$300,000,000 Hoarded In an interview with an "Asahi" correspondent, on the subject of Silver, Mr. Chang Kung-chuan, Vice-Governor of the Bank of China, spoke of the proposal by the foreign banks at Shanghai that two kinds of notes on a tael basis should be issued. These notes would be redeemed after three or six months. They planned to have two denominations, ie., one thousand taels, and ten thousand taels. To guarantee the redemption of those notes they decided to provide gold and bonds in London. But as soon as the Chinese modern and native banks got wind of that proposal, they offered strong objection. As a result, this scheme fell through. The Chinese held that as the silver market both in China and America was very tight, the export trade would greatly suffer if those notes were allowed to be issued in Shanghai. The foreign bankers in Shanghai and Hongkong contended that the market would be much improved at the time when exports of the spring season fall due as the term of redemption is very short. It was the intention of the foreign bankers that if those notes met with the approval of the Chinese merchants, similar notes would be issued for 2 second period. Unfortunately, their scheme did not prove to be successful.
No Sicx or Leprovemr: doubt very much if the silver market in China can be improved in the near future," he said. "Since the outbreak of the European war the exports from China have only amounted to 200,000,000 taels. Since the failure of Yuan Shi-kai' monarchical movement, banknotes have been greatly depreciated, and bandits have been rampant everywhere. In order to ensure safety, people are hoarding their silver in the ground. Because so much silver has been buried, the native trade has been hampered to a great extent. According to reports to hand, the export trade has been decreased by $100,000,000 annually while $00,000,000 worth of silver has been stored up by the people within the last three years. For the leat six or seven years, all the mints in China have produced about $600,000,000 worth of silver coins.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.