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interest payable on the principal. This sum, though unstated, is likely to have been one dollar. As indicated above, those members who took loans early paid more interest than those who were prepared to wait. Thus, Yeung Tai would have paid least by waiting longest for his turn to have the use of the principal sum.
As for place, the participants' varied names suggest a town rather than a village. Since the book in which it was found was bought in Hong Kong, and as the currency used in drawing up the record was in use there, it is very likely that this small group of persons were living and working there.
There is no mention of the purposes for which men and women clubbed together in this way, but it was usually for small, attainable objects connected with household, economic or religious purposes. Such associations were certainly popular at the time, in town and country alike. It is significant that money loan associations feature in the older Western literature on China, gaining a mention, for instance, in compendia like Dyer-Ball's Things Chinese, first published in 1892. In Hong Kong, defalcations and mismanagement among their members brought many civil cases into the magistrates' courts.
This particular association, if such it was, was combining for very modest sums. In this regard, it was on a lower level than the money loan associations I reported from the village of Shek Pik on Lantau Island in Vol. 8 (1968) of this Journal; afterwards reproduced with additional material as Chapter 15 of my The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983). The sums borrowed there were larger, since land and houses were available as security for participation, and could be used to guarantee repayment of loans taken. This made them more significant than the smaller associations, more akin to clubs, represented by this scrap of paper.
Other Explanations?
(a) The list represents the outstanding sums owed to a money loan association
Dr. Patrick Hase, to whom I sent the draft of this paper, questions
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interest payable on the principal. This sum, though unstated, is likely to have been one dollar. As indicated above, those members who took loans early paid more interest than those who were prepared to wait. Thus, Yeung Tai would have paid least by waiting fongest for his turn to have the use of the principal sum.
As for place, the participants' varied names suggest a town rather than a village. Since the book in which it was found was bought in Hong Kong, and as the currency used in drawing up the record was in use there, it is very likely that this small group of persons were living and working there.
There is no mention of the purposes for which men and women clubbed together in this way, but it was usually for small, attainable objects connected with household, economic or religious purposes. Such associations were certainly popular at the time, in town and country alike. It is significant that money loan associations feature in the older Western literature on China, gaining a mention, for instance, in com- pendia like Dyer-Ball's Things Chinese, first published in 1892. In Hong Kong, defalcations and mismanagement among their members brought many civil cases into the magistrates' courts.
This particular association, if such it was, was combining for very modest sums. In this regard, it was on a lower level than the money loan associations I reported from the village of Shek Pik on Lantau Island in Vol. 8 (1968) of this Journal; afterwards reproduced with ad- ditional material as Chapter 15 of my The Rural Communities of Hong Kong: Studies and Themes (Hong Kong, Oxford University Press, 1983). The Sums borrowed there were larger, since land and houses were available as security for participation, and could be used to guar- antee repayment of loans taken. This made them more significant than the smaller associations, more akin to clubs, represented by this scrap of paper.
Other Explanations?
(a) The list represents the outstanding sums owed to a money loan association
Dr. Patrick Hase, to whom I sent the draft of this paper, questions
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