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appear peculiar to the Chinese. Many of the ancient coins found in Greece,' says Walpole, 'are pierced, and through the hole a string is passed, by which they are hung as ornaments round the heads of women and young girls. This custom is not new, we find it mentioned by Chrysostom, who particularly refers to the coins of Alexander. Every traveler in Syria at the present day has seen women and others wearing coins hung on their veils, and strung around their necks."

A few remarks on the banking establishments above referred to, will not be irrelevant to the present subject. There are some bankers not connected with ordinary mercantile business; but the majority are either agents, drawable at will, in which case no interest is allowed; or they take money at an interest not exceeding 12 per cent., in which case some days' notice must be given before any portion can be withdrawn. They do not appear to differ materially from similar establishments in Europe; but they are not chartered or privileged banking companies. Paper money was formerly issued by the government, but not at present in its own name or guaranty, though no restrictions are placed on its circulation. The year A. D. 807 is mentioned as the epoch when the emperor opened deposit banks for copper or iron coin, for which the depositora received sight notes payable to bearer, called fei-tsien or flying money. The credit of these notes depreciated, but in 970, the institution was revived by the emperor, and during the next 50 years about 4 million They were in favor over dollars' worth of these notes were called in. the copper and iron money, and their value was maintained for a long time, until the Mongol emperors systematically began to cheat the people out of their property by issuing assignats, and lost the throne in consequence. Government bank-notes have ever since been suspected by

the people.

Promissory notes circulate with nearly the same facility as in Europe. Many of the Canton banks confine their transactions to this and the adjoining province of Kwangsi. Some have correspondents in one or two other provinces; and a few only have agents in all the provinces. The provincial capitals are the seats of the most influential banks, but in comparison with European institutions, none of them have as wide a correspondence. There are in some places banks of loan, which advance money for short periods, at a daily interest of about half per cent. for periods of at least three days.

the

The central and provincial authorities employ bankers to make their received into the assay sycee revenue payments to receive taxes, to treasury, and manage disbursements on public account. Private persons can obtain loans on discount, or letters of credit on other cities, and sell their notes on other banks at a reasonable discount. The managers speculate in gold, silver, and cash, make advances on grain or other crops, and hypothecate their funds on real estate or marine ventures. The institutions are connected with each other for mutual aid or advice, but with all the precautions taken by the depositors, bill-holders, or managers against frauds, the average losses are large. The reported capital of the best bank at Fuhchau is only a million of dollars; and the banks in this city have as good a reputation as any in the empire. Their notes range in value from 300 cash to 1000 taels, though those of 50 taels and upwards are rather promissory notes than bank bills; they are beautifully printed, and stamped with intricate scrolls and elaborate mottoes.

In the northern cities bank bills form a large part of the circulating medium, and have gradually inflated the currency to an extraordinary degree. Their circulation is limited to the neighborhood of the bank, to which they soon return to be exchanged and reissued. In Tientsin there are over 300 banks, which issue notes of demand; the authorities merely require the managers to give a certain amount of security for their solvency. The notes are much smaller than Bank of England notes, and printed on strong coarse mulberry paper; the face bears various cyphers, stamps, and mottoes in red and black ink to prevent counterfeiting. They range in nominal value from 100 up to 10,000 cash and

more; but at present are not worth, in exchange for copper, one-half of their face.

SIZE AND DEVICE OF THE TANG-SHIH USED IN PEKING.

The obverse bears the Emperor's reign, Hienfung, with the characters chung pau on the sides, meaning "Hienfung's consolidated currency." The reverse gives the nanie of the coin, tang-shih, i. e. "worth ten," with the usual legend in Manchu.

