Mina (currency)

“ For gold the rate is more, as the disparity between the value of bullion and that of coin, among the Japanese, is not so great. A tael weight of gold is valued at 19 taels in currency, and a mace at 1 tael, 9 mace. The gold dollar weighs almost 5 candareens, but the Japanese have reckoned it as the twentieth part of a $20 piece, which they give as 8 mace, 8 candareens; and, consequently, the dollar is only 4 candareens, 4 cash. ”

“ In obedience to elementary economical laws, the cheap money had steadily driven out the dear, and although the Government mint at Ōsaka, founded in 1871, had struck 80,000,000 yen worth of gold and silver coins between that date and 1881, when the policy here described was inaugurated, the customs returns showed that a great part of this metallic currency had flowed out of the country. Under these circumstances Japanese financiers decided that only one course offered: the treasury must play the part of national banker. ”

“ The Tibetans, who in recent years employ Indian rupees, for purposes of small change cut up these coins into little pieces, which are weighed by the careful Chinese, but the Tibetans do not seem to use the scale, and roughly judge of the value of a piece of silver. ”

“ Not until the year 485 A.D. do silver coins seem to have served as tokens of exchange. They were not in common use, however. The Japanese did not possess stores of precious metal sufficient for purposes of currency. There were no mines in the country. Whenever gold or silver came across the sea in the form of gifts or tribute from China or Korea, the casting of idols suggested itself as the natural use for such rare and beautiful metals, and if they were not devoted to that pious end, they served as personal ornaments, or were employed in the decorative arts. ”

“ The Southern Sung dynasty (1127-1278 A.D.) dated their coins on the reverse in regnal years. The Mongols (1260-1341 A.D.) issued but little copper money. An account of their extensive paper currency in the reign of Kublai Khan (1260-1295 A.D.) is given by Marco Polo. The Ming dynasty (1368-1628 A.D.) placed the mint-name on the reverse, while the Ching dynasty (1628-1911) placed the mint-name in Manchu on the reverse (Plate VIII. 7, Shun-che period, 1644-1662 A.D.; Pekin mint) .
It is only recently that a serious attempt to institute a silver coinage in China has been made. ”

“ It is strange to have shops that sell money. I do not mean stock exchanges or banks, but real stores with money on the counters, stacked up in bundles, or laid away in piles on the shelves. That is what they have in Omdurman. There are caravans going out from here to all parts of north central Africa, and before one starts away it must have the right currency for the journey. In financial matters these people are not far from the Dark Ages. Many of the tribes do not know what coinage means; they use neither copper, silver, nor gold, and one of our dollars would be worth nothing to them. ”

“ The catty can be no more nor less than what the law of China ordains. As the export trade is greatly in excess of the imports, large quantities of Mexican dollars are brought into the country and recoined into ticals and smaller currency The late King Somdetch P'ra Chaum Klow established the present law, making five ticals the equivalent of three Mexican dollars, Mexican silver being the standard of the Asiatic coast. The importer takes his dollars to the mint and the officers there heat them red-hot to detect counterfeits, and if genuine, ticals are given in exchange. ”

“ XIII.34 The successful operation of the system is not only compatible with, but actually requires, an overvaluation of the metallic content of the silver currency. In fact, in the Philippines it was found necessary to reduce the silver pesos from 374 grains to 247 grains, to prevent their disappearance. Without a margin between the coin-value and the bullion-value of the peso, the power to regulate its circulation would exist only in one direction—contraction; with such a margin, the power exists to expand as well as to contract. ”

“ The bullion price of gold in Japan is only eight and a half times that of silver instead of sixteen times, as with us; while in currency the difference in value is only about as one to three and a half, the price in silver, or copper hundred-kas pieces, of a tael’s weight of gold bullion being nineteen taels, and the same when coined passing as twenty-three taels, seven mas and five kanderin. Besides the gold ichibu, the Japanese are represented as having three other gold coins, thin, oval pieces, of the currency value respectively of one, ten, and twenty taels ”

