The new North-west. [volume] (Deer Lodge, Mont.) 1869-1897, 1885-10-09
CHINESE CURRENCY.
THE EARLIEST tExPRsss'o.t :
MONEY IN a PERMANENT Fo?:a
Clay Money Used Over Two Thou.
Years Before Christ-- when Paper s
sa#r Currency Was First Issued
q .a "choppsd" Trade Dollar. ..f .r
Now York Times Book Review.l

lNcw York Times BOOK Revfew.I
Mr.. Del Mar. former director Of the bu-
reau OF statistics OF tb, Uaitsl s It,,. in his
7-History OF Money, . says that the earli'it
i express ion OF money in q permanent form
supposed to have been due to . Chm. =
prince OF 21le b. c., who took Garth unite
with glue and stAmpsI it This method o,
manufacture does not seem . rational onn.
or some Of the details have escaped US. T"s
glue might have been q fiux, ami through
heat the clay might have been converted
into some low, coarse grade Of pottery.
After the clay money. whatever it
might be, whether firel or not. came
copper money, which has been in use In
China from the remotsst antiquity. China
being poor I'm silver, this metal does
not seem to have been ever adopted rs
standard Mr.. Del Mar believes that an at
tempt may have been made TO uss gold as a
standard, because as early as the reign Of
Sung, 2257 B. c., there are coins on which
the legend reads 3Tong king TO-" or, GOOD
for gold"
or the early commercial character of the
Chinese evidences are constant. Mr.. Del
Mar writes Of their interchanges with the
western world, and mentions Chinese vases
and bottles found in Egyptian tombs
Of the eighteenth dynasty at Thebes
That there was intercourse between
China and Egypt 10 highly probable, but II
can not be demonstrated by the Chinese bot
ties, as these have been declared by Chinese
experts to have been quite modern produc
tions and by no means contemporansous
with the Egyptian monument That the
Greeks and Romans traded with the Chinese
can not, however, be doubted, but any evi.
dsnce of Chinese products in old Europe is
wanting
Mr.. Del Mar, who has certainly devoted
great deal Of time to this most interesting
subject, the history Of Chinese money, men,
tons collection Of various coins, now in
San Francisco which an expert declares has
pieces which date back from B. c. 2257.
Numismatists who only collect Greek and
Roman coins will from their own experience
express their surprise at the lasting qualities
Of Chinese pieces, which have resisted the
corrosive action Of time during 4, l42 yearA
@Thsse ancient coins have boon submitted
to the inspection Of Chinese numismatists
and antiquarians both In Chinese Europe
and Ameri a, and by them pronounced gen.
uine. In short, there are no reason
able grounds for impsaching their validity,
and until such grounds are discovered these
coins must be accepted N authentic monu.
ments"
One hundred and forty years before
Christ Wuti Is said to have first issued pa
per- According to some authorities white
stag skin, q Chinese foot square, was . rep
resentauve OF money, ami was worth 10000
chusn. The first Chinese coins having i'm
pressed on them the name Of an emperor,
were the pieces Of Hooking, A. d. 465 In
S07 thore was q scarcity Of copper and pa
per notes were issued. The want Of copper
continued for several centuries In the
eleventh century iron was used for money.
Paper issues were again used to represent
the iron currency, and these were
emitted by private banker, and
made payable In three years This
banker found many initiative finan-
cier, and with the natural result Of
the failure Of the bankers to redeem their
paper. Counterfeit notes seem TO date In
China ~ far back a. the year 1888, but
probably rascals were we'll vsrsed In such
nefarious transactions long before.
Passing over . century or two We como
TO the time Of Marco Polo, who describes the
Chinese notes Sir John Vaudeville, who
was the Chinese traveller Of 1897 writes of
the money @of leather imprinted or Of pa
per-" With the advent Of the first Eu-
ropsans into China there was q change in
their money. Silver and gold mines, which
had been closed by imperial orders, were
opened in 1896, probably 1t the instigation
of the Portuguese. The Chinese govern
msnt do not make silver or gold coin TO-
~sr. issued y sssm .0R gv :vi gsaon Is
cast into ingots in shape resembling a
shoe. Native silver Is called sycee, and 1t
differs In purity. The purest 10 the Kivan-
leang, which has from 81 to W per cent of
silver. .@- a.m@0. "a.
or foreign silver the Spanish and Span
ish- American pieces Of q with American
dollar and the trade dollar. ara In circula-
ton. They ara not taken, however, with
out certain precautions, and must be
stamped or @choppel" with the seal OF the
last mercantile house issuing them; hence
the name chopped dollar" When these
chops quite cover the piece, so that there Is
no room for new brand, the piece ID con-
verted into bullion. This method of r.
marking o coin Il well known to collectors
OF old Greek money. A state would adopt
the money Of another state, and give IL
value or render IL current by putting it,
private lamp on IT. The quality OF gold
and silver actually mined in China seems
insignificant Mr.. Del Mar believes 1t to
amount in all to $5,0Oo.0O0 . year.
In Japan coins were used In 600 b c.
Rice has been In japan the standard of
value and notes were issued in the fifth and
sixth centuries, the same redeemable In
rice The discovery OF copper and gold,
stated to have been made at the beginning
Of the eighth century, may be Questioned
But that copper and gold, certainly silver,
were found combined, admits of no doubt
The Japanese up to the last century were
not skillful enough to separate these metals,
but the thrifty Dutchman knew all about
1t, hence the enormous quantities Of copper
the Hollanders exported for 30 many years
from Japan. 80 H. 's.