12 SHOOTING IN CHINA 



he will be continually annoyed as he travels 

 in the interior ; and the money has its 

 peculiar character as do the language and the 

 people. It is as different from the money of 

 any other nation as the language and people 

 of China are unique in their dissimilarity. 

 China has no currency of a standard value 

 like England and the United States. The 

 nearest approach to a currency is a copper 

 coin well known as " cash," and which has 

 a square hole in the middle for convenience 

 in stringing. "This coin, a g^eneration ago 

 of the nominal value of one twenty-fiftli of 

 a penny, and now representing the fortieth 

 of a penny, has a standard weight of fifty- 

 seven grains of metal of which it is made — 

 of copper and as much spelter of zinc (some- 

 times lead) as the copper will take up. 

 This copper coin, of which it takes 9,600 

 to make a pound sterling, is the currency 

 of the people ; in it the farmer receives the 

 price of his produce, and with it he buys 

 the things needed to satisfy the simple 

 wants of his family. The millions know no 

 other coin, and by its agency is carried 

 on the whole of the retail trade of the 

 Empire. Transactions which in England 



