198 ADDRESS TO THE [LECT. 



possessions. So also in Greece, it was usual to place a 

 piece of money in the mouth of the deceased, as 

 Charon's fee. 



In China also paper money is said to have been 

 similarly treated. It was, we are informed, sometimes 

 burnt at funerals in order that the dead might have 

 some ready money to start with in the world of spirits. 

 At the same time, in finance, as in many other matters, 

 the Chinese, though they anticipated the white races, 

 have not advanced so far. Their system of currency 

 is still archaic, and banking appears to be but little 

 developed. Deposits, which constitute the life-blood 

 of banking, are, we are told, exceptional. Bills circu- 

 late, or are bought and sold at the exchanges in Pekin 

 and other cities, but Chinese banking seems almost to 

 confine itself to issuing and repaying bills. Moreover, 

 though the Chinese possess, and have so long possessed 

 a coinage, it is only suitable to small payments, and in 

 all large transactions ingots are extensively used. 

 These ingots have no public stamp, although they 

 often bear the mark of the maker, which is sometimes so 

 well known that a verification is dispensed with. 



In their financial and banking arrangements, the 

 Japanese seem to have been much behind the Chinese. 

 They had, indeed, a form of paper money. The 

 Daimios, or feudal lords, in various districts, issued little 

 cards representing very small values. In the museum 

 of Ley den is one of these issued in 1688. The bank 

 notes, however, never reached a high state of develop- 

 ment, and in the 59th volume of the great Encyclopedia 

 San-tsai-dyn, the subject is I quote from Vissering 

 thus contemptuously dismissed : " Under the reign of 



