CO129-334 - Governor Nathan - 1906 [5-7] — Page 578

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detail how this supply originated. The first consignment

of Hongkong subsidiary coins(in April 1863) was no doubt

+

Louwer 6.

intended to meet the wants of Hongkong itself where British

silver coins and probably broken silver had previously been

used.

The new coins were in accordance with Her late

Majesty's Proclamation of the 9th. January, 1863, "prepared

of silver containing twenty per cent of alloy". For

twenty years the importations remained comparatively small.

Since 1883 however they have, as will be seen from the

annexed table, amounted in face value to $43,385,727 exclu-

sive of the coins returned to England as mentioned in para-

graph 3 of this despatch. No doubt some proportion of this

amount has disappeared, though the inducement to melt down

heavily alloyed silver cannot have been great. The propor-

tion of over $40,000,000 retained in the Colony which has

under half a million inhabitants must obviously be very

small. The bulk therefore is in China, and when the Chinese,

stimulated probably by our example, commenced a year or two

ago the manufacture of subsidiary coins on a far larger

scale than that on which we had carried on our importat-

tions the inevitable result of the exchange value of these

coins becoming depreciated in the proportion of their fine-

ness to the fineness of the dollar followed.

10.