CHAPTER VII.

THE WEIGHT SYSTEMS OF CHINA AND FURTHER ASIA.

Subiectos Orientis orae Seras et Indos.

HOR. _Carm._ I. 12. 56.

We have now found that within the area where our weight standards arose the ox was universally diffused, and regarded as the chief and most general form of property and medium of exchange; that over the same area gold was found to be more or less equally distributed in antiquity; that the metallic unit is found in all cases adapted to the chief unit of barter, whether that be ox or reindeer, beaver skin, or squirrel, as soon as peoples have learned the use of metal; and finally that over our special area from the Atlantic to Central Asia the cow at various times and places retained a value which fluctuated only from 120 to 140 grains of gold. When therefore we recall the fact, also pointed out above, that the gold unit employed from Gaul to Central Asia was one that only fluctuated from 120 to 140 grains, and when we recollect further that this unit in the ancient Greek Epic is called not a talent but an _ox_, when prices, and not merely the actual ingots of gold are mentioned, the conclusion follows that not merely in Greece but in all the other countries the gold unit represented originally simply the conventional value of the cow as the immemorial unit of barter.

Next follows an important question, How was the primitive weight standard fixed? In other words, how did mankind arrive at the general opinion that a weight of gold of about 130 English grains was the equivalent to the conventional value of the animal?

If we could but discover a region in which the weight and monetary systems still in use are essentially independent of our Graeco-Asiatic standards, and where it could be proved that the monetary system is an independent native development, and where this development is of such recent date that the record has been preserved in a written document, not merely reaching us in the dim form of a tradition, blurred and broken in the long and misty space of years that lie between us and those who first shaped our system, we would undoubtedly discern more clearly the stages of its evolution.

The Chinese empire with the neighbouring peoples who have participated in its civilization afford us just the case which we desire. It will be seen from what follows that not merely the monetary system of China, but her weight system is of an origin almost wholly unaffected by Western influences.

We saw above that the earliest form of money in Greece took the form of _spits_ or small rods of copper, no doubt of a specified size; we found in Annam that iron hoes, in mediaeval India iron formed into large-sized needles, in modern times in Central Africa pieces of iron of given dimensions, bars of iron among the Hottentots and among the peoples of the West Coast of Africa, brass rods of fixed length in the region of the Congo, and pieces of a precious wood likewise of fixed dimensions, have served or do still serve as media of exchange, and as units by which the values of other commodities are measured. In all these cases mere _measure_ not _weight_, is the method of appraisement. As the archaic Greek “spit” or _obolus_ of bronze eventually became a round bronze coin, familiar to us as Charon’s fee, and in still later times under the abbreviation _ob_. as the accountant’s symbol for a half-penny, as _d._ (_denarius_) denotes the penny, so we shall find that the common Chinese copper coins pierced with a square hole in the centre have had an almost identical history.

At the time when the Chinese made their great invasion into South-eastern Asia (214 B.C.) they still were employing a bronze currency under the form of knives, which were 135 millimetres (5⅖ in.) in length, bearing on the blade the character _minh_, and furnished with a ring at the end of the handle for stringing them. Under the ninth dynasty (479-501 A.D.) they used knives of the same form and metal, but 180 millim. (7⅕ in.) in length, furnished with a large ring at the end of the handle and inscribed with the characters _Tsy Kú-u Hoa_. Next the form of the knife was modified, the handle disappeared, and the ring was attached directly to the blade, but now as weight was regarded of importance, its thickness was increased to preserve the full amount of metal, and the ring became a flat round plate pierced with a hole for the string[211]. Later on these knives became really a conventional currency, and for convenience the blade was got rid of, and all that was now left of the original knife was the ring in the shape of a round plate pierced with a square hole. This is a brief history of the _sapec_ (more commonly known to us as _cash_) the only native coin of China, and which is found everywhere from Malaysia to Japan[212].

[Illustration: FIG. 21. CHINESE KNIFE MONEY (showing the evolution of the modern Chinese coins).]

