gainst shipments of goods. In some places there are small local
banks, usually called cash shops, which issue paper notes for small
sums and lend money out on personal security. The notes never reach
more than a very limited local circulation, and pass current merely on
the credit of the institution. There is no law regulating the
formation of banks or the issue of notes. _Pawnshops_ occupy a
prominent position in the internal economy of China. They lend on
deposit of personality at very high rates, 18 and 24%, and they
receive deposits of money from the public, usually allowing 6 to 10%.
They are the real banks of deposit of the country, and the better
class enjoy good credit. _Foreign Banks_ do a large business at
Shanghai and other treaty ports, and a _Government Bank_ has been
established at Peking.

_Currency._--In the commercial treaty between Great Britain and China
of 1902 China agreed to provide a uniform national coinage. An
imperial decree of October 1908 commanded the introduction of a
uniform tael currency; but another decree of May 1910 established a
standard currency dollar weighing 72 candareens (a candareen is the
100th part of the tael ounce) and subsidiary coins of fixed values in
decimal ratio. This decree properly enforced would introduce a much
needed stability into the monetary system of China.

The actual currency (1910) consists of (l) _Silver_, which may be
either uncoined ingots passing current by weight, or imported coins,
Mexican dollars and British dollars; and (2) _Copper_ "cash," which
has no fixed relation to silver. The standard is silver, the unit
being the Chinese ounce or tael, containing 565 grains. The tael is
not a coin, but a weight. Its value in sterling consequently
fluctuates with the value of silver; in 1870 it was worth about 6s.
8d., in 1907 it was worth 3s. 3d.[48] The name given in China to
uncoined silver in current use is "sycee." It is cast for convenience
sake into ingots weighing one to 50 taels. Its average fineness is
916.66 per 1000. When foreign silver is imported, say into Shanghai,
it can be converted into currency by a very simple process. The bars
of silver are sent to a quasi-public office termed the "Kung K'u," or
public valuers, and by them melted down and cast into ingots of the
customary size. The fineness is estimated, and the premium or
betterness, together with the exact weight,