At Peking, the paper money is more abundant than at Tientsin, but the peculiarity of its currency is that the basis is a copper coin like the cut here given, which was forced upon the citizens, and has now no circulation beyond the walls of the capital. This was made of nearly the legal alloy, and each piece was nominally worth ten cash; it nearly weighed that at first, but soon depreciated in weight to about four of the small cash, though still current for ten. However, the people had no choice but to accept it, for the common cash all soon disappeared, and the paper money alone remained; they would not be cheated with the tang-shih pieces, and accordingly made the bank notes to correspond with them in nominal value; as the cash deteriorated in size, so did the bank notes rise in exchange, and thus the imperial financiers were completely foiled. At present, the 10-cash coins are reckoned at 20 cash in paper, but only 49 can be procured for a bill of 1000 cash. Since the Allied army came to the city in 1860, Mexican dollars have become well known in the shops, but do not circulate generally. It might be inferred that the rate of exchange between sycee and a paper currency based on the tang-shih would vary incessantly; in the course of two months in 1862 it ranged from 5900 to 7000 paper cash, or 291 to 343 tang-shih for a dollar, but these extremes were unusual. At Peking, Tientsin, and all important towns at the north, the rate of exchange between copper cash, bank notes, and sycee, is settled daily by agreement

Nearly allied to the banks are the establishments of pawnbrokers, which are very numerous in China. The licensed ones are of three classes. Those which possess large capital and are licensed to grant loans to any amount, are placed under considerable restrictions; they allow three years to redeem, with a grace of three months. These have to pay largely for their licenses, and are also subject to an annual tax. They must give three years' notice of retiring. Inferior pawnbrokers are licensed to allow only two years to redeem. And others again, of a still lower description, may sell off the pawned articles after one year; but freemen are not permitted to open such establishments. Unlicensed pawnbrokers are liable to severe punishment. The length of time which they are compelled to allow for the redemption of pledges is very injurious to them, as the articles must often lose their entire value. If a pawnbroker suffer from theft or from fire originating in his own premises, he is not exonerated from the responsibility of repaying to the pawnee the value of the articles which he had in pawn. When fire is communicated to the pawnbroker's house from a neighbor's, he is required only to make good half the amount of loss. The highest legal rate of interest is three per cent. per month; but in the winter months, it may not exceed two per cent. on raiment, so that the poor may be enabled more easily to redeem. The pawnbrokers issue tickets for the articles they take, which again have a certain value, and are hawked in the streets. These shops offer great temptations to thieves, who can immediately place their plunder on the shelves, and by hiding or destroying the tickets, prevent the right owners recovering their property. The statement which has been sometimes made respecting interest among the Chinese, that it is usually paid during only ten months of the year, appears to have originated in error. One or two months' freedom from paying interest is sometimes allowed as a matter of favor, but we cannot learn that any rule exists on the subject.

The rate of interest for ordinary loans depends, in China, as everywhere else, on the risks of property; but nowhere in the empire does it reach the legal limit. At Canton, the rate ranges from 10 to 15 per cent. per annum according to circumstances, and 12 per cent. if no special agreement is made. On loans made on pledges, if a small amount, the legal rate is usually charged; and this usage throughout the empire is pretty uniform, so far as can be learned. On this subject, the translator of the Chinese Penal Code has some remarks, in a note to those sections of Chinese law which come under the head of Usury:

"In a state of things so unfavorable to the accumulation and transfer of property, there cannot at any time be much floating capital; and the value of that capital, as far as it is denoted by the interest which it is natural to expect, will be high in proportion to its scarcity. In other words, where there are many borrowers and few lenders, and where it forms no part of the system of the government to grant to the former any peculiar degree of protection or encouragement, it seems a necessary consequence that the latter will both demand and obtain a more than ordinary compensation in return for the use of his property. Trade, therefore, as far as it requires such aid, cannot be so extensively carried on, as it is in those countries, in which there being more available capital, that capital is procurable at a cheaper rate, and accordingly a smaller return of profit found adequate to the charges of

commercial adventurers.

"The rate of interest upon a pecuniary loan (quoting the words of Sir George Staunton) must, generally speaking, be influenced by a twofold consideration. Besides what is considered to be strictly equivalent to the advantage arising from the use of the money, the

lender must be supposed in most cases, to receive likewise a certain compensation for the risk to which he exposes his principal. The former consideration will always be limited by, and bear a certain ratio to, the peculiar state and degree of the general prosperity; but the latter can evidently be determined by no rule or proportion, which does not include the consideration of the relative situation and circumstances of the parties interested in the transaction. In England, indeed, where the security of property, and the exclusive rights of individuals are so well understood, and so effectually protected by the laws, it may, in general, be almost as easy to guard against risk, as to compensate for it. But in China, where the laws connected with property are comparatively vague and undefined, and being distinct from the sources of power and influence, are less the law's regard; where, owing to the subdivision of property, there are few great capitalists; and where, also, there is but little individual confidence, except between relatives, who, holding their patrimony in some degree in common, can scarcely be considered as borrowers or lenders in the eye of the law, -it is not so surprising that it should be deemed expedient to license in pecuniary transactions, the insertion of stipulations for very ample interest."

