CO129-331 - Public Offices - 1905 — Page 562

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working order will consider the introduction of the minting of silver and the purchase of more machinery.

1. The official name of the Tien-tsin Mint is to be "Ku Pu Tsao Pi Tsung Ch'ang (the Head Mint of the Board of Revenue). The three kinds of coin to be produced by it are to be called "Ta Ching Chin Pi," "Ta Ch'ing Yi Pi," Ta Ching Tung Pi," the gold, silver, and copper coinage of the Ta Ch'ing dynasty, and are to be current throughout the Empire, so as to introduce a uniform currency.

Although gold, silver, and copper coins are to he minted, yet the weight and touch of the first two have still to be settled, and in consideration of the scarcity of cash in the capital and elsewhere, the minting of copper will be first undertaken. There will be four kinds of copper coin ---

(a.) A coin weighing 4 tael to be worth 20 small cash ; (b.) A coin weighing 2 tael, and worth 10 small cash; (.) A coin weighing 1 tael, and worth 5 small cash; and (d.) A coin weighing 04 tael, and worth 2 small cash.

These coins will consist of 95 per cent, copper and 5 per cent, alloy. This standard will be adhered to, and the coin will be tested from time to time after manufacture.

3. In accordance with Imperial Decree, the Board of Revenue set apart 4,000,000 taels for the establishment of the Mint and the purchase of copper and alloy; and the salaries and wages of the officials and employés have been tempo- rarily paid out of the revenues of the Tsai Cheng Chu. After the commencement of operations, one-tenth each of the nct profits, after deduction of working expenses, shall be set apart for a reserve fund and gratuities to employés, and the remainder will be deposited with the Board of Revenue, to be used for extending operations and as a fund for the minting of gold and silver.

4. The copper coin will be first introduced in the capital, and when a sufficiency is in circulation there, it will be issued in the provinces, even where the modern copper coins have not yet been in use. Its free circulation will be enforced under pain of punishment.

5. As the coins minted at Tien-tsin will be all handed to the Board of Revenue for issue, the latter will pay the Mint the face value of the coin, and not the cost price, as has been done hitherto with other mints.

G. (This Article deals with the rewards and punishments to good and bad employés. in the Mint.)

7. The officials in charge of the Mint shall, at the end of each year, transmit to the Tsai Cheng Ch'u and the Board of Revenue a concise statement of the revenue and expenditure of the Mint.

S. At the end of each year the Mint shall deduct from the revenue received from the issue of copper coin the total cost of purchase of material, working expenses, repairs, wages, &c.; the remainder, or net profits, shall be divided into ten parts, one of which shall be set apart as a reserve fund, and one for gratuities to employés; the remaining eight-tenths shall be handed over to the Board of Revenue.

Any alterations in the above Rules which shall be found necessary will be reported. in a further Memorial.

August 22, 1905.

CHINA TRADE.

CONFIDENTIAL.

(No. 268.) Sir,

No. 1.

The Marquess of Lansdowne to Sir E. Satow.

[November 22.]

SECTION 1.

555

Foreign Office, November 22, 1905. I TRANSMIT to you herewith, for your information and guidance, copies of correspondence which has passed between His Majesty's Minister at Copenhagen and myself on the subject of the mutual protection of British and Danish trade-marks in China.*

As you will observe, instructions have been sent to the Danish Consul at Shanghae to protect British trade-marks, duly registered in Denmark, against infraction by Danish subjects in China.

I request that you will issue the necessary instructions to His Majesty's Consular officers in China, in order that similar protection may be extended to Danish trade- marks, should they be infringed by British subjects in that country.

1

am, &c.

(Signed)

LANSDOWNE.

To His Majesty's Representatives abroad, July 21; Mr. Johnstone, No. 66, July 27; to ditto, No. 36, August 10; Mr. Johnstone, No. 117, November 14, 1904.

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