Evening star., 1933-01-26

| Copyright. 1893. New York Tribune, Inc)
HSINKING (Changchu, December
15.-Manchukuo authorities here are
proud of the accomplishments of the
| Central Bank of Manchukuo. which
during its six months of operation. has
made commendable progress in unifying
| and stabilizing Manchuria'S compli-
| Gated currency system.
Prior to Japan's occupation of Man.
churia in September. 1881, and the
| subsequent birth of the independent
| state of Manchukuo, Manchuria's di-
| verse and fuctuating currency was at
times severe handicap to the develop
ment of normal commercial intercourse
1t was charged, and probably not with
out justification, that military officials
| were guilty of manipulating the note
| issues of provincial banks in such a
way as to cause hardships and loss to
| the farmers whose produce was pur-
chased with inflated notes and re-Sold
by the government in terms Of foreign
currency at handsome profits.
To Facilitate Marketing.
To facilitate the marketing Of the
soya bean crop, Manchuria's staple'ex-
| port, the four semi-government banks
bought directly from the farmers,
paying them with provincial bank notes
which frequently had greatly depreci-
ated in value, due to imitation, before
the farmer was able to convert them
into coin or merchandise. The beans
| were then sold by the banks to export
ers in terms of staple foreign courrency.
The function of the banks in the
| marketing scheme was recognized
and necessary one; the abuse of that
| function doubtless resulted in hard
| ship to the farmers when unsound cur
| rency imitation deprecated the value OF
provincial bank notes.
The financial practices of the former
provincial banking institutions may
have been founded upon necessity and
not upon personal eXpediency, but all
| impartial observers admit that a uni
| fled, stable currency system will be a
boon to the economic development OF
Manchuria, no matter what regime puts
it into effect.
The Central Bank of Manchukuo was
established June Is of this year with a
capital of 30,000,000 yuan, the yuan be-
ing the basic unit of the new national
currency. The yuan contains 1891
grams of pure silver in weight and is
roughly equivalent to the Chinese yuan
| or so-called Mexican silver dollar. The
currency is computed according to the
decimal system, one-tenth of a yuan
being designated as "chiao," one
hundredth of a yuanas a "fren" and
-thouSandth of a yuan as I'll. VI
Currency will be issued in the following
nine denominations: Paper money, 10C
yuan, 10 yuan, S yuan, yuan and S
chiao; nickel coins, chiao and fen
copper coins, fen, and S Ii. One
American dollar at prevailing exchange
rates is worth about 4.78 yuan.
private" Notes Outlawed.
The old note-issuing banks-the Bank
of the three Eastern Provinces and the
Frontier Bank Gin which Marshal Chang
Hsueh-Liang was heavily interesteO
the Bank Of Kirin Province and the
Bank of Heilungkiang Province-were
amalgamated with the Central Bank
when the latter opened for business on
July l, 1882. AS result of the merger
the Central Bank agreed to take over
the assets and liabilities Of the four
old banks and to redeem their note is
sues at officially fixed exchange rates.
Privately issued bearer notes, of which
there were more than a hundred diff
ferent kinds in circulation, were out
lawed and forbidden circulation
One of the first problems confronting
the new bank was the redemption and