WEIGHTS AND MEASURES—MONEY WEIGHTS—COMMERCIAL WEIGHTS—OPIUM—OPIUM-SMOKERS—MANTCHOU DYNASTY.

Among the exports and imports to and from China, are certain articles, which are not generally known to merchants not engaged in commerce to the eastward of the cape of Good Hope, among which are:—

Agar-agar: this article is a species of seaweed, imported from New Holland, New Guinea, &c. It makes a valuable paste, and is extensively used in the manufacture of silks and paper. It is also used as a sweetmeat. There are several species of fucus imported, which are eaten both in a crude state, and cooked, by the lower classes.

Amomum: these seeds have a strong pungent taste, and a penetrating aromatic smell; they are used to season sweet dishes.

Anise-seed stars are so called from the manner in which they grow; they are used also, to season sweet dishes, have an aromatic taste, and from them is extracted a volatile oil.

Capoor cretchery is the root of a plant: it has a pungent and bitterish taste, and a slightly aromatic smell. It is exported to Bombay, and is used for medical purposes, and to preserve clothes.

Coral is valuable according to the colour, density, and size of the fragments: when made into buttons, it is used among the Chinese as an insignia of office.

Cutch or Terra Japonica is a gummy resin, and is imported from Bombay and Bengal.

Gambier is similar to cutch, although the produce of two different plants: it is chewed with areca-nut, and is used also in China, for tanning; but it renders the leather porous and rotten.

Galengal is used principally in cookery; it has a hot, acrid, peppery taste, and an aromatic smell.

The Chinese weigh all articles which are bought and sold, that are weighable; as money, wood, vegetables, liquids, &c. This renders their dealings more simple than those of other nations, who buy and sell commodities, with more reference to the articles themselves. Their divisions of weights and measures are into money and commercial weights, and long, and land measures, &c.

The circulating medium between foreigners and Chinese, is broken Spanish dollars, the value of which is usually computed by their weight. Dollars bearing the stamp of Ferdinand, have usually borne a premium of one, to one and a half per cent., while those of Carolus have risen as high as seven or eight per cent., but are subject to a considerable variation, according to the season, and different times of the season. Those coins bearing the stamp of the letter G, are not received by the Chinese, except at a discount. Mexican and United States’ dollars, do not pass among the Chinese, but are taken at par, by foreigners: every individual coin has the mark of the person, through whose hands it passes, stamped upon it.

As the number of these marks soon becomes very numerous, the coin is quickly broken in pieces; and, this process of stamping being continually repeated, the fragments gradually become very small, and are paid away entirely by weight. The highest weight used in reckoning money, is tael, (leang,) which is divided into mace, (tseen,) candareens, (fun,) and cash, (le.) The relative value of these terms, both among the Chinese, and in foreign money, can be seen by the following table. It should be observed here, that these terms, taels, mace, candareens, cash, peculs, and catties, covids, punts, &c., are not Chinese words, and are never used by the Chinese among themselves; and, the reason of their employment by foreigners, instead of the legitimate terms, is difficult to conjecture.

The value here given for the tael, in sterling money and dollars, is not the exact value: and it is difficult to ascertain, owing to the ignorance of the Chinese, of such money among other nations. The value given to the tael in the sterling money, is that which is found on the books of the East India company: that given to the dollar, is the extremes of its value.

The only coin of the Chinese, is called cash, (or le,) which is made of six parts of copper, and four of lead. The coins are thin and circular, and nearly an inch in diameter, having a square hole in the centre, for the convenience of tying them together, with a raised edge, both around the outside, and the hole. Those now in use, have the name of the emperor stamped upon them, in whose reign they were cast. Notwithstanding their little value, they are much adulterated with spelter; yet, on account of their convenience in paying small sums, and for common use, they generally bear a premium, and but eight hundred and fifty can commonly be obtained for a tael. The use of silver coin, however, appears to be increasing among the Chinese, as by recent accounts, we learn that silver dollars have been made in Fuh-keen and other places, contrary to the laws of the empire.

