Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1921-05-10
Foreign MONEY MARKET
American Dollar Subject to Strange
Adventures.
CHINESE MOST EXPERT MANlPULATORS
Price of Gold and Silver Fluctuates
More Than the Price Of Commodities
Gold is Generally the Real STAN

dard.
Variations in currency exchange
rates have not only 4 broad economic
significance but also an extremely per-
sonal pertinence TO the traveller.
Maynard Owen Williams, who has just
returned from a trip through eighteen
countries to compile information and
collect picture material for the Nat
ional Geographic Society, relates some
Of his experiences with exchange as
follows:
1T is only in times Of extreme
stress that the average American con-
fders the cart wheel and the green
back as commodities much like flour
or madras shirting, but for the most
Of the world foreign exchange Is 4
vital matter every day in the year.
When it takes twenty silver dollars to
buy an ~ and W in Budapest, il
sounds like a fairy tale to the man who
stops to think that it is Uncle Sans
own currency which is treated in this
manner. But the Chinese keeper of
an exchange shop makes it as plain
as day.
A Chnaman Makes it All Clear.
"You walk up to his open counter
facing the sidewalk and ask him how
much American dollars are selling for
that morning.
This morning, price very bad. My
no want EN-. No man want to buy.
No steamer leave today. Saturday
big steamer leave for 'Merica, can give
you more better price
During the attempt to rcseat the
boy emperor on the Chinese throne in
the summer Of 1917. q money changer
in Hankow sold me some Peking notes
Cor 20 per cent of their face value. as
Serting that could get full value in
Picking, if | ever got there. I was on
my way 10 Petrograd and had to get
my passport amended in Peking go
took q chance on twenty-five dollars
worth of .Peking notes issued by the
Bank of Communication which cost
me five dollars in Hankow, the rail-
way service between the YanktZe port
and the capital being interrupted at
the time.
One Exchange Transaction Nets 700
Per Cent.
Most of the money l spent at face
value in Peking fol government telc-
grams but as was leaving invested
a few dollars in Chinese postage
stamps AT Harbin, where the Chinese
and Russian post offices competed.
trusted my letters TO the Chinese post
because OF a censorship on Russian
mail and instead Of buying Chinese
stamps in Russian currency at high
exchange rate affixed stamps which
| had bought in Peking with Chinese
CURRENCY! that was debased in Han
kow.. My profit on the transaction
ran over 700 per cent.
Certain firms and mission boards
in China are in the habit Of guarantee
ing their workers a rate Of at least two
Chinese dollars for every gold dollar in
their salary. Otherwise a gold salary
would be subject to 4 decided varia-
zion since Chinese dollars in 1915 were
worth only forty American cents and in
1918 they were worth nearly dollar.
Under this arrangement employees 0!
enc American corporation were send
ing home more money each month
than they received as salary. Two
hundred dollars a month, converted at
two to one would bring four hun
dred Chinese dollars. For 220 Of these
the American could buy American eX-
change for 5000 and he would have $50
Chinese dollars to live on.
Consular officers get a guaranteed
rate of exchange. Military officers
get their pay and allowances at the
days rate. In Peking. during the war.
a consular clerk earning $1,000 year,
on which he was guaranteed a rate Of
$780, was receiving more money than
n Lieut.. Colonel, who was getting $l.1a
for his money.
A Bureau Of Standards in Money.
an the Office Of the American Mill
tary Attache in Pciing there is an
American five dollar gold piece. which
has heen priced more often than q
hold-orer pair of 1872 shoes. The Of
ficers we're being paid the days rate.
which was then about $1.10 Chinese
money for an American dollar. But
actual gold was worth fifty per cent.
more. The officer rightly insisted
that his men were being paid in de-
based currency and insisted on receiv-
ing balance 10 bring the salaries up
to the rate for actual gold. Hence this
solitary gold piece was taken around
TO the exchange shops every month
and its value asccrtaincd but If il had
been sold it would have upset the
financial system, for the Chinese,
ready enough to offer 4 price for n
specific coin, refuse to quote price on
theoretical ones.
1T is no wonder that there is con.
fusion in Chinese exchange with for
eign currency, for there is varying
exchange rate among the eighteen
provinces themselves and the Yuan