Directory_and_Chronicle_1885 — Page 1100

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:-

or cash or candareеп 1 tain, OF MECE

'0013 oz. avoir. 0133 oz. avoir.

1333 oz. Avoir.

13 oz. avoir.

10 i

1 li 1 fan,

10 bein 16 leung 100 kan

1 leung, or tael

1 kan, =1tâm,

or cally

or picki

14 lb. avoir. 1334 lb. avoir.

12. kan

= 1 shek,

or stone

= 160 lb. avoir.

The words candareen, mace, fael, calty, 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 Евп = 1 taün,

10 tain = 1 chẹt,

or inch = about 1.41 English inch. or foot = about 14.1 English inch. 10 chek = 1 ch'eung or fathom yards (nearly).

The Treaty of Tientsin fixes the ch'eung at 141 English inches.

1 li, or mile — mile English.

10 = 1 po, or league

=

$ miles English (about).

Land is measured by the mau or acre, equal to about of an English acre.

MONEY.

This is almost entirely represented by weights of silver, accounts being kept in leung, isin, fan, and li (tacle, mace, and candareens) as given above. Their values may be taken to be the following

1 li

1 fap

or casht = .06d, or or cardareen = .61. or jd.

d.

I tain DT MA 1 leung or tacl

6d.

56.

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 generally consists of the fragments of Mexican or Spanish dollars, bammered 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 lain. They are bronze coins, not unlike thin farthings with a square bole in the centre for stringing together. The Hongkong Government cash or mile are smaller, and the hole is round. The value of cash fluctuates greatly, and is very much a matter of bargain. About 1,200 to a Mexican dollar is an average quotation,

HONGKONG MONEY.

A legal tender in Hongkong consists of Hongkong or Mexican dollars; 20, 10, or 5 cent silver pieces to an amount not exceeding two dollare; 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 balf and quarter dollars, shillings, sixpences, francs, the Japanese silver coinage (at present at a discount of about ten per cent. on that of Hongkong), and the 10 and 20 cent pieces of the Straits Settlements, which are accepted indifferently with those of Hongkong.

The value of the dollar during 1883 was from 38. 7d. to 3s. 9d. sterling. Mexican dollars weighed at 7.1.7. mean coins which contain 7 mace, 1 caudareen, 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 Taol setually in use in 1961 os.

↑ The Ji when representing weightin never spoken of as a sash, but probably the original value of a cash was 18. of pure silver,