CO129-331 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 303

297

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The preference for the older coin, so long as

it continued to supply the market, was defensible

on the grounds of sentiment and custom. The se

claims however fall to the ground in the case of the

new export trade dollar with which the Mexican Gov-

ernment proposes to replace it; and the question

therefore arises whether the moment has not now ar-

rived for considering more closely the needs of the

time.

To yield up the position already secured by

the British dollar, and to leave Mexico, who has no

trade interests in China, to supply so important

a part of the currency requirements of the country

seems, as Sir James Mackay points out, a retrograde

step and one to be deplored. It may be safely as-

sumed that the seigniorage to be charged on the pro-

posed new coin by the Mexican Government will in-

clude a substantial margin or profit, upon which

the cost necessary for turning out a tolerably fin-

ished coin will be allowed to encroach as little as

possible. The tendency of the Mexican dollar has

been

and the issue of re-

been, in fact, to deteriorate;

cent years, known as the "new Mexican dollar" has,

owing to the carelessness and inferiority of its

workmanship, become so discredited in northern and

central China, that the bulk of the coins now find

their way to Hongkong and the southern markets for

defacement and conversion into "chop" dollars.

Assuming the proposed new Mexican dollar however to

show a substantial improvement in quality of work-

manship, there still seems no obvious reason why the

British Government should not be in a position to

supply an equally good coin, with equal profit to

itself, which would moreover enter the competition

with the advantage of an established reputation.

A supply of British dollars sufficient to meet

the currency requirements which have been shared in

the past by both British and Mexican dollars, would

clearly be beyond the capacity of the Bombay mint to

undertake, even assuming that some modification could

be arrived at with regard to seigniorage;

and al-

though

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