THE  CURRENCY  167
inscribed,  dollars  of  silver  are  nowhere  fixed  in  terms  of  taels
of  silver,  but  are  quoted  at  rates  which  vary  from  day  to
day  according  to  the  demand  and  supply,  fluctuating  within
a  range  of  six  or  more  per  cent.  Then  come  subsidiary
silver  coins  fractional  to  the  dollar,  but  subject  to  a  fluctuating ­
  rate  of  exchange  such  that  the  dollar  may  this  year
change  for  no  cents  and  next  year  for  only  95  cents  in  small
coin.  Next  comes  the  copper  cent,  inscribed  at  the  mints
of  some  provinces  as  worth  “  one-hundredth  of  a  dollar,"
and  of  others  as  worth  “  ten  cash,"  but  never  treated  as
correlated  to  the  dollar  ;  whether  considered  in  its  relation
to  the  dollar  or  to  the  cash,  it  is  a  token  coin  worth  intrinsically ­
  less  than  half  its  nominal  value.  Last  comes  the
copper  cash,  the  currency  of  the  people.  Into  this  series
of  non-related  currencies,  each  unit  of  which  is  in  a  state  of
unstable  equilibrium,  fixed  neither  in  itself  nor  in  relation
to  other  units,  China  is  now  required  to  introduce  system
and  uniformity  and  to  give  a  legal  tender  character  to  any
coin  or  currency  which  she  may  adopt,  while  the  inborn
disposition  of  her  people  is  to  accept  no  coin  and  no  currency
as  legal  tender,  but  to  make  them  all  except  the  lowly  cash
the  subject  of  barter.  Where  shall  she  begin  ?  Is  she  to
take  her  fundamental  coin,  the  cash,  with  a  present-day
value  of  the  ten-thousandth  part  of  a  pound  sterling,  and
build  upon  it  ?  This  seems  the  natural  course  to  those  who
consider  first  the  well-being  of  her  patient,  industrious  people,
whose  householders  maintain  their  families  on  sixpence  a
day,  and  through  the  existence  of  this  mite  of  a  mite  are
enabled  to  maintain  them  in  comfort.  Or  shall  she  consider ­
  first  the  broader  interests  of  her  international  exchanges
and  of  the  powerful  body  of  bankers  and  merchants  active
in  the  distribution  of  goods  through  the  Empire  ?
Multiply  what  has  been  written  above  a  hundredfold,  and
some  idea  will  be  conceived  of  the  currency  question  in  China.
To  reform  it  would  naturally  appear  no  more  difficult  than
to  introduce  the  metric  system  into  England  ;  it  should  even
have  behind  it  a  greater  weight  of  popular  support,  in  proportion ­
  as  the  simplification  of  the  currency  of  four  hundred