The Daily Missoulian., 1913-01-22

nese Puzzle" must have had the Chi
tic most complicated and unsatisfac-
tory money system in the world to-
day. China will never take it's right
full place among the leading CONNER
cial nations of the world until its
currency is put on a sound basis ana
standardized. This problem touches
every man, woman and child in emma
and is of greater personal concern
than even the form of government by
which they are to be ruled. OF all
China's difficulties this one of cur
rency reform should be among the
first to be teached Indications are
that for reasons both peculiar and
selfish it will be one of the last.
Foreigners have been urging cur
rency reform, and Chinese officials
have been promising currency reform,
for generations. Edicts have been is
sued with ponderous aplomb, elaborate
plans have been solemnly rendered by
foreign monetary experts and as SOL
| emnly accepted by celestial officials.
But the good old way is so deep rooted
that it prevails in these days of
democracy just as it did when despot-
| ism flourished. When the republic does
get around to the money question 1t
will face a staggering proposition.
| To begin with, there are copper
coins of various denominations. Then
there are silver dollars of divers mints
| fashioned after the Mexican dollar.
with value which fluctuates between
| fifty and forty-two cents, American
| money The silver shoe or sycee of
different sizes and values adds its
seed to this monetary Apple of Dis
cord. A motley collection Of paper
| currency fills in the chinks, big and
coarse like small paper bags. ofttimes
| twice as big as an American bill and
| bearing the name of a dozen foreign
| banking houses or provincial bands.
| Top all this off with the stream of
coinage and paper currency which
pours in daily for exchange from every
country on the face of the globe and
you have nice mess of pottage.
| Mix in with this the more or less legal
issues of nearly every province,
whether the provincial treasury has
| the actual cash or credit to back it
| up or not, and the genuine counter
felt for every supposedly genuine coin
or bill in the market, and diluted mush
| with hastily scrambled eggs on the
side is glace fruit in comparison.
| The tourist who bucks the money
| market in China gets a liberal educa- :
| ton. He soon agrees with Bret Harte
| that For ways that are dark and
tricks that are vain, the heather
| Chinese is peculiar" AS a matter of
| fact, however, the foreigners them
selves are not without their share of
blame for. this chaotic condition. For
eign banks and individual Europeans
| and Americans have made and are still
making, and will continue to make
| fortunes out of the daily fluctuation
of the money market. For instance
| the daily rate Of exchange Is not fixed
| in Peking, or Shanghai, or Hongkong
but in London. Money changing made
two knights of the British realm and
one great university in Hongkong
within the past decade.
AS baseball is the national pastime
of Americans so is money changing
to the Chinese. Even the lowest
coolie who. tolls ten hours a day to
|
American money will go to the artful
money changer for an additional hour
or two of haggling which cannot pos
sibly net him a gain of more than half
a cent. When he goes to his humble
home he may spend another precious
hour on frenzied finance deduction
only to learn that he was skinned
out of half a cent. Then he goes
philosophically to bed to wait for the
chance the morrow will bring him tC
get even.
Pity then the guileless foreign tour.
ist, for the native money changer, like
the poor, is always with him every da!
of his headlong sightseeing rusl
through China. The only difference
is that at the end of the tour he i.
poor but the money changer isn't. A
the outset the deft coin juggler ha!
the experience and the tripper ha!
the money. When it is all over thu
stranger in a strange land acknoW
lodges the experience and the lucrt
trimmer owns the money. The none,
shop, with it's enticing black and golt
sign in Chinese and alleged English
is of necessity the first place to which
| S"Ne
annotated and copyrighted edition d,
luxe of Shylock takes his perfectly
good gold and bills of unimpeachabl,
integrity and gives in return a formid
able pile of silver and bills which i.
sure to be less than the rate of ex
change for that day calls for.
To add insult to injury, our craft,
friend will then put all the gold coins
in a sack and hire a man to shak,
it up and down violently for severa
hours. This rubs the gold dust of
the coins and at the end of a day.
sweating" as the process is called
a dollar or more of gold dust is a
the bottom of the sack.
The tourists initiation is usually
in the British city of Hongkong. Tn,
next stop, eighty miles up Pearl river
is Canton, where the shops will TAX.
the Hongkong money but the chai1
bearers and other collies may not
This necessitates a change, at a los!
of course, to Canton money. Befor,
proceeding north to Shanghai all thi
! Hongkong and Canton currency mus