THE  CURRENCY  159
Shanghai  currency.  The  rate  of  the  day  is  accepted  by
merchants  as  the  rate  of  conversion  between  two  fixed
currencies  ;  and  yet,  if  we  take  exchange  on  London  as  an
example,  one  of  the  currencies  stands  for  the  immutable
in  finance,  while  in  the  other  it  is  doubtful  if  many  of  the
foreign  merchants  who  so  blindly  base  their  operations  on
this  exchange  quotation  could  go  into  the  treasury  of  a
Chinese  bank  and  weigh  out  for  themselves  a  Shanghai  tael,
assuming  even  that  they  could  read  the  inscriptions  on  the
weights  they  used.  The  value  of  the  Shanghai  tael  is  made
up  of  three  elements—the  weight,  the  quality  of  silver,  and
a  convention.  The  weight  on  the  scale  is  the  Tsaoping
tael  of  565-65  grains,  the  silver  is  reduced  to  a  standard
of  944  fine  on  the  Kuping  basis  of  1,000  fine,  and  the  convention ­
  is  that  98  taels  of  this  weight  and  this  silver  settle
a  liablity  of  100  taels  “  Shanghai  convention  currency.”
In  order  fully  to  understand  what  is  a  Shanghai  tael,  how
it  may  be  ascertained,  and  what  may  be  done  with  it  when
once  ascertained,  let  us  consider  the  processes  to  be  gone
through  in  an  exchange  operation  under  present  conditions.
Of  course,  in  Shanghai  as  in  London,  the  merchant  will
ordinarily  draw  his  cheque,  against  which  the  bank  will
give  him  its  bill  of  exchange  ;  but  somewhere,  and  some
time,  there  will  be  a  cash  transaction  ;  and  thoroughly  to
understand  the  situation  we  must  see  what,  in  Shanghai,
corresponds  to  the  act  of  a  London  merchant  who  takes
a  thousand  sovereigns  to  the  bank  and  gets  a  draft  on
Paris  for  25,150  /.  or  25,175  /.  according  to  the  exchange.
Let  us  assume  the  simple  case  where  our  Shanghai  merchant ­
  wishes  to  remit  the  contents  of  a  box  full  of  silver
(if  he  wishes  to  make  up  an  exact  sum  in  Shanghai  currency,
certain  complications  are  added).  The  silver  in  the  box
will  be  in  the  shape  of  “  shoes  ”  of  “  sycee  ”  of  about  50
taels  each,  and  of  varying  “  touch  ”  (degrees  of  fineness).
If  these  shoes  are  marked,  in  ink,  with  the  results  of  a
previous  assay  at  the  Assay  Office  for  the  Foreign  Settlement, ­
  the  preliminary  stage  becomes  unnecessary  ;  but  if
they  have  come  in  the  course  of  trade  from  another  port,