Except where foreign coins such as American silver dollars are employed, all payments in silver and gold are made by weight, the only money being the copper _cash_. The Chinese metric system, like our own, is based on natural seeds or grains of plants. Thus ten of a kind of seed called _fên_ (the Candarin) probably placed sideways make 1 _ts’un_ (the Chinese inch[213]), just as our forefathers based the English inch on 3 barleycorns placed lengthwise. So with their monetary system,

10 _li_[214] (copper cash) = 1 _fên_ (_Candarin_) of silver. 10 _fên_ = 1 _chi’en_ (_mace_). 10 _chi’en_ = 1 _liung_ (or _tael_ or Chinese ounce).

This _liung_ or, as it is more commonly called, _tael_ is the maximum monetary weight. Hence we hear always of payments in silver as being 1000 or 2000 ounces and so on, but never in the higher commercial units of the _catty_ or pound, and _pical_ or hundredweight, to which we shall come immediately. But though the Chinese never employed any coinage of gold or silver, beyond all doubt they have possessed and employed both metals for almost an incalculable time in the form of ingots of rectangular shape, and of very accurately fixed dimensions. The maximum unit employed in commercial relations between China, Cochin-China, Annam and Cambodia is the _nên_ or _bar_. It is of course among her less advanced neighbours that we can best see how the system developed and worked. For whilst China herself now reckons exclusively by the _tael_ or ounce, Annam and Cambodia still employ ingots of fixed weights and dimensions as metal units almost to the present time. Thus when Msg. Taberdier in 1838 published his account of the money of Annam, they had no coins except the ordinary cash or _sapec_ with a square hole in its centre, and which is there made of zinc and called _dong_[214], they had no coinage in the proper sense of the term. However they employed ingots of gold and silver of a parallelopiped shape. Five sizes of ingots were employed for both gold and silver alike.

GOLD.

1. _Nên-Vang, loaf of gold_ = 10 _lu’ong_ or _taels_ (ounces). 2. _Thoi-Vang_ or _Nua Nên-Vang_ = 5 _lu’ong_. 3. _Lu’ong-Vang, nail of gold_ = 1 _lu’ong_ (39·05 grammes). 4. _Nua-Vang, half nail of gold_ = ½ _lu’ong_. 5. The quarter _lu’ong_ = ¼ _tael_ (9·762 gram.).

SILVER.

1. _Nên-bac, loaf of silver_ = 10 _lu’ong_ or _taels_. 2. _Nua Nên-bac, half loaf of silver_ = 5 _lu’ong_. 3. _Lu’ong_ or _Dinh-bac, nail of silver_ = 1 _tael_. 4. Half _Lu’ong, half nail_ = ½ _tael_. 5. Quarter _Lu’ong_ = ¼ _tael_ (9·762 gram.).

The lowest unit then was the quarter _nail_ of 152½ grains troy, whilst the largest was the _nên_ of 6500 grains. These ingots did not circulate freely but were generally kept in wealthy families as reserve treasure.

In very similar manner in Greece and Italy gold and silver, fashioned into talents and bars or wedges, were employed side by side with the bronze _oboli_ or _spits_ which served as the ordinary currency of every-day life.

We have now seen that the highest unit employed for silver and gold is the _Nên_ or bar of ten _taels_ or ounces. Before going further it will be convenient to describe briefly what we may term the Chinese system of _avoirdupois_ weight. Then we shall give the system borrowed from the Chinese and used in Cambodia and Cochin-China.

_Chinese._

10 _fên_ = 1 _ch’en_ (mace). 10 _ch’en_ = 1 _liang_, _tael_ or ounce. 16 _tael_ = 1 _chin_, commonly known as catty, = 1⅓ lbs. English. 100 catties = 1 _tan_ or _shih_, commonly known to us as the _picul_ (= 133⅓ lbs. English).

_Cambodia._ Money system.

60 cash or sapecs of zinc = 1 _tien_. 10 _tien_ = 1 string. 10 strings = 1 _nên_ or bar of silver (90 francs).

