, Government of China should cancel the use of foreign com a suitable substitute by providing a s from its own mints - But, this it has not done - Indeed we may safely say that it cannot do it, since it can act only through officers who are • who are notoriously notoriously inclined 3

2026-05-18 06:23:21 · Baseline

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owing both to the large Annual loss caused loss caused by the co stamping and melting practised

in Thina, and to their extensive

this numerous

dispersion among people, they to be wholly insufficient for the Ordinary requirements of trade .

"Nevertheless, the Chinese, averse to change, And attached to a coin with whose fineness, uniformity and inscriptions they have become familiar; and which moreover seems to be of the

value best suited to their wants

are now so scarce as

refuse to do busings with any

124

other _ At this moment not only

our commerce with them, but the interior traffic of more than fifty millions of this people, is seriously encumbered by this prejudice .

The natural remedy for

such an evil is, that the Imperial,

Government of China should

cancel the

use

of foreign com

a suitable substitute

by providing a s

from its own mints - But, this it has not done - Indeed we may

safely say that it cannot do it, since it can act only through officers who are

• who are notoriously

notoriously inclined

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