Home › Moneys of the World › Cape Town: Chinese
Cape Town: Chinese
Accounts are stated by foreign merchants in dollars and cents, but by the Chinese in taels (leang), of 10 mace (tseen), 100 candareens (fun), or 1000 cash (le), which, except the last, however, have no representatives in coins, and are rather money weights. The tael is the weight (= 579.84 grains, or 1.208 oz. troy) of silver reputed to be pure, and as such would be worth about 6s. 6d., which is nearly the sum (6s. 8d.) at which it was reckoned in the accounts of the East India Company; but it is commonly valued among foreign merchants according to its rate of exchange for dollars. In converting taels of account into dollars, 720 taels are reckoned equal to $1000, but in weighing money 717 are rated for $1000, making, at 6s. 6d. per tael the average value of the dollar about 4s. 8d. This is, however, subject to variation according to the state of the exchange.
Coins scarcely exist owing to the propensity of the Chinese to debase or fabricate them. The only coin in general use is the le or cash-a small circular piece composed of copper and zinc with a square hole in the middle. The le pieces are strung together by hundreds and thousands, and from 700 to 800 are usually exchanged for a Spanish dollar. Small payments by the natives, not made in le, are usually effected by exchanging bits of silver, whose weight is ascertained by a little ivory balance on the principle of the steelyard. Larger payments are made in kind, or in stamped ingots of various sizes. The circulating medium at Canton is composed of dollars and pieces; but the dollars very soon become punched by the Chinese into such a state as to be saleable only by weight; and as lead is sometimes introduced into the punch holes, none but newly imported dollars can be safely received without shroffing. Gold is not used as a medium of exchange.
The fineness of the precious metals is expressed by dividing their weight into 100 equal parts called touch-an ingot said to be 94 touch being understood to contain 94 parts of pure metal and 6 of alloy. The fine Chinese silver termed sycee, and used in the shape of ingots or shoes, as a substitute for money, is never perfectly pure, but contains different proportions of alloy, according to the purpose for which it is to be employed. The stamped ingots of one and ten taels used in payments to government are required to be 98 touch; but the sycee of commerce is seldom above 96 touch. The sycee received of late years for opium has sometimes been found to contain. a considerable admixture of gold, which the Chinese had not been able to detect or separate, and which has consequently enhanced its value.
At Canton, Shanghai, etc., bills on London are drawn at six months' sight.
Under treaty of June 26, 1858, duties are to be paid in sycee, or in foreign coins, according to the Canton essays of July 13, 1843. Measures: the che or foot of 10 tsun, and the chang of 10 ché=141 inches. Hence 12 chang=47 Imp. yards; 180 chang = 1 li. The teu of 10 shing = 7 litres = 1.54 gallon; but in the foreign trade grain and liquids are sold by weight.
The weights are the candareen of 10 cash = 5.833 troy grains; the mace of 10 candareens = 58.333 troy grains; the tael of 10 mace = 583/½ troy grains (but in weighing money estimated at 579.84 grains); the catty of 16 taels = 1/5 lb. avoirdupois; and the pecul of 100 catties = 133/3 lbs. avoirdupois. Hence 3 peculs = 400 lbs. avoirdupois, 84 catties = 1 cwt., and 12 taels = 1 lb. avoirdupois. Shanghai. Foreign exchanges are transacted here, not in the dollar, as at Canton and Hongkong, but in the tael. A recent quotation gives for bills on London, at 60 days' sight, 6s. 7½d. per T.; on Calcutta, R. 319 for T. 100; on Hongkong, 26/½ discount.