quired for circulation in the country. It should be mentioned that this is merely a temporary measure, and that the Commissariat of Finance will use every endeavor to have the required silver coined henceforth in the S. S. S. R. For the time being silver has been issued in a sufficient measure.

NEWS FROM LENINGRAD.

[Summary from Moscow Pravda, No. 70, March 27, 1924.]

New mint for copper coin. The works, formerly known as Old Parviainen, which have been idle since 1919, have now been handed over to the Telegraph and Telephone Trust, which will adapt the works for making copper coins.

COINING OF HALF-ROUBLE PIECES.

[Translation from Moscow Izvestia, No. 72, March 28, 1924.]

The supposed order to coin 40,000,000 pieces of half-rouble coins abroad will be withdrawn, as the Northwestern Industrial Bureau has found it possible to coin the half-rouble pieces in Leningrad. The investigation of the Krasnaya Zarya" works, where it was intended to coin the copper money, and the "Krasny Viborzhts" works has proved that the coining of half-rouble pieces can be executed by special methods, discovered by Leningrad engineers, without any additional equipment.

COINING OF COINS IN ODESSA.

Summary from Moscow Izvestia, No. 75, April 1, 1924, Odessa, March 29.]

The Commissariat of Finance has agreed in principle to the coining of copper coins at the Odessa combine of electro-metallic works. Work will begin in the fall. Negotiations for the coining of silver coins are also in progress.

SOUTH AFRICA.

SILVER COINS IN THE UNION OF SOUTH AFRICA.

[William E. Vaughan, jr., secretary of trade commissioner, Johannesburg, February 2.] In order to dispose of the large surplus of British silver coin which the Union Treasury alleges exists in South Africa and to make room for the new silver coin to be minted by the Pretoria mint the imperial Government, on representations from the treasury, has agreed to withdraw reissuable British imperial silver coins of 0.925 standard of fineness in the union at the rate of £100,000 per annum, according to the auditor general's report for 1922-23. In addition, it is to take back immediately at nominal value an extra £380,000 of such coin, the latter sum being approximately half the nominal value of the new lowervalue British imperial silver coins of 0.500 standard of fineness that had been imported into the union up to July, 1922.

The arrangement with regard to the £100,000 per annum is that British imperial coins of 0.925 fineness to this value, and also all worn coins without limitation, will be taken into the Pretoria mint for conversion into bullion, the imperial Government paying the union government the difference between the nominal and the bullion value thereof. The bullion will be reduced to the South African mint standard of fineness, 0.830, and minted into union coinage, and the profit on the £100,000 (taking silver at the present market price of 2/7d. per ounce) will amount to approximately £65,000, less working expenses. (Commerce Reports, March 24, 1924.)

SPAIN.

NEW SPANISH COINS PROPOSED

[James G. Burke, assistant trade commissioner in charge.]

MADRID, SPAIN, March 11, 1924. This office has been informed that the Spanish Government is studying a new coinage system, with pieces of 25, 15, and 10 centimos to replace the heavy copper coins in use. It is proposed to use an alloy composed of nickel, aluminium, and copper. The weight and the uncleanliness of the copper coins of these denominations have been commented on for several years, and it is thought

probable that the government is at last to take steps to withdraw them and substitute the new coins.

All-nickel coins were seriously considered, but experience with these coins in other countries shows that the brittleness of this metal often damages the dies. It is now quite certain that the alloy mentioned above will be used."

As to the prospects for American business in furnishing these metals, I am soon to have an estimate of the quantity required, and the conditions which will govern contracts for supplying them. I hope that we shall soon be able to furnish some definite information on it.

[By clerk to Trade Commissioner H. G. McMillan, Constantinople, Turkey. Source: Stamboul, Feb

ruary 5, 1924.]

FEBRUARY 18, 1924.

Niazi Assim Bey, director of the national treasury, is quoted on the subject of new coins:

"The new coins will be struck in denominations of piasters 5, 10, 20. They will be made of bronze; the quantity of each denomination has not yet been determined. The people will be given an opportunity to exchange some of the smaller paper money that is now in circulation for the new coins.

"The National Assembly has commissioned the Minister of Finance to look after the details involved in this issue. The metal to be used in striking these coins is of very good quality. The new coins will number about 40,000,000. "The Government has also decided to issue gold coins which will bear on one side a crescent and star and the words, Angora, April 23, 1336,' and on the other side the Republic of Turkey surrounded by a sword and two oak branches."

