_CURRENT COIN IN CHINA._
Taels.--Dollars.--Exchange.--Silver Shoes.--Foreign Mints.
She was not long out from England, and a _comprador_ order was as yet
an unnatural phenomenon to her. She supposed it was something like a
cheque upon a bank, or a circular note, with which Continental travel
had made her intimately acquainted. "What is the value of a dollar in
English money?" she had asked before starting on her tour from
Shanghai. "Oh yes, I understand it depends upon the exchange. I used
always to keep myself in gloves on what one gained in Italy. Now it is
horrid; one gains nothing. I don't quite know why it is. But how much
_about_ is the dollar worth, when exchange is--is--nothing
particular?" Then she had such long speeches made to her, and heard so
much conflicting information, she felt deafened, but ultimately
arrived at the conclusion that there were about--yes! _about_ six
dollars in an English pound, and there ought not to be so many. Now,
somewhat to her consternation, she discovered that her _comprador_
orders had taels printed upon them; so she made out her order in
taels, secretly wondering what they were. She had never seen them.
"Do you think I got the right exchange?" she asked of her Boy; then,
trying to suit herself to his needs, and speak English "as it is
spoke," "He pay my right money?"
"My no savey what thing one taelee catchee Hankow side," said the Boy,
with flippancy but decision. He came from farther inside the province.
She felt abashed, and supposed she must just take her money, hoping it
was right. Next time she would be wiser. Arrived at Ichang, she
scratched out taels, and was about to write in dollars.
"Dollars! Dollars aren't known at Ichang," said the Captain.
"What had I better do?" she asked of the oldest resident. Again she
was overwhelmed with words. But she gathered she ought to ask for
taels.
"Taels don't exist," said the Captain. "I never saw a tael, did you?
He'll bring you your money in lumps of silver, if you don't take
care."
"Yes," said the old resident, "you had better not get lumps of
silver."
"They vary in value, according to the quality of the silver,"
persisted the Captain. "You won't know what to do with them. You can't
break them up. You will have to weigh them. And what can you pay for
in lumps of silver? Nobody will take them for anything you want to
buy."
They actually both talked to her as if _she_ wished for solid,
uncoined lumps of silver. She felt confounded! But, determined to
preserve her calm, she said, "I had better write, and say I want so
many strings of cash, then, had I? Ten thousand cash? Twenty thousand
cash? I can't carry them, you know; and I don't know where I can keep
them. But I must have at least so much money in hand, if it is only to
pay for my washing."
"Pay for your washing!" they both burst out, as if that were a most
superfluous proceeding.
"I wouldn't write for cash, I think," began a third adviser. "I would
write down how many taels you require, and say you'd take it in cash."
"Then I shall never know if I get the right amount."
"A--h!" they all said, waving their hands, as if no one ever did know
if he got the right amount in China.
"It varies. It varies from day to day," said the oldest resident.
Needless to relate, she never saw those cash, never heard how many she
had received, nor where they were stowed away. The Boy said he had
them, it was all right. He said also that at Ichang it was very
shocking how few cash they gave for the tael.
She was determined she would learn Chinese, of course! Was she not
just out from home? And being just out from home, and anxious to be
polite to every one, it was a trouble to her mind that she did not
know how to greet her teacher when he came. She stood up, and rubbed
her hands together, which, she understood was the Chinese for a
curtsey; but it seemed feeble without a word, so she said, "Koom Shee!
Koom Shee!" as she had heard the country people say.
"Oh! you should not say _Koom Shee! Koom Shee!_ Not to a teacher, who
comes every day," said a Sinologue.
"He says it is quite right," said she. "I am sure I understand that
much. But he said I could also say _Tsao_!"
"Oh no--no! Not _Tsao_," said the Sinologue; but he never made any
suggestion as to what she should say.
"I could not think what I ought to say when he went away," she
continued. "But he says _Man man tso_."
