The Daily bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Hawaii]) 1882-1895, 1884-07-12

That the introduction of the
Spreckels' coin is the cause of the
rise in exchange is matter of de-
monstration.
To take a home illustration-th
Wailuku plantation is constantly in
need of coin for the purpose of pay
ing off its workmen; but instead of
keeping large supply of coin on
hand, drafts are drawn on Honolulu,
which are cashed by the local store
keepers, as they need them for the
purpose of paying for goods which
they receive from Honolulu. At
times the plantation does not draw
drafts enough to answer the needs
of the storekeepers; the storekeeper
thereupon, sends his coin to Homo
lulu, the coin used in the two places
being the same, at q trifling expense
for freight.
The plantation for years past has
manufactured for its own convent
ence in making change, copper coins
stamped zone rial, which pass any
where on Maui at that value, but
are not received in Honolulu at all.
Suppose now that the plantation
should coin not only rials, but
quarters, halves and dollars, in such
quantities that it would have suffi-
cient coin for all its requirements,
and should draw no drafts on Homo
lulu.
For few weeks the storekeepers
would continue to ship coin to Ho-
nolulu; but soon the district would
be drained of coin current in Homo
lulu. and copper plantation ooin would
have taken its place. The position
of the storekeeper would then be
this: He is taking in from his
customers a coin which passes in
| Wailuku for the value stamped
upon its face, but which for pur-
| poses of shipment to Honolulu for
paying his debts there, is worth only
its actual value as copper, or only a
fraction of its face value. What
then is he to do? There are two
courses open to- him: 1st, He can
beg the plantation for drafts on
Honolulu, for which he must pay
whatever price is asked; 2nd, he
can get the Legislature to pass a
law that we shall have no money,
unless for small change, which is
not equally valuable in Wailuku and
Honolulu. "A
Now to reply the illustration.
Irwin & Co. have always been one
of the largest drawers of drafts on
San Francisco. These drafts were
cashed by merchants here, and sent
by them to San Francisco to pay
their debts there. Irwin & Co. oc-
cupy the same relative position to
the merchants of Honolulu, that
| the Plantation does toward the
Wailuku storekeepers. Heretofore
Honolulu has had a coin which was
as valuable in San Francisco as it
was here. But Irwin & Co., stopped
drawing drafts on San Francisco,
and manufactured their own coin,
Kalakaua dollars. This stoppage of
the supply of exchange obliged the
merchants to ship coin to San Fran
cisco; this answered we'll enough for
short time, but as in the Wailuku
case, the coin that was of equal value
in Honolulu and San Francisco was
soon exhausted, and the Kalakaua
money, which is good enough for
local use at it's face value, but will
not be received in San Francisco ex-
cept at its actual value as silver,
took it's place.
Like the Wailuku storekeeper who
had debts to pay in Honolulu and
only copper to pay with, we have
debts to pay in San Francisco and
and only deprecated silver to pay
with. The consequence is that we
have to pay for drafts on San Fran
cisco T. G. for exchange, whatever
price the sholders thereof choose to
| ask