RAS-1965 — Page 129

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NOTES AND QUERIES

which would explain why they were not comprised of members of the same clan.

3. Participation was sustained. The two men whose names figure most often in the papers were engaged in various money-raising activities through most of the period 1879-1895.

4. Land and house deeds were sometimes used to guarantee security, i.e., the payment of the periodic instalments which all participants in the association agreed to make upon entering it.

5. Three media were used in drawing up the accounts: silver dollars, silver by weight, and cash, but the reckonings were always made in terms of weight calculated in taels or Chinese ounces. This profusion of media seems to have been general at the time: see MacGowan's Lights and Shadows of Chinese Life (Shanghai 1909) pp. 179-180.

6. The rate of exchange was constant during the period and was 1 dollar = 0.72 taels - 1,000 cash.

Loans made by the Tong

This organization belonged to the Chi clan, which had been settled at Shek Pik since the middle of the seventeenth century. A Tong () is a Chinese customary association usually set up for business purposes to acquire/administer funds/property for private or family gain.

The various papers show that:

(i) Money loans were made on payment of interest;

(ii) The loans on interest terms were made both to clan members and to other villages of Shek Pik;

(iii) Interest rates were high, usually amounting to 50% principal per annum in simple interest, although the rate was usually listed at a monthly figure;

(iv) It seems that members of the Chi clan could borrow on more favourable terms, at 24% interest per annum;