261
A TORN SCRAP OF PAPER: RELATING TO A MONEY LOAN ASSOCIATION, SMALL LOANS, OR WHAT?
JAMES HAYES
The torn scrap of paper shown at Plate 1 was found between the leaves of a Chinese book bought some time ago from a second-hand dealer in Hong Kong.
Measuring only 3" by 2", it was probably incomplete, yet someone had kept it as a record.
It contained seven names and seven amounts, but one of the names had been scored out.
Reading from the right, a translation of the characters and amounts, as given in the Cantonese rendering which I believe to be appropriate, runs as follows:
Yip Tung 10 cents; Yeung Tai 7 cents; Ah Yee 8 cents; Seng Ho 13 cents; Seng Chan 16 cents; Name crossed out 7 cents.
The currency being used, singly or in combination, for the accounts was the sin, a one-cent coin, and the ho, a ten-cent coin. The first can be found in Rev. W. Lobscheid's An English and Chinese Dictionary, revised and enlarged Japanese edition, Tokio, J. Fujimoto, 16th year of Meiji [1884], p. 220. The second appears on p. 162 of Ernest John Eitel's A Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect (London, Trubner & Co. and Hongkong, Lane, Crawford & Co., 1877) p. 162. Lobscheid's dictionary was originally published in Hong Kong in 1868, but to date, this author has never seen a copy of the original edition.
For the sake of clarity, the renderings made in translation are given uniformly in cents, instead of variously in the two different units used in the original.
I believe these coins were Hong Kong currency, but the date of their introduction is not known to me. However, it could not have
261
A TORN SCRAP OF PAPER: RELATING TO A MONEY LOAN ASSOCIATION, SMALL LOANS, OR WHAT?
JAMES HAYES
The torn scrap of paper shown at Plate 1 was found between the leaves of a Chinese book bought some time ago from a second hand dealer in Hong Kong.
Measuring only 3" by 2”, it was probably incomplete, yet some- one had kept it as a record.
It contained seven names and seven amounts, but one of the names
had been scored out.
Reading from the right, a translation of the characters and amounts, as given in the Cantonese rendering which I believe to be appropriate, runs as follows:
Yip Tung 10 cents; Yeung Tai 7 cents; Ah Yee 8 cents; Seng Ho 13 cents; Seng Chan 16 cents; Name crossed out 7 cents.
The currency being used, singly or in combination, for the ac- counts was the sin, a one cent coin, and the ho, a ten cent coin. The first can be found in Rev. W. Lobscheid's An English and Chinese Dictionary, revised and enlarged Japanese edition, Tokio, J. Fujimoto, 16th year of Meiji [1884], p. 220. The second appears on p.162 of Ernest John Eitel's A Chinese Dictionary in the Cantonese Dialect (London, Trubner & Co. and Hongkong, Lane, Crawford & Co., 1977) p.162. Lobscheid's dictionary was originally published in Hong Kong in 1868, but to date this author has never seen a copy of the original edition.
For the sake of clarity, the renderings made in translation are given uniformly in cents, instead of variously in the two different units used in the original.
I believe these coins were Hong Kong currency, but the date of their introduction is not known to me. However, it could not have
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