The Marble times and Crystal silver lance., 1901-06-14
Silver in tile Orient.

possession of the Philippines, should
ensure to the country, and particularly
to the Pacific mining section of it, the
control of the worlds greatest silver
consuming market-the Chinese En-
pire. A step in the right direction to-
ward this control is the establishment
of a Manila branch of the United
States Mint. A second step, and one
certain to be made before long, will be
the establishment of United States
banking facilities in Manila and
Shanghai and more or less in other
| Chinese cities. After these two steps,
the rest will follow naturally. From
the existence of causes or influences
thas would seem to have no reasonable
business excuse for existence, steam
ship freight charges are less on silver
shipped from, say, Germany, via the
Suez Canal and around the south Of
Asia to Shanghai, 3 voyage of thirty
five days, than they are from San
Francisco across the Pacific to the
same place. u voyage OF not more than
twenty days. The marine insurance of
the silver from Europe to Shanghai,
the longer time and propoPtionately
greater risk, is more than from San
Francisco to Shanghai, the shorter
time and relatively less risk. The in
terest loss for the elapsed time between
shipment and delivery, which must be
borne by the seller, would certainly be
against the most distant supply point.
Exchange, always a factor ia inter-
national business, should nov be IA
vorable to the Pacific coast. or, at
least, not so greatly to its disadvant-
age as formerly.
With the branch mint and our bank
ing facilities at Manila, il would seem
that depot for our silver product
could be established there, supplied
directly from the silver-producing Pa
ciiic coast states. 1t is assumed that
the advantage of freight and insurance
charges could be secured to the ship
ment of silver across the Pacific, to
which il logically belongs.
Silver is the banking money metal
Of the Chinese. They understand, at
least the commercial classes do, the
changes of relative value measured in
gold, still they use it to hoard their
surplus wealth accumulation and viii
doubtless continue to for many years
to come. They understand and are
able to determine accurately the fine
ness of silver. In transactions among
themselves they discount any debase-
ment of tineness Of the pure metal, so
that only fine silver, 999 fine, should
he marketed to them. The large bars
made by our refineries they cannot use
in transactions among themselves.
They renelt these and cast the silver
into rough cup-shaped forms weighing
from one to three pounds, and these
pass from hand to hand by weight.
So far as known there is no prejudice
among them as to shape, so that our
refneries could cast from the first
melting of the refined silver "bars"
and "kings'' OF the small weights
noted. These saving the cost and loss
of remelting by the Chinese would have
some market value in excess of such
large commercial bars as are now
made.
At the present time very consider
able proportion of the silver taken by
the Chinese passes through Hamburg,
Germany. Manila is so much nearer
a supply base for the metal that it
should supply the market. The Chinese
are close buyers. In their own ex-
changes the price of silver changes
from day to day, and the demand be-
tween the seasons, and they speculate
in it just as our own people do in wheat
and corn. They could hardly fail to
avail themselves of the advantage of
silver supply fewer days distant than
the alternative supply is weeks distant.
Mining and Scientific Press.