The _nên_ is an ingot of silver of parallelopiped form, which is invariably worth 100 strings of zinc cash[215]. This _nên_ is subdivided for money of account as follows:

1 _nên_ (375 grammes) = 10 _denh_. 1 _denh_ = 10 _chi_. 1 _chi_ = 10 _hun_. 1 _hun_ = 10 _li_.

They employ a coin of silver called a _prac-bat_ or _preasat_, worth 4 strings or ⅟₂₅ _nên_[216].

The Mexican piastre, which circulates also, is worth on the average about 6 strings of cash.

1 gold ingot = 16 _nêns_ of silver.

The half ingot of gold is also used = 8 ingots of silver.

The unit of commercial or _avoirdupois_ weight is the _catty_ (called by the Cambodians the _neal_) or pound.

1 _neal_ (catty) (600 grammes) = 16 _tomlongs_ or _taels_ (ounces). 1 _tomlong_ (37·5 grammes) = 10 _chi_ (of 3·75 grammes). 1 _chi_ = 10 _hun_.

The preceding weights are plainly borrowed from the Chinese, whilst the following are regarded as native in origin.

1 _pey_ = 0·292 grammes. 4 _pey_ = 1 _fuong_ (1·174 grammes). 2 _fuong_ = 1 _slong_ (2·344 grammes). 4 _slong_ = 1 _bat_ (9·375 grammes). 4 _bat_ = 1 _tomlong_ (37·5 grammes).

For heavy merchandise they employ the _hap_ or _picul_.

There are three varieties of _picul_: (1) that of the weight of 40 strings of cash (= 100 catties), (2) that of 42 strings, (3) that of 45 strings.

It will be noticed that the first-mentioned is simply the standard of the Chinese _picul_ of 133⅓ lbs. English, whilst the others are native.

In Annam we found that the ingots of gold and silver, consisting of ten _luongs_ or _nails_, were called _nên_. The _luong_ was equal in weight to the Chinese _liung_, and Cambodian _tomlong_, and was also called _dinh_ (_dinh-bac_, _nail of silver_), thus being identical with the ten _denh_ into which the Cambodian _nên_ or bar is divided.

In Laos[217] we again find the Chinese _picul_ as the highest weight unit. It is divided into 100 catties (here called _Chang_) of 600 grammes each (1⅓ lb. Eng.).

1 _picul_ = 100 _catties_. 1 _catty_ (_chang_) = 10 _damling_ (60 grammes). 1 _damling_ = 4 _bat_ (15 grammes). 1 _bat_ = 4 _chi_ (3·75 grammes). 1 _chi_ = 10 _hun_.

All these or their equivalents are used as money of account. “If there is but little coin in Laos,” says M. Aymonier, “there are monies of account in abundance.” In the south-west of the country, Bassak and Attopoeu, Cambodian currency is employed, and they count by the _nên_ or bar of silver.

1 _nên_ = 10 _denhs_ (money of account). 1 _denh_ = 10 strings of _cash_.

The _string_ is also money of account and is worth the same as the string of Annam, which is equal to the _sling_ or Siamese franc (which is worth 75 or 80 centimes). The _nên_ is also divided into 100 _chi_, and as there are 100 strings in the _nên_, the string of cash is equivalent to a _chi_ of silver (3·75 gram.). The Siamese coins known also to Cambodia were the weight and money units of the ancient Cambodians, who probably weighed their precious metals. In Laos all of them except the _tical_ are only monies of account. The _tical_ or _bat_ which under the ancient round form[218] was called _clom_ in Cambodia is actually struck as a small piastre in Cambodia and Siam in imitation of European money. This _tical_ is worth 4 Siamese _slings_, but the only monetary division of it known in Laos is the local _lat_ or small ingot of copper.

4 copper _lats_ = 1 silver _tical_ (= 4 _sling_ = 3 francs). 4 _tical_ = 1 _damling_. 20 _damling_ = 1 _catty_ (_chang_). 50 _catties_ = 1 _picul_.

