THE  CURRENCY  143
Treasury  drove  it  to  this  method  of  replenishing  its  depleted
reserves.  In  1853,  the  year  in  which  the  issue  of  token
coins  began,  the  government  resumed,  after  an  interval  of
four  and  a  half  centuries,  the  issue  of  paper  money,  nominally
redeemable  but  in  practice  never  redeemed.  The  notes  so
issued  were  of  two  kinds,  for  copper  cash  and  for  taels  of  silver.
The  cash  notes  were  of  four  denominations,  500,  1,000,
1,500,  and  2,000  cash,  and  the  silver  notes  were  for  1,  3,  5&gt;
10,  and  50  taels  of  the  Metropolitan  or  Two-tael  scale.*  Ihe
issue  of  both  was  forced,  but  they  rapidly  depreciated  in
value  until,  in  1861,  they  circulated  at  only  3  per  cent,  of
their  face  value,  and  soon  disappeared  from  circulation.
For  nearly  forty  years  from  the  accession  of  Tungchih
(a.d.  1862)  the  issue  of  paper  instruments  of  credit  was  left
entirely  to  private  hands,  banks,  and  money-changers  ;  but
recently  some  provincial  governments,  driven  by  the  steady
absorption  of  their  revenues  for  Imperial  purposes,  have
resumed  the  issue  of  government  notes.  Their  re-introduction
  is  of  too  recent  a  date  to  permit  any  extended
comment  upon  the  wisdom  of  the  step,  or  upon  the  precautions ­
  adopted  to  secure  their  convertibility  ;  but  the
partial  acceptance  which  they  have  obtained  is  based  on
reasons  which  carry  us  back  eleven  hundred  years.  The
circulation  of  the  notes  of  private  banks  is  limited  to  the
radius  of  credit  of  the  issuing  bank  ;  the  Tang  government
notes  were  acceptable  chiefly  because  they  furnished  a
safe  and  convenient  means  of  transferring  funds  from  place
to  place  ;  and,  rather  to  the  dismay  of  the  authorities,  this
facility  of  transferring  funds  provides  the  chief  reason  for
the  circulation  within  the  limits  of  a  given  province  of
present  issues  of  government  notes.
SILVER  CURRENCY
Bimetallic  Ratio
There  has  always,  for  thirteen  centuries  at  least,  and
in  theory,  been  a  more  or  less  recognised  correspondence
*  See  page  156.