THE  CURRENCY

157

Hankow  Tael
At  Hankow  one  tael  stands  out  above  the  rest  as  the
Hankow  tael  ”  ;  and,  though  the  triple  city  at  Hankow
is  a  great  commercial  emporium  not  created  by  foreign
trade,  this  is  the  “  Foreign  rule  "  tael,  weighing  5547
grains,  of  “  Foreign  rule  "  silver  967  fine.
Canton  Tael
At  Canton,  and  for  a  considerable  area  commercially
tributary  to  it,  extending  beyond  the  limits  of  the  province
of  Kwangtung,  the  standard  tael  is  the  Sze-ma  tael,  weighing
579'85  grains,  being  the  heaviest  mercantile  tael  in  the
Empire  ;  silver  was  originally,  and  is  in  theory,  reduced
to  the  standard  of  1,000  fine.  This  sounds  as  if  we  had
here  a  departure  from  the  prevailing  diversity  of  currency,
and  could  point  to  a  tael,  uniform  in  weight  and  value,
not  confined  to  one  city,  but  current  through  a  large  commercial ­
  area.  The  bankers  must,  however,  be  reckoned
with  ;  and,  both  in  Canton  and  throughout  the  whole  area,
while  we  find  the  Sze-ma  to  be  the  standard  of  weight,  it  is
usually  varied  by  being  subject  to  discounts,  fixed  for  each
sub-standard,  but  supplying  that  variablity  which  is
demanded  for  all  transfers  in  China  from  place  to  place,
from  bank  to  bank,  or  from  account  to  account.  These
sub-standards  are  known  by  the  per-mill  proportion  to  the
Sze-ma  standard  ;  and  I  have  note  of  taels  of  the  998,
996,  995,  993,  992,  990,  988,  and  986  scale,  being  respectively
0  2,  0-4,  0  5,  07,  0  8,  i*o,  12,  and  14  percent,  lighter  than
standard  Sze-ma  in  weight.  Formerly  the  silver  was
always  taken  as  1,000  fine,  but  in  the  last  half-century
dollars,  mainly  Mexican,  more  or  less  battered  and  chopped,
have  entirely  supplanted  ingots  ;  for  large  transactions
payment  is  always  made  by  weight,  and  never  by  count.
The  result  is  a  curious  medley,  it  being  always  necessary
to  express  clearly  if  the  tael  is  of  “  foreign  silver  "  (900  fine)
or  of  “  pure  silver  ”  ;  in  the  latter  case  payment  is  effected
by  weighing  out  10  per  cent,  additional  of  the  dollar  silver.