II

THE  CURRENCY  i6i
So  with  Customs  duties,  merchants  pay  in  Shanghai
taels  at  the  fixed  rate  in  40  and  never  tender  the  “  Haikwan
  tael-weight  of  pure  silver  ”  specified  by  treaty.
Coming  now  to  the  exchange  operation,  we  have  first
to  find  our  parity  of  exchange,  and  to  do  this  we  must  get
the  equivalence  in  foreign  notation.  The  weight  used  for
Shanghai  currency  is  the  Tsaoping  tael,  and  this  is  565‘65
grains  ;  for  pure  silver  the  addition  for  touch  is  2'8  per  shoe,
which  the  Chinese  treat  as  if  it  were  5"6  per  cent.  ;  and  the
“  convention  "  is  0-98.  One  Tsaoping  tael  of  pure  silver  is,
therefore,  1*07755  Shanghai  tael  ;  and  one  Shanghai  tael
contains  524*93  grains  of  fine  silver.  In  one  ounce  of  silver
British  Standard  (0*925)  are  444  grains  of  fine  silver,  or
84  6  per  cent,  of  the  amount  in  the  Shanghai  tael  ;  and  to
get  the  parity  of  exchange  for  the  latter  the  London  price
of  bar  silver  must  be  divided  by  0*846.*  The  actual  rate  of
exchange  is,  of  course,  affected  by  the  demand  and  supply
of  bills  wanted  and  offered,  but  in  the  great  and  frequent
fluctuations  in  the  value  of  silver  bullion  we  have  an  everpresent ­
  element  of  instability  which  must  be  taken  into
account.  Our  Shanghai  merchant,  who  has  once  gone
through  such  a  series  of  manipulations  and  calculations,  is
likely  to  consider  his  time  of  too  much  value  to  repeat  the
transaction,  and,  as  is  actually  the  case,  will  leave  such
operations  in  future  to  his  comprador,  until  such  time  as  he  is
put  on  the  same  footing  as  his  London  brother.

Newciiwang  Transfer  Money
One  currency  practice,  recalling  the  “  bank  money  ”  of
the  old  Amsterdamsche  Wisselbank,  must  be  referred  to.
At  Newchwang  the  local  tael  is  5551  grains  of  silver  992
fine.  Except  of  copper  there  is  (or,  as  the  war  may  have
caused  a  change,  has  been)  little  of  the  metals  in  circulation,
silver  being  commonly  deposited  at  the  banks,  which  permit
removal  only  on  the  first  days  of  the  third,  sixth,  ninth,  and
*  Subject  to  modification  by  consideration  of  the  true  standard
of  quality  of  silver  (u.  supra,  page  148).