Page:1902 Encyclopædia Britannica - Volume 27 - CHI-ELD.pdf/56

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CHINA

[statistics

They lend money on personal security, but do not advance Hangchow and Ningpo ; (c) Pukou (on the north bank of the law. shipments of goods. Income places there are small local Yangtse opposite Nanking) to Siuyang, a station on the Luhan line. against usually called cash shops, which issue paper notes lor Total length 650 miles. 2. Hongkong to Canton, 100 miles. 3. In banks, sums and lend money out on personal security. The notes the provinces of Shansi and Honan, the Peking Syndicate, besides small reach more than a very limited local circulation, and pass mining rights, have the right to connect mines with navigable never current merely on the credit of the institution.^ There is no waters. Lines not yet determined, but will probably extend to law regulating the formation of banks or the issue of notes. 300 or 400 miles. ^ ^ . occupy a prominent position in the internal economy (2) Anglo-German.—A trunk line from Tientsin to Ghinkiang, Pawnshops of China. They lend on deposit of personalty at very high €00 miles. Northern or Shantung half to be built and equipped rates, 18 and 24 per cent., and they receive deposits of money by the German syndicate ; the southern or Yangtse half by from the public, usually allowing 6 to 10 per cent. They are the English syndicate. Total length 600 miles. banks of deposit of the country, and the better class enjoy (3) Anglo-A.7)icvicctn.—A trunk line from Canton to Hankow, real good credit. _ . ? Currency.—The currency of China consists of:—(1) Oliver, (4) '(icrniaii.—Lines in Shantung. Eiaochow to Tsinanfu, and which may be either uncoined ingots passing current by weight, Kiaochow to Yihsien, 420 miles. . . imported coins, Mexican dollars and British dollars ; and (2) (5) Russian.—(a) Permission to carry the Siberian mam line or “ cash,” which has no fixed relation to silver. The standard now in course of construction from Stretensk through Chinese isCopper the unit being the Chinese ounce or tael, containing territory via Petune to Vladivostock, 1000 miles, (b) A line to 565silver, grains. The tael is not a coin, but a weight.. Its value in connect Port Arthur and Talienwan with the above, 400 miles. sterling consequently fluctuates with the value of silver ; in 18/0 (c) A line from Taiyuenfu, the capital of the province of Shansi, it was worth about 6s. 8d., it is now worth rather less than 3s. to connect with the Luhan line at Chengting, 130 miles. name given in China to uncoined silver in current use is (6) Belgian or Franco-BeIgian. —A trunk line from Hankow to The “sycee.” It is cast for convenience sake into ingots weighing Pekino', generally termed the Lu-Han line, length 700 miles. about 50 taels each. Its average fineness is 916’66 per 1000. (7) ^French.—(a) From Tongking up the Red river to Yunnanfu, When foreign silver is imported, say into Shanghai, it can be 200 miles, (b) Langson to Lungchow and Nanning, 100 miles. converted into currency by a very simple process. The bars ot (c) Pakhoi to Nanning, 120 miles. are sent to a quasi-public office termed the Kung Ku, or The British Government has also obtained the right to extend silver valuers, and by them melted down and cast into ingots ot the Burma railway system through Yunnan and north to the public the customary size. The fineness is estimated, and the premium Yangtse so soon as a company is prepared to take it up. or betterness, together with the exact weight, is marked m ink: on Many years will doubtless elapse before these lines are made, ingot. The whole process only occupies a few hours, and involving as they do an outlay of something like 60 or 80 millions each is then ready to be put into use. The Rung Ku is .of capital, and some of them will probably not be made at all. the silver a local office appointed by the bankers of the place, and The Russian lines are being pushed on with activity, and the simply weight and fineness are only good for that locality, ine Belgian, or more properly Franco-Belgian syndicate, winch has the the takes no responsibility in the matter, but leaves Peking-Hankow, commonly called the Lu-Han line in hand, has Government and bankers to adjust the currency as they please .commenced work from the Hankow end. The section Peking to merchants purposes of taxation and payment of duties there is a standard Paotingfu has been already built, and has been transferred tor Fortreasury tael, which is about 10 per cent, heavier than the tael .operation to the Belgian syndicate. The lower Yangtse lines as or commerce in use at Shanghai. Every large commercial centie 'well as the Hongkong-Canton line will no doubt be made, and of its own customary tael, the weight and therefore the value ot passing as they do through the richest and most populous districts has which differ from that of every other. Silver dollars coined m of China, they ought to pay well. British dollars coined in Bombay, also circulate Roads and Canals.