ABSTRACT
Sources: MORSE [1926], vol. II-V (1764-1824); CHEONG [1979], pp. 96, 102 (1811, 1813, 18191827); Canton General Price Current (1827-1839); Commercial Price Current, Canton (18351836); The Course of Exchange, London (1847); Overland Register and Price Current, Hong Kong (1848-1856); China Mail, Hong Kong (1848-1856). Concordance (from 1819): WdW IV, pp. 89-95
Currency at Canton: Since the beginning of the Chinese-European trade in Canton, the Spanish dollar, which had been known on the Chinese coast since the early 16th century, functioned as the most important means of payment and clearing unit. Therefore the Spanish dollar was the basis for all exchange rate quotations in Canton in the 18th and early 19th centuries. At the beginning of the 19th
century Chinese traders particularly liked to accept the Spanish dollars of Charles III (King of Spain 1759-1788) and Charles IV (King of Spain 1788-1808), the so-called Carolus dollar (minted until 1808), and paid a premium of 4% to 15% for it, sometimes even 30% (SPALDING [1918], pp. 329f.). In contrast to this, the dollar of Ferdinand VII (King of Spain 1808 and 1813-1833) was traded at par whereas the Mexican and ‘Republican’ (South American) dollars, minted since the 1820s, were quoted with a discount of 3% to 7%. As in Hong Kong the Mexican dollar became the standard dollar coin in Canton in around 1853/54 (see p. 494).
