In Santiago the author found the bankers and financiers in favour of leaving matters as they existed and adopting similar methods in the rest of the Island, namely, reducing the $5.30 gold piece to $5. This was the view taken by Mr. Schuman, of Schuman & Co., Santiago. On this question the Chamber of Commerce of Santiago, in a thoughtfully prepared memorial, submitted to the President of the United States, say: "It is frequently difficult in this market to effect change, especially in small sales, for the want of fractional currency. As this makes considerable difference in transactions, the chamber considers it necessary for the American Government to remedy this difficulty by sending sufficient silver fractional money, utilising it to pay the army of occupation. "This chamber has heard that the administration of the custom-house of this port has solicited the Government at Washington to declare American money legal and obligatory tender in all transactions which take place in this territory, and we consider this movement premature, as the political situation of the country is not settled; and furthermore, prejudicial to commercial interests and to the public wealth by the depreciation it would cause in the Spanish gold in circulation and for the difficulty it will occasion through the lack of American money in sufficient quantity for these transactions. For this reason we beg that this petition will not be considered, it being even more inopportune, since the resolution of the civil governor of the province on the first of August last, establishing the legal value of Spanish gold, is just and has given satisfactory results." Speaking to the author on the same subject, Mr. Brooks, of Brooks & Co., Santiago, a careful financier and capable business man, said: "Regarding the currency question, we should also be inclined to support the opinion of the Chamber of Commerce, to leave matters as they are at present, _i.e._, the Spanish and French gold coins having been disinflated, to leave them as current circulating medium, including for the payment of custom-house duties. It is also always a small advantage for the sugar estates to pay their labour in Spanish gold as it represents a saving of three to four per cent. as compared with paying them in American money, as where a planter now pays $5 Spanish, he would, with a change in the circulating medium, have to pay $5 American, which would represent from three to four per cent. advance in wages without receiving any compensation from his sugar shipped to the United States, from which, in former years, and with inflated gold values, he derived an advantage of ten per cent."