—In regard to these nothing new need be Mexico,at and the open ports of trade and for some distance inland, said. The Chinese Government spends nothing on these objects. freely passing at a little above their intrinsic value. Carolus dollars, •Occasionally the local authorities make an effort by employing long ago and no longer coined, are retained m the corvee system to dig out the bed of a canal, but as ^ru^® introduced use in several parts of the interior, chiefly the teajoads are left to take care of themselves. Even the Grand Canal current districts. Being preferred by the people, and as the has been suffered to silt up, so that for nearly half its length it is growing cannot be added to, they have reached a considerable quite useless for through traffic. It is only employed by the supply above their intrinsic value. Provincial mints m Canton, annual fleet of tribute rice boats, which are still required by premium Wuchang, and other places, have recently been issuing silver unyielding regulations to carry their freight by this route. I hey coins of the same weight and touch as the Mexican dollar, but •choose the time of high water, when the country is more or less verv few have gone into use. As they possess no privilege m flooded, and even then it is only by dint of sheer hauling for debt-paying power over imported Mexican dollars there is no miles along a muddy bottom that they are got through. Pages inducement for people to take them up unless they can be are filled by the reports of the officer in charge, describing the had at a cheaper the rate than the latter, and these are laid, down at superhuman exertions of himself and his men in getting t le so small a cost above the intrinsic value that no profit is lett to boats hauled through. It does not appear to occur to anyone the mint. The coinage has in consequence been almost disthat a moderate sum spent in dredging, with a lew locks neie continued. Subsidiary coins, however, are coimng largely into .and there, would make the passage cheap and easy. Telegraphs.—Here the case is different. Every important use issued by the local mints. The only com officially issued by is the so-called copper cash. It is a small com city in China is now connected by wire with the capital, and the’ Government by regulation should weigh r^th of a tael, and should the service is reasonably efficient. Connexion is also established which 50 parts of copper, 40 of zinc, and 10 of lead or tm, with the English lines in Burma and the Russian lines in Siberia. contain it should bear a fixed ratio to silver of 1000 cash to one The Great Northern Telegraph Co. (Danish) and the Eastern and silver. In practice none of these conditions are observed. Extension Telegraph Co. (English) connect Shanghai by cable tael of issued from a number of mints, mostly provincial, the 'with Hongkong, Japan, Singapore, and Europe. An imperial Being was never uniform, and in many cases debased. Expostal service has also been recently established under the general standard issues lowered the value of the coins, and or many years control of the Maritime Customs. It serves all the open ports, cessive average exchange was 1600 or more per tael. Mithm the and is gradually being extended to the interior. The treaty the Powers, however, still maintain their separate post offices at last few years the rise in copper has led to the melting down of all the older and superior coins, and as for the same reason Shanghai for the despatch and receipt of mails from Europe. was suspended, the result has been an appreciation of Mining Concessions.—The only mining concession of any value coining “cash,” so that a tael now exchanges for only 1180 or 1200. granted to a foreign company is that secured by the Peking the Inasmuch as the “cash” bears no fixed relation to silver, and is Syndicate, which gives the right to work coal, iron, and petroleum moreover of no uniform composition, it forms a sort of mongrel in the province of Shansi. It is expected that this concession standard of its own, varying with the volume m circulation at will lead to very important industrial developments. Several any particular It is, however, the universal medium ot preliminary contracts have been entered into for mining conces- exchange for alltime. retail transactions, and the quantities m circulasions in other provinces, but they are clogged with conditions tion are enormous. The fluctuations in regard to silver give imposed by recent regulations issued by the Chinese Government, rise to great complaints among the people. The introduction of and for the present they seem of doubtful value. ., a uniform system of coinage is one of the most pressing wants of Banks and Aiming.-Native banks for purposes of inland China. exchange are to be found in most large cities. Ihey are private banks using their own capital, and seldom receiving deposits II. Recent History. from the public. The best known are the Shansi banks, which have branches all over the empire. They work on a small In the article in the ninth edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica, capital, seldom over £50,000 each and do a small but profitable the history of China was carried down to the accession of the business by selling their drafts on distant places. None of these Emperor Kwang Su in January 1875. As an introduction to what issue notes, although they are not debarred from doing so bj