Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-03-03

IN NJ is supposed here to be
still working for the
concessions, and during
nv interview with Ii Hung Chang noted
that he asked very particularly as to Mr..
Barker's character and his standing among
our bankers. / am told that Wharton Bar
ker intends to visit Russia soon, and to look
into the railroad projects, which propose
line from Siberia above Peking, westward
through Europe, and that the status OF this
road will materially affect his plans. Ii
Hung Chang feels much ashamed of being
taken in by Mitkiewicz, and he thinks that
if the American banking scheme could be
made fixed fact he could retrieve his repu-
tation. The concessions he gave Mitkiewlcz
were genuine. and he sigLed them as the
Secretary of State of China. When the
Government. however, found that Mitkie-
wicz was an adyenturer they refused to in
dorse them, and left the honorable Ii in the
lu-ch. Ii Hung Chang is now in cor
respondence with Mr.. Barker, and the next
agent that Barker sends to China will prob
ably have enough sense to keep his mouth
shut until the articles of agreement have
been signed by both parties.
CHINESE CURRENCY.
There is at present no national bank in
China, and this American bank with its
fifty millions of capital would, in a measure,
take the place of a national bank. The
Chinese, however, have thousands of pri-
vate banks. There are 400 banks IN Peking.
300 native banks in Tientsin, and Canton
mas banks and pawn shops by the hundreds.
The rates of interest are high and short
loans IN tight times reach 33 per cent. The
pawn brokers charge Sc per cent year, or
3 per cent a month, and the rates of ex-
change from one province to another are
verv heavy. China has no national cur
rencv, 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 of the country
is the cash, of which it takes from !, 900 to
1.500 to make "a dollar. and which,
small as it is, is counterfeited. The
cash is thin, round coin a little
larger than one of the big American cents
of a century ago, and sometimes no bigger
than nickIe. Ii has a square hole in the
center and is usually carried in strings of
100 or ], 900 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 a teal is worth about
81 40 Mexican and common denomination
is a ten teal piece, which is chunk of sill
yer cast in the form of Chinese shoe.
saw some of these silver shoes at the Hong
Kong and Shanghai bank in Peking. They
sre stamped with the marks denoting the
fneness of the metal within them, and they
contain from 81 to-99 per cent of pure silver.
Gold bricks are OF the size of little cakes of
India ink, and these, like the silEey, are
subject to counterfeit. The business of the
,,or+s xrb;ob i-,o1udaS that of oil for
eigners with the Chinese, is done in Mexi-
can dollars, and each business house has
a man called a shroff, who does nothing
else but count money and pass upon its
genulneness.
CUTE swINDLERs.
The Chinese are the greatest swindlers in
small way in the world. They appreciate
the accumulating properties of little drops
of water and little grains of sand better than
any other people, and they will shave bit
of silver dust off of dollar after dollar so
small that you cannot perceive the loss un-
til they have saved enough to have made
quite profit. They bore holes in the coin,
fiji 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 q cash basis, though the credit
system prevails largely among themselves
They are honest IN their dealings and mer-
chants tell me that they stick to their bar
gains even if they lose by them. China has
no bankrupt laws and debtors are liable to
corporal punishment from their creditors
By not paying their debts they lose caste
and are practically drummed out of busi-
ness. 1t is disgrace in China not to paw
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 Government some
times loans money to the people. The silver
dollar varies in value, and the Chinese
now regulate the value of dollar by the
rise and fall of silver in the markets Of the
world.
The biggest of the Chinese cities have
their stock exchanges, and the queerest
sight / have seen was the silver exchange in
Peking. In company with Mr.. Charles
DENLY, the son of our Minister, 1 went at z
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 pas
ssges where men had to walk side
wise in order to get by each other, and
finally found ourselves in long, low build
ing which looked more like cattle shed
tnan business room. 1t was lighted from
the roof and was filled with from 500 to
1000 round-headed, 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.
CHINESE TIcKERs.
At s o'clock the rate was fixed for the
day. and the news was "telegraphed" bv
means of carrier pigeons to the various
banks of the city. The pigeons of Picking
sre LARGELY used for messengers. and tbey
are. perhaps, the only pigeons In the world
that whistle. As they fly through the air
tbev make q whistling sound which, in the
case of q flock, sounds like whole school
of bovs operating tin whistles at the same
time This noise comes from actual whistles
which are tied to their tail feathers BY their
owners. and the noise of which scares away
the hawks from them. 1t is a curious sound,
and I heard il many times before 1 could
find out from whence 1t 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
nav big dividends. The Hong Kong and
Shanghai Banking Company, for instance,
has paid-up capital OF 81, SOC, 600. 1t has a
surplus of s., OOO, 200, and It's proprietors are
liable for s., 500, 900 in addition to the capi-
tai. 1t pays interest on deposits of six
months at the rate of per cent, and 2 per