Used as we are to vagaries in Chinese money, one province does not pay much attention to the coinage of another. So it may be news to many readers that so near as in Shantung 50-cent pieces are circulate ed and much in use. We do not know whether they are still minted: the piece recently sent us by a correspondent bears the head of Yuan Shih-kai: but in any reformation of the coinage one hopes their use will become general. About the size of an English florin, they are convenient to carry and if they were really popularized would undoubtedly tend to bring down prices. For it cannot be too often emphasized that the expense of living in any country is largely influenced by the value of the common unit of coinage. The dollar in America and in China, the shilling in England, the frane in France, the guilder in Holland: in each of these countries the same article is priced in very much the same number of these coins quite irrespective of their different values. The rule is not, of course, mathematically exact, but it is near enough so to be a fairly safe guide as to the relative cost of life. If, then. the 50-cent piece were cirenlat. ed all over China and were given a distinctive name, a most important point, in which people could think, the ultimate effect in reducing prices could hardly fail to be felt. For which reason we fear it is not likely to be done. The people who control coinage do not. particularly desire low prices.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.