July 16.
Tue following remarks upon! the general position of the compradore order as a medium of payment in Shanghai are inspired by an incident which occurred during the present week, A resident in the Settlement, having a bill to pay to th Electricity Department of the Municipal Council, sent a compradore order in settlement, and had it returned to him with a letter to the effect that the Department no longer employed shroffs, and that consumers were asked to make payment either at the head office or the Nanking Road branch of the Department. In response to a telephone query as to how most easily this could be done, he was informed that a cheque would be taken in acceptance of the bill, but that as so} many: worthless compradore or-[ders had been received in recent, months, there could be no discrimination between parties and that the same rule must apply to all. Accordingly payment by cheque was made, but the new rule of the Department seemed to raise the question of the general position of compradore o1 ders in Shanghai, and it was a natural inference that if an institution of this kind, which has probably one of the largest incomes to receive from the public, had decided upon this attitude, the compradore order must be doomed. It is true that the shroffs have disappeared from this and other Municipal departments, and that the English law which calls upon a debtor to search out his creditor and pay him is in force, and while doubtless the diehards will kick against such a measure, there is no doubt that a very little extra trouble on the part of the debtor jean save a good deal of money this way. That, however, has nothing to do with the question we are discussing, which is, What is the status of the compradore order to be in future?
The question of shroffs need {not enter into this matter at all, but the point is whether the banks are prepared, as they have been in the past, to allow compradore orders to go through their books and thereafter thei collecting shroffs to secure payter) ment.
'So far as we can learn, after ing) the banks have no objection to continue doing so, It is true that one banker admitted that compradore orders! were a nuisance in that compradores were often prone to pay native order of a few days' sight ahead, and moreover when it came to the collection of compradore orders for two or three dollars from people living out at the back of beyond in the western district, they positi very refused to undertake the work. For compradore orders on firms in the central district, however, there seems -to be no hesitation on their part in passing them through their books in the same way as cheques, and furthermore,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.