HERMAN G. MCMILLAN,

Clerk to Trade Commissioner.

2. NOTES ON CHINESE CURRENCY CONDITIONS AND NEED FOR REFORM, BY H. N. LAWRIE, ASSISTANT TO COMMISSION.

THE CHINESE ECONOMIC BULLETIN.

[Compiled and published by the Chinese Government Bureau of Economic Information. Head office. 1-A Chang Pu Ho, Nan Ho Yen, Peking; Shanghai office, 20 Museum Road, Shanghai. No. 152, January 19, 1924.]

The Chinese Government Bureau of Economic Information is a nonpolitical organization which provides economic, commercial, financial, and industrial information relating to the Republic of China.

Inquiries on subjects of this nature from responsible persons or organizations will be attended to.

GOVERNMENT MINTS IN CHINA.

The first Government mint in China was organized at Canton in 1889 through the efforts of the late Viceroy Chang Chih-tung. Before that date, sycee and brass cash were the prevailing currency in the interior of China. In the treaty ports Mexican dollars sometimes took the place of sycee. The Canton Mint at first confined its operations to the issue of dollar and silver fractional coins. In 1900 it was authorized to issue also 10-cash copper coins. The privilege of establishing a mint was granted to Fukien Province in the same year. As a result of an edict issued in 1901, Government mints were established in Chihli, Shantung, Hunan, Hupeh, Honan, Kiangsu, Anhwei, Kiangsi, Szechwan, Chekiang, Fengtien, and Kirin Provinces. Three mints specially designed to issue copper coins also came into existence at Tientsin, Tsingkiangpu, Kiangsu Province, and Foochow, Fukien Province, respectively. In 1905 Kwangsi, Yunnan, and Kweichow Provinces each obtained permission from the Government to establish mints for the issue of coppers.

By that time there were in all 20 Government mints located in 17 different Provinces. Indiscriminate issue ultimately led to the flooding of the money

market with a variety of coins differing from one another in weight and fineness. To check this currency chaos the board of revenue forbade the establishment of any new mints in the Provinces, and issued orders to the provincial mints limiting new coin issues. This step, however, did not prove adequate to remedy the confusion, and the board had to resort to more far-reaching reforms. In 1906, at the instance of the board, an edict was issued reducing the number of mints in the country to nine. The mint in Shantung and that at Tientsin were merged into one, those in Hunan and Hupeh, in Anhwei, Kiangsi and Kiangsu, in Chekiang and Fukien, and in Kwangtung and Kwangsi were similarly dealt with. The mints in Fengtien, Honan, Szechwan, and Yunnan were retained. They were all placed under the direct control of the board of revenue. Attempts were then made to standardize coin issues. The mint at Tientsin was made the head or central mint, which issued a set of new, uniform molds to replace those used by the provincial mints. An official system was drawn up for the Government mints. For the Tientsin mint a director general, under title of chiento, and a codirector were appointed, and for each of the provincial mints a chief, known as chungpei, and an assistant chief. Each mint was also divided into sections under separate sectional chiefs. These efforts at standardizing the currency, however, were checked by the outbreak of the revolution in 1911.

During the mutiny of March 2, 1912, the Tientsin central mint was looted and its plant destroyed. What remained was removed to the Peiyang mint, which was established at Tientsin in the Tsing dynasty to mint copper coins. In 1914 a new plant was installed on the site of the former Tientsin central mint. A Chiento, or director general, was appointed, and it was reinstated to its former status as the central mint. The Tientsin mint, of which the Peiyang mint is now only a branch, is still considered the central mint, although it has long ceased to exercise authority over the provincial mints.

The Tientsin central mint, under the present official system, is divided into three departments-the general department, the works department, and the assaying and analysis department, each under a departmental chief. There are 4 senior and 4 junior technical experts, 4 inspectors, 1 secretary, and 18 clerks. In the Tientsin branch mint only 2 senior and 2 junior technical experts and 12 clerks are employed.

The mints in the Provinces are now quite independent of the Tientsin central mint or the Government and are completely under the control of the provincial officials. Some of the provincial mints, which were closed in the Tsing dynasty as the result of the mergers, have been reopened. The mints now operating in the Provinces, not including the central and branch mints at Tientsin, are the. Fengtien mint at Mukden, the Kiangsu mint at Nanking, the Hupeh mint at Wuchang, the Szechwan mint at Chengtu, the Kwangtung mint at Canton, the Yunnan mint at Kunming, the Chekiang mint at Hangchow, and the Auhwei mint at Anking. A new mint was opened at Kalgan last year, and a mint at Shanghai is in process of organization.

