THE  CURRENCY  131
direction.  To  complicate  matters,  the  only  cash
bills  which  are  popular  are  issued  by  a  Wusueh  bank
and  are  current  in  all  these  towns,  but  not  at  face
value.  At  Wusueh  a  bill  equals  1,000  cash,  at  Lungping ­
  one  has  to  give  ten  cash  and  a  bill  for  a  thousand,
at  Chichou  one  must  add  twenty  cash  to  the  bill.
When  the  copper  10-cash  pieces  became  current  (and
the  only  currency,  for  cash  is  not  now  to  be  had  at
the  banks)  the  banks  had  to  settle  all  these  monetary
problems  afresh.  At  the  mint  the  copper  pieces  are
sold  at  98,  i.e.  100  copper  pieces  equal  1,000  cash,
reckoned  at  98  to  the  hundred,  so  that  when  paying
100  cash  one  pays  ten  pieces,  but  when  paying  99
or  98  cash  one  also  pays  ten  pieces.  At  Chichou  the
banks  decided  to  issue  100  copper  pieces  for  a  cash  bill,
thus  saving  money  on  the  transaction,  as  they  bought
the  pieces  at  Wuchang  at  98  and  paid  them  out
instead  of  1,000  copper  cash  at  99.  At  Lungping
they  had  to  be  content  without  gains.  At  Wusueh
the  banks  pondered,  for  if  they  bought  the  copper
pieces  at  98  and  then  gave  100  for  a  bill  in  a  place  where
the  rate  was  97  they  would  lose  ten  cash  on  each  hundred. ­
  They  therefore  decided  to  take  one  coin  out  of
each  packet  they  got  from  the  mint.  Had  they  stopped
here  all  would  have  gone  smoothly,  for  the  shopkeepers ­
  would  have  deducted  one  cash  from  each  ten
copper  pieces  which  they  paid  out,  and  no  one  would
have  lost  anything.  But  old-time  custom  has  allowed ­
  the  banks  to  charge  two  cash  for  the  piece  of
string  on  which  the  cash  were  threaded,  and  the
banks  did  not  like  to  yield  this  squeeze,  so  they
proceeded  to  take  a  second  copper  piece  out  of  each
packet  from  the  mint  and  put  eight  cash  back,  thus
getting  the  two  cash  for  the  string  which  they  no
longer  provided.  Of  course  the  shopkeepers  objected,
for  they  could  not  divide  up  two  cash  among  a  hundred ­
  coins.  If  they  allowed  this  deduction,  the  loss
of  the  two  cash  must  inevitably  fall  on  the  man  who