ABSTRACT
Money is often loaned by bankers and by private individuals in China, as in other lands, by giving adequate or satisfactory security. There is a singular custom of obtaining money for use by depositing silver for security, which is sometimes resorted to by wealthy men. Some of the banks are of long standing, and, as their proprietors are known to be very wealthy and sufficiently honest, their bills are in general use in the transaction of business. The Government bills, being payable in iron coin at, par with copper, became very unpopular and greatly depreciated. The value of a dollar in Government bills or iron cash was at one time, in 1858, eighteen or twenty thousand cash. Silver dollars, having Chinese and English characters, were in process of coinage in England, and a mint was to be erected at Hong Kong.
