THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.
Subiectos Orientis orae
Seras et Indos.
HOR. _Carm._ I. 12. 56.
We have now found that within the area where our weight standards arose
the ox was universally diffused, and regarded as the chief and most
general form of property and medium of exchange; that over the same area
gold was found to be more or less equally distributed in antiquity;
that the metallic unit is found in all cases adapted to the chief unit
of barter, whether that be ox or reindeer, beaver skin, or squirrel, as
soon as peoples have learned the use of metal; and finally that over our
special area from the Atlantic to Central Asia the cow at various times
and places retained a value which fluctuated only from 120 to 140 grains
of gold. When therefore we recall the fact, also pointed out above,
that the gold unit employed from Gaul to Central Asia was one that only
fluctuated from 120 to 140 grains, and when we recollect further that
this unit in the ancient Greek Epic is called not a talent but an _ox_,
when prices, and not merely the actual ingots of gold are mentioned,
the conclusion follows that not merely in Greece but in all the other
countries the gold unit represented originally simply the conventional
value of the cow as the immemorial unit of barter.
Next follows an important question, How was the primitive weight standard
fixed? In other words, how did mankind arrive at the general opinion that
a weight of gold of about 130 English grains was the equivalent to the
conventional value of the animal?
If we could but discover a region in which the weight and monetary
systems still in use are essentially independent of our Graeco-Asiatic
standards, and where it could be proved that the monetary system is an
independent native development, and where this development is of such
recent date that the record has been preserved in a written document, not
merely reaching us in the dim form of a tradition, blurred and broken in
the long and misty space of years that lie between us and those who first
shaped our system, we would undoubtedly discern more clearly the stages
of its evolution.
The Chinese empire with the neighbouring peoples who have participated
in its civilization afford us just the case which we desire. It will be
seen from what follows that not merely the monetary system of China, but
her weight system is of an origin almost wholly unaffected by Western
influences.
We saw above that the earliest form of money in Greece took the form of
_spits_ or small rods of copper, no doubt of a specified size; we found
in Annam that iron hoes, in mediaeval India iron formed into large-sized
needles, in modern times in Central Africa pieces of iron of given
dimensions, bars of iron among the Hottentots and among the peoples of
the West Coast of Africa, brass rods of fixed length in the region of
the Congo, and pieces of a precious wood likewise of fixed dimensions,
have served or do still serve as media of exchange, and as units by which
the values of other commodities are measured. In all these cases mere
_measure_ not _weight_, is the method of appraisement. As the archaic
Greek “spit” or _obolus_ of bronze eventually became a round bronze
coin, familiar to us as Charon’s fee, and in still later times under the
abbreviation _ob_. as the accountant’s symbol for a half-penny, as _d._
(_denarius_) denotes the penny, so we shall find that the common Chinese
copper coins pierced with a square hole in the centre have had an almost
identical history.
At the time when the Chinese made their great invasion into South-eastern
Asia (214 B.C.) they still were employing a bronze currency under the
form of knives, which were 135 millimetres (5⅖ in.) in length, bearing
on the blade the character _minh_, and furnished with a ring at the
end of the handle for stringing them. Under the ninth dynasty (479-501
A.D.) they used knives of the same form and metal, but 180 millim. (7⅕
in.) in length, furnished with a large ring at the end of the handle and
inscribed with the characters _Tsy Kú-u Hoa_. Next the form of the knife
was modified, the handle disappeared, and the ring was attached directly
to the blade, but now as weight was regarded of importance, its thickness
was increased to preserve the full amount of metal, and the ring became a
flat round plate pierced with a hole for the string[211]. Later on these
knives became really a conventional currency, and for convenience the
blade was got rid of, and all that was now left of the original knife
was the ring in the shape of a round plate pierced with a square hole.
This is a brief history of the _sapec_ (more commonly known to us as
_cash_) the only native coin of China, and which is found everywhere from
Malaysia to Japan[212].
[Illustration: FIG. 21. CHINESE KNIFE MONEY (showing the evolution of the
modern Chinese coins).]
