of the current Tehen[1] (base-metal coin) in comparison with silver, to the great loss of the provincial treasury; requesting the Imperial assent to a temporary suspension of the coinage, with a view to prevent needless waste, and equalize or bring to a par the market prices of gold and silver.
In the mint of Fŭh-këen province, named Paon-fuh-keu, the average coinage of ten days has been 1,200 strings of Tchen[2] (each string containing 1,000, or ten divisions of 100 each), and therefore the total coinage of one year has averaged 43,200[3] strings (or 43,200,000 Tchen), the use of which has been to pay the militia of the province. In order to procure the copper and lead required for coinage, officers have been regularly deputed to Yun-nan and Hoo-pĭh provinces; and it has been calculated that the expenses of transmission and coinage together with other charges, added to the cost of the metal, have amounted, on an average, to 1,261___ in every 1,000 Tchen. The present market value of standard silver in exchange for coin at the capital, is 1 Tael weight for 1,240 or 1,250 Tchen: and it is the same throughout the province. This being added to the above, the total disadvantage amounts to more than 500 in each Tael, and the annual loss to more than 20,000 Taels value.
The province of Fŭh-këen being on the borders of the sea, its distance from some other provinces is great; and the merchants, who resort hither with their trade goods, finding it inconvenient to carry back such a weight of Tchen, exchange it for silver, as a more portable remittance, by which means silver and coin have become very disproportioned in their relative values, the former rising, and the latter falling, to an unusual degree.
It has always been the rule to pay the militia in Tchen, at the rate of 1,000 for a Tael of silver: but now a Tael of silver in the market being worth 1,240 or 1,250 Tchen, they experience serious loss from this when they exchange their Tchen for silver, with a view to the more ready transmission of their pay to a distance."
After some other details of less interest, the Viceroy and his colleagues
- ↑ Tsëen, pronounced Tchen, to the northward, and called by Europeans at Canton, cash.
- ↑ See Plate III, No. 8.
- ↑ Taking the Tchen at their proper value, the annual addition to the circulation in this province would be about ₤14,400, and of the whole empire, taking it at fifteen provinces, ₤216,000. It was probably the great bulk of the coin, in proportion to its value, which induced the necessity of provincial mints.