The _chang_ or _catty_ of silver is a double one, hence 50 _catties_ of silver are equal to 100 _catties_ of ordinary commercial weight.

The _catty_ of silver thus weighs 1200 grammes instead of 600 grammes.

They likewise use the _moeun_ of silver = 10 _changs_ = ⅕ _picul_, but more generally the _moeun_ is used as a measure of capacity which contains 20 _catties_ of shelled rice, but as a measure of capacity it varies and is sometimes equal to 20 _catties_, sometimes to 25 _catties_ of rice. That it really is a measure of capacity incorporated at a later date into the weight system like our own _bushels_, _barrels_ and _quarters_, is made probable by the fact that in the provinces of Tonlé, Ropon, and Melou Préy they employ a _tramem_ or _bag_ containing 10 Cambodian _catties_, and in the province of Siphoum the _moeun_ is sometimes the name given to a bag or pannier of a cubit in depth, and a cubit in width at the mouth. It is usually called _kanchoen_ (_pannier_), and contains 25 _catties_ of rice, and 36 _kanchoen_ make a _cartload_.

We learn from another part of Laos an interesting fact which also throws some light on the development of the larger weight units from measures of capacity. For since in some parts of that country the cocoanut is used as the measure of capacity, and as _neal_, the native Cambodian name for the _catty_, means simply a cocoanut, it looks as though this was the real origin of the catty universally employed over all Further Asia. This likewise gives us the reason why the catty of silver is twice the weight of a catty of rice. If a weight unit is derived from a measure of capacity, according to the nature of the substance or liquid with which the measure is filled, the weight unit derived will be heavier or lighter, just as the Irish barrel of wheat is 6 stones heavier than the barrel of oats. A cocoa-nut, or bamboo-joint filled with silver will give a far heavier weight unit than if it is weighed when filled with rice.

We have now had a survey of the monetary and weight systems of China, Annam, Cambodia and Laos, and everywhere found that the _nên_ or bar of 10 _taels_ is the highest known metallic unit, and that except in Laos the counting of money even by the catty or pound is unknown, the Chinese themselves only employing the _tael_ as their highest monetary unit, the catty being kept as in Annam and Cambodia itself for ordinary goods. This is borne out by the practices in the weighing of gold. In Attopoeu, the region where gold is found, 8 _chi_ (= 2 _ticals_ or _bats_ = 4 _slings_ = 30 grammes) are exchanged for a bar of silver (= 100 _chi_ = 375 grammes). M. Aymonier thinks that the gold _bat_, that is to say the weight in gold of a _tical_ (15 grammes, 234 grains Troy), must have been the unit for weighing gold, as formerly it was necessary to give a gold _bat_ in order to marry a girl of the blood royal. This gets considerable support from the fact that in Sieng-Khan the gold _bat_ has only the weight of a _sling_ or _chi_ (58½ grains Troy), that is the quarter of a _tical_, and the weight of the _tical_ or _bat_ is called a _damling_. In fact they hardly reckon gold in any other way than by this small _damling_ which is only the weight of a _tical_ (234 grains Troy). In reference to my argument that as gold is the first of all things to be weighed, the primitive weight unit is certain to be small, as no man has, as a rule, any need to weigh his gold by the hundredweight or large mercantile talent, this fact that the highest unit for weighing gold in Attopoeu is so small, not even reaching the weight of the Graeco-Phoenician heavy gold shekel or double ox-unit of 260 grains, is of considerable importance.

This region supplies us with yet another point which can help to clear up the history of early metallic currency. The iron ingots which come from the Cambodian provinces of Kompong Soai form a special kind of money. These ingots are not weighed, but they have the length of the space between the base of the thumb and the tip of the forefinger, they are in breadth two fingers, and one finger in thickness in the middle, thinning off to either end. Three of these ingots = 1 _chi_ = 1 _sling_ = 1 string of cash; thus 12 ingots = 1 _tical_ of silver. These ingots are also counted by bags of 20; thus 1 _nên_ or bar of silver = 15 bags = 300 ingots of iron.

