Page:The passing of Korea.djvu/226

 a ruinous discount. But even this would not have worked havoc with trade if, having fallen, the discredited coinage would stay fallen, but it had the curious trick of rising and falling with such sudden fluctuations that business became a mere gamble, and the heavy interests of Japanese and Chinese merchants were nearly at a standstill.

At this point the First Bank of Japan, called the Dai Ichi Ginko, brought up a scheme for putting out an issue of special bank notes that would not circulate outside of Korea. Korea was importing much more than she exported, and the balance of trade being against her it was impossible to keep Japanese paper in the country in sufficient quantities to carry on ordinary local trade. For this reason the bank received the sanction of the Korean government to put out this issue of bank paper, which could not be sent abroad, but would be extremely useful as a local currency. This was done, and it was found to work admirably. The Koreans had confidence in this money, and it circulated freely. It had two advantages not enjoyed by any form of Korean currency, namely, it was a stable currency and suffered no fluctuations, and it was in large enough denominations to make it possible to transfer a thousand dollars from one man's pocket to that of another without employing a string of pack-ponies to carry the stuff.

The one important material improvement of the year was the adoption of a plan for the building of some thirty lighthouses on the coast of Korea. Ever since the opening up of foreign trade, the lack of proper lights, especially on the western coast, had been a matter of growing concern to shipping companies. This concern was warranted by the dangerous nature of the coast, where high tides, a perfect network of islands and oft-prevailing fogs made navigation a most difficult and dangerous matter. The fact that lighthouses ought to have been built ten years ago does not detract from the merit of those who at last took the matter in hand and pushed it to an issue.

The month of May witnessed a spectacular event in the