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between the date at which the silver is handed to the
Mint and the date at which the dollars arrive in
Hong Kong, and the fact that the dollars are on the way is well known to the market. If the price of silver drops during this period, or the "exchange premium" for some reason contracts, the transaction may entail a serious loss.
Taking everything into consideration therefore the possibility of having silver dollars minted is so remote that it has no real effect on the "exchange premium" until that premium reaches so much higher a figure than the cost of minting that it is worth while to engage large sums and take the risk involved.
Such then appear to be the conditions
responsible for the "note premium" and the "exchange premium". The next question is what their effect is. As the "note premium" has apparently disappeared to a large extent, it is not necessary to worry much about it, or trouble to consider how it should be abolished.
Equally it is suggested that it is unnecessary to worry about the "exchange premium" too much, since there is not, as far as can be seen, any evidence that it has been directly responsible for any of Hong Kong's recent
difficulties.
It is obvious from the documents that Hong
Kong has been in considerable difficulties from time to time in the last few years, but it is not clear that
those difficulties arose from the "exchange premium"
of the Hong Kong dollar.
They seem rather to have
been
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