Except where foreign coins such as American silver dollars are employed,
all payments in silver and gold are made by weight, the only money
being the copper _cash_. The Chinese metric system, like our own, is
based on natural seeds or grains of plants. Thus ten of a kind of seed
called _fên_ (the Candarin) probably placed sideways make 1 _ts’un_ (the
Chinese inch[213]), just as our forefathers based the English inch on 3
barleycorns placed lengthwise. So with their monetary system,
10 _li_[214] (copper cash) = 1 _fên_ (_Candarin_) of silver.
10 _fên_ = 1 _chi’en_ (_mace_).
10 _chi’en_ = 1 _liung_ (or _tael_ or Chinese ounce).
This _liung_ or, as it is more commonly called, _tael_ is the maximum
monetary weight. Hence we hear always of payments in silver as being 1000
or 2000 ounces and so on, but never in the higher commercial units of the
_catty_ or pound, and _pical_ or hundredweight, to which we shall come
immediately. But though the Chinese never employed any coinage of gold or
silver, beyond all doubt they have possessed and employed both metals for
almost an incalculable time in the form of ingots of rectangular shape,
and of very accurately fixed dimensions. The maximum unit employed in
commercial relations between China, Cochin-China, Annam and Cambodia is
the _nên_ or _bar_. It is of course among her less advanced neighbours
that we can best see how the system developed and worked. For whilst
China herself now reckons exclusively by the _tael_ or ounce, Annam and
Cambodia still employ ingots of fixed weights and dimensions as metal
units almost to the present time. Thus when Msg. Taberdier in 1838
published his account of the money of Annam, they had no coins except
the ordinary cash or _sapec_ with a square hole in its centre, and which
is there made of zinc and called _dong_[214], they had no coinage in the
proper sense of the term. However they employed ingots of gold and silver
of a parallelopiped shape. Five sizes of ingots were employed for both
gold and silver alike.
GOLD.
1. _Nên-Vang, loaf of gold_ = 10 _lu’ong_ or _taels_
(ounces).
2. _Thoi-Vang_ or _Nua Nên-Vang_ = 5 _lu’ong_.
3. _Lu’ong-Vang, nail of gold_ = 1 _lu’ong_ (39·05 grammes).
4. _Nua-Vang, half nail of gold_ = ½ _lu’ong_.
5. The quarter _lu’ong_ = ¼ _tael_ (9·762 gram.).
SILVER.
1. _Nên-bac, loaf of silver_ = 10 _lu’ong_ or _taels_.
2. _Nua Nên-bac, half loaf of silver_ = 5 _lu’ong_.
3. _Lu’ong_ or _Dinh-bac, nail of silver_ = 1 _tael_.
4. Half _Lu’ong, half nail_ = ½ _tael_.
5. Quarter _Lu’ong_ = ¼ _tael_ (9·762 gram.).
The lowest unit then was the quarter _nail_ of 152½ grains troy, whilst
the largest was the _nên_ of 6500 grains. These ingots did not circulate
freely but were generally kept in wealthy families as reserve treasure.
In very similar manner in Greece and Italy gold and silver, fashioned
into talents and bars or wedges, were employed side by side with the
bronze _oboli_ or _spits_ which served as the ordinary currency of
every-day life.
We have now seen that the highest unit employed for silver and gold is
the _Nên_ or bar of ten _taels_ or ounces. Before going further it will
be convenient to describe briefly what we may term the Chinese system of
_avoirdupois_ weight. Then we shall give the system borrowed from the
Chinese and used in Cambodia and Cochin-China.
_Chinese._
10 _fên_ = 1 _ch’en_ (mace).
10 _ch’en_ = 1 _liang_, _tael_ or ounce.
16 _tael_ = 1 _chin_, commonly known as catty, = 1⅓ lbs. English.
100 catties = 1 _tan_ or _shih_, commonly known to us as the _picul_
(= 133⅓ lbs. English).
_Cambodia._ Money system.
60 cash or sapecs of zinc = 1 _tien_.
10 _tien_ = 1 string.
10 strings = 1 _nên_ or bar of silver (90 francs).
