The sun., 1897-05-19
Silver In China.

The May number of the annals Of the
American Academy of Political and Social
Science contains an interesting article on
the use Of silver In China by Mr.. TALooTr
WILLIAMS, who Is not only acquainted
with the history Of the subject, but is
daily reader Of the Peking Gazette. His
researches and observations afford no war
rant for the assertion that In the monetary
system Of China silver has been . stable
measure Of value.
1t appears that before the Tang dynasty
(620-9O7 A. d. copper cash was the exclu-
sive monetary means Of exchange, though
silver had been introduced to some extent
in south China, as soon as Chinese projects
had been sent to rule in Cochin China and
Cambodian cities, where they were brought
In contact with Arabian merchants At the
beginning of the Ming dynasty "a. D. 1869
four ounces of silver were equal to one
ounce of gold. Now the change from the
ratio of four of silver to one of gold
to the ratio of thirty Of silver to
one Of gold. which has required thirty
centuries in the West, has required
but five in China. We will mark few
stages Of the rapid appreciation Of gold.
China had become so large that one ounce Of
gold was now worth seven or eight ounces
of silver. At the end of the Ming dynasty,
that is to say by 1885, gold had become ten
times as valuable as silver. Under CHEN
LUNG Q736-1798) it took twenty ounces Of
the white metal to buy an ounce of gold.
In 1910 silver was eighteen times cheaper
than the yellow metal. With the open
ing of trade with Europe in the forties,
however, silver rose to the ratio Of IA to l,
and remained nearly at this ratio for twenty
years. In 1866 tho ratio of silver to gold
at Shanghai was 1862, from which II rose
to 26.1 in March, 1893, or about 80 per
cent. The ratio has since assembled in cor
respondence with its advance in the West.
In the interior provinces ratios were natu-
rally changed more slowly than in the
treaty ports.
The local and national currency of China
was formerly, as we have said, and indeed
still is, the copper cash. Mr.. WILLIAMS
tells US that this used to be composed
either of one half copper and the other half
an alloy of zinc, lead, and tin, or else of
equal parts of copper and zinc. Now the
cash contains nearly equal parts of copper
oho iSoos Al SeoiS "hiSh ID q halp oNoA
piece with a hole in the centre, all retail
purchases are made, all labor wages are
paid, and all the ordinary transactions
Of life conducted. Twelve cash are in
value equal to about cent; yet in Shang-
hal the hot water shops go down to a
half cash and even to a quarter cash
in their transactions, or about one
fftieth of a cent. The regulation of the
value of cash is, it seems, constant topic
Of imperial rescripts and viceregal memo
rials. Mr.. WILLIAMS says that during the
ten years in which he has read the Peking
Gazette he has seen as many references to
the fluctuations in the value of cash as have
been caused in American newspapers by the
movements of silver in the last thirty years.
Measured in commodities, cash has fallen
in eight hundred years to one-fifth of it's
old value. Col YULE, in his "Marco Polo"
has shown that tael of silver was ex-
changeable for 900 cash in the thirteenth
century, when, as has been mentioned, the
ratio of silver to gold was four to one.
In 1777 French missionary reported that
a tael of silver was exchangeable for 800 to
1000 cash. In 1s46 DIR. WILLIAMS re-
ported that cash ran ], $50 to LOO to the
tael is an uncoined weight of silver; the
haikwan tael weighs 5s3la grains the
Shanghai and Canton taels are about 3
grains lighter. Where the silver dollar
has penetrated, it has gone through the
same fluctuations when measured in cash,
as the immemorial tael. OF course it
weighs less; twenty new Spanish dollars
are equivalent in weight to 14.37O
taels. AT the beginning of 1895 the
Spanish dollar fell at Shanghai from
1900 to 1,175 cash, and the tael
from 1,4s0 to 1,345. At Hangkow the
Mexican dollar fell to 92O cash, and like
fall took place at Ningpo; at Yangchow it
dropped to 900. AS long, indeed, as the
coinage of silver dollars was suspended in
China, the imported silver dollar held it's
value in cash tolerably well, but when ac.
tive minting was begun by the Viceroy of
Kuang tung, the white metal tumbled in
! value in the Middle Kingdom as it had
elsewhere.
So much for the notion that in China sill
yer does not vary In value.
The Case OF tho Rover