334< CHINA. CHAP, xxvir. 



ports of China by some Europeans, which consists 

 chiefly in supplying the prohibited drug, opium, 

 it is represented that a large portion of a peculiar 

 kind of silver is delivered in payment it is di- 

 stinguished by the name of Syce silver, and has 

 been supposed to be exclusively the product 

 of the native mines. A better knowledge has, 

 however, taught us that it is indifferently either 

 Chinese or American, or any other silver which 

 has undergone the process of refining, and made 

 so pure as to contain only two parts of alloy to 

 ninety-eight parts of silver. It has been said 

 that large portions of this silver are smuggled out ; 

 but the term large, when applied by an individual 

 illicit trader, may have a very different meaning 

 from what it bears in the language of one who is 

 treating of the whole export of an empire of such 

 extent, and containing so many millions of in- 

 habitants as are to be found in China. We are 

 induced to make this remark from observing that 

 in the year 1828, when the export of silver from 

 China to Calcutta was two million two hundred 

 and forty-four thousand three hundred and 

 twenty dollars, the Syce silver was only nineteen 

 thousand two hundred and ten, and all the rest 

 was either in Spanish dollars, or in ingots of 

 South American silver 1 . It is known that gold 



1 See the examination of W. S. Davidson, esq., March 3, 

 1830, and of Robert Rickards, esq., March 22, before the 

 Committee of the House of Commons. 