The _nên_ is an ingot of silver of parallelopiped form, which is
invariably worth 100 strings of zinc cash[215]. This _nên_ is subdivided
for money of account as follows:
1 _nên_ (375 grammes) = 10 _denh_.
1 _denh_ = 10 _chi_.
1 _chi_ = 10 _hun_.
1 _hun_ = 10 _li_.
They employ a coin of silver called a _prac-bat_ or _preasat_, worth 4
strings or ⅟₂₅ _nên_[216].
The Mexican piastre, which circulates also, is worth on the average about
6 strings of cash.
1 gold ingot = 16 _nêns_ of silver.
The half ingot of gold is also used = 8 ingots of silver.
The unit of commercial or _avoirdupois_ weight is the _catty_ (called by
the Cambodians the _neal_) or pound.
1 _neal_ (catty) (600 grammes) = 16 _tomlongs_ or _taels_ (ounces).
1 _tomlong_ (37·5 grammes) = 10 _chi_ (of 3·75 grammes).
1 _chi_ = 10 _hun_.
The preceding weights are plainly borrowed from the Chinese, whilst the
following are regarded as native in origin.
1 _pey_ = 0·292 grammes.
4 _pey_ = 1 _fuong_ (1·174 grammes).
2 _fuong_ = 1 _slong_ (2·344 grammes).
4 _slong_ = 1 _bat_ (9·375 grammes).
4 _bat_ = 1 _tomlong_ (37·5 grammes).
For heavy merchandise they employ the _hap_ or _picul_.
There are three varieties of _picul_: (1) that of the weight of 40
strings of cash (= 100 catties), (2) that of 42 strings, (3) that of 45
strings.
It will be noticed that the first-mentioned is simply the standard of the
Chinese _picul_ of 133⅓ lbs. English, whilst the others are native.
In Annam we found that the ingots of gold and silver, consisting of ten
_luongs_ or _nails_, were called _nên_. The _luong_ was equal in weight
to the Chinese _liung_, and Cambodian _tomlong_, and was also called
_dinh_ (_dinh-bac_, _nail of silver_), thus being identical with the ten
_denh_ into which the Cambodian _nên_ or bar is divided.
In Laos[217] we again find the Chinese _picul_ as the highest weight
unit. It is divided into 100 catties (here called _Chang_) of 600 grammes
each (1⅓ lb. Eng.).
1 _picul_ = 100 _catties_.
1 _catty_ (_chang_) = 10 _damling_ (60 grammes).
1 _damling_ = 4 _bat_ (15 grammes).
1 _bat_ = 4 _chi_ (3·75 grammes).
1 _chi_ = 10 _hun_.
All these or their equivalents are used as money of account. “If there is
but little coin in Laos,” says M. Aymonier, “there are monies of account
in abundance.” In the south-west of the country, Bassak and Attopoeu,
Cambodian currency is employed, and they count by the _nên_ or bar of
silver.
1 _nên_ = 10 _denhs_ (money of account).
1 _denh_ = 10 strings of _cash_.
The _string_ is also money of account and is worth the same as the string
of Annam, which is equal to the _sling_ or Siamese franc (which is worth
75 or 80 centimes). The _nên_ is also divided into 100 _chi_, and as
there are 100 strings in the _nên_, the string of cash is equivalent to
a _chi_ of silver (3·75 gram.). The Siamese coins known also to Cambodia
were the weight and money units of the ancient Cambodians, who probably
weighed their precious metals. In Laos all of them except the _tical_
are only monies of account. The _tical_ or _bat_ which under the ancient
round form[218] was called _clom_ in Cambodia is actually struck as a
small piastre in Cambodia and Siam in imitation of European money. This
_tical_ is worth 4 Siamese _slings_, but the only monetary division of it
known in Laos is the local _lat_ or small ingot of copper.
4 copper _lats_ = 1 silver _tical_ (= 4 _sling_ = 3 francs).
4 _tical_ = 1 _damling_.
20 _damling_ = 1 _catty_ (_chang_).
50 _catties_ = 1 _picul_.
The _chang_ or _catty_ of silver is a double one, hence 50 _catties_ of
silver are equal to 100 _catties_ of ordinary commercial weight.
