NO. 2 FOLK RELIGION IN SOUTHWEST CHINA — GRAHAM I7 



modern cash were made of brass and were nearly an inch in diameter. 

 These cash were strung on strings supposedly with one thousand cash 

 on a string, but almost always less, and were divided into sets of one 

 hundred or fewer cash each. Each string of one thousand cash 

 weighed several pounds. When making a payment, these strings were 

 carried on men's shoulders or in baskets on the end of carrying-poles, 

 and often it took several men to carry enough cash to make one 

 payment. 



Money also took the form of lump silver, which was measured by 

 weight. An ounce, called in Chinese Hang, was known in English as a 

 tael. Ten ounces, or a ting was called in English a shoe or an ingot. 



In the Ming dynasty silver dollars were imported from Spain and 

 Mexico, and later from France, Canada, and the United States. Late 

 in the Manchu dynasty the Chinese made and used their own silver 

 dollars, virtually all of them manufactured in the provincial mints. 

 These dollars gradually replaced "lump silver" in the markets. 



Paper money was used in China as early as the Sung dynasty, but 

 its use was generally limited because of its instability, cheapness, and 

 destructibility. Soon after the establishment of the Chinese Republic, 

 in 1912, Chinese bank bills began to appear, and their use gradually 

 increased until in 1940 they had entirely replaced lump silver and 

 silver dollars in the Chinese markets. At first they were issued for 

 10 cents, 20 cents, 50 cents, $1, $2, $5, and $10. Later, owing to in- 

 flation, they were issued for $20, $50, $100, $400, $500, $1,000, $5,000, 

 $10,000, $50,000, and $100,000. In the late spring of 1948 i American 

 dollar exchanged for 2 million Chinese dollars. 



Although there were Chinese banks at least as early as the Sung 

 dynasty (Kirby, 1954, p. 145), there were few banks in West China 

 during the Manchu dynasty, and these were all in the large cities. 

 While they were very useful, they were far too few in number. Soon 

 after the founding of the Republic in 191 1, some provincial banks 

 were established, and some of these printed their own bank bills. The 

 writer has in his possession some bank bills that were issued at about 

 this time by the Bank of Kweichow, After 1927, when the National 

 Government became more firmly established, the Bank of China 

 (Chung Kuo Yin Hang), the Farmers' Bank of Qiina (Chung Kuo 

 Nung Min Yin Hang), and the Central Bank of China (Chung Yang 

 Yin Hang) opened branch banks in the larger cities all over China, 

 and each issued its own bank bills. The government also encouraged 

 the opening of provincial banks without the privilege of issuing bank 

 bills. The banking facilities were greatly improved, but were generally 

 not available to poor people or to people on farms and in villages. 



