296
of any test for quality, and it commands a premium
as compared with the Mexican of from 2 per cent to
3 per cent.
The same premium is, for identical reasons,
commanded in Tientsin and Peking by the Pei-yang
dollar, which approaches the British dollar very
closely in excellence of workmanship; but, being
a local issue, it is necessarily restricted to local
circulation. At the same time experience shows it
to be a perfectly acceptable model; and had China,
who, under the provisions of the Mackay Treaty
pledged herself to a reform of currency, entered upon
the necessary measures with reasonable promptness
she could by this time have established a uniform
currency on the model ready, in the natural course
of things, to step into the place of the British and
Mexican coins.
Instead of doing so, however, she
has continued to multiply, or permit the multiplication
of her provincial currencies; and dollars of
various designs are now issued from the mints of
Canton, Fu-kien, Chekiang, Nan-yang, Hu-pei, Szechuen,
Chihli, Kirin and Moukden, which circulate in their
respective districts side by side with the British
and Mexican coins.
Until China reverses this policy, she can hardly
be looked to for a solution of the currency problem,
so far as it relates to the requirements of foreign
trade. These requirements in the Yangtze and southern
districts of China have, for over half a century,
been exclusively supplied by the Spanish and Mexican
dollar; and the comparatively inferior workmanship
of these coins and their consequent liability to
counterfeit, has given rise to a class of experts
known amongst foreign banks and firms as "shroffs",
which has, by generations of training, attained a
high degree of skill in the detection of spurious
coins. The conservative tendency of the Chinese
trader, fortified by this protection against fraud,
and encouraged no doubt by the class which depends
for a living on this anomalous condition of things,
have so far acted as a bar to the introduction of
the British dollar on any large scale into these
provinces.
The
296
of any test for quality, and it commande a premium
as compared with the Mexican of from 2 per cent to
3 per cent.
The same premium is, for identical reasons,
commanded in Tientsin and Peking by the Pei-yang
dollar, which approaches the British dollar very
closely in excellence of workmanship; but, being
a local issue, it is necessarily restricted to local
circulation.
At the same time experience shows it
and had China,
to be a perfectly acceptable model;
who, under the provisions of the Mackay Trenty
pledged herself to a reform of currency, entered up-
on the necessary measures with reasonable promptness
she could by this time have established an uniform
currency on the model ready, in the natural course
of things, to step into the place of the British and
Instead of doing so, however, she
Mexican coins.
has continued to multiply, or permit the multiplica-
tion of her provincial currencies; and dollars of
various designs are now issued from the mints of
Canton, Fu-kien, Chekiang, Nan-yang, Hu-pei, Sau-
chuen, Chihli, Kirin and Moukden, which circulate
in their respective districts side by side with the
British and Mexican coins.
Until China reverses this policy, she can hard-
ly be looked to for a solution of the currency prob-
lem, so far as it relates to the requirements of
foreign trade. These requirements in the Yangtce
and southern districts of China have, for over half
a century, been exclusively supplied by the Spanish
and Mexican dollar; and the comparatively inferior
workmanship of these coins and their consequent lia-
bility to counterfeit, has given rise to a class of
experte known amongst foreign banks and firms as
"shroffs", which has, by generations of training,
attained a high degree of skill in the detection of
spurious coins. The conservative tendency of the
Chinese trader, fortified by this protection against
fraud, and encouraged no doubt by the class which
depends for a living on this anomalous condition of
things, have so far acted as a bar to the introduc-
tion of the British dollar on any large scale into
these provinces.
The
in
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