Attempts have recently been made by the Ministry of Finance to adopt a uniform official system for all the Government mints in the country. As the mints in the Provinces differ widely from one another in their equipment and working capacity, the ministry has divided them into two classes according to their importance. The central mint at Tientsin and the new mint at Shanghai are graded in the first class and the other mints in the Provinces in the second class. The chief or the director of a first-class mint has the title of Chiente, and his official status is in the "Directly appointed" class. The chiefs of the second-class mints are officials of the recommended" class, ranking one grade lower than the first-class mint chiefs.

An ordinance governing national currency was promulgated in 1914, and in pursuance of the injunctions of the Government, the Tientsin central mint first issued the Republican dollar, which bears the effigy of President Yuan Shih-kai on one side and two rice ears on the other. In 1915 the mints at Nanking, Canton, and Wuchang also turned out these new dollars. For the purpose of standardization the provincial mints got their molds from the Tientsin mint. The weight of the new coin was fixed at 7 mace and 2 candareens, and its fineness was at first determined at 90 per cent, but later on was changed to 89 per cent. To prevent debased coins from being issued by the Provinces, provincial mints were required to send sample coins to the Ministry of Finance for inspection before circulation took place.

In 1916 the mints at Tientsin and Nanking began to issue subsidiary coins, which were designed to replace the old depreciated fractional coins and thereby to eliminate the confusion and the complications in the difference of the ex

change rate between the dollar and subsidiary coins resulting from the depreciation of the latter. This example was followed by other provincial mints. Fr a time the new subsidiary coins were circulated at par, but political disturbance frustrated the plan of the Government. Provincial chiefs now look upon the mints in their Provinces as sources of revenue. Handsome profit- have been made by issuing debased subsidiary coins. Some of the provincial mints, finding it more profitable to issue subsidiary coins, have stopped casting delar coins and have devoted themselves entirely to the turning out of 20-cent pieces and copper coins. The market, being flooded with such debased coins, the public has to accept them at a discount. At present the exchange rate of the new subsidiary coins on the Peking market is about 10 per cent below their

face value.

THE SHANGHAI MİNT-STILL FAR DISTANT-AMERICA'S VIEWS—A STANDARD DOLLAR. [The China Press, December 9, 1923.]

"Open the Shanghai mint" is the cry of a section of the American financial press. Conceived in 1918, the completion of the mint has been delayed for the past five years chiefly because of conflicting interests and the three million Mexican dollars required to assure the installation of the machinery actually on the ground and its initial operation. The Shanghai mint was financed by the Chinese banks, who advanced $2,500,000, and the $3,000,000 that is now required to complete the mint could be provided by the Chinese banks if the Chinese Government is able to offer satisfactory security for this loan. Of the $2,500,000 already advanced, the central government has returned two millions, principally out of the salt surplus.

The method of payment has been very dissatisfactory to the bankers, who found the money for the partial construction of the Shanghai mint. For two years payment was made at the rate of $70,000 per month, but afterwards the liquidation of the loan was done spasmodically. The $70,000 came every three months instead of monthly, and this has so influenced the Chinese bankers that they are now demanding proper security for further advances in this connection. Title deeds of the mint and machinery, etc., however sound they might appear to the nonbusiness man, are not considered liquid security to the banks. These are still held as collateral security by the banks that had advanced the $2,500,000 against the half million dollars still unpaid by the Chinese Gov

ernment.

The Shanghai mint project calls for the adoption of a standard silver dollar for all of China to replace the varied and nondescript currencies and money values that now exist. The economic regeneration of China can be assured through the standardization of its money system, and this is feasible through the opening of the Shanghai mint.

NO SIGN OF ACTIVITY.

It is hoped that means will be found to finance the project. At present there appears no sign of any activity in this connection. The foreign banks are willing to advance the money but insist on controlling the mint's business. Things are not in a very happy condition, for the mint contractor has not been fully paid and some two million dollars' worth of American machinery is not fully paid for. The machinery for the mint, which was manufactured in the United States in the plant from which came the machinery of the American Government mint at Philadelphia and other American mints, is most modern, and was purchased through the American Trading Company and the Wah Chang Trading Corporation.

