Trade, Travel and All the Ways of Life Embittered by the Irregularities known as "big" money. The buyer|the native market more han tholis really funny, even to those for-is then required to pay for his|foreigm shopping districts. Alleigners in China who stop to think article the exact proportion of the|coolie also is usually happy enough of the vagaries of the coinage. But full value in dollars. to receive 20 copper cents for alif one finds it funny in the treaty Each copper cent has its full value full 20-cent ride. ports it is distracting in the interior, jin the buying market—I refer to All this may seem funny, and ithas T shall show in another article To all intents and purposes there is no real currency in China. Silver 4s the standard of comparison and unit of measurement is the jel"—the tael being understood an-ounce of pure silver. But this tael'is by no means absolutely constant, One export has himself determined no less than 72 different Values all over the country. Thus there are in all the provinces accepted standards each trading centre having its own tael, which commonly differs from that of every other place, The "tael" of China, moreover, not a piece of money, but a liang chinese ounce of silver, the Haikwan (or Customs) tael being equivalent to one and one-third ounces avoirdupois, In the metropolitan province of Chihli, for example, there are some' 12 different taels varying in value from 98,20 to 100.80 per cent, of what is Ithown as the Tsaoping tael.
These differences continue through out China: for instance, the Tientsin T-fah is 101.80 per cent, of the Taaoping tael, the Shanghai Too-kwai is 107.55 per cent. of the Tanoping tael, the Hankow tael 101.70 "per cent. and a tael cur rency [the uthern province Kunngtung is 0:90 of the Tsaoping ud ao on. The foregoing will Hlustrate the wide variations of the tael, the accepted ounce, in various parts of the country
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.