WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, MONEY.
CHINESE.
WEIGHTS.
Chinese weights are mostly decimal. Although English weights and measures are used to a considerable extent in trade with foreigners, being legalised in Hongkong for that purpose, the following are also recognised by Ordinance 22 of 1844:-
10 li 10 fan
1 li = 1 fan,
1 tsin,
or candareen
or mace
1 leung, or tael 1 kan, or catty
10 tsin
16 leung
100 kan
- 1 tầm,
or picul
120 kan
1 shek, or stone
·001 oz. avoir.
·013 oz. avoir.
•135
oz. avoir.
14 oz. avoir. 1 lb. avoir. 1331 lb. avoir. 160 lb. avoir.
The words candareen, mace, tael, catty, picul, are not Chinese.
Almost all commodities, even liquids, are sold by the above weights amongst Chinese.
MEASURES.
English measures are legal, but so are also the following Chinese :---
10 fan
10 tsün
1 tsün,
1 chek,
or inch
about 1.41 English inch. or foot = about 14.1 English inch. 10 chek = 1 ch'eung or fathom = 4 yards (nearly).
The Treaty of Tientsin fixes the ch'eung at 141 English inches.
1 li, or mile
mile English.
10 li = 1 pò, or league = 3 miles English (about).
Land is measured by the mau or acre, equal to about of an Englis acre.
MONEY.
This is almost entirely represented by weights of silver, accounts being kept in leung, tsin, fan, and li (taels, mace, and candareens) as given above. Their values may be taken to be the following:-
1 li
or cash+
20
1 tsin or mace 1 leung or tael
6.4. or 6d. 58. 4d.
.064d, or d. 1 fan or candareen .64d. or jd. Not one of these weights is represented by any coin, unless we may take the cash to represent the value of a li of silver.
Silver is used uncoined, in ingots or shoes, sometimes called sycee; small sums are paid in what is called broken silver. At the Ports this genera", consists of the fragments of Mexican or Spanish dollars, hammered to pieces by the Shroffs in their process of Chopping. This broken silver is weighed by means of small steel-yards called Li-tang.
Cash may be said to be the only coin of China. The Chinese call them tsin. They are bronze coins, not unlike thin farthings with a square hole in the centre for stringing together. The Hongkong government cash or mils are smal'r, and the hole is round. The value of cash fluctuates much, and is very much a matter of bargain. About 1,100 to a Mexican dollar is an average quotation.
HONGKONG MONEY.
A legal tender in Hongkong consists of Bank notes of one of the chartered banks; Hongkong or Mexican dollars; 20, 10, or 5 cent silver pieces to an amount not exceeding two dollars; or bronze cents or mils to an amount not exceeding one dollar. Spanish and South American dollars are also in circulation, as well as Spanish quarter dollars, American half and quarter dollars, shillings, sixpences, francs, the Japanese silver coinage (identical in value and accepted indifferently with that of Hongkong), and the 10 and 20 cent pieces of the Straits Settlements, which are accepted in the same way.
Four shillings is now (1878) a high average value for a dollar. It has lately seldom been over 38. 101d.
Mexican dollars weighed at 7.1.7. mean coins which contain 7 mace, 1 candareen, and 7 li of silver (see weights given above). Clean coins of this weight command a premium, lighter ones are taken at a discount.
* The Tael actually in use is 1.351 oz.
+ The li when representing weight is never spoken of as a caah, but probably the original value of a cash was 1 li of pure silver.