DAVIS. — CERTAIN OLD CHINESE NOTES. 259 



ing and Prices in China " characterized the book in the following words : 

 " A rich mass of conglomerate for the patient student." The book has 

 a distinct value, for it is the work of a learned sinologue, but the 

 confusion in the arrangement of its contents and the difficulty experi- 

 enced in determining whether one is meeting the opinions of some 

 Chinese historian or those of Joseph Edkins, tend greatly to obscure 

 its merits. It is not to be found in the Harvard Library, or the Boston 

 Public Library. 



In 1907, Mr. H. B. Morse, a member of the staff of Sir Robert 

 Hart, published in the Journal of the North China Branch of the 

 Royal Asiatic Society, 18 a communication dealing with the currency 

 question including paper money. This was illustrated with a litho- 

 graphic reproduction of a one kwan Ming note, 1368-1398, in colors, 

 and two engravings of government notes emitted during the Tae- 

 Ping rebellion which are also printed in colors. This article was 

 incorporated in Morse's book on the trade and administration of 

 China, which appeared in 1908. 19 Morse relied largely on Klaproth 

 and Edkins. It is from his book that the translation already given 

 of the inscriptions on a Ming note was taken. If it may be said of 

 Klaproth that he brought the subject of Chinese paper money within 

 easy reach of students, the claim may be advanced for Morse that 

 his book was the first that actually brought the matter to public 

 notice. 



In 1911, H. A. Ramsden published in Yokohama, a pamphlet 

 thirty-seven pages in length entitled, " Chinese paper money." It is 

 in the nature of a numismatical manual and Contains descriptions of a 

 great number of these old Chinese notes, sufficiently definite to enable 

 a collector to identify a specimen which has come into his hands, pro- 

 vided it belongs to one of the emissions thus described. No informa- 

 tion is furnished as to the language used in the inscriptions on the face 

 of the notes. Ramsden acknowledges that he is indebted to a Chinese 

 work for much valuable information. A copy of this work, 20 which is 

 an elaborate numismatical treatise profusely illustrated, with repre- 

 sentations of coins and occasionally of a note, is to be found in the 

 Essex Institute, at Salem. Examination shows that of these old 

 notes, there are given in this publication eighty-one representations 



18 Journal, &c, 38, pp. 17-31. 



19 The Trade and Administration of the Chinese Empire, by H. B. Morse. 

 London (1908). 



20 Chuan Pu Tung Chih or General account of money and coins — given by 

 Ramsden as C'hien Pu Tung Chih. 



