A long time seems to have elapsed since anybody in Shanghai bothered much about roubles. For instance it is months since the banks had even an unofficial rate, nor have we heard that the Chinese speculators, once very fond of them, have displayed any great desire to dabble further. One of the latest papers from home, however, happens to contain something in the nature of a quotation, the statement being made that in recent commercial transactions with Russia 500,000 roubles were calculated to be the equivalent of $1 gold. It is really surprising to find people taking the trouble to arrive at any such figure, for to be of any value be commercially, bs mess will have to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.