The Hawaiian gazette. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1865-1918, 1872-11-13
Exchange.

In the columns of our neighbor of the
AdratiSer, the Semi-Weekly of the
9Th inst. and also in the Weekly issue Of
Saturday, be found an article on Elk
change, which displays no little wisdom
and very wide stretch of the magma
ton on the present condition of the money
market in this country. Among other
things, the writer says that,
Speaking Of the scarcity of exchange leads
US TO remark upon the statement made in the
last GAZETTE under the head of /" Commercial, ="
plenty for exchange at par As it is fact well
known that but very little exchange was to be
had when the last steamer left for San Francisco
even at two per cent, VIC are at loss to know
who has money in plenty for the whalers, at par.
There may be few persons here who will buy
whalers' bills on New Bedford to cancel their
debts in that city or Boston, but our liabilities
are mostly in California and we have but few,1in
the East. Consequently, it would appear that
the whalers will have to pay for the money they
may need, as well as for other supplies"
Now, this is certainly very good-for
nonsense. That the fact that " little
exchange was to be had when the last
steamer left for San Francisco, even at
two per cent" should mystify anyone as
to who has money for whalers at par, is
certainly very remarkable; particularly
when it is well known that in former
years, when large amounts of whalers'
exchange were drawn here, capitalists in
vested their money in it, generally buying
at a discount. Whalers' drafts on agents
at the home ports, were RENTED direct
by importers from Eastern ports-sent to
San Francisco TO meet liabilities or for
sale, and were, in the latter case, drawn
against precisely as In the case of the pro-
ceeds ofthe sale of an invoice ofsugar The
remittance of a whaler's draft to meet liza |
bility at San Francisco was just as good as
a draft on the Bank of California, and |
sometimes even better, as it could be sold
there at premium. There is no reason
now in saying that it is no longer either
profitable or eXpedient to remit this kind
of exchange, because it is just as good as
it ever was, and at the same time rs con-
veuient for remittance. The system of .
telegraphie transfers which has been re-
Gently established, may have the effect to
make bills of exchange less urgently
sought for, for immediate remittance, still
the market value need not be materially
affected. We have no doubt that whalers'
drafts RENTED to San Francisco for sale
or for the purpose of meeting liabilities
there, would now be fully as available as
they were five years ago. Tie only diff
Guilty is that there is too little whalers'
exchange to be had, hardly enough, in
fact, TO make it worth while to talk much
about. certainly not enough for the actual
requirements of importers who desire to
make remittances East. And we are as
sured that even if large amounts of
whalers exchange were offered here to-day,
they would be readily taken at par, or at
premium, perhaps of one per cent
There is certainly no little inconveni-
ence experienced at present on account of
the great scarcity of gold coin as COM
pared with silver The cause of this
scarcity has been the expectation of gold
to foreign countries, some of it to China.
The reason for such expectation in pref
erence to that of silver is manifest when