Chinese currency

Preface

The facts of this work have been collected from Chinese books and journals and from Customs' publications, and they have been as far as possible brought up to date. At present the Chinese are importing both gold and silver. In 1900, according to Mr. F. E. Taylor's very valuable report on trade, gold was imported from Japan because many rich Chinese wished for the most portable metal in case they needed to fly to a distance through the mischances of war. Silver was imported to the amount of fifteen million and a half taels. In addition to this sum, known from the Customs' books, there was an enormous import of British, French, and Mexican dollars, brought by the foreign armies which captured Tientsin and Peking. In Manchuria and Chihli dollars are now more plentiful than sycee. The circulation of foreign dollars in the north of China has increased so much as to help the people, in a considerable degree, to recover the commerce which was interrupted by the war of 1900, the year of cruel massacres and. severe retribution.

The payment of heavy indemnities must greatly deplete the currency throughout China. The people will be compelled to increase their exports in order to adjust the balance of trade. The silver which leaves the country ought to come back in payments for exports. This is according to present appearances likely to occur. The country happily is resuming its usual state of tranquillity. The Boxer movement was abnormal. The people at large will soon return, where there have been rude disturbances, to the quiet pursuits of industry, and money will quickly come back to the cultivator, the weaver, and the trader.

109946

IV PREFACE.

Althoagh this book is compiled from Chiaese sonrces almost entirely, yet Chiaese books are liable to errors. Dr. S. W. Bushell wrote me some years since in reference to so old and excellent an authority as the Shi-ki of Sz-ma-tsien, B. C. 100, that it has made a mistake in saying that coins of the Ts'in dynasty are without a legend. We have even coins in our collections with the inscriptions Pau-ho, Pau-sz-ho, Pan-lin-ho, which are referred with every probability to a yet older dynasty — the Chow.

In China ancient customs linger — as in the language and literature, so in the currency. Salt cakes, adds Dr. Bushell, are still in use as currency on the borders of Yunnan as they were in the days of Marco Polo. The stamped leather of the Han currency seems to prefigure a paper issue. The same may be said of seals — used in China for more than 2,000 years. The stamped bricks of the Babylonian mounds form a link in the chain of facts which show that civilized usages cannot die out. Primaeval civilization develops new arts in every succeeding age, and the natural intelligence of the human mind, the gift of the Creator, aids in preventing the decay of our race, and in securing its perpetual progress towards the beautiful, the good, and the true.

In writing to Dr. Bushell I had referred to white money medals in use in the Han dynasty which could hardly enter into circulation as money, being so easily counterfeited. • He agreed with that remark and said they were but tokens. He had an oblong specimen in his possession, with a horse in relief and made with very inferior alloy. Currency is a help to the interchange of commodities, and China has not been behind in the invention of convenient forms of money. Unfortunately China has fallen under the temptation to consume large quantities of a very expensive drug. The price of opium has risen on account of the change of Indian currency from silver to gold. The Chinese pay as much now for the Indian opium they buy

PREFACE. V

as they did twenty years ago for a far less quantity. The abrupt change to gold monometallism in India has caused severe loss to China. This is shown in the following manner: —

In 1897 the statistics of the opinm trade tell as that 27,000,000 taels of silver purchased 49,217 piculs of opium, and this was nearly the same as the amount spent by China in purchasing 74,000 piculs in 1887. Since the closing of the Indian mints to silver coinage the amount of that metal paid by China for Indian opium has increased. In 1898 the value of the import was Taels 29,000,000, yet the amount of opium purchased from India was only 49,785 piculs. In 1880 when the Chinese bought 71,654 piculs of foreign opium the cost was 32,344,028 Taels of silver. The effect of the change in Indian currency is to increase the burdens of China. In 1879 the import was 83,000 piculs, and the cost Taels 36,000,000. In 1899 and 1900 the import was 59,000 and 49,000 piculs and the cost 35,700,000 and 29,600,000 Taels. There was in the year 1899 a marked increase of the import at Shanghai, Chinkiang, and Canton. This was contemporaneous with an alarming advance in the quantity of the morphia import. These three cities enjoy great commercial prosperity. This fact is well established in the Customs' statistics. As the people become richer they indulge to a large extent in the opium vice. The advance in the import of morphia is a proof of the increase in the tyrannical sway of opium over the Chinese people. More persons every year are ado[>ting the habit. The Customs' trade report says that the native crop has been deficient and that this is supposed to be the cause of the phenomenal growth of the foreign import. It seems, however, beyond reasonable doubt that more persons than ever are now falling into the temptation to smoke opium or to swallow morphia pills. The result must be increased drain of silver to pay for foreign opium, but each person who, induced by economy, exchanges opium for morphia, effects a saving of perhaps

VI PREFACE.

25 %. SiDce morphia is more injurious than opium smoking, it is impossible at present to foresee the extent of social mischief it will occasion in future years. This may be so great as to check its destructive advance. Meanwhile there is no room for doubt that the sale of Indian opium is maintained, and with it the drain of silver caused by its higher price.