“ Thus the old 5-yen gold piece, weighing 2.22221 momme of 900 fineness, became a 10-yen piece in the new currency, and a new piece of half the weight was coined. No change whatever was required in the reckonings of the people. The yen continued to be their coin of account, with a fixed sterling value of a little over two shillings, and the denominations of the gold coins were doubled. Gold, however, is little seen in Japan: the whole duty of currency is done by notes. ”

“ For although they were not allowed to develop their business without limit, although the visits of their vessels were never permitted to exceed two annually and were ultimately reduced to one, yet in the disordered state of Japan's currency, in the arbitrarily fixed ratios between gold, silver, and copper, and in the people's ignorance of the value of foreign manufactures, they found an opportunity which they turned to such good account that between 1609 and 1858 they are said to have exported over forty million pounds sterling of gold and silver as well as two hundred thousand tons of copper. ”

“ We find its issues varying from 171 to 177 grs. in weight, and from 160 to 170 of pure silver; whilst in 1811 there took place an abnormal coinage, from Spanish dollars, of rupees with a weight of 188 grs. and 169.20 of pure silver.
Also from some reason or other, perhaps from commerce between those places and the 'Coast,' the Chittagong and Dacca currency (i.e. in the extreme east of Bengal) "formerly consisted of Arcot rupees; and they were for some time coined expressly for those districts at the Calcutta and Dacca Mints." (!) (Prinsep, Useful Tables, ed. by E. Thomas, 24.) ”

“ Yang's jejune essay that the Chinese give pure silver in exchange for foreign dollars containing 10 per cent. alloy is, of course, absurd. Copper cash form the real currency of the masses in China, and it is the fluctuations between this, the only current coinage, of late years shamefully debased, and silver (amounting 133 in 1897 to 30 per cent.) that seriously disturbs the equanimity of "the honourable merchant." Unfortunately, so far each Viceroy seems to be setting up his own mint, irrespective of others. ”

“ But this valuation of the gold dollar at 521⁄4 cents, when reckoned at 836 cash, its assessed value by the Japanese government, suffers the same depreciation as our silver; and its real value, when compared with the inflated currency in use among the people, is only about 171⁄4 cents. Consequently, by this estimate, gold becomes 50 per cent. worse for us to pay in than silver. The currency value of a gold dollar, taking the its-evoo as of equal purity, and comparing them weight for weight, is only 1,045 cash, or nearly 22 cents in silver ”

“ Until we have entirely discredited the Chinese silver notes, we will never place our gold notes in their proper place in Manchuria and Mongolia, much less obtain the monopoly in currency {p. 52} and finance of these two countries. With the depreciated and inconvertible silver notes, the government of the Three Eastern Provinces buys all kinds of products, thus threatening our vested interests. When they sell these products, they demand gold from us which they keep for the purpose of wrecking our financial interests including our trade rights in special products. ”

“ Again, the Arabs of the Soudan will not take gold as payment, in consequence of which our army in the late expedition had to take with them large and inconvenient supplies of silver dollars, coined for the purpose. The Maria Theresa dollar is the recognised currency in that region, not because of any notions as regards currency properly speaking, but because the Arab’s taste lies in silver ornaments for himself, his weapons and his horse. He values then the silver because of its utility as an ornament, whilst gold he cannot employ to the same advantage. ”

“ It has seemed to me that the country is very new for establishing any other currency than gold, which here is like the king's fifth of silver in Nueva España. I have written to this effect to the viceroy, a copy of which letter accompanies this, and a report concerning this matter; also an account of the gold paid to the royal treasury, and the trade effected by all the Spaniards. The Chinese will not take the panica at more than four pesos of texuela to the tae [l] which, they say, is of that value in their country and they lose one llealla by so doing. ”

