Tue present supply of new silver in China is chiefly from foreign countries. But there has always been in the country itself a certain limited production and the whole mass of silver now in use in the currency must be regarded as much less than half native and much more than half foreign. It was when the population was one-sixth of what it now is, about 500 years ago, that silver began to be regularly sent to the capital as a representative of the taxes from the provinces, and gradually took the place of paper money, which had followed on the invention of block printing in the tenth century. Ihe population being many times smaller there was much less spinning and weaving done, much less grain grown, a much smaller boat population, a much smaller number of shops and a much smaller class of commercial travellers. Yet when the demand was limited there was never} enough silver to be used as a current representative of commodities and other property. It was never sufficient to be employed along with copper cash as now. The scientific traveller Richthoven, when describing the productions of Yunnan in 1872, says that the supply of silver] from native sources in that province was at no time large. He was persuade ed that Chinese native silver came mostly from Yunnan or from Weiningchou in Kweichow. He was told that the Kweichow silver ore was very rich, of a black colour, looking like coal, and very plentiful. But the difficulty of procuring it is great. Robbers attack the miners and so also do the soldiers. Neither can the owners, the official administration nor the miners retain the silver when it is procured, on account of the anarchy which reigns in the neighbourhood of the mines. Armed bands have too much their own way there. This is not the only difficulty. We are told that in the year 1556 a mine was opened at an expense of 30,000 taels. The silver obtained only amounted to 28,500 taels. The result was too discouraging to allow of the enterprise being continued. Richthoven shews that gold occurs in China in very many places but not in sufficient quantity to render the search for it remunerative. It is true of China as of many other countries that gold and silver are found in not a few localities, But in regions where wages are high, the occupation of washing for gold does not attract workmen. It pays them too little. In China wages i ave very low because the population is large, and in consequence gold washing is much more common there than in countries where wages are high. But in fact wherever gold and silver are found in China it is in very small quantities. Mr. R. Pumpelly has printed a list of sixty districts where gold is a product in China, In topographical works, the existence of gold in any place where it has once been found is sure to be mentioned because it is a sign of good luck to the neighbourhood. The Red Book mentions silver as a production of Ning-yuen Fu in that part of Szechuan which borders on Yiiuvan. Lieuchow in Canton province also counts it among the native productions. Another district very near Canton still produces silver.
is called Shun-te. So also it is obtained at Shaochou Fu, a prefecture of the northern part of the province of Canton. In the south-east part of the same province silver is also found in the prefectures of Hweichou and Ch'ao-chou. In the western prefectures of Kaochon and Chaoch'ing the same mineral occurs. Some localities are mentioned in Kuangsi as argentiferous, such as Sinchou and Pingto Fu. In the Red Book it is recorded also that silver is found in Chiungehang prefeeture on the upper course of the Wei river in Kansu, and on the Li river which flows from the west into the Tungting lake.
The state of watters in regard to native silver in China is on the whole that there is a hopelessly small producti the present time of peace and expanding trade is highly favourable, Though the low value of ver is uow a thing of the past, and the rate of exchange probably may continue to rise, China will still, while paying more for it, have to procure foreign silver by purchase amd by loan, because the newly produced commodities in passing from hand to hand always require a money representative, except in cases of pure barter. The import of foreign silver must continue because, for instance, the Chinese will still wish to buy foreign artillery, machinery, cloth, watches and every sort of product made by the skilled workmen of the west. Within the period of three months the price of silver has risen from 3,6d. to 4/2d. China therefore can now buy one sixth more of foreign products with the same amount of silver than she could three months a This will improve trade, and as trade increases in its prosperity more silver will be required. Though the price is greater the country will still require it for its growing trade.
The Tharduess of metals tends to keep them in existence during a very long period, especially when they are in such large irregular lumps as we see in China. The old silver of fifteen centuries ago, as in circulation at that time in South China, cannot have entirely disappeared A large part of it must be contained the current sycee of our time. This old silver was like that of other days, not so much the result of mining as of foreign trade. At that time Cambodia and Cochin China belonged to China and the currency of South China thus became as-similared to that common in India in those days. There are productive silver amines, too, in Cochin China, and the Chinese, while aware of this fact, tell us that before the Tang dynasty mining for silver in China is not much spoken of. The silver used was then mainly brought from foreign countries. The Golden tartars made a steady effort to push paper money into a permanent position but failed, and the paper issued by the government was about A.D. 1225 avoided by the people, who preferred the silver which had now become more plentiful through their trade with South China-and with Bokhara and Persia.* The Mahommedans of central Asia had great facilities afforded to them for trading with China by the existence of Tartar dynasties. The Kin, the Liao, the Si Hia and the Yuen were all Tartar, and they ruled for different periods from A.D. 907 to 1368. Merchants brought silver and medicines to China to pay for silk piece goods. All this time the Canton trade and that of Amoy never rested. Mahommedan traders in the Indian Ocean were always busy securing everywhere commercial pre-eminence and, where it was possible, political power. Probably, therefore, of the old silver used in China before the Spanish conquests in America, four-fifths would be of foreign origin; and the result of those conquests has been that of the new silver circulating now in China, four-fifths are also imported from abroad, coming in the way of payment for silk, porcelain and tea.
Ching Shih Wen, ch, 49, p. 6
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.