The _catty_ of silver thus weighs 1200 grammes instead of 600 grammes.
They likewise use the _moeun_ of silver = 10 _changs_ = ⅕ _picul_,
but more generally the _moeun_ is used as a measure of capacity which
contains 20 _catties_ of shelled rice, but as a measure of capacity it
varies and is sometimes equal to 20 _catties_, sometimes to 25 _catties_
of rice. That it really is a measure of capacity incorporated at a
later date into the weight system like our own _bushels_, _barrels_
and _quarters_, is made probable by the fact that in the provinces of
Tonlé, Ropon, and Melou Préy they employ a _tramem_ or _bag_ containing
10 Cambodian _catties_, and in the province of Siphoum the _moeun_ is
sometimes the name given to a bag or pannier of a cubit in depth, and a
cubit in width at the mouth. It is usually called _kanchoen_ (_pannier_),
and contains 25 _catties_ of rice, and 36 _kanchoen_ make a _cartload_.
We learn from another part of Laos an interesting fact which also throws
some light on the development of the larger weight units from measures of
capacity. For since in some parts of that country the cocoanut is used
as the measure of capacity, and as _neal_, the native Cambodian name for
the _catty_, means simply a cocoanut, it looks as though this was the
real origin of the catty universally employed over all Further Asia.
This likewise gives us the reason why the catty of silver is twice the
weight of a catty of rice. If a weight unit is derived from a measure
of capacity, according to the nature of the substance or liquid with
which the measure is filled, the weight unit derived will be heavier or
lighter, just as the Irish barrel of wheat is 6 stones heavier than the
barrel of oats. A cocoa-nut, or bamboo-joint filled with silver will give
a far heavier weight unit than if it is weighed when filled with rice.
We have now had a survey of the monetary and weight systems of China,
Annam, Cambodia and Laos, and everywhere found that the _nên_ or bar
of 10 _taels_ is the highest known metallic unit, and that except in
Laos the counting of money even by the catty or pound is unknown, the
Chinese themselves only employing the _tael_ as their highest monetary
unit, the catty being kept as in Annam and Cambodia itself for ordinary
goods. This is borne out by the practices in the weighing of gold. In
Attopoeu, the region where gold is found, 8 _chi_ (= 2 _ticals_ or _bats_
= 4 _slings_ = 30 grammes) are exchanged for a bar of silver (= 100
_chi_ = 375 grammes). M. Aymonier thinks that the gold _bat_, that is
to say the weight in gold of a _tical_ (15 grammes, 234 grains Troy),
must have been the unit for weighing gold, as formerly it was necessary
to give a gold _bat_ in order to marry a girl of the blood royal. This
gets considerable support from the fact that in Sieng-Khan the gold _bat_
has only the weight of a _sling_ or _chi_ (58½ grains Troy), that is the
quarter of a _tical_, and the weight of the _tical_ or _bat_ is called a
_damling_. In fact they hardly reckon gold in any other way than by this
small _damling_ which is only the weight of a _tical_ (234 grains Troy).
In reference to my argument that as gold is the first of all things to
be weighed, the primitive weight unit is certain to be small, as no
man has, as a rule, any need to weigh his gold by the hundredweight or
large mercantile talent, this fact that the highest unit for weighing
gold in Attopoeu is so small, not even reaching the weight of the
Graeco-Phoenician heavy gold shekel or double ox-unit of 260 grains, is
of considerable importance.
This region supplies us with yet another point which can help to clear
up the history of early metallic currency. The iron ingots which come
from the Cambodian provinces of Kompong Soai form a special kind of
money. These ingots are not weighed, but they have the length of the
space between the base of the thumb and the tip of the forefinger, they
are in breadth two fingers, and one finger in thickness in the middle,
thinning off to either end. Three of these ingots = 1 _chi_ = 1 _sling_ =
1 string of cash; thus 12 ingots = 1 _tical_ of silver. These ingots are
also counted by bags of 20; thus 1 _nên_ or bar of silver = 15 bags = 300
ingots of iron.
