| 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.