i 5 o  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
At  Tientsin,  by  "  Tientsin  tael  "  is  meant  one
tael  in  weight  of  silver  of  the  Hwa-pao  standard  99  ’
saiss»»
be  of  Hwapao  or  any  other  stipulated  standard  ,  V  ,
fully  what  the  foreigner  calls  the  "Tientsin  tael,  tn,
Chinese  would  say  “  Hang-ping  tael  of  hwa-pao
It  is  not  possible  to  use  different  words  for  the  two  m  c  ^
thus  connoted,  since  they  are  interwoven  ,  an  a  wa ^  ^
distinguish  them  otherwise  would  involve  the  use  o
circumlocution.  It  must  be  left  to  the  reader  to  ma
distinction,  since,  even  without  this,  there  wil  e
to  be  enough  of  “proving  axioms”  to  break  cons  c
the  thread  of  thought.

The  Tael  of  Weight
The  tael  is  the  “  ounce”  of  China,  of  which,  as  in

England
pound.

and  America,  16  make  one  catty,*  or  Chinese  ^
In  weighing  the  precious  metals,  however,  the  tae  is
heaviest  unit,  and  it  has  decimal  subdivisions,  eac  W1
its  own  name,  down  to  the  one  thousand-million-mi  1011
(r,õ-õõTõ-oõ75-oo,oôô,ooõ)  Part  of  a  tael,  those  m  ai  y  u.
being  the  following  :—
io  Li  (cash)  =  i  Fên  (Candarin).
io  Fen  =  i  Tsien  (Mace),
io  Tsien  =  i  Liang  (Tael).
Seven  places  of  decimals  (the  ten-millionth  part)  of  a
tael  are  frequently,  even  regularly,  seen  in  statements  o
account  of  revenue  and  expenditure  submitted  to  t  e
Throne.  This  is  the  tael  of  the  arithmetics,  but  its  actúa
weight  will  best  be  considered  under  the  head  of  the  tae
of  currency  ;  it  is  sufficient  here  to  say  that  the  weig
ranges,  at  different  places  and  in  the  same  place,  from
540  to  583  grains.

*  Catty  or  Kati—Malayan  for  pound.