Thomas County cat. [volume] (Colby, Kan.) 1885-1891, 1889-04-25
BANKING IN CHINA.


in China, and the proposed American
bank, with its $50, 100000 of capital.
would, in measure. take the place OF
q national bank. The Chinese. how
ever, possess thousands of private
banks. There are 400 banks in Peking,
800 native banks in Tientsin, and Can
ton has banks and pawnshops by the
hundred. The rates of interest are
high, and short loans in tight times
reach SO per cent The pawnbrokers
charge SO per cent. a year. or 3 per
cent. a month, and the rates Of ex-
change 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 that they are Chinese characters
and on cheap white paper. The only
coin of the country is the ''cash," of
which it takes from 1000 to 1,500 to
make $l,and which coin, 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 a
nickel. 1t has a square hole in the
center, 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 tael, or ounce. One
ounce of silver, or a tael, is worth
about $1.40 Mexican, and common
denomination is a ten-tael piece,
which is a chunk of silver cast in the
form of Chinese shoe. Gold bricks
are of the size of little cakes of Indian
ink, and these, like the silver, are SUBJ
ject to counterfeit. The business of
the treaty ports, which includes that
of all foreigners with the Chinese, is
done in Mexican dollars. and each
business house has a man, called a
shrof, who does nothing else but count
money and pass upon its genuiness.
The Chinese do all their business
with foreigners on a 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 punishment from
their creditors. BY not paying their
debts they lose caste, and are practi-
cally drummed out of business. It is
a 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 a panic, and in the
case of famine or failure Of crops the
Government sometimes loans money to
the people.
The biggest of the Chinese cities
have theirsstock exchanges, and the
queerest sight have seen was the sill
yer exchange in Picking. long. low
building, lighted from the roof and
filed with from 500 to LOCO round
headed. pig-tailed, yellow-faced men,
each of whom seemed to be yelling at
the top of his voice and each pushing
bis fingers into the face OF his neigh
Dor. These men were buying and SELL
ing silver dollars, just as our brokers
do in Wall street, and they made moro
fuss than all the bulls and bears of
New York. At eight o'clock the rate
was fixed for the day and the news was
photographed" by means of carrier
pigeons to the various banks of the
city. The pigeons of Peking are large
ly 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 whole school of boys operating
tin whistles at the same time. This
noise comes from actual whistles
which are tied in their tailfeathers by
their owners, and the noise of which
scares away the hawks from them.
1t is curious sound, and 1 heard it
many times before could fad out from
whence it came. They are the tickers
Of the Chinese bankers, 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
s7.5OO,OO0. 1t has surplus of 81, O0O,-
900. and its proprietors are liable for
$7,5OO,OOO in addition to the capital.
1t pays interest on deposits of six
months at the rate of per cent. and
per cent per annum on daily balances.
1t has immense establishments
throughout the East, and its banking
Office here at Shanghai will compare
in size and appointments with the best
bank of Wall street or London. 1t is
the same with a number of other great
banks here in China English and
French capital manages them, but a
Cinnamon always counts the money
and figures up the profits and losses on
one of those little boxes of buttons
strung on wires, which makes up the