The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1889-04-03
CHINESE BANKERS.
GREAT FUSS AND CONFUSION
AMONG THE BROKERS.
Big Rates of Interest-Carrier Pig
cons With Whistles i'll Their
Tails for Messenger Boys
The Credit System.

lQcrc is at present no QaClOQal Danh
in China. The chinese, however, write;
Frank G. Carpenter from Peking, have
thousands of private banks. There are
400 banks in Peking, 900 native banks
in Tien-Tsin, and Canton has banks and
pwanshops by the hundreds. The rates
of interest are high, and short loans in
tight times reach SO per cent. The
pawnbrokers charge 3G per cent. year,
or 3 per cent. month, and the rates OF
exchange from one province to another
are very heavy. China has no national
currency and each bank issues its own
notes. These are much like our notes,
save they are in Chinese characters and
on cheap white paper. The only coin ol
the country is the cash, of which ii
takes from thousand to fifteen hundred
to make dollar, and which, small as it
Is, is counterfeited.
The cash is thin, round coin little
larger than one of the big American
cents of century ago, and sometimes
no bigger than nickel. 1t has square
hole in the centre and is usually carried
in strings of 100 or 1000 each. Gold
bricks and silver nuggets are used in
making large purchases, and the unit of
weight is the teal or ounce. One ounce
of silver or teal is worth about S1.4O
Mexican. and a common denomination
is 10-teal piece, which is chunk OF
silver cast in the form of a Chinese shoe.
1 saw some of these silver shoes at the
Hong Kong and Shanghai Bank in PEEK.
ing. They are stamped with marks de-
noting the ineness of the metal within
them, and they contain from 81 10 % per
cent. of pure silver. Gold bricks are of
the size of little cakes of India ink, and
these, like the silver, are subject to
counterfeit. The business of the treaty
ports which includes that of all foreign
ers with the Chinese, if done in Mexican
dollars, and each business house has q
man called q shroff, who does nothing
else but count money and pass upon its
genuineness. The Chinese are tue great
est swindlers in a small way in
the world. They appreciate the ac-
cumulating properties of little drops
of water and little grains of sand
better than any other people, and
they will shave q bit of silver dust off of
dollar after dollar so small that you can
not perceive the loss until they have
saved enough to have made quite pro.
fit. They bore holes in the coin, fill
them with lead and cover them with sill
yer, and in taking money from the banks
here it is necessary to ring every coin.
The Chinese do all their business with
foreigners on cash basis, though the
credit system prevails largely among
themselves. They are honest in their
dealings, and merchants tell me that they
stick to their bargains, even if they lose
by them. China has no bankrupt laws,
and debtors are liable to corporal punish
ment from their creditors. By not pay
ing their debts they lose caste and are
practically drummed out of business. 1t
IS disgrace in China not to pay your
debts, and, as a rule, the whole nation
settles up at New Years Day, which
comes in February. The result is that
China never has panic, and in the case
of famine or failure of crops the Govern
ment sometimes loans money to the peo-
pie. The silver dollar varies in value,
and the Chinese now regulate the value
of dollar by the rise or fall of silver in
the market of the world. The biggest
of the Chinese cities have their stock
exchange, and the queeresr sig ght have
seen was the Silver Exchange IN Peking.
In company with Mr.. Charles DENLY,
the son of our Minister, l went at seven
o'clock one morning into the crowded
Chinese city. We wound our way
through streets so narrow that only
donkeys and men could pass through
them, through passages where men had
to walk sidewlse in order to get by each
other, and finally found ourselves in a
long, low building which looked more
like cattle shed than business room.
It was lighted from the roof and was
filled with from five hundred to thou
sand round-hcaded, pig-tailed, yellow
faced men, each of whom seemed to be
yelling at the top of his voice and each
pushing his fingers into the face OF his
neighbor. These men were buying and
selling silver dollars, Just as our brokers
do in Wall street, and they made more
fuss than all the bulls and bears of New
York.
At eight o'clock the rate was fixed for
the day aud the news was photographed"
by means of carrier pigeons to the vari-
Gus banks of the city. The pigeons of
Picking are largely used for messengers,
and they are, perhaps, the only pigeons
in the world that whistle. AS they fly
through the air they make whistling
sound which, in the case of flock,
sounds like a whole school of boys
operating tin whistles at the same time.
This noise comes from actual whistles
which are tied to their tail.feathers by
by their owners, and the noise of which
scares away the hawks from them. 1t
is a curious sound, and I heard it many
times before 1 could find out from
whence it came. They are the tickers
of the Chinese banker, and they give
him all the quotations.
The foreign banks which do business
in China have large capital stocks, and
they pay big dividends. The Hong
Kong and Shanghai Banking Company,
for instance, has paid.up capital of
$500, 900. 1t has surplus of "a, OOO,-
900, and its proprietors are liable for
$500, 900 in addition to the capital:
It pays interests on deposits of six
months at the rate of four per cent, and
two per cent. per annum on daily
balances. 1t has immense establish
ments throughout the East, and its
banking Office here at Shanghai will
compare in size and appointments with
the best banks of Wall street or London.
It is the same with a number Of other
great banks here in China. English and
French capital manages them, but q
Chipaman always counts the money and
figures up the profits and losses on one
i;44ln hnyns of hnttnnS StrunT on