CO129-257 - Public Offices & Others - 1892 — Page 214

212

of several hundreds of these coins, the newer and

less tarnished the better, which they exhibit on

special occasions. The demand for them is espe-

cially great before Chinese New Year when they are

very extensively given away as presents to children

who keep them in their money-boxes.

The Ports which absorb the largest quantities

of the Hongkong subsidiary coinage are Shanghai,

Foochow, Hankow, Amoy, Canton and Swatow. Their

circulation at the other Treaty Ports is very small

and is limited to such Chinese as have dealings with

foreign merchants. In addition to the amounts

imported as treasure hy the Foreign Banks in the

ordinary way, considerable quantities, of which no

statistics are attainable, are introduced by Chi-

nese passengers who naturally find them much more

portable than the bulky copper currency of China.

The coinage issued from the Canton mint has recently

been made legal tender for payment of Customs and

other dues, and in some parts of China, notably

Formosa, it appears to have largely displaced that

of Hongkong origin. On the other hand, in Canton

itself and the surrounding country the circulation of the Hongkong coinage does not seem, until recent-

ly, to have been diminished by the issue of similar

coins from the new mint. During a visit which

Mr Watters paid last summer to Hsiang-shan, a large

and important town and district about sixty miles

from Canton, he found the Hongkong smal 1 wins in

general

$15.000.

general use and readily accepted by all classes

of the population. Since then, however, Hongkong,

which has generally complained of a dearth rather

than of a plethora of small coins, is represented by the newspapers as being flooded with the Canton

subsidiary coinage.

At Foochow these coins have long been accepted

as currency and until recently, they were nearly all introduced by passengers from Hongkong and other places. No large amount was imported hy the Banks until the end of 1889, when the attention of the local authorities was directed to the neces

sity of such a currency as a remedy for the finan- cial crisis consequent upon the insolvency of many of the native Banks, whose notes had hitherto been used as the ordinary medium of trade in small trans- actions, and had now become quite valueless.

A supply of small coins was accordingly ordered from the newly established mint at Canton, but did

not meet with acceptance from the people, who

viewed them with suspicion.

Towards the end of

1890, the authorities purchased through the Hong- kong and Shanghai Bank Small Hongkong silver coins

to the extent of fifteen thousand dollars, and in

a further 1891 they had procured up to August last $140,000. supply of one hundred and forty thousand dollars

worth of these coins, which are current, if not throughout the whole province of Fukien, at least for a very considerable radius round the city of

Foochow.