“ On this matter of the deterioration of the currency, the Financial Adviser says in one of his Reports: [66] “The currency of Korea, though nominally on a silver basis, has hitherto in reality possessed no standard, and only cash and nickel coins have been in circulation. Before the commencement of the reorganization of the currency, the market rate of the nickel coins fell to 250 won for 100 yen in gold (Japanese currency) ; while that of the cash fluctuated from 100 per cent. to 60 per cent. premium. All cash pass at a uniform rate in spite of their different sizes and weights. ”

“ The larger question of the relative distribution of this mass of precious metals depends for its determination upon a full understanding of the law of the various Mints. Speaking in large, during the eighteenth century the Mint ratio was in favour of silver in France, and her currency was almost entirely silver throughout the century; conversely the Mints [Pg 157] favoured gold in England and Spain, and gold was almost the only constituent of the currency of either country for the greater part of the century. ”

“ The islands under the sovereignty of Spain had their own distinct silver coinage in peso, media peso, peseta and media peseta pieces.
In 1878 the Spanish government, hoping to check the heavy exportation of gold currency from the Philippines, passed a law prohibiting the importation of Mexican dollars, but allowed the Mexican dollars then in the islands to continue to circulate as legal tender.
When the American troops arrived, there were in circulation the Spanish-Philippine peso and subsidiary silver coins; Spanish pesos of different mintings; Mexican pesos of different mintings ”

“ When the whites began to trade in China they introduced the Mexican dollar with its subsidiary coinage, and this was the common currency in all the ports until a few years ago; but when the Chinese began to Westernise they considered it inconsistent with their dignity not to have a coinage of their own. Led by the Japanese, and assisted by several firms whose speciality was the erection of mints and mintage machinery, they started mints all over the country, and they have kept these mints busy with the most funeste results. ”

“ In short, it exercised a right which belongs to every independent nation, the right of so modifying its currency, when suddenly brought into circulation with foreign coins, as to preserve a due ratio between gold and silver, and thus prevent the former's being drained out of the country at one-third of its intrinsic value. ”

“ Currency—Weights—Commerce—Ports—Teak-wood—Houses—Tanks—Dress—Food—Marriages—Childbirth—Funerals—Arts—Slavery—The drama—Chess—Games—Music—Fireworks.
The Burmese have no coined money. At every payment the money is assayed and weighed, to ascertain its value. When a bargain is to be concluded, very often the seller asks to see the money the purchaser has to offer him. The circulating medium is lead, for small payments. Silver, however, is the standard, although gold is also in use; it is considered seventeen times as valuable as silver. ”

“ Money is also conveyed from province to province by these Tartars, when, if the amount is large, several horses are strung together, and are escorted by mounted police. The currency in the interior being silver coins of the size of our five-shilling pieces, the jolting and friction occasioned by the drive are likely to tear ordinary bags, so the latter are enclosed in a special rope-bag, which is neatly and compactly knitted over them. Gold coin is put up in leather, which is puckered up to form a bag, and tied and sealed on the top. ”

“ If the document says gold currency, the borrower would give the smallest amount of gold currency that is used. If the document says gold dinarim or dinar of gold, the borrower would give two gold dinar. If the document says gold in dinarim, the borrower would give gold that is worth two dinars of silver. In today’s age there is no distinction between saying “dinarin” or “dinari.”
Paragraph 14- If one produces a document against another with a sum of 100 dinar or selaim and the currency is undefined and it was written in Bavel, the lender would collect Babylonian currency. ”

“ Undoubtedly, to carry the currency of a nation from a discount of 70 or 80% to par in the course of four years, reducing its volume at the same time from 160 to 119 million yen, was a financial enterprise violent and daring almost to rashness. The gentler expedient of a foreign loan would have commended itself to the majority of economists. But it may be here stated, once for all, that until her final adoption of a gold standard in 1897, the foreign money market was practically closed to Japan. ”