"_Oh no!_ that is a _great deal_ too much to a teacher who comes every
day."
[Illustration: CHINESE MODE OF SALUTATION.]
"Well, that is what he says," she repeated rather wearily, after
having waited a little to see if he would suggest any polite speech
for her. "I do want to say something polite."
"It is very difficult to be polite in Chinese," said the Sinologue
solemnly. That seemed final. But she asked another Sinologue. "No, I
should not say _Man man tso_. Not _Man man tso_," said he dreamily.
"Not to a teacher--who comes every day."
"But what do you say?" asked she in desperation.
"Well, it is very polite to say _Shao pei_--I don't go to the door
with you, you know; I only go a few steps with you. That is the polite
thing to say after a call from a mandarin."
"But surely it would be polite to go to the door?"
"Oh yes--in China it would."
"Well, I think anywhere it would be _polite_."
"Yes, but not--not from a lady. It would not be expected."
"A--h! yes! then I can say _Shao pei_." However, she did not feel
quite satisfied, and she watched her opportunity.
Next time she heard a Sinologue converse with a Chinaman, she listened
to hear what he would say in parting. Alas! it was not _Man man tso_,
it was not _Shao pei_.
"What was that you said to him in taking leave?"
"Oh--I didn't say anything,"--with the instinctive horror of being
detected in possibly a false tone.
"Yes--yes, you said something as you turned away and took leave. And I
do so want to know what it was, that I may know what to say."
"Oh, I said----" mumbling very much, so that it was impossible to hear
what he said. "I don't think it was the thing to say to a man of his
station and quality. I think I should have said---- Let me see--I
really don't know what was the right thing for me to say."
And so now she is giving it up--giving up being polite in Chinese,
giving up ever ascertaining the value of money or the price of
anything. For how can things have fixed prices where money has none?
There is only one comfort to her soul: if any one looks offended, or
if a too sensitive conscience makes her fear she has given cause of
offence, she promptly says _Tetsui_--"I am to blame, I apologise." No
one has yet made distinctly evident that he does not understand her,
nor has any Sinologue yet told her she is wrong. _Tetsui_ is therefore
the one golden word for her. And while she is in China she foresees
she must live in one constant state of being to blame.
In this manner I at the time recorded my first impression of the
coinage and language of China. But the matter of payment is even more
complicated than I then fancied. The only coinage of China is copper
cash, of which about forty go to a penny. They are round, with a hole
in the middle, and generally about a thousand are strung on two
strings and tied together; and when carried, hanging over the
shoulder, they look like so many snakes. But I say about a thousand
advisedly; for there are generally a number of small and comparatively
worthless cash in every string, the average amount of these varying
in different parts. The lumps of silver with which my friends
threatened me are made up into what are called "shoes," but what look
like very large coarse thimbles. These are of various degrees of
purity, and their purity has to be tested before they are weighed or
broken up. In Chungking there were three different degrees of purity
in different parts of the city; therefore it made quite a considerable
difference whether you agreed to pay a sum of money in the upper,
lower, or middle town. And the result of so much difficulty about
payment is that every one is in debt to every one else, keeping a sort
of running account going.
Of late years foreign mints have been started in several places; and
lest this chapter should seem altogether too frivolous, I here subjoin
the essay that gained the prize, when, at the Polytechnic Institution
in 1890, the Governor of Ningpo started an essay competition, giving
as his theme:
"The south-eastern provinces now have much foreign money in
circulation, and the natives consider it a great convenience to trade.
Should China set about coining gold and silver money? Would it
circulate freely? Would it be advantageous to the country, or the
reverse?"
The Governor himself looked over the essays, and awarded the palm to
the composition of Mr. Yang, a B.A. of Kwangtung Province, of which
the following is a translation:
"Those who treat at the present time of the causes which are draining
away the wealth of China to foreign countries are, as a rule, in the
habit of confining their observations to two of these causes: the
importation of foreign opium, and the purchase of foreign ships and
munitions of war. They appear to be ignorant, indeed, for the most
part, that there is another cause at work, persistent, insidious,
whose effects are more far-reaching than either.
