Professor Jeremiah Jenks of Cornell university and the 1903 chinese monetary reform
Journal
Hitotsubashi Journal of Economics
Journal Volume
50
Journal Issue
1
Pages
35-46
Date Issued
2009
Author(s)
Abstract
The Boxer uprising in China (1900) killed quite a number of foreigners and missionaries, which induced the armies of eight Western powers to invade China and they imposed an indemnity of 400 million silver taels. The international silver price around the 1900s was slumping, and these indemnity-treaty powers (e.g. France, UK, Germany, and Belgium) strongly wished China to establish a silver monetary system that would be maintained at parity with gold. Professor Jeremiah Jenks (1856-1929) of Cornell University was mandated to establish a gold-exchange standard for China. This paper begins with Jenks's life and work and the background of his mission to China. Section 2 presents the basic principle of this reform project and its specific designs. Section 3 assesses reactions and criticisms on Jenks's proposal. Possible arbitrage activities between gold and silver are analyzed in Sections 4 in order to evaluate the sustainability of Jenks's system. We conclude that: (1) Jenks's new system might have been stable in 1904-16 and 1928-30; (2) technically speaking, this was a remarkable design. ? Hitotsubashi University.
Subjects
Chinese monetary reform of 1903; Gold-exchange standard; Professor Jeremiah Jenks (1856-1929); Silver standard
Type
journal article