Pacific Crossing: Californian Gold, Chinese Migration, and the Making of Hong Kong

Note on Currencies and Weights

xvii Note on Currencies and Weights Currencies Several currencies circulated in Hong Kong during the nineteenth century. Silver Mexican and Spanish dollars (of roughly equal value) were the most common for the purpose of trade. US gold dollars also circulated, but to a lesser extent, and they were generally less valuable than the Mexican dollar; from 1873, a US silver trade dollar was specially minted for the China market and became extremely popular in the Hong Kong region, but it was withdrawn by the federal government in 1887. Hong Kong government accounts were kept, and civil servants paid, in sterling until 1862 when the Hong Kong silver dollar came into being; the latter was valued on a par with the Mexican dollar. Other currencies included East India Company rupees and Chinese silver taels and copper cash. Western companies kept accounts in dollars while Chinese merchants as a rule kept accounts among themselves in silver taels. Migrants returning from overseas exchanged in Hong Kong whatever currencies they had into silver taels for use in China. Despite fluctuations, for most of the period under discussion in this book, one Mexican/Hong Kong dollar equaled around 4 shillings and tuppence (2 pennies) and 0.72–0.75 taels of silver. One pound equaled $4.80 and around 3.45 taels of silver. The standard American dollar, though nominally at par with the Mexican dollar, was often traded at a discount, sometimes at as much as US$1.20 to one Mexican dollar. The American trade dollar, which had a higher silver content, was more likely to have traded at par with the Mexican dollar. Note on Currencies and Weights xviii Weights 1 tael = 1.33 oz (37.42 grams) 16 taels = 1 catty (1.3 lbs/600 grams) 100 catties = 1 picul (133. 33 pounds/60 kilograms) ...