At Bassak the iron ingot is replaced by the _lat_, the copper ingot
of Laos, which varies in value in the different moeungs (provinces)
according to its size. Here is a remarkable confirmation of my contention
that it was only at a period considerably later than the weighing of gold
that the scales were employed for copper and iron, the catty being kept
as in Annam and Cambodia for ordinary goods.
We can now make a further advance in our quest of the first beginnings of
money and weights in this interesting region. There are many wild tribes
in Annam and Laos, who still employ no method save that of barter, when
dealing one with another, although when they touch on the more civilized
regions they have to conform their native systems in some degree to the
more developed currency of their neighbours, from whom they have to
procure the few luxuries of their simple life. We saw above that among
the wild tribesmen all articles have a well-defined relationship to each
other, some particular article being usually taken as the common measure
of all the rest, or rather two or three so that they may have units for
estimating their more common as well as their more valuable possessions.
So in Annam the buffalo often serves as the general unit of value for the
more valuable articles. Thus a large chaldron is worth three buffalos,
a handsome gong two buffalos, a small gong one buffalo, six copper
dishes one buffalo, two lances one buffalo, a rhinoceros horn eight
buffalos, a large pair of elephant’s tusks six buffalos, a small pair
three buffalos[219]. Thus the buffalo which takes the place of the ox
in China and South-Eastern Asia, is used as the commercial unit in like
fashion as we found the ox employed among the Homeric Greeks, the ancient
Italians, the ancient Irish, and the modern Ossetes. But the Annamites
themselves employ as currency the silver bar and string of cash as we saw
above: accordingly when the hill tribes have dealings with the people of
the plain the full grown buffalo is reckoned at a bar of silver, or, its
equivalent, 100 strings of cash[220], while the small buffalo is set at
fifty strings.
Thus the Orang Glaï have often to buy a pair of elephant’s tusks at
the cost of eight buffalos or eight bars of silver. Taxes are paid in
buffalos; thus the Tjrons of Karang pay a buffalo for each house, or
compound for the whole village by a payment of ten buffalos whose horns
are at least as long as their ears[221]. Here then we find that exactly
as the ancient Irish when they borrowed the Roman system of _unciae_
and _scripula_ (_unga_ and _screapall_) equated the ounce of silver to
their own unit, the cow, so we find these wild tribes of Annam forced to
adapt their primitive unit to the metallic unit of their more cultured
neighbours. Again, the Bahnars of Annam, who dwell on the borders of
Laos, have much the same system. With them the highest unit is the
_head_, _i.e._ a male slave, who is estimated, according to his strength,
age and skill, at 5, 6, or 7 buffalos, or the same number of kettles, as
the buffalo and the kettle have the same value, which naturally varies
with the size and age of the animal and the quality of the kettle. A full
grown buffalo, or a large kettle, is worth seven glazed jars of Chinese
shape with a capacity of 10 to 15 litres each. One jar is worth 4 _muks_.
The _muk_ was originally the name of some special article, but now is
simply used as a unit of account. Each _muk_ is worth 10 _mats_, or iron
hoes, which are manufactured by the Cédans, and which form the sole
agricultural implement of the wild tribes of all these regions. This hoe
is the smallest monetary unit used by the Bahnars, and is worth about one
penny in European goods. This _mat_ or hoe serves them as small currency
and all petty transactions are carried on by it. Thus a large bamboo hat
costs 2 hoes, a Bahnar knife 2 hoes, ordinary arrows are sold at 30 for
1 hoe and so on. A large elephant is worth from 10 to 15 “_heads_” or
slaves, whilst a horse costs 3 or 4 kettles or buffalos. When we read of
such a state of human society we seem to be transported back into that
far away Homeric time, and as we hear of slaves, and kine, chaldrons and
kettles we think of the old Epics with their tale of slaves valued in
beeves, and “crumple-horned shambling kine, and tripods” and “shining
chaldrons.” In the light of such analogies we at last can understand the
significance of the 10 axes and 10 “half-axes” which formed the first and
second prizes in the _Iliad_[222] when Achilles “set out for the archers
the dark-hued iron, and put down 10 axes and 10 half-axes.” Who can doubt
that these axes and half-axes played much the same part in the Homeric
system of currency as the hoes do at this present moment in that of the
Bahnars of Annam? Probably such too were the 12 axes which Penelope[223]
brought out from the treasure chamber to serve as a target for the
suitors in their contests with the bow of Ulysses. The hoe is thus the
lowest unit of currency among the Bahnars. From the known interrelations
of all the articles of daily life it is easy to estimate how many hoes
any even of their more costly possessions is worth. Thus the full-grown
buffalo = 7 jars = 28 _muks_ = 280 hoes, or about £1. 3_s._ 4_d._ of our
money. All these transactions require no use of weights, being reckoned
by bulk or tale. But now comes the most interesting feature for us, a
people in the complete stage of barter, but who actually possess, work
and traffic in gold.