Jos. Edkins.

Peking, April 24th, 1901.

Part I,— Currency in China, Page

The principles of currency are known to the Chinese ... 1

Ten benefits in the use of paper currency ... 2

Fifteen defects in paper currency ... ... ... .... 4

How the rich may be induced not to hoard cash 5

Currency in the Tang dynasty « ... 5

Poll tax, hemp tax, forced labour ... ^ 6

Weights and measures... ... ^ ... 7

Paper currency dates from the Tang dynasty .... .,, 8

Currency in the Yuen dynasty ... ... 8

Wages in A.D. 1326. Lavish use of silver and of paper money. 9

Depreciation of paper notes ... ... ... 9

Currency during the Ming dynasty ... ... '12

Increased use of silver ... ... 12

Prohibition of silver as currency ^. 12

Received in payment of taxes 13

Gold five times the price of silver ... ... ... ... 14

In A.D. 1436 four cwt. of rice were sold for a tael of silver. 14

Rice was then eight times cheaper than now ... ... 16

Government bank notes ceased to be circulated about A.D.

1425 17

In 1430 a million piculs of grain were paid for in silver ... 18

In A.D. 1573 treasury receipts were, in silver, 4,500,000 taels. 18 In A.D. 1522 European traders paid silver for silk at

Influence of eunuchs in palace expenditure ... 19

Salt administration ... 19

Rice and salt equal in price 19

Currency in the present dynasty ... ... 20

Special Peking currency ... ... ... 20

Vlll CONTENTS.

Fall of silver in Europe 20

Value of silver in copper cash not affected ... ... ... 21

Fixed ratio in India .. ... ... ... 21

Local values of the dollar ... ... ... ... ... 22

Silver, like gold, rises in value by its use as money... ... 23

Part 11. — Copper.

Sources of the copper used in Chinese currency ... ... 26

Import of Japanese copper ... ... ... ... ... 27

Copper in Yunnan, Shensi, and Hupei ... ... ... 27

Rocher on Yiiiinan ... ... 28

Appreciation of copper in the 8th century ... ... ... 31

Value of copper when coined ... ... ... ... ... 34

Price of copper in China ... ... ... ... ... 34

Price of copper in England ... ... ... 35

Price of copper and of lead ... ... ... ... ... 36

Manufacture of copper cash ... ... ... ... ... 37

Demand for new cash ... ... ... ... 38

New cash weighing eight candareens... ... ... ... 41

Casting cash and silver coins ... ... ... ... ... 41

New cash cast at Moukden ... *•• ... 42

Japanese cash in China ... ... 43

Annual amount of cash coined ... ... ... ... 43

Proportion of cash to the population ... ... ... ... 45

The number of new cash in each province ... ... ... 46

Rules followed in coining cash ... ... ... ... 47

Scarcity of copper cash ... ... ... ... ... 48

' CONTENTS. :1X

Copper and copper coinage in A. D. 1780 ... ... ... 48

Expense of mining for copper 50

Part III, —Silver, Sources of Chinese silver ... ... ... ... ,.. 51

Flow of silver into China ... ... ... ... ... 52

Silver sent by Chinese emigrants ... ... ... ... 53

Yalue of silver in the 18th century ... ... ... ... b^

In 1739 a tael of silver was changed for 1,000 cash ... 57

In 1782 twenty taels of silver were worth one tael of gold... 58

Value of silver in the 19th century ... ... ... ... 58

The opium trade raised the value of silver ... ... ... 59

Silver rose from 1,000 cash a tael to 1,600 cash ... ... 59

Destruction of 22,000 chests of opium ... ... ... 60

The entire value was over five million dollars. Including

profits to importers it amounted to about ten millions. 61

In 1900 silver rose on account of the Boxer insurrection ... 61 Japanese adoption of a gold standard ajffected the price of

Cantoa dollars in Peking ... ... ... ... ... 63

The Carolus dollar 64

Taxes paid in Chinese dollars ... ... ... ... ... 67

Amount of silver in China ... ... ... ,„ ... 68

Increased demand for silver ... ... ... ... ... 69

Silver payment in place of grain tribute ... ... ... 69

Silver import in recent years ....... ... ... ... 70

X CONTENTS.

Part IV,— Gold. Gold in ancient times ... ... ... ... ... m 71

Increased production of gold ... ... ... ... ^^ 71

Waste of gold ^ 72

Gold in circulation in 12th century ... ... ... •« 73

Gold in the Jehol country and Chihli ... ... »• 73

Gold in Moukden province ... ... ... ... ,„ 74

Gold in Darbagatai ... ... ... ... 75

Gold near Urga and Eastern Mongolia ... ... .,, 75

Gold in Szchwen 76

Production of gold in the Chinese provinces ... ... 80

Export of gold from China is about £1,000,000 each year ... 82

Fall of gold in 1900 through the Boxer movement ... 83

Price of gold in the 18th century ... ... ... ... 84

Fall in value in 1895 89