Such discrepancies within 15 days'
journey would be inconceivable, but that in both the latter instances at
least he appears to speak of the rates at which the gold was purchased
from secluded, ignorant, and uncivilised tribes. It is difficult to
reconcile with other facts the reason which he assigns for the high value
put on silver at Vochan, viz., that there was no silver-mine within five
months' journey. In later days, at least, Martini speaks of many
silver-mines in Yun-nan, and the "Great Silver Mine" (Bau-dwen gyi of the
Burmese) or group of mines, which affords a chief supply to Burma in modern
times, is not far from the territory of our Traveller's Zardandan.
Garnier's map shows several argentiferous sites in the Valley of the
Lan-t'sang.
In another work[3] I have remarked at some length on the relative values
of gold and silver about this time. In Western Europe these seem to have
been as 12 to 1, and I have shown grounds for believing that in India, and
generally over civilised Asia, the ratio was 10 to 1. In Pauthier's
extracts from the Yuen-shi or Annals of the Mongol Dynasty, there is an
incidental but precise confirmation of this, of which I was not then
aware. This states (p. 321) that on the issue of the paper currency of
1287 the official instructions to the local treasuries were to issue notes
of the nominal value of two strings, i.e. 2000 wen or cash, for every
ounce of flowered silver, and 20,000 cash for every ounce of gold. Ten to
1 must have continued to be the relation in China down to about the end of
the 17th century if we may believe Lecomte; but when Milburne states the
same value in the beginning of the 19th he must have fallen into some
great error. In 1781 Sonnerat tells us that formerly gold had been
exported from China with a profit of 25 per cent., but at that time a
profit of 18 to 20 per cent, was made by importing it. At present[4]
the relative values are about the same as in Europe, viz. 1 to 15-1/2 or 1
to 16; but in Canton, in 1844, they were 1 to 17; and Timkowski states
that at Peking in 1821 the finest gold was valued at 18 to 1. And as
regards the precise territory of which this chapter speaks I find in
Lieutenant Bower's Commercial Report on Sladen's Mission that the price of
pure gold at Momein in 1868 was 13 times its weight in silver (p. 122);
whilst M. Garnier mentions that the exchange at Ta-li in 1869 was 12 to 1
(I. 522).
Does not Shakspeare indicate at least a memory of 10 to 1 as the
traditional relation of gold to silver when he makes the Prince of
Morocco, balancing over Portia's caskets, argue:
"Or shall I think in silver she's immured,
Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?
O sinful thought."
In Japan, at the time trade was opened, we know from Sir R. Alcock's work
the extraordinary fact that the proportionate value set upon gold and
silver currency by authority was as 3 to 1.
(Cathay, etc., p. ccl. and p. 442; Lecomte, II. 91; Milburne's
Oriental Commerce, II. 510; Sonnerat, II. 17; Hedde, Etude, Pratique,
etc., p. 14; Williams, Chinese Commercial Guide, p. 129; Timkowski,
II. 202; Alcock, I. 281; II. 411, etc.)
NOTE 6. - Mr. Lay cites from a Chinese authority a notice of a tribe of
"Western Miautsze," who "in the middle of autumn sacrifice to the Great
Ancestor or Founder of their Race." (The Chinese as they are, p. 321.)
NOTE 7. - Dr. Anderson confirms the depressing and unhealthy character of
the summer climate at Momein, though standing between 5000 and 6000 feet
above the sea (p. 41).
NOTE 8. - "Whereas before," says Jack Cade to Lord Say, "our forefathers
had no books but score and tally, thou hast caused printing to be used."
The use of such tallies for the record of contracts among the aboriginal
tribes of Kweichau is mentioned by Chinese authorities, and the French
missionaries of Bonga speak of the same as in use among the simple tribes
in that vicinity. But, as Marsden notes, the use of such rude records was
to be found in his day in higher places and much nearer home. They
continued to be employed as records of receipts in the British Exchequer
till 1834, "and it is worthy of recollection that the fire by which the
Houses of Parliament were destroyed was supposed to have originated in the
over-heating of the flues in which the discarded tallies were being
burnt." I remember often, when a child, to have seen the tallies of the
colliers in Scotland, and possibly among that class they may survive. They
appear to be still used by bakers in various parts of England and France,
in the Canterbury hop-gardens, and locally in some other trades.
(Martini, 135; Bridgman, 259, 262; Eng. Cyclop. sub v. Tally; Notes
and Queries, 1st ser. X. 485.)
[According to Father Crabouillet (Missions Cath. 1873, p. 105), the
Lolos use tallies for their contracts; Dr. Harmand mentions (Tour du
Monde, 1877, No. VII.) the same fact among the Khas of Central Laos; and
M. Pierre Lefevre-Pontalis Populations du nord de l'Indo-Chine, 1892,
p. 22, from the J. As. says he saw these tallies among the Khas of
Luang-Prabang. - H.C.]
"In Illustration of this custom I have to relate what follows. In the
year 1863 the Tsaubwa (or Prince) of a Shan Province adjoining Yun-nan was
in rebellion against the Burmese Government. He wished to enter into
communication with the British Government.
