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Show Unprecedented Rise In Price of Silver; i SHANGHAI, Jan. 22. While Ameri-' cans have been buying British pound sterllug in New York for $3.70 or less, Americans here have been paying $100 In American gold for 7G Mexican dollars dol-lars which are In current use here. This unprecedented advance in the rate of exchange in Shanghai has been tfue to the acute rise In tho price of silver. Probably no country in tho world has been more sharply affected by this enhanced value of silver than has China. In consequence of tho confused state, of exchange tho foreign trade through this city, China's principal commercial conter, became more or less disorganized. disorga-nized. Exporters consod to look for now lmslness and confined Iholr actlvl-ties actlvl-ties wholly to filling old contractu from tho tormB of whloh thoy would have boon glad to oficapo. Shanghai bankers held frequent con-foroncoH con-foroncoH day and night in an offort to doiormmc what mljjht bo douo lo Kin bjl&e lheexclinnae rates, For ono . day all but one of the leading banks in the city declined to Issue drafts in connection with export shipments to America. These exporters who buy their goods In China for silver and sell them abroad for gold suffered most severely. They were obliged to restrict operations or raise prices wherever the goods were sold. On the other hand importers who buy their goods in America and are paid for them in Mexican dollars have prospered. One of the difficulties arising from the exchange situation is that much of tho business here is done under terms arranged several years ago when an American dollar was worth two Mexican Mexi-can dollars or more. Consequently foreign for-eign workers here havo suffered. The bankers concluded that one solution so-lution of the problem would be to increase in-crease the price of China's products throughout the world. |