At Bassak the iron ingot is replaced by the _lat_, the copper ingot of Laos, which varies in value in the different moeungs (provinces) according to its size. Here is a remarkable confirmation of my contention that it was only at a period considerably later than the weighing of gold that the scales were employed for copper and iron, the catty being kept as in Annam and Cambodia for ordinary goods.

We can now make a further advance in our quest of the first beginnings of money and weights in this interesting region. There are many wild tribes in Annam and Laos, who still employ no method save that of barter, when dealing one with another, although when they touch on the more civilized regions they have to conform their native systems in some degree to the more developed currency of their neighbours, from whom they have to procure the few luxuries of their simple life. We saw above that among the wild tribesmen all articles have a well-defined relationship to each other, some particular article being usually taken as the common measure of all the rest, or rather two or three so that they may have units for estimating their more common as well as their more valuable possessions. So in Annam the buffalo often serves as the general unit of value for the more valuable articles. Thus a large chaldron is worth three buffalos, a handsome gong two buffalos, a small gong one buffalo, six copper dishes one buffalo, two lances one buffalo, a rhinoceros horn eight buffalos, a large pair of elephant’s tusks six buffalos, a small pair three buffalos[219]. Thus the buffalo which takes the place of the ox in China and South-Eastern Asia, is used as the commercial unit in like fashion as we found the ox employed among the Homeric Greeks, the ancient Italians, the ancient Irish, and the modern Ossetes. But the Annamites themselves employ as currency the silver bar and string of cash as we saw above: accordingly when the hill tribes have dealings with the people of the plain the full grown buffalo is reckoned at a bar of silver, or, its equivalent, 100 strings of cash[220], while the small buffalo is set at fifty strings.

Thus the Orang Glaï have often to buy a pair of elephant’s tusks at the cost of eight buffalos or eight bars of silver. Taxes are paid in buffalos; thus the Tjrons of Karang pay a buffalo for each house, or compound for the whole village by a payment of ten buffalos whose horns are at least as long as their ears[221]. Here then we find that exactly as the ancient Irish when they borrowed the Roman system of _unciae_ and _scripula_ (_unga_ and _screapall_) equated the ounce of silver to their own unit, the cow, so we find these wild tribes of Annam forced to adapt their primitive unit to the metallic unit of their more cultured neighbours. Again, the Bahnars of Annam, who dwell on the borders of Laos, have much the same system. With them the highest unit is the _head_, _i.e._ a male slave, who is estimated, according to his strength, age and skill, at 5, 6, or 7 buffalos, or the same number of kettles, as the buffalo and the kettle have the same value, which naturally varies with the size and age of the animal and the quality of the kettle. A full grown buffalo, or a large kettle, is worth seven glazed jars of Chinese shape with a capacity of 10 to 15 litres each. One jar is worth 4 _muks_. The _muk_ was originally the name of some special article, but now is simply used as a unit of account. Each _muk_ is worth 10 _mats_, or iron hoes, which are manufactured by the Cédans, and which form the sole agricultural implement of the wild tribes of all these regions. This hoe is the smallest monetary unit used by the Bahnars, and is worth about one penny in European goods. This _mat_ or hoe serves them as small currency and all petty transactions are carried on by it. Thus a large bamboo hat costs 2 hoes, a Bahnar knife 2 hoes, ordinary arrows are sold at 30 for 1 hoe and so on. A large elephant is worth from 10 to 15 “_heads_” or slaves, whilst a horse costs 3 or 4 kettles or buffalos. When we read of such a state of human society we seem to be transported back into that far away Homeric time, and as we hear of slaves, and kine, chaldrons and kettles we think of the old Epics with their tale of slaves valued in beeves, and “crumple-horned shambling kine, and tripods” and “shining chaldrons.” In the light of such analogies we at last can understand the significance of the 10 axes and 10 “half-axes” which formed the first and second prizes in the _Iliad_[222] when Achilles “set out for the archers the dark-hued iron, and put down 10 axes and 10 half-axes.” Who can doubt that these axes and half-axes played much the same part in the Homeric system of currency as the hoes do at this present moment in that of the Bahnars of Annam? Probably such too were the 12 axes which Penelope[223] brought out from the treasure chamber to serve as a target for the suitors in their contests with the bow of Ulysses. The hoe is thus the lowest unit of currency among the Bahnars. From the known interrelations of all the articles of daily life it is easy to estimate how many hoes any even of their more costly possessions is worth. Thus the full-grown buffalo = 7 jars = 28 _muks_ = 280 hoes, or about £1. 3_s._ 4_d._ of our money. All these transactions require no use of weights, being reckoned by bulk or tale. But now comes the most interesting feature for us, a people in the complete stage of barter, but who actually possess, work and traffic in gold.

