Indochinese Dong depreciates

I remember seeing ships moored in rows, some of which, for want of space, were obliged to anchor a mile and a half from the port, near the Avalanche [Thi Nghe] Creek bridge. Now, except for the mail ships which stop twice a month and the steamers of the River Transport Company, the port is almost empty.

Indochinese silver

The port is only as busy as it once was for two or three months each year, during the rice export season. So European visitors, if not forewarned, might mistake it for one of the busiest shipping ports in the Far East. But by the end of July, ships are scarcer and scarcer. The port is deserted again.

What caused this change? All those I asked told me: new customs tariffs wiped out the harbour overnight; then came the exorbitant and excessive fees: lighthouse fees, mooring fees, pilotage fees, and maintenance fees, which increased, even though dredging of the reefs blocking the canal had long since rendered the role of the pilot insignificant.

The river was unobstructed. All the dangers lay at sea, about two miles offshore. There were long shoals there, which worried unfamiliar captains. But the pilots, who were proper Saigon river pilots, did not go beyond Vung Tau and left the newcomers to their own devices. Finally, and as if to add fuel to the fire, it was the devaluation of the currency and the sudden devaluation of the Indochinese piastre that turned the economic situation of the country upside down.

Oh! The devaluation of the Indochinese piastre! Here, people talk about nothing else but it. It appears everywhere, it is the answer to every question. Are you surprised to see the hotel owner add a fee? - "The Indochinese piastre has depreciated, sir!". The waiter insists on adding a fee? - The Indochinese piastre again, the same Indochinese piastre.

The currency was devalued, the colony had a lot of work to do to make ends meet; the government was forced to adopt harsh measures. And decrees followed one another, increasing old taxes or imposing new ones: the compulsory stamping of documents signed by natives, although previously only a private signature was required to be valid; increased taxes on logging and timber exports; drafted a new rice export tax…, but these measures were not necessarily to revive stagnant business.

Finally, the Decree of December 30, 1894, introduced a tax on… postage stamps. Since January 1, the price of stamps has increased by about 60%. A letter sent to France, which yesterday cost 5 cents, will cost 8 cents the next day. The strangest thing is that a stamp with the number 25 will from now on be sold for 8 cents! A stamp with the number 15 will also be sold for 8 cents, and so on until the end of the series.

It would be less confusing if France followed the British example and applied the Indochinese piastre to its colonies in the South China Sea and inserted a special stamp with prices in fractions of the Indochinese piastre instead of in centimes.

At first, it didn't work very well. When the Mexican dollar or the Japanese yen, which are the currencies in circulation, were at par, it was easy for the public to understand that our five-cent coin - or cent as it is commonly called - was equivalent to one cent. But now everything is confusing. It is impossible to distinguish between these contradictory figures.

Buying stamps in Indochina is a long and arduous task. The unfortunate staff have to struggle with the new bars, and the public is impatient at the counters. Therefore, at a recent session, the Colonial Council strongly opposed this decree; a decree - announced by telegram on 31 December to be put into effect on 1 January - seems to me to be flouting the conventions of the Postal Union and the Berne Office.

Worst of all, the devaluation does not seem to be stopping anytime soon. Indeed, it has been announced that the British government has just approved an agreement between the Chartered Bank of Australia and China, the Hong Kong and Shanghai Corporation Bank and Monnaie de Bombay, under which Monnaie de Bombay will be allowed to strike 4 million dollars in special type (British dollars), but with a value equal to Japanese yen. With this new source of money, the Indochinese piastre will soon fall from its current value of 2 fr. 50 to 2 fr and even lower.

It is true that the Treasury [Treasury Department] is maintaining a strange and completely illusory exchange rate. For the Treasury and the Treasury alone, the Indochinese piastre is still worth 2 fr. 70. This is the exchange rate used to pay civil servants' salaries.

But when the man who had just received money at the rate of 2 fr. 70 at counter A went to counter B to send the money to France, he was asked, in addition to the postage, for a 6% difference between the Treasury rate and the commercial rate. The officers and soldiers of the army and navy, whose salaries were calculated in francs, should have been entitled to the difference. But no; the absurd exchange rate applied by the Treasury cost them about 5.5% of the money they would have received in France.

There is more. For the native soldiers [Annamese trainees], the rate of the Indochinese piastre was maintained at 4 francs! Therefore, a person with a salary of 20 francs did not receive the equivalent of the current rate, that is, 8 Indochinese piastres, but only 5 piastres. And people would reply arrogantly that the natives' standard of living had not increased significantly.

Indeed, many people have complained about this discrimination. (continued)

* (Nguyen Quang Dieu quoted from the book Around Asia: Cochinchina, Central Vietnam, North Vietnam, translated by Hoang Thi Hang and Bui Thi He, AlphaBooks - National Archives Center I and Dan Tri Publishing House published in July 2024)

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/du-ky-viet-nam-dong-dong-duong-ha-gia-18524120522554396.htm