The General Office of the First Bank at Seoul has now been made the Central Treasury of the Government of Korea; and therefore receives on deposit and pays out the exchequer funds. It is under the competent management of Mr. Ichihara, who, after several years of study of economics and finance in the United States, became prominent as a banker in Japan, and was subsequently chosen Mayor of Yokohama. Its branches and sub-branches throughout Korea are assisted by the postal organs in handling the exchequer funds. “Notes Associations,” which undertake to popularize the circulation of reliable negotiable bills, and Agricultural and Industrial Banks, established at different centres for the accommodation of long loans, are also in part the results of Mr. Megata’s reform of the Korean finances. The most important, and doubtless most difficult, thing remaining to be done is the purifying and reorganization of the revenue system. For, as has already been repeatedly indicated, nothing can exceed the measure of ignorance, extortion and corruption, which has hitherto characterized the conduct of the provincial administrative organs. Perhaps the most difficult problem with which the newly appointed Financial Adviser to the Korean Government had to cope was the retirement of the nickel currency. The solution of this problem was indeed difficult, but it was absolutely indispensable to the very beginning of any systematic reform. The distinction between spurious and genuine coins was scarcely possible; the distinction between those counterfeited without, and those counterfeited with, the sanction of the “Korean Executive” was impossible. The amount of both kinds was hard to determine. According to Mr. Megata’s calculation, the old nickel coins minted by the Government amounted in value to 17,000,000 _won_; while the spurious, but not debased, coins in circulation may have amounted to some 4,000,000 _won_.[70] His plan involved both the exchange of the old nickel coins for new coins of a standard value and issued under proper safeguards and restrictions, in accordance with the newly inaugurated gold basis; and also the reduction of the cash by re-minting such coins as were deficient and returning the balance to circulation. From October, 1905, the coinage of silver ten-_sen_ pieces and of bronze one-_sen_ and one-half-_sen_ pieces was begun. By these it was intended to displace the circulation of the old nickel coins. The coins tendered for exchange were classified into three classes: Class A—coins exchanged at the rate of 2 old for 1 new coin; Class B—coins exchanged at the rate of 5 old for 1 new coin; and Class C—counterfeit and debased coins, defaced and returned to the applicants. By these means there was withdrawn from circulation of old coins, between July 1 and October 15, 1905, in Korean dollars to the amount of 10,722,162, of which, however, 1,411,184 were received in payment of taxes.