sing you to-day I propose to speak mainly Mr, George Jamieson said: In address. onthe effects which the fall in the gold value of silver has had on our trade with silver-using countries, and more particularly with the Far East. Tt has been my lot to spend some thirty odd years in China, the first ten of which, from 1864 to 18 were under what we may call the old ré- gime, when the par value of gold and silver was as yet undisturbed, and some twenty odd years since 1874, during which I have watched the gradual separation of the two metals and the various consequences that have followed therefrom. It has also been my duty to report from time to time for the benefit of my fellow countrymen in England on all matters affecting trade and commerce, and to keep myself, as far a possible, in touch with the local mercantile communities in the East. I have, therefore, lid, I will not say better, but certainly more varied, opportunities than gentlemen in this country for observing phenomena connected with the fall of silver. I have watched the movements from the other end of the line, as it were, and certain features are more marked there and impress themselves more strongly on the mind than at this side. I will also venture toadd that I have endeavoured as far as possible to bring an impartial mind to bear on the subject. The fall in the gold price of silver has been personally no grievance to me—rather the contrary—and in espousing the bimetallic side, I'may at least lay claim to disinterestedness in the matter. I advocate this cause from the sincere and honest convietion that it is the cause of justice and equity between man and man, the cause which best furthers the international trade of the world, and which best, conduces to the welfare and prosperity of thi t empire. Tneed not tall gon that Chine has always been, and is now, prey silver monometallic. I will not take up your time with a description of the various forms of currency, nor with the intricacies of the retail coin known as "cash"; suffice it to say, that in the wholesale trade and in all payment of customs duties the metallic medium is either uncoined surer by weight, known as the tael, or the silver coin known as the Mexican dollar. This is a coin actually coined in Mexico and imported as there is demand for it. It is of a certain known weight and fineness, and generally passes at about 70-100 of a tael, though the rate varies from time to time according as import or export duty on the Mexican dollars are scarce or not. There is no
dollar; its value therefore keeps touch with that of the general mass of silver bullion in the world. It is a sound and honest coin, for it will stand the test of the melting pot, the only true test. A similar coin, Imay remark, has recently been introduced, termed the British dollar, which is coined in Bombay for the Eastern banks. It is current in Singapore and the Straits, where it will replace the Japanese yen, but as yet it has hardly found its way into China.
THE EFFECT OF THE PALL IN SILVER, fall in the gold value of silver on British pers on nom to speak of the effect of the trade with the Far East. The effects may be divided into three classes. (1) The effect on capitalists, bankers, and others who have English capital invested in the east. (2) The direct effect on trade as manifested through changes in the level of prices. (3) The indirect or economic effect on production, operating through a disturbance of the Be grey between prices and wages. As regards the first I need not take up your time. It is obvious that if anyone remitted, say £1,000, for investment in silver securities at any time before during the fall he would never since have been able to get it back again except at a severe loss. All those whose incomes depend upon silver remittances have felt~ similar loss. Many promising institutions have been either wrecked or had their usefulness greatly marred by this cause, and for no other fault than that the directors did not see clearly ahead what was going to happen. But losses of this kind, though sharp and severely felt at the time, are soon got over. Companies close and are wound up. Bad debts are written off and a new leaf is turned. There is not the lingering lasting effect which the other two classes produce. The second, point is the effect on trade through fluctuations in prices caused by fluctuations in the relative value of the metals, or, as it is called, by loss of the par of exchange. The currency of China for wholesale trade being, as I have said, either Mexican dollars or uncoined silver, both of which are free to enter and leave the country in unlimited quantities, it follows that its value or purchasing power is simply that of silver on the open market of the world. Any change, therefore, in the gold value of silver immediately affects the exchanges between Shanghai and London. ba IRRE ily keeps touch with the rise and fall of silver, saving, of course, temporary fluctuations produced by local demand. But the exchange is the tie that connects the gold price of London with the silver price in Shanghai. Given that the exchange is constant—that is, that you have a fixed par between the two countries—then prices in both countries move together; whatever raises them in London will raise them in Shanghai. It is immaterial whether you quote price in gold or in silver. The percentage of rise and fall is precisely the same. But now break this par of exchange and you introduce a new element altogether, gold and silver prices no longer go hand in hand. You have gold prices rising while for prices are steady, or you may have silver prices rising while gold are steady, or you may have one rising and the other falling at the same time. Everything depends now on the nexus between the two metals.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.