The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1889-05-31
CHINESE BANKS.
Their Peculiar Method of Trans
acting business.
The Silver Exchange OF PeISing-How a
Millionaire Chinaman Saved Canton
Tho Carrier Pigeon as the
Chinese flicker"

in China The Chinese, however,
have thousands OF private banks.
There are three or four hundred banks
in Peking, three hundred native banks
in Tientsin. and Canton has banks and
pawnshOps by the hundreds The
rates Of interest are high and short
loans in tight times reach thirty-three
per cent The pawnbrokers charge
thirty-six per cent a year, or three
per cent q month, and the rates OF ex-
change from one province 10 another
are very heavy. China has no na-
lonal 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 of the country is the
cash, of which IL takes from a thou
sand TO fifteen hundred TO make a dol
lar, and which, small as it is, is
counterfeited.
The cash Is thin. round coin a lit
tie larger than one Of the big American
cents Of a century ago, and sometimes
no bigger than a nickle- 1t has =
square hole in the center and is usually
carried in strings OF one hundred or
one thousand 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
one dollar and forty cents Mexican,
and a common denomination Is a ten
teal piece, which IS n chunk of silver
cast in the form of Chinese shoe. /
saw some of these silver shoes at the
Hong Kong and Shanghai bank in
Peking. They are stamped with
marks denOting the fineness of the
metal within them, and they contain
from 81 to 80 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 in
cludes that of all foreigners with the
Chinese, is done in Mexican dollars, and
each business house has a man called a
shroff, who does nothing else but count
money and pass upon its genuineness.
The Chinese are the greatest swind-
lers IN small way in the world.
They appreciate the accommodating
proprieties of little drops of water and
little grains of sand better than any
other people, and they will shave a
bit of silver dust off of every dollar 30
small that you can not perceive the
loss until they have saved enough TO
have made quite n profit They bore
holes in the coin, fill them with lead.
and cover them with silver, and in
taking money from the banks here il
is necessary to ring every coin.
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 they stick to their bargains
even if they lose by them. China has
10 bankrupt laws and debtors are liza
bic TO corporal punishment from their
creditors By not paying their debts
they lose caste and are practically
drummed out of business 1t isa dis
grace in China not to pay your debts.
and, as rule, the whole nation settle.
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 Govern
ment sometimes loans money to the
people The silver dollar varies in
value. and the Chinese now regulate
he value Of n 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 sill
yer exchange in Peking. In company
with Mr.. Charles DENLY, the son of
our Minister, 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 sidewise in order TO
get by each other and finally
found ourselves in long, low build
ing which looked more like a cat
tle-shed than business room. II was
lighted from the roof and was filed
with from 500 to l.OO0 round-headed,
pig-tailed. yellOw-faced men, each Of
whom seemed TO be yelling at the top
OF his voice and each pushing his fin
gers into the face of his neighbor.
These men were buying and selling
silver dollars, Just as our brokers do in
Wall street, and they maze more fuss
than all the bulls alSlbesrs of New