The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1911-06-19
THE DOLLAR PREVAILS,


Ching Chun Wang, President OF the
Joint Council Of the Chinese Students
Alliances, NJ. A. of the University of
Illinois, and an Honorary Fellow in the
Department of Political Science OF that
University. He shows the chaotic con
dition of the Chinese currency which
the reform is meant TO remedy. The
dollar has been used in China for
number of wears, hut the dollar has
been of uncertain value, the Mexican
all being Of one value, the British
dollar OF another the Chinese dollar of
another, the trade dollar of another
value, and the standard American dol
lar Of still another The Chinese cur
rency proper. tael and tao. were even
more confused and uncertain. There
are over one hundred kinds of tacl,
each different from the other, and each
kind varying in value IN different
places. The tao is even worse In
one place it may mean 1000 cash, in
another place 900, and in another place
only 100 The values Of all these va.
ried in different parts of the country,
and would even vary in the same town
at the same time to an appreciable de.
gree
1t will be remembered that China re.
Gently borrowed $50 100000 for the
purpose of reconstructing the monetary
&c he L'n,p "a
commission was appointed, which was
given one year to study the coinage
systems of the world, and to make a
report Of the best system for China.
This commission reported, and at first
those who favored making the tael the
standard of value prevailed. But the ad,
vocates of the dollar standard persist
ed showing that the tael had no stand
ard value. and that the only way TO
get an exact currency was to take the
dollar. To this it was replied that the
dollar was so variable and uncertain
that 1t was no absolute measure OF
value. Then the dollar advocates
pinned their faith on the standard
American dollar, and worked for its
adoption most diligently. They finally
prevailed, and the American silver
dollar is TO be the standard basis of the
new Chinese money. The plan finally
submitted by the board was set forth
by imperial decree as follows:
II is commanded that the unit Of the
national currency shall be the Yuan"
or dollar, and the standard shall tempo
rarily be silver. The dollar shall be the
principal unit OF currency. and shall
weigh seven mace and two candarenes.
The subsidiary coins shall be as follows;
twenty five, and ten cents, respectively;
one nickel unit having the value of five
cents; and four copper coins in denomi-
OF two cents. one cent; FIVE cash
and one cash. respectively. The relative
value of the dollar. the dime. the cent
and the cash shall be in decimal propor-
tion and be permanently fixed: 1t shall
not be permitted to increase these rela-
tive values or to diminish them. The
Board of Finance shall direct the mints
to mint the new coins according 10 the
standard weight, fneness,,, and design.
and to issue them gradually
Let the viceroys and governors instruct
the various mercantile and other organ
izations to inform the. people that the
chaos caused by the weighing and test
ing in the old currency, thereby TO ac
cornmodate- the people, to facilitate COM
merce and 10 lay the foundation of the
financial reorganization OF the empire.
This yuan, which is the American
dollar, must contain "seven mace and
''two candarenes' of 90 per cent pure
silver. with the figure Of coiling dra-
gon stamped on one face, and the words
"One Yuan" and "Imperial Chinese
Currency in Chinese on the other.
The subdivisions are the same as the
American silver coinage, but the cop
per coins are made as small as one mill,
or onetenth Of q cent. The copper
coins are "cash," and have varied
greatly in value in different parts of
the empire and among themselves. I'm
der the new regulation one thousand
of these copper cash will be one dollar.
That is to say, Cash equals one
mill in the decimal coinage system.
That seems all plain sailing; and
theoretically there is nothing in the
way. But there will come up at once
the opposition of custom as against the
adoption of the new system. There
will also be the interests Of those who
profit by the difference in values Of
the old currency, and whose brokerage
profit will be gone when standard
imperial currency is adopted. There
will also be the resistance Of the diff.
ferent provincial mints which have had
the power, and have still continued
the power, of coming money. This lat
ter will be the most serious problem
of all, because those provincial mints
will insist upon coming the old cur
rency along with their coming of the
new as commanded. They have coined
enormous quantities Of Cash beyond
all authorization. and the expressed
fear is that they will coin too much yet
of the copper Hcash.'
The only safety for China it would
seem is in closing those provincial mints
and allowing coinage to be done only in
an Imperial mint. This is all the more
evident, it must be, from the ne
cessity of redeeming the old and abrad-
ed coins With respect to the redemp.
tion of these, China has taken a step
distinctly in advance of any other ma
tion, In other countries, the one who
is caught with an abraded or mutilated
coin has fo stand tho losc nf hi i'm.