El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1913-01-22
Chinese Money Is A Puzzle
Nearly Every Province Places Diff
ferent Value on Coins
and Currency.
~ TNraTa-fa L

, ASHINGTON. D. C., Jan. o.

EWT ? ASHINGTON, D. c., Jan. o.
NJ Whoever coined the phrase
A Chinese puzzle" must have
had the Chienese currency system in
mind It is the most complicated and
unsatisfactory money system in the
world today. China will never take its
rlghtful place among the leading COM
mercial nations Of the world until its
currency is put on sound basis AMI
standardized This problem touches
every man, woman and child in China
and If of greater personal concern
Ihan even the form Of government by
which they are to be ruled. Of all
China's difficulties this one of cur
rency reform should be among the
first to be tackled. Indications are
that for reasons both peculiar and
selfish it will be one of the last
Foreigners have been urging cur
rency reform, and Chinese officials
have been promising currency reform,
for generations EdictS have been
crate plans have been sOlemnly ten
dered by foreign monetary experts and
as solemnly accepted by celestial Of
ficials. But the good old way is so
deep rooted that it prevails in these
days of democracy just as it did when
despotism flOurished- When the re-
public does get around to the money
question it viii face a staggering prop
ositiOn.
Coins and Currency Galore.
To begin with, there are copper coins
Of various denominations. Then there
are silver dollars Of divers minis fash
Toned after the Mexican dollar, with
value which fluctuates between so and
A cents; American money. The silver
shoe or sycee of different sizes and
values adds its seed to this monetary
apple of discOrd. A motley collection
OF paper currency fills in the chinks,
o. nd oil
ofttmes twice as big as an American
bill, and bearing the name of a dozen
foreign banking houses or provincial
banks. Top all this with the stream
OF coinage and paper currency which
pours IN daily for exchange from
every country on the face of the globe
and you have a nice mess of pottage-
Mix in with this the more or less legal
issues of nearly every province,
whether the provincial traSury has the
actual cash or credit TO back it up or
not, and the genuine counterfeit for
every supposedly genuine coin or bill
IN the market, and diluted mush with
hastily scrambled eggs on the side is
Slace fruit in comparison.
Money Changing n Pastfme.
AS baseball is the national pastime
OF Americans so is money changing to
the Chinese. Even the lowest cOOlie
who tolls 10 hours a day to earn the
equivalent of 10 cents American money
VIII go to the artful money changer
for an additional hour or two of bag
Sllng which cannot possibly net him a
gain Of more than half a cent. When
ne goes to his humble home he may
spend another precious hour on fren-
zied finance deduction, only to learn
that he was skinned out of half a
cent Then he goes philOsOphically to
bed to wait for the chance the morrow
viii bring him to get even.
Pity then the guileless foreign tour
lSt Tor the native money changer, like
the poor, is always with him every
day Of his headlong sightseeing rush
is that at the end of the tour he is
poor but the money changer isn't. At
the outset the deft coin juggler has
the experience and the tripper has the
stranger in strange land acknowI-
edges the experience and the lucrc
trimmer owns the money
Different Money In Every City.
The tourists initiation is usually in
the British city Of HOngkonE. The
next stop so miles up Pearl river is
canton, where the shops will take the
HongkonS money but the chair bear
ers and other coolies may not This
necessitates a change, at a loss Of
course, to Canton money. Before pro-
ceeding north to Shanghai all this
HOngkOng and Canton currency must
be changed to Shanghai values Per
haps silver has deprecated somewhat
again. If the traveller is so careless as
to wait to turn over his cash in Shang-
hal the change will cost considerable,
perhaps as high as 10 percent some
times Before going up to North China
Whatever money one has left is turned,
with the usual loss, into Tientsin
money. Fortunately, this last general
" passes current in Pel5in, So miles
above Tlentsin, although the capital
district has some silver coins distinctly
he frira "a
same game works on the back track.
1t IS easy to see why there will be
no serious monetary reform and
Standardization of currency in China
50 long as it can be STAYED off by for
elgn banks and their Chinese associ-
ates, and the thousands of Chinese
money changers to be found in every
nook and Granny Of the country who
make their living by the traffic.
Primitive Money.
Primitive Chinese currency, dating
back to prehistoric times. consisted Of
axes, spades, inscribed skins, tortoise
shells, cOWries armlets, rings and silk
rolls. As far forward as A. D., 1929,
the imperial treasury received 1133.119
strings of cOWries. Silver was used to
a certain extent about the same time,
perhaps a century or two before. Gold
passed as currency from the beginning
Of the 18th century, B. c. In modern
times pure Chinese gold has been
by the wealthy in vaults or
pawn shops in the shape of ingots,
gold leaf and jewelry. Iron was used
for money in the Han dynasty, B. c.,
zoo. In the 10th century iron was
common, everyday money in that part
of China which is now known as
Szechuen province As late as A. d,
1861, iron was used for money in
some remote provinces when copper
was not forthcoming from Truman
province. This coinage, of course, was
big and heavy and below its face
value.
currency, and Chinas real money has
been copper, paper and silver. Copper |
Cor bronco is the basis of the lands
The custom Of casting coins
in regular shapes and sizes and of I
weights began early in the |
seventh century, B. c. China has had !
a copper coinage of the shape used to /
this day, round coins with square
holes, for p centuries without a break /
In other words, the Chinese were using
when only the Druids peOpled
the British Isles, when the wild Ger
manic tribes CROPPED in the Black For !
est, before the rowing Norwegians dis
covered America and founded the col
Ony of Vinland.
Paper Money In A. D., SOC.
The first paper money was used in /
D., sos, by the emperor HientsunE,
in order to meet a money stringency. |
This paper was called flying money"
The government issued it and received /
real money in return, paying off its /
E. d in