The question of a monetary system, practical, stable and convenient, for this land of Corea is one which its friends and servants should take into careful consideration. That this question has been in most lands a difficult one to solve and is now one of the great problems before the world is an earnest that Corean statesmen have not been necessarily incapable because they have not mastered the science.
That the copper cash is indispensable in this land goes, of course, without saying thit there should be coins of higher denommations isthe appeal of all who carry on transactions of any importance, and especially of the new commercial interests of foreigners in Corea which involve the handling of large sums. Corea can hardly afford to hinder these interests and block the wheels of enterprise by maintaining a mon-otary system which costs one-tenth of one per cent for transportation alone, even in minor transactions, and which increases with a rapid ratio as the distance between buyer and seller increases.
As in all countries, Corea's first medium of exchange was barter; then came a period when iron rods, pointed like arrows, were in use. There have been coins discovered whose markings seem to carry them back to the dynasty of Kija, 1111-193 B.C. These are by far the earliest coins. Coins did not come into customary use until about 1200 A.D. backed by the Government and is above In Japan paper money is issued which is
suspicion. It is dificult to maintain that any Government is able to create value by its own word. It is difficult to maintain that if a Government marks 47 cents' worth of silver worth 100 cents, the world will recognise this 53 cents that has been created from nothing into stable something which will be "as good as gold." Tt is the old question put to the long-bearded free-silverite in one of the Western States in America when he paused for a question from his audience: "If the government stamped your whiskers hay do you think you could find any jackass who would eat them?"
Thus value must be intrinsic in any case, whether the bulk of the value is in evidence, or is vouched for by the word of the supreme power of the land, as being in safe custody, and which that ower will exchange, any business hour, for the voucher.
In lands where the power of the land is stable and unquestionably sincere, it is possible for actual value to be represented by paper vouchers which will pass, so long as the integrity of the country is above sus-Pern docs. where society is not stable, where society has little confidence in itself, it is a foregone conclusion that value must, in every case, be both intrivsicand in evidence.
In this case, when large transactions are made and values are high it is convenient that a small bulk of valuable medium be substituted for a large bulk of subsidiary, In China, where the case is much as' Cores, an ingot of silver is used, by name a sycee.
Tt would be no small encouragement to all commercial enterprises of the present, and which we trust the future will bring to Corea, could the financial department of the Corean Government bring into existence silver coins of various denominations.
The use of the present chipped Japanese yen, banished from Japan to Formosa and Corea, is doubtless a temporary arrangement and is notacredit to the financial condition of the land.
With the resources at Corea's disposal in the way of silver mines it should be hoped that she will take a deep interest in this matter of monetary system. It is probable that silver coins of several values could be created. In this case there would be slowly created a financial system that would be a credit to this country. Such a consummation would have no little effect upon commercial convenience and would do away with the present system which bespeaks a pastoral age instead of the twen-teeth century.—The Independent.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.