CO129-523-12 Currency situation 17-2-1930 - 9-7-1930 — Page 80

The TIMES

14년

141 Afril 1930

CHINA AND THE GOLD STANDARD

INQUIRY COMMITTEE'S

PROPOSAL

The Report on Chinese Currency of the Kemmerer Commission of Financial Experts, submitted last November to His Excellency T. V. Soong, Minister of Finance, has now been published. The Report contains a Draft Law for the gradual introduction of a uniform gold- standard currency system throughout China, but without the coinage circulation of gold.

Dealing with this Draft Law the Report says:-"

Currency reform, which is urgently needed in China, should involve two things: the replacement of the present confused cur- rencies by a uniform and nation-wide cur- rency system and the introduction of the gold standard. The chaotic condition of China's currency is a serious handicap to trade and to the development and prosperity of the country. China is the only important country to-day upon the silver standard. The silver standard is also a great handicap to China, particularly in the disturbing effect it has upon the country's foreign trade, and in the diffi- culties it creates in the management of the Government's finances, since Government re- ceipts are almost wholly in terms of silver, while a large part of the payments are fixed in terms of gold."

The new gold currency unit, for which the name sun has been suggested, is to con- tain 60.1866 centigrams of pure gold and therefore to have a value equivalent to 40 cents in the United States currency (S,2.50- $1), to Is. 7.7265d. sterling, and to 0.8025 Japanese gold yen, This unit was selected largely because it is of practically the same value, in terms of gold, as the silver dollars now current in most parts of China. project provides for silver coins of one sun, 50 cents, and 20 cents; nickel coins of 10 cents and 5 cents; and copper coins of 1 cent, cent, and 1-5 cent. The project does not pro- vide for the minting of gold coins. Although the project gives the Government the option of redemption in gold bars, it is expected that this form of redemption will be rarely, if ever, used.

The

To provide for the sale abroad of drafts payable in Chinese money, a gold-standard trust fund is to be established which is to amount to at least 35 per cent. of the value of the coins in circulation.-Reuter.

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