China silver dollars and monetary system in 1926 - Explorer Joseph Rock

WillieBoyd2

China had a complicated monetary system in the 1920's and here is a description of how it functioned in the remote province of Kansu (Gansu).

Joseph Rock was born in Austria in 1884, moved to the United States in 1905, first to New York and then to Hawaii where he became a self-taught botanist. He then went to China in 1920 and spent most of his time there until 1949 collecting plants and sending them back to colleges and institutes in the United States.

He spent most of his time in the remote areas near Tibet and had to put up with warlords, bandits, and bad food.

Rock wrote articles and provided photographs to the National Geographic magazine, and supposedly his articles formed part of the inspiration for Shangri La in British author James Hilton's 1934 novel Lost Horizon.

Stephanie Sutton's 1974 biography of Joseph Rock, In China's Border Provinces - The Turbulent Career of Joseph Rock, has this excerpt from Joseph Rock's diary written in February 1926 in Choni, Kansu Province, China (now Jone and Gansu):

"Every town in Kansu has its own scale for weighing silver and, in addition, they have two kinds of weights, the old and the new weight; the latter are naturally lighter than the old weights. There are in circulation Yuan Shih-kai dollars of the 3rd, 7th, 8th and 9th and 10th year. The third year dollar is the current dollar taken at par. The others of the 7th to the 10th year are all discounted for two reasons: first because Yuan Shih-kai died in the 3rd year of his rule, hence there cannot be a 10th year Yuan Shih-kai; this is a superstitious reason. And, second, all the issues after the 3rd year are a little lighter in weight. If the 3rd year dollar has a scratch or a mark on it it is discounted five cents".

Republic of China Dollar 3rd year (1914) Yuan Shih-kai "Fat Man" type
Silver, 38mm, 26.62gm

"Then come the Manchu and Peyang dollars and the Dragon dollar of the different provinces, each of which has a value of its own. The present day Szechwan dollars are not accepted in Kansu. In addition there is a Lanchow paper dollar which has its own fluctuating value. So if one buys anything one is asked with what kind of money or dollars are you going to pay and the price is then fixed accordingly, the apparent standard being the 3rd year dollar Yuan Shih-kai.

Now these various dollars are exchangeable into coppers only. There are no small silver coins in Kansu. Kansu has no copper so all coppers are imported from Szechwan. The road being a long one makes the coppers expensive. In Chengtu a dollar exchanges for 4,000 cash, but that fluctuates. In Choni the dollar exchanges for 2,300 or 2,500 cash. No larger copper pieces are taken than 20 cash pieces. Now this means however, only yellow brass coppers, so to say if you want red coppers you get only 1,700 cash. This all does not mean that you actually get 1,700 in 10 and 20 red coppers, or 2,300 cash in 10 and 20 yellow coppers, for the Chinese reckon 85 to 95 actual cash for 100 so-called cash.

In Labrang 100 cash means really only 85 cash, and in every village the dollar is exchanged to different cash values. The Tibetans out here are still so antiquated that they refuse dollars but will accept only sycee or lump silver. This means you have to run around with a scale, hunt the scale in use in that particular locality and an axe to chop the silver. In paying with silver one always loses as one has to take the other man's scales, and where he puts the weights it is heavier than where he puts the silver. This is a recognized custom".

"The currency system is enough to drive one mad", Rock wrote Sargent on Feb. 12, 1926. "I think by the time I get through here I shall be fit for the post of Minister of Finance".

Rock has wilder descriptions of the late 1940's Nationalist China paper money inflation when a United States dollar was worth a million Chinese dollars.

Weiss

That's a great account. And that's exactly how I expected transactions would have transpired there and then. Fascinating to see actual accounts though.

PatAR

Great to read a first hand account of the every day methods of exchange!

You can feel Mr. Rock's growing frustration as he writes!