We have seen who and what were the Co-Hong, the Outside Chinese merchants, the Linguists and Compradores, and what their respective relations with foreigners were. There now remains the Shroff, or money dealer, whose services were indispensable, particularly in receipts. They were manifest daily and hourly in the broad arched passages passing through the Factories, along which, as was constantly said, one could never move without seeing heaps of silver being examined and hearing its metallic ring as successive quantities were poured in and out of copper scales. Scarcely a day or even an hour passed without this glittering accompaniment of old Canton life.
Pieces of silver as well as dollars were shroffed and weighed before being deposited in the treasury. When that was done, dollars had no longer a distinct existence, for in commerce the Chinese treat silver and gold as they do lead, iron, or copper. In this they show a characteristic good sense, and are rewarded by it in the facility with which all money transactions are carried on. As the result of long experience, the imported dollar was found to be worth 717/1000 taels in weight, and this became the standard in all current book accounts. No coined money exists in the Empire except copper cash, with which every one is familiar. The use of it is confined to the daily wants of the people, and it never enters into transactions of importance, except when money-changers replenish their stocks. The convenience of such a circulating medium gives facility to every one, no matter how humble his requirements, and was a wise piece of legislation. The obverse of the coin bears the name of the Emperor during whose reign it was made, in Chinese characters, with two others which mean 'circulating value.'[31] Commerce, on the other hand, stood in need of a larger representative of value, and this was supplied by gold and silver bars or lumps in portable sizes. Bar gold bears a small proportion to bar silver in quantity, and is in oblong pieces usually of ten taels in weight, and silver[32] in oval lumps called 'shoes' of various sizes and values. There is no Government interference in the manufacture of these bars and shoes for purposes of trade, no more than there is of any other metal, while the guarantee of their purity and value is simply the stamp of the Shroff or money house by which they are issued.
As a natural consequence of the non-existence of gold or silver coin, imported dollars, from being continually weighed and stamped when passing from hand to hand, became 'chopped dollars' or 'cut money' in Canton phraseology, the first from being stamped by the Shroff on examining them, with any character which he may select, and which is his guarantee of goodness. In the shapeless form which they thus acquire, payments are made by weight in taels, and its component parts of mace, candareens, and cash.[33] This custom of weighing metals has existed in China since 903 A.D. If any money stamped by a Shroff on examination proved bad, it was exchanged by him, but such cases were extremely rare. A small pair of scales for money transactions is generally carried by Chinese attached to a waistbelt.
Shroffs examined all amounts brought to them by any one, but went to the foreign Factories, to the Hong merchants or other customers, when required. The charge was small, and the amount of silver passing yearly through their hands was enormous, as amongst the Chinese all transactions were for money or its representative.[34] Shroffs were also 'changers'—providing when required either Sycee, chopped dollars, or gold—as well as bankers, making loans or receiving deposits. The floors of their shops are covered with brown tiles, and at the end of the year they can sell the privilege of removing the floor for the chance of finding scraps of silver which may have escaped through the interstices of the tiles, the buyer of the privilege replacing the floor at his own cost. I have heard of as much as fifty taels (about $70) being paid to an important Shroff-shop for such a transaction.
Several descriptions of dollars were imported from 1825, previous to which time the most numerous were those of Carolus IV. of Spain. These kept the preference above all others, and were currently known as 'Old Heads.' So accustomed were the Chinese to this dollar, that when Carolus III. or Ferdinand VII. were offered, they were taken with reluctance, while the 'Old Head' commanded a premium, and it thus became an exception to the general rule of 'breaking up.' For a long time they had been taken by dealers in raw silk from the middle provinces, in whole dollars, and finally so much prejudice existed in their favour that they would take no others except as cut money. This caused them to advance in value to 10 and even 15 per cent.; finally, during one season, we sold to the senior Hong merchant $60,000 at a premium of 30 per cent.,½ receiving in exchange $78,000 in cut money. Ferdinand VII.'s dollars became 'New Heads,' and next came into favour, there being a diminishing supply of the 'Old,' but they were never at more than 1 to 2 per cent. premium. Of other kinds there were Chilian, Peruvian, Mexican, and United States, which were submitted to the process of breaking up, and were never in greater favour with the Chinese than cut money. They were not 'old custom,' and they could not reconcile themselves to the new effigies or legends which they bore. Now and then, if wanted for a special occasion, Mexican dollars could be passed at a small premium, say 1 or 1½ per cent. It is very probable, as often supposed, that the Shroffs had much to do with these varied transactions; they were behind the scene and perhaps they had, as many of the establishments belonged to wealthy proprietors, who used them for purposes of speculation in money.
Book accounts, as has been said, were kept in dollars and cents by foreign houses, at the conventional rate of 717/1000 of a tael per dollar. There was but one exception, that of the English East India Company, which adopted the more rational system of Chinese currency. Payments for raw silk were made at 750/1000, for teas 720/1000, musk 750/1000, as well as for some kinds of opium. As all Chinese produce went by weight, even raw and manufactured silk, and as all computations were in decimals, this system contributed to the ease with which business was carried on.
Pigeon-English is the well-known name given to that unique language through the medium of which business was transacted and all intercourse exclusively carried on between the 'Western Ocean' foreigners and Canton Chinese. For years after my arrival but three foreign residents were Chinese scholars—namely, Doctor Morrison; the present Sir John Francis Davis, the last Chief of the English East India Company's establishment; and one American, myself—while 'Pigeon-English' had grown up with the early days of foreign intercourse with the port of Canton. It is not difficult to arrive at the creation of this particular and strange language. Foreigners came to Canton for a limited period, and would not or could not apply themselves to the study of so difficult a language as the Chinese, of which even a sufficiency for commonplace purposes was not easy to acquire, and if acquired would be useless anywhere else. The local government also placed serious obstacles in the way of learning it, to the length of beheading a Chinese teacher for giving lessons. This is on the authority of Dr. Morrison, who related to me an instance that took place before I arrived, and he further informed me that for years after his own arrival in 1807 he was obliged, as a protection to his own teacher, to study at night in a room with lights carefully screened.
On the other hand, the shrewd Chinaman succeeded in supplying this absence of the knowledge of his own language by cleverly making himself familiar with sounds of foreign words, and conforming them to his own monosyllabic mode of expression, at the same time using simple Chinese words to express their meaning. He thus created a language, as it may be called, deprived of syntax, without the logic of speech, and reduced to its most simple elements. It took firm root, became the conventional medium of intercourse in respect to transactions of enormous value and magnitude, and exists in all its vigour and quaintness to this day.