CO129-071 - Public Offices - 1858 — Page 41

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My Lords have had under their attentive Consideration the Various propositions oftter Majesty's Plenipotentiary in China for the issue of an Imperial dollar, for circulation at Hongkong, either from

a muit to be established

at Houghong, or by a special Comiage for the purpose at the Royal Mint in London –

I avi to state that

my Lords are by no means satisfied of the_ expediency of such a measure -

It is chiefly urged in Sir John Bowring's Despatch of 11th Now addressed to the Secretary of State for foreign Affairs

on the Ground of Representations

Λ

th

from Enerchants at Shanghai, a port far

removed from British Jurisdiction, and it is thus proposed, not with a View of Correcting

hvils

soils in a

British posesion, but for the Anomalous purpose of remedying the

inconvenience which arises from the Want of a

will defined measure of Value in a foreign

State

My Lords have no doubt that

the experiment would be satisfactory to the Merchants of that place, because if it were successful, they would offain the benefit

while, if it failed, the cost would.

ofit, fall on the

on the revenues of Great Britain But their Lordships apprehend that the evils from which the merchants of. Shanghai suffer in this matter, might be solved by an buited effort to adopt the Mexican

dollar