Sept. 27.
In his interesting letter on the fever of speculation that sweeps America, our San Francisco correspondent refers to "the pernicious chit system" of the Far East "now happily less popular than it used to be." It is several years since this particular writer left Shanghai, and we wonder whether, if he now returned, he would be quite so sure of the chit's declining popularity. Probably there is now a larger proportion of the population who do not sign chits than in the days when "everybody knew everybody,'—anxious patres familias who have learnt that ready money payments and the discount, though meagre, to be got therewith, are the surest way to' make a small income stretch round the family circle But temptation to sign chits springs up about us as we the flowery path to the everlasting bonfire, in ways not dreamed of by our more simple minded forebears, Even so lately as before the war there were no dance halls, where all the basis of credit we need is assurance and a decent coat; and the large number of garages, ready 10 send a motor-car anywhere at any hour, must have added much to the monthly expenses of those who formerly walked, took ricsha, or, with luck, got a lift in some one's carriage, There is "no need to enlarge on the evils of the chit system, so. often denounced, yet, pace our correspondent, at least as flourishing as ever, if not more so. Obviously one can only spend money when one has it, which is by no means alway: But a chit can always be signed, with the inevitable result that the month's accounting shows a much larger sum due than we ever thought and the monthly cheque is mortgaged many dates ahead, But our San Francisco correspondent is probably right in one respect, namely: that an increasing number of peopl who used to take life lightly enough and were sure enough of their positions to sign chit and run up bills, with a fa expectation of an occasional slice of luck to put all straight, finding it absolutely imperative to draw in their horns. A week or two ago a correspondent sent us a rough budget for a family of four living on $600 a month, to illustrate the increased cost of life in Shanghai. His letter drew one reply, also from a family of four including two own-up daughters, but with jot so much salary as $600 per menser." ending with the simple advice to "grit your teeth and 0 on." No one else seemed to think the matter worth discussing. Yet going back six. or seven years, we remember receiving shoals of letters on the "HEL" The inference surely is plain. People have found that salaries in business houses cannot be raised because business is not good enough warrant it, and they have simply settled down grimly to make the best of things, consoled at-least that "the axe" has not fallen upon them, A stranger. Shanghai, visiting one of the dance halls or greyhound courses, might imagine that the community thought of nothing but pleasure, But there is a very large and continually growing number of households, Which pass unnoticed, taking) their amusements much more soberly and inexpensively, with anxious eye on schooling costs now and fitting out ex-Penses in days to come, These fare the people for whom Shanghai is home; and not the least of the evil of chits and. easy credit is that they tend indirect ly to send up prices all round, and thus unfainly to hit the very people who by trying to. pay their way: are most deserving of consideration, One factor which undoubtedly contributes to the expensivenesa of life in Shanghai, quite apart from increased Customs due and taxation of locally produced necessaries, is the high value of the unit of coinage, namely the dollar, and the comparative contempt' with which its subdivisions are treated, Coppers and threepences making up two shillings have a tangible value in terms of food and even clothing in England.—Theic equivalent in ten and twenty-cent pieces is no more than 0 many riesha fares, Thirty dollars (assuming a. normal and not the present depressed exchange) is actually not half £3, even at the decreased purchasing price of the pound to-day. We habitually think in. term: too high, not from extravagance but because there is nothing else to think in, This phenomenon is common in all countries, that costs of living vary with' tke worth of the unit in which people think, Some years ago a step ig the right direction was taken in Shantung by the coining of half-dollars, but these, we believe, have ceased to be minted, In any case, to give them the proper psychological value, a definite name should be invented for them: people think in shillings, dollars, lire, florins, but not' in fifty-cent pieces, Perhaps the most practi cal scheme, at least as regard Shanghai, is one which the late Mr, A. G, Stephen, when man: ager here of the Hongkong Shanghai Bank, warmly advocat~ ed, namely, that the Municipal Council should issue its own coinage, This was particularly recomniended as a remedy for the dollar's decreasing worth in silver, and the appalling depreciation of subsidiary coinage especially copper. But it may, safely be assumed that a stable currency would have a valuable influence in regularizing pri That the project would have "worked," was actually shown by the fact that the omnibus tokens of early days came to be eagerly sought for by coolie: on account of their steady value, and rapidly disappeared from the "buses. However, the Council rejected the scheme, if it ever seriously considered it, We must do the best we may with such dollars as we can get hold of, and undoubtedly that best fs to be done by forswearing chits.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.