An Appalling State of Aifaira:
Light Weight Coins Imported by the Million In the notice posted up in the tramcars, announcing that in future brass cents cannot be accepted as payment for fares, lies a remarkable story of the suicidal course which is being taken by those responsible for China's currency policy.
Only two months' ago there appeared in circulation considerable quantities of new copper coins of poor quality. These have accelerate ed the depreciation of small money to an alarming degree. Mr. Donald McColl, general manager of the International Settlement tramway system, who is a foremost authority out here on currency problem, in an interview with" a representative of the "'North-China Daily News" yesterday, said that the shameful policy of exploitation by the mints was aided by popular preference for a state of affairs in which people could obtain the greatest number of coins to the dollar, Thus for smal] payments such as tram fares, matches and other sundries smal] money was exclusively used.
In a country like China, he continued, vast numbers of the people are paid in copper " coins and adjustments have not been made which compensate for depreciation: The purchasing power of the people has, therefore, been reduced to a very low ebb, Again the position is aggravated by H.C.L. In a country like China with the population poor at the best of times, a depreciated and further depreciating—subsidiary currency is greatly intensifying the struggle for existence.
Disaster AHEAD, "Tt is no exaggeration," declared Mr. McColl, "to say that the currency policy of China to-day, unless promptly remedied, coz searcely fail to have far-reaching and disastrous consequences."
The tramway companies were obliged to issue instructions their employees not to accept the new tokens in payment of fares. The reasons for this departure are strikingly illustrated in the following figures which Mr. McColl gave our representative.
In 1909 the number of passengers carried amounted to 11,772,715. The gross revenue from each passenger was 4.84 cents; the loss by depreciation of subsidiary coinage was 20.25 per cent., leaving a nett receipt per capita of 3.88.
For the first quarter of 1921 the number of passengers carrie@ was) equal to about 116 millions per annum, The gross receipts per head were only 2.28 cents. The nett revenue per passenger was as low as 1.59 cents, representing a loss by depreciat: on of subsidiary coinage of 30.29 per cent, It is estimated that at least 3,080,000,000, copper cents are in circulation, owing to enormous additions te this currency during the past few
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.