Directory_and_Chronicle_1896 — Page 406

CHINESE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES, MONEY.

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 8 of 1885:-

1 fan, or candareen

10 fan = 1 tsin, or mace

10 tsin

= 1 leung, or tael

16 leung = 1 kan,

or catty

100 kan = 1 tàm, or picul

·0133 oz. avoir.

•1333 oz.

avoir.

1 oz. avoir.* 1 lb. avoir,

= 133 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 Chinese:~

10 fan 10 tsüu

1 tsün,

1 chek,

or inch

about 1.46 English inch. or foot = about 14 English inch.

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

10 li

1

pò, or league

1 li, or mile = mile English.

= 3 miles English (about). Land is measured by the mau or acre, equal to about

MONEY

of an English acre.

This is almost entirely represented by weights of silver, accounts being kept in leung, tsin, fan, and li (taels, mace, candareens, and cash †) as given above. 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. The value of the tael may be taken as $1.36.

Silver is used uncoined, in ingots or shoes, sometimes called sycee. Small sums are paid in what is called broken silver. At the Treaty Ports this generally 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. The silver coins issued by the Canton Mint were legalised as current throughout China by Imperial Decree in 1890.

Cash might be said before 1890 to be the 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 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 British or Mexican dollars; 50, 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. Japanese yen, American, Spanish, and South American dollars are also in circulation, and the 10, 20, and 50 cent pieces of the Straits Settlements, the Canton Mint, and of Japan are also in General use, but the Chinese and Japanese coins are not accepted by the Government departments.

1

The value of the dollar during 1895 ranged from 1s. 11 d. to 2s. 24d. sterling. Mexican dollars weighed at 7.1.7. mean coins which contain 7 mace, I 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 nse is 1.351 oz.

+ The li when representing weight is never spoken of as a cash, but probably the original value of a cash was 1 li of

pure silver.

‡ The Mint at Canton now issues subsidiary silver coins to the dollar as well as ash