CO129-257 - Public Offices & Others - 1892 — Page 215

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Foochow. An order, recently issued by the local authorities to the effect that the Canton coins are

to be accepted at par with those from Hongkong may

possibly tend towards stimulating the employment

of the former coins and contracting the use of the

latter.

At Amoy about ten thousand dollars worth of these coins are imported annually by the Hongkong

and Shanghai Rank, but the port being one where a

very large passenger traffic is carried on, the

above amount doubtless represents but a small frac-

tion of the total import. They are current over

a large radius of country the population of which

is composed to a considerable extent of returned

emigrants from Singapore, Penang and Manila.

At Shanghai the import for the first half of

last year is stated to have been two hundred and

twenty thousand dollars worth of these token coins.

In answer, to inquiries as to what actually became

of these coins, Her Majesty's Consul General was

told that they were sent into the interior to be

used as ornamental buttons for dresses. The theory

at first seemed to him inadequate to account for

the large importation and the equally regular dis-

appearance of the coins. Taking into account,

however, the very wide area of country whose popu-

lation had its requirements of this kind supplied

directly or indirectly from Shanghai, Mr Mowat was

inclined to accept the explanation as sufficient.

$10,000.

$220,000.

$500.

At Hankow the import of the foreign Bank avg-

rages about five hundred dollars a month worth of

these coins. They pass as currency only in the

larger towns which have business relations with the

Treaty Port, but in the provinces bordering upon

the Yangtze they are no longer, as was formally the

case, mich used for buttons or ornaments.

(Signed)

J. N. Jordan.

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