The Small Money Question To the Editor of the "Nonri-Cixa Datwy News"
Sin—I have a collection of dixty and clean scraps of paper, collected during the the past few weeks alleged, to present money. 'These scraps ore of different sizes, colours and deaminations, pr ied in one oF two three' different languages, Ihave been issued by vane utility: companies and stores in hai, Most Tam. told are negotiable to the inarticulate rickshaw coolie, some to stores or hongs by favour, others (if their origin is traceable) to the issuer only, The more official scraps of paper issued by the various banks for sums under a dollar can now only be obtained by paying a premium of 30 cents for every ten dollars worth.
'Small money is just as much a public utility as the telephone, light, Water and power. Is it not possible for the Municipal Council, Shanghai's own seigniory, to issue paper money of, say, 8, 10, 20 and 50 cents denomination for the public's use? The loss and destruction of some of it by natural causes should more than pay for the cost of issuing: it would be of to everyone, but especially to the poorer in this work's wealth; and it would eliminate at the outset, or nearly the outset, the ramp which is now being built up by exchange shops and other experts in low finance. Failing the Municipal Counetl, could not one of the foreign banks take the ead?
T have not mentioned stamps (ranked and untranked),-which are not negotiable at the Post Oflee; bus tokens, and other substitutes which fare even more familiar now than the often unidentified serap: of paper, Fre Cents, Shanghai, Nov
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.