ABSTRACT
Sources: The Nagasaki Shipping List and Advertiser (1861/62); The Japan Herald, Yokohama (1861-1865); China Overland Trade Report, Hong Kong (1861, 1863); The China Mail, Hong Kong (1864); The Japan Times, Yokohama (1865-1866); The Daily Japan Herald, Yokohama (18661867); The Japan Times’ Overland Mail, Yokohama (1868-1869); The Japan Weekly Mail, Yokohama (1870-1914); The Japan Weekly Chronicle, Commercial Supplement, Kobe (1897-1900, 19041910). Concordance: WdW IV, pp. 169-206; WdW V, p. 206
Currency: In Japan the exchange rate quotations on foreign places were given in Mexican dollars as the most important internationally accepted coins in circulation in the East Asian area. During the Meiji era (1868-1912) the Japanese government intended to create an efficient medium of exchange for trade and payment transactions that was supposed to be greatly appreciated in contrast to the previous Japanese currency, and easily and economically transferable. As a result, a currency reform was carried out in 1871. Following the system of the Mexican dollar already in common practice in foreign trade, the previous traditional and complicated Japanese currency system was superseded by the yen at 100 sen as the new standard coin. Thus the gold yen was treated as equal to the former río (cf. DENZEL [1999], pp. 238-243). Nominally the gold standard was established (1 yen at 1.50 grammes of fine gold), whereas the silver yen at 24.26 grammes of fine silver was introduced based on the model of the Mexican dollar. Until 1877/78 the silver yen was only valid in the ports that were opened for foreign trade. This silver yen was supposed to have (almost) the same value as the gold yen, to be slightly lighter than the Mexican dollar and to be exactly the same as the Hong Kong dollar of 1866 (see p. 494). When the silver yen was no longer struck after 1872, the value of the gold yen began to drop in comparison to the Mexican dollar.
