LANGUAGE-PEOPLE-MONEY 15 



houseboat to the one used for his comfort 

 and shooting equipments. 



There has never been in China a govern- 

 ment coin of any other metal than copper, 

 and tlie currency of the Empire, other 

 than copper, is not a coin, but a weight, 

 and this weight is known by foreigners as 

 the " tael ", while the Chinese name it 

 u Hang ". The tael which has the great- 

 est degree of universal currency, and 

 which is best known to foreigners outside 

 of China, is the Haikwan, or custom's 

 tael. The Haikwan tael is the currency in 

 which duties are paid to the Imperial 

 Maritime Customs and is the one meriting 

 more special attention. " It is a weight of 

 583.3 grains of pure silver 1,000 fine; 

 expressed in terms of the silver dollar of 

 41 2 l /t grains 900 fine, one Haikwan tael 

 equals 1.5713 silver dollars. Introduced 

 under the treaty of Nanking, 1842, the 

 lapse of sixty years has not sufficed to 

 create modifications in this standard which, 

 moreover, is current for revenue purposes 

 in all the ports open to foreign trade. 

 Even with this currency, however, this 

 immutability has to be taken with scn:e 