"The first silver money brought to China from abroad was the so-called
'Luzon Dollar,' coined by the Spaniards from the product of the mines
which they had acquired in America, a new country first settled by
them. The Spanish dollar was followed by others, made in the same
style--first the American, and then the Japanese. From Kwangtung and
Fukien these invaders spread to Kiangsu and Chekiang, Kiangsi, Anhui,
and Hupeh, in the order named, with great rapidity. Their beauty and
convenience were soon in everybody's mouth, and the loss to the
country became heavier and heavier as their importation increased.
"To speak of loss from the influx of foreign dollars may appear
paradoxical to those who have only eyes for the palpable loss to the
country caused by the importation of foreign opium and manufactures
and the purchase of foreign ships and cannon. Very little reflection,
indeed, suffices to show the disastrous tendency of exchanging for a
useless weed the bounteous produce of our harvests, of deluding with
new-fangled inventions the practical minds of our people, of spending
on a gun or a ship tens of thousands of taels. But I shall endeavour
to show that the proposition is no paradox, and that the loss to China
caused by the influx of foreign dollars is, if less visible on the
surface, at bottom none the less real.
"During the reigns of Tao Kwang and Hien Fêng (1821-1862), to buy each
of these dollars China parted with eighty-five tael cents; and as the
real value was seventy-two tael cents, on every dollar which she
purchased she lost thirteen tael cents. As, taking all the provinces
together, she must have been purchasing at least forty or fifty
million dollars every year, she must have been losing every year by
exchange the enormous sum of four or five million taels.
"Times have changed; but vast numbers of dollars are yearly imported
from various countries, most of them composed of one-tenth alloy; and,
in payment of this silver blended with baser metal, our pure silver is
shipped away in heaps. Moreover, dollars which are worth at most
seventy-two or seventy-three tael cents are sold in market at one,
two, three, or four tael cents more than that. Such a drain will end
in exhausting our silver supply, even if we had mountains of it, if
not checked betimes.
"We cannot prevent the importation of foreign dollars, nor prohibit
their use by the people; for the people wish for them, although they
are depleting the country of its wealth. There appears to me only one
way of checking this depletion, and that is by China coining dollars
herself.
"Opponents will say, even if China coin them, they will not
circulate. They will point to two previous instances where such an
attempt was made and failed. The first was towards the end of the
reign of Tao Kwang (about 1850): two officials obtained permission
from the Governor of Chekiang to start a silver-mint, and everybody
looked at the coins, rung them, and declined to have anything to do
with them. The second experiment was made at Wusih by Mr. Lu
Sueh-tsun: he turned out dollars which compared favourably with
foreign dollars in every particular except one--namely, that nobody
would use them. The opponents of the measure point to these two
examples, and say the coinage of dollars in China will never succeed.
"Some of these opponents do not go so far, but merely say that, even
if the Chinese Government is able to put home-made dollars into
circulation, it can only be in the southern and eastern provinces, as
in the north and west the people, accustomed to sycee and paper money,
would shrink from the manifold inconveniences involved in a sudden
change to a dollar medium of exchange.
"This appears to me more the language of narrow-minded pedants than of
practical men of the world. Which one of all who stand under China's
sky and feed off China's fields but desires his country's exaltation
and the depression of foreigners? If to-day all love foreign money, it
is because there is as yet no Chinese money. Once let there be Chinese
money, and we shall see how many will leave it for foreign. The two
instances alleged above only show that the coins which people looked
at, rung, and rejected were false in look and false in ring. The
semi-private way in which they were coined in a village was in itself
enough to excite the suspicions of the great mass of the public. An
Imperial Mint, openly conducted and turning out good work, would
arouse no such suspicions; and its money would very soon be current,
not only in the provinces of the south and east, but also in those of
the north and west, for the following reasons:
"The travelling merchant and trader of the north and west has now to
carry with him both silver sycee and copper cash. Copper cash is
heavy, and it is impossible to carry much value in that form; whilst
the carrying about of silver entails many and grievous losses in
exchange. It is natural to suppose that he would welcome as the
greatest boon a gold and silver currency which, by its portability and
uniformity of value, would relieve him of the obstacles which the
present system in vogue in the north and west spreads in the path of
commerce.