The United States Department of Commerce recently made the following statement with regard to the projected Shanghai mint:

"The prominent part taken by Americans in this enterprise is reported not to have met with the approval of certain foreign interests representing one of the largest banking groups in the Orient. It is significant to note that the financial accommodation for the purchase of the American machinery had to be secured from this group."

It is well known that the machinery has not been fully paid for by the Chinese Government. To understand the position better, it is necessary to mention that the scheme for the Shanghai mint was first launched at the November, 1920, meeting of the British chambers of commerce in China assembled at Shanghai The Government of China was to build and operate at Shanghai a single sole central mint of China for output of Chinese silver dollars, but under "efficient control." A foreign associate director general and foreign staff and head account

ant were to assist China in managing that mint. The talk about free and unlimited coinage of Chinese silver dollars loomed large in the propaganda connected with that mint-"free coinage," that is, subject to the 2 per cent mint fee. The fee was reduced to 11⁄2 per cent in the mint loan agreement of March 3, 1921. Actually, the Chinese enjoy free coinage at their own mints subject only to 6 "li" fee per dollar. The actual circulation would be paper currency notes, also to be issued from the Shanghai mint, redeemable in silver dollars, while all now circulating silver dollars in China-Chinese, Mexican, and British-would continue legal tender.

PROMOTE FREE COINAGE.

The aim of the Shanghai mint would apparently be to promote the free coinage of silver dollars. In reality that is what China enjoys via her own 17 mints. The plan for the Shanghai mint was projected by the Hongkong and Shanghai Bank and the British chambers of commerce in China. In a friendly speech then delivered by the manager, Mr. G. H. Stitt, it was mentioned that the Indian mints operated at 2 per cent mint fee up till 1893. But the same 2 per cent mint fee proved disastrous to the Hongkong mint in 1867, the British Government having built a mint in Hongkong in 1867 to coin silver dollars for the Orient, subject to 2 per cent fee. The dollars could not possibly be minted with the 2 per cent fee, in competition with Mexican and other dollars, free of the fee and equally acceptable or more so. The mint was scrapped in a few months, and the machinery was junked and sold to Japan in 1868 and the dollar buried till 1895. Hongkong has never had a mint since.

Probably a recognition of these facts has caused the commission for the new Shanghai mint to be eventually fixed at 12 per cent instead of 2 per cent as originally decided. If properly managed, the Shanghai mint should prove economically beneficial to this country. Probably with the present new cabinet in power in Peking means will be found to finance the project and prevent its political control by outside interests. Probably the newly organized Silver Export Association might divert and concentrate a great deal of its influence toward the encouragement of this Shanghai mint completion.

LOCAL CHINESE BANKERS ARRANGING For loan to FINANCE MINT OPENING. [The China Press, January 19, 1924.]

NEGOTIATIONS NOW BEING CARRIED ON SO THAT SHANGHAI MINT MAY BE COMPLETED WITHOUT DELAY AND BEGIN OPERATIONS.

PEKING, January 15.

Because of lack of working capital, the Shanghai mint has been closed. It is reported that in view of the failure to negotiate a loan from foreign source, the local Chinese bankers in Shanghai have decided to provide the funds necessary for the resumption of operations.

Mr. Shen Tso-shu, president of the Shanghai Chinese Bankers' Association, yesterday declared that negotiations for the loan to enable the mint to resume operation are being carried on between him and the Government representatives, while the terms for the contract are not yet available. He emphatically denied that the loan will be used for any political purpose as reported in certain quarters, stating that the Shanghai bankers had not made any loan for political purposes for a considerable time.

This loan, Mr. Shen said, is solely for the purpose of enabling the mint authorities to take delivery of the machinery purchased abroad, which are now being held in the foreign godowns and costing $20,000 monthly for storage alone, and to pay off the contractors who are building the mint buildings. The creditor bankers will have strict supervision over the expenditure and the Government will merely appoint its director to coin the dollars.

The proposal to erect the mint was made in 1921 when there was considerable agitation for the unification of the currency system in China and it was proposed at that time to mint large quantities of silver dollars in order to scrap the present local currency unit, the tael. In April, 1921, the Peking Government succeeded in raising a loan from the Chinese bankers amounting to $2,500,000, which was the estimated figure for the cost of the construction of the plant on the Soochow Creek.

Shortly after the purchase of the land and machinery, it was found that more than double the amount of the estimate was required to complete the work, and before the work was done, it had to be suspended for want of funds.

The present director of the mint is Mr. Chu Yu-chi, nephew of Mr. Hsiung Ping-chi, former premier.