In all the streams on the side next Laos the wild people wash gold,
men, women and children all alike joining in this laborious industry,
and employ as ‘cradles’ little baskets made of bamboo. The gold is sold
in dust at the _rate of the weight in gold of one grain of maize for
one hoe_. Here then we have finally run to ground one of the principal
objects of our quest. We have a primitive people, who carry on all
their trade by means of barter, who have no currency in the precious
metals, but who employ as their most general unit of small value the
iron hoe. They are found to weigh one thing and one only, namely gold,
and for that purpose they do not employ any weight standard borrowed
from China or Annam, but equate a certain amount of gold to the unit of
barter, and then fix as a constant that amount of gold by balancing it
against a grain of the corn that forms one of the chief staples of their
subsistence. Nature herself has supplied man with weights of admirable
exactitude ready to his hand in the natural seeds of plants, and as soon
as he finds out the need of determining with great care the precious
substance which he has to win with toil and hardship from the stream, he
takes the proffered means and fashions for himself a balance and weights.
We saw that a buffalo was worth 280 hoes; it is therefore an easy task
for a Bahnar to tell its worth in gold. It was equally simple for the
first Aryan or Semite who framed the gold shekel standard to compute
the exact amount of gold which would represent the value of an ox. But
perhaps we have not reached the earliest stage of all in the development
of a standard for the sale of gold. I ventured to put forward in 1887 the
suggestion that the way in which the amount of gold which represented
the value of a cow was first fixed approximately was by _measuring_
it in some way, as for instance by taking the amount which would fit
in the palm of the hand, somewhat in the fashion that rustics measure
gunpowder or shot for a gun. What was then but a mere guess may be now
regarded as fairly certain. That excellent observer, M. Aymonier, notes
that the Tapak tribe, who live at a distance of six days’ journey from
Attopoeu, wash gold. The women wade into the streams (after having first
carefully placed five flowers or five leaves at the foot of a tree close
by the stream to ensure good luck). Each dips a water-tight bag into the
sand at the bottom of the stream, and after a long series of rewashings
and cleansings at last gets the gold dust in a state of purity[224].
The savages carry it to Attopoeu, and sell it at the rate of 9 _chi_
of gold for a _nên_ or bar of silver (= 100 _chi_). The relative value
in Attopoeu is 8 _chi_ or two _bats_ of gold to one bar (= 100 _chi_)
of silver, or as they express it one _tical_ of gold is changed for 12
_ticals_ of silver. “The _tical_ of gold is,” it is said, “equivalent to
the weight of 32 grains of a peculiar kind of rice of the country, with
large grains and of a red colour, which is called ivory rice.” Here we
have the weighing by natural grains as before, but Aymonier adds (p. 35)
that “the natives relate that gold was formerly so abundant that without
_weighing it people were content to measure_ it. A little stick of gold
an inch broad and a span long _was exchanged against a buffalo_.”
We found the Bahnars equating a small quantity of gold to their smallest
unit of barter, the hoe; now we find that in the wild parts of Laos the
unit of gold, before weights of natural grains were employed, was based
by measurement upon the buffalo, the chief unit of barter. Thus we have
found among the remote peoples of Further Asia the very method of fixing
a metallic unit, which I have endeavoured to prove was that followed by
the Aryan and Semitic races in arriving at that shekel of gold, which was
the common standard of all the civilized peoples of the ancient world,
and which was the parent of all our mediaeval and modern systems.