Gold and silver formerly could not legally be exported from China, except in foreign coins, but by the treaties, treasure was made free of all duty. A large amount of silver was, up to 1853, annually taken away to India, in broken dollars and in bullion, but chiefly in the form of sycee; this word is a banker's term given to fine silver, because it is like sai-sz', or fine silk; it is also calledwan-yin, or pure silver. The most common weight of the ingots is ten taels each; their shape resembles a parallelopiped, smooth and flat on the upper, but rather rough and rounded on the lower surface, and bearing a slight resemblance to a Chinese shoe, from whence they are called shoes by foreigners. They vary in size from 50 taels' weight down to three mace, and are always stamped with the seals of the assayer and banker in evidence of their purity. The foreign coins gradually lose their integrity by the stamps they receive, and are at last assayed and melted into sycee, and thus enter the circulation undistinguished from the native production.

The fineness of gold and silver is expressed by dividing the metal into a hundred parts called touches. Thus, if an ingot be said to be at 95 touch, it is understood to contain 5 parts of alloy, and 95 parts of pure metal. The fineness of the metals, as thus expressed, may be converted into English proportions by the following analogies. If gold, for instance, be at 91.66 touch, say as 100: 91.66: 12: 11, the standard, and vice versa; and to convert standard silver into touch, say as 240: 222:: 100: 92.5, the touch of sterling silver.

Money is never reckoned above taels, and other articles are usually reckoned in decimals when under a tael. The curious resemblance between Chinese weights and English avoirdupois weights, in the single point of 16 taels or ounces making 1 catty or pound, greatly simplifies

the conversion of prices per ounce or tael, when the cost is reckoned in dollars.

The tael is the integer of money weights, and its variations throughout China are less than those of the catty and picul. It does not repay the trouble to search out these discrepancies in a country where local usages are stronger than law, for every merchant will learn them at the port he does business at. An inquiry was made of the bankers at Peking respecting the weight of the tael there, and they furnished the weights used in different transactions. In the capital itself, five kinds of scales are recognized, in each of which the tael differs :

1st. The market scales shi ching, used in common transactions, and described "as 4 per cent. lighter than the treasury scales." This tael weighed 548 grains troy.

2d. The Peking scales

king ching, considered to be the same

as the last. This tael weighed 541 grains.

3d. The legal scales

kung fah ching, used in exchanging

silver, and described "as 3 per cent. lighter than the treasury scales." This tael weighed 552 grains.

4th. The 2-tael scales

rh-liáng ching, sometimes called

the old scales kiú ching, used in buying articles, and described "as 6 per cent. lighter than the treasury scales." This tael weighed 539 grains.

5th. The treasury scales kú ching, used in taking revenue. This tael weighed 579 grains, or same as the standard recognized at Canton.

Besides these, the bankers at the metropolis recognize a different value for the money tael at the cities of Tung-chau and Tientsin, near them; another at Súchau, current throughout the province of Kiangsú; and a fourth, called Canton weights Kwang sz'ma, of which there are four rates, respectively indicated by the decimals .995, .996, .997, and .998 of the standard treasury scales at the capital. A Mexican dollar, weighed by different Peking scales, ranged from 6 mace 9 cands. to 8 mace 2 cands.; its current rate is 7 mace. To these diversities in weight, must be added the different touches of sycee, and one gets an idea of the perplexity and confusion connected with the currency throughout the Empire.

It appears from a memorial addressed to the emperor in 1838, that most of the native silver is obtained from mines at Hoshán in Yunnan in the department of Tsiángchau, and at Sungsing on the borders of Cochinchina. These mines are farmed out by the government to overseers, and between forty and fifty thousand workmen are employed in them; the annual produce is not far from two million taels of silver. There are other mines in the empire, not so rich as these two, though probably more productive in the aggregate; but it is impossible even to guess what amount China receives annually from her gold and silver