i6o  THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE
or  if  their  last  previous  assay  was  made  by  the  Assay  0&amp;
for  the  Chinese  City,  then  all  existing  marks  are  was
off  and  the  silver  must  be  sent  to  the  proper  o  ce.
each  shoe  is  weighed  and  the  result  written  on  one  SK  ’
it  is  then  "touched"  and  the  difference  (usually  an  no
dition)  from  a  certain  standard,  as  indicated  by  t  e  c0
on  the  touchstone,  is  written  on  the  other  side,
difference  for  touch  is  so  much  for  the  shoe  inespec  i
of  its  exact  weight,  which  is  anything  btween  49  ,
taels,  but  an  allowance  of  O’05  tael  is  added  fox  caci  ^
by  which  the  weight  of  the  shoe  exceeds  50  taels  ,
the  quality  of  the  silver  is  270,  the  addition  for  a  s
weighing  4975  or  one  of  50-05  taels  is  270,  for  one  o  _
taels  is  275,  for  one  of  5215  taels  is  2  80,  and  so  on ,  .
us  take  two  such  shoes  weighing  50  and  51  taels  an
2  60  and  2  40  respectively  added  for  touch,  makmg  o
two  50  4-  2  60  4-  51  4-  2  40=106  00  ;  this  result,  dm  e
o  98  (the  Shanghai  “convention")  gives  108163  as
number  of  Shanghai  taels  in  our  two  shoes.  H  e .  r ^ e
saction  is  one  in  Shanghai  currency  only,  this  ends  1  ,
whole  operation  corresponding  to  the  single  action  o
London  merchant  who  takes  £108  3s.  4d.  from  his  ca
to  pay  a  bill  ;  but  we  have  now  to  connect  this  wit  1  01  ea
exchange.  First,  it  is  to  be  noted  that  at  the  presen  a
no  other  currency  is  used  at  Shanghai,  all  others  ein
reduced  to  Shanghai  taels.  The  government,  for  exarr |P  ^
in  making  payments  for  indebtedness  or  indemnity,  0
not  use  the  Kuping  ("  Treasury  ”)  tael  weights  or  the  pui  e
silver  (1,000  fine),  which  make  up  the  Kuping  tael  cur
rency,  but  pays  in  Shanghai  currency  at  the  rate  of  109  °&gt;
calculated  as  follows  :
Kuping  taels  100  weight  =  Tsaoping  taels  .  •  iorSoo
Add  for  touch  of  pure  silver  on  two  shoes  •  •  5
107-400
..  109592
008
109-600

Divide  by  the  “  convention  "  0  98
Add  for  meltage  fee