"The opponents of an Imperial Chinese Mint for the precious metals
commonly adduce four dangers, the contemplation of which, they say,
should make China hesitate to incur them. Let us look them in the
face. They are, firstly, the facility of counterfeiting the new
coinage; secondly, the difficulty of coinage, if commenced; thirdly,
the loss to China's prestige by an imitation of foreign manufactures;
fourthly, the possible venality of officials and workmen in the Mint.
"Would it not be the depth of pusillanimity, the extreme of
unreasonableness, for our great nation to give up, for fear of dangers
such as these, a plan which, carried out under the guidance and
control of well-selected men, will admittedly dam the outflow of our
wealth, and put an end to our impoverishment, which is now going on
year after year for the benefit of foreigners?
"The impossibility of coining the precious metals without alloy will
no longer afford the foreigner a profit. This profit will go to our
own Government, who will not be taking it from the people for nothing,
but amply earning it by giving them a universal uniform medium of
exchange. Its universality and uniformity will relieve the honourable
merchant of the present uncertainty of exchange, and deprive the
shifty speculator of his present inducement to gambling in
time-bargains dependent on the rise and fall (_mai kʽung_).
"I began this essay by enumerating various evils which are sapping the
wealth and power of China. How best to counteract these evils is a
problem which our statesmen and politicians are now devoting their
zealous endeavours to solve. The measures hitherto proposed involve,
when compared with that which I have advocated, a larger expenditure
at the outset, and do not seem to promise in any instance so speedy a
return of benefit to the nation. A gold and silver coinage by the
Imperial Government would, in all probability, in a very few years be
conferring on every province of the empire advantages in comparison
with which the initial inconveniences would hardly be worthy of
attention. It is, of course, an essential condition of the success of
the Mint that it should be organised in such a complete manner as to
leave no contingency unprovided for, and thus to ensure its stability
and permanence. I shall be happy if any of my humble remarks are
worthy to contribute to such a result."
[Illustration: CHINESE AGRICULTURE--FIELDS OF OPIUM POPPIES IN
FLOWER.]
Mr. Yang's essay seems already to have borne fruit, and nothing could
more check the little peculations so rife in China as a proper coinage
of the same value all through the country. Yet such is the innate
disorder and corruption attendant upon all Government undertakings in
China, that, without the supervision of the despised "foreigner," all
such schemes must fail in gaining the confidence of the people, as
they have notably failed hitherto. While we were in Chungking, the
Viceroy there introduced dollars coined by the Viceroy of Hupeh; but
as the local officials refused to take these dollars in payment of
taxes except at a discount of 3 per cent., nominally for "shroffage,"
the people naturally refused them, and they are now no longer to be
seen. The Chinese prefer the Mexican dollar, firstly, because they are
familiar with it; secondly, because they can depend upon it. The
statement in Mr. Yang's jejune essay that the Chinese give pure silver
in exchange for foreign dollars containing 10 per cent. alloy is, of
course, absurd. Copper cash form the real currency of the masses in
China, and it is the fluctuations between this, the only current
coinage, of late years shamefully debased, and silver (amounting in
1897 to 30 per cent.) that seriously disturbs the equanimity of "the
honourable merchant." Unfortunately, so far each Viceroy seems to be
setting up his own mint, irrespective of others. The idea of a Central
Government, managing the customs, posts, coinage, or even the army and
navy, is altogether alien to the Chinese mind.