Diplomatic Body's Strong Representation to Peking We understand that the Chinese Tramway Company has withdrawn the notice, issued in conjunction with the companies of the French and International Settlements, against acceptance of light-weight copper coins. Pressure has apparently been brought to bear in this quarter, chiefly upon the ground that refusal to accept the coins is a great hardship upon the Chinese poor and labourers, but the foreign companies are determined to make a firm stand in the matter, and for reasons of urgent public importance.
The seriousness of the matter may be judged from the fact that quite recently a consignment of 16,000,000 coins of extremely poor quality and manufacture reached Shanghai, shipped from Wuhu under the necessary Customs Bond, and have been placed on the market through certain Chinese banks. It appears that these coins,' or at any rate a large proportion of them, are shipped from Japan in the form of discs and are disposed of at very cheap rates, the purchasers stamping roughly with the current design and passing them on to the banks.
It should be noted that, three days before the Shanghai Tramway Company notified the banks that acceptance of these coins would be refused, a notice to the same effect had already been posted outside some of the exchange shops. This sudden move by the Tramway Company was not altogether appreciate ed by the Banks, who promptly replied with a threat of boycott—the suggestion being made that if the company insisted on refusal of the light weight coins the Banks in their turn would decline to receive any copper cents at all from the company.
The Shanghai Tramway Company just as promptly answered that if the boycott were attempted, the company would enter into the copper exchange business on its own account, and supply exchange shops and industrial concerns in need of them, and upon this the suggestion of the boycott disappeared.
Appeals have been made to the Tramway Company to accept these coins in the interests of poor Chinese who will otherwise suffer loss. It is true that this may be so, temporarily, until the debased coinage has been cleared off the market, but it should be pointed out that the poor will be gainers the long run, since the clearance will restore genuine coins to their normal purchasing power. We understand that the Tramway Company's action has already had a noticeable effect, and it is hoped that before very long the bulk of the debased coinage will be forced off the market.
The position taken up by the! Tramway Companies, who have been serious losers by the inferior coinage, has received strong official support. The Doyen of the Diplomatic Body at Peking has forwarded to the Waichiaopu a copy of Mr. D. McColl's memorandum on the subject, and has expressed the opinion of the Diplomatic Body that the time has arrived when some restriction should be placed on the issue of copper coinage, of whatever standard, by provincial authorities. It has been pointed out to the Waichiaopu that depreciation can only be arrested by the complete stoppage of new issue unti] the market value of copper coin shall have reached approximately to 1/100 a dollar. In the interests alike of Chinese and foreign merchants, the Diplomatic Body urges that immediate steps to this end be taken by the Chinese Government.
According to the Shanghar "Journal of Commerce," the Chinese General Chamber of Commerce has been notified by the Bureau of Currency Affairs that the provincial Mints have been ordered to cease the production of copper coins, and that the Customs Bureau has been requested to suspend the importation of light-weight: copper coins.
The light-weight copper coin scandal seems to have reached an acute stage. At a' meeting of tailors held on Wednesday, the Chinese knights of the needle decided not to accept them.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.