In all the streams on the side next Laos the wild people wash gold, men, women and children all alike joining in this laborious industry, and employ as ‘cradles’ little baskets made of bamboo. The gold is sold in dust at the _rate of the weight in gold of one grain of maize for one hoe_. Here then we have finally run to ground one of the principal objects of our quest. We have a primitive people, who carry on all their trade by means of barter, who have no currency in the precious metals, but who employ as their most general unit of small value the iron hoe. They are found to weigh one thing and one only, namely gold, and for that purpose they do not employ any weight standard borrowed from China or Annam, but equate a certain amount of gold to the unit of barter, and then fix as a constant that amount of gold by balancing it against a grain of the corn that forms one of the chief staples of their subsistence. Nature herself has supplied man with weights of admirable exactitude ready to his hand in the natural seeds of plants, and as soon as he finds out the need of determining with great care the precious substance which he has to win with toil and hardship from the stream, he takes the proffered means and fashions for himself a balance and weights.

We saw that a buffalo was worth 280 hoes; it is therefore an easy task for a Bahnar to tell its worth in gold. It was equally simple for the first Aryan or Semite who framed the gold shekel standard to compute the exact amount of gold which would represent the value of an ox. But perhaps we have not reached the earliest stage of all in the development of a standard for the sale of gold. I ventured to put forward in 1887 the suggestion that the way in which the amount of gold which represented the value of a cow was first fixed approximately was by _measuring_ it in some way, as for instance by taking the amount which would fit in the palm of the hand, somewhat in the fashion that rustics measure gunpowder or shot for a gun. What was then but a mere guess may be now regarded as fairly certain. That excellent observer, M. Aymonier, notes that the Tapak tribe, who live at a distance of six days’ journey from Attopoeu, wash gold. The women wade into the streams (after having first carefully placed five flowers or five leaves at the foot of a tree close by the stream to ensure good luck). Each dips a water-tight bag into the sand at the bottom of the stream, and after a long series of rewashings and cleansings at last gets the gold dust in a state of purity[224]. The savages carry it to Attopoeu, and sell it at the rate of 9 _chi_ of gold for a _nên_ or bar of silver (= 100 _chi_). The relative value in Attopoeu is 8 _chi_ or two _bats_ of gold to one bar (= 100 _chi_) of silver, or as they express it one _tical_ of gold is changed for 12 _ticals_ of silver. “The _tical_ of gold is,” it is said, “equivalent to the weight of 32 grains of a peculiar kind of rice of the country, with large grains and of a red colour, which is called ivory rice.” Here we have the weighing by natural grains as before, but Aymonier adds (p. 35) that “the natives relate that gold was formerly so abundant that without _weighing it people were content to measure_ it. A little stick of gold an inch broad and a span long _was exchanged against a buffalo_.”

We found the Bahnars equating a small quantity of gold to their smallest unit of barter, the hoe; now we find that in the wild parts of Laos the unit of gold, before weights of natural grains were employed, was based by measurement upon the buffalo, the chief unit of barter. Thus we have found among the remote peoples of Further Asia the very method of fixing a metallic unit, which I have endeavoured to prove was that followed by the Aryan and Semitic races in arriving at that shekel of gold, which was the common standard of all the civilized peoples of the ancient world, and which was the parent of all our mediaeval and modern systems.