Bullion is rated by its fineness, which is expressed by dividing the weight into a hundred parts, called touches. If gold is said to be ninety-four or ninety-eight touches, it is known to have one or two parts of alloy; the remainder is pure silver metal; is estimated in the same manner; and without alloy or nearly so, is called sycee, which bears a premium according to its purity; the most pure sycees are equal in fineness to the plata-pina of Peru, which is now principally imported by vessels of the United States, engaged in commerce to the Spanish ports on the Pacific. It is cast into ingots, (by the Chinese, called shoes, from their shape,) stamped with the mark of the office that issued them, and the date of their emission. It is used to pay government taxes and duties, and the salaries of officers. The ingots weigh from one half, to one hundred taels, and bear a value accordingly. Sycee silver is the only approach among the Chinese to a silver currency; gold ingots are made, weighing ten taels each, and are worth between twenty two and twenty-three dollars; but neither gold ingots, nor doubloons, nor any other gold coin, are used as money among the Chinese. Great caution should be used in purchasing ingots or bars of silver, as they are subject to many adulterations, and are not unfrequently cast hollow, and filled with lead, to complete the weight. In fact, every species of fraud is practised by the dealers in bullion.

The only weights in use among the Chinese, besides those of money, are the pecul, (tan,) catty, (kin,) and tael, (leang.) The proportion these bear to each other, and to English weights, is exhibited in the following table:—

Usage has established a difference between the tael of commercial weights, which, at the rate of one hundred and thirty-three and a third pounds to the pecul, weighs five hundred and eighty-three and a half troy grains, and the tael of money weight, of which the old standard is 579.84 grains troy. By the above table, it appears, that one ton is equal to sixteen peculs, and eighty catties; one hundred weight to eighty-four catties; one pound, avoirdupois to three fourths of a catty, or twelve taels. The Portuguese at Macao, have a pecul for weighing cotton, and valuable articles; a second for coarse goods; and again, a different one for rice. But the Chinese, among themselves, know no difference, either in the weight of a pecul for different articles, or in the tael, whether used for money or goods.

The principal measures in use among the Chinese, are three; namely, long measure, land measure, and dry measure.

The principal measure of length, is the covid, (chih,) which is divided into ten punts, (tsun.) The covid varies considerably, according as it is used for measuring cloths, distances, or vessels. That determined upon by the mathematical tribunal, is 13.125 English inches; that used by tradesmen, at Canton, is about 14.625 inches; the one by which distances are usually rated, is nearly 12.1 inches, and that employed by engineers, for public works, 12.7 inches. The le or mile, is also an uncertain measure, varying more than the covid or foot. Its common measure is three hundred, sixteen, and a quarter fathoms, or one thousand, eight hundred, ninety-seven and a half English feet; it is the usual term, in which length is estimated. The Chinese reckon one hundred, ninety-two and a half le, for a degree of latitude and longitude; but the Jesuits divided the degree into two hundred and fifty le, each le being one thousand eight hundred and twenty-six English feet, or the tenth part of a French league, which is the established measure at present. A le, according to this measurement, is a little more than one third of an English mile.

Land measure has also varied considerably, but is at present established by authority. By this rule, one thousand, two hundred covids make an acre or more, which contains about six thousand, six hundred square feet.

Rice, or paddy, is the only article measured in vessels the dimensions of which have been fixed by law or usage; but as even rice and paddy are usually weighed when sold in large quantities, the vessels for measuring these commodities are but little used.

To perform these calculations, the Chinese have an arithmetical board, or abacus, called swan-pan, or “counting-board,” on which, by constant practice, they will perform calculations in numbers with surprising facility. It consists of an oblong frame of wood, having a bar running lengthwise about two thirds of its width from one side. Through this bar, at right angles, are inserted a number of parallel wires, having moveable balls on them, five on one side, and two on the other. The principle on which computations are made, is this; that any ball in the larger compartment, being placed against the bar and called unity, decreases or increases by tenths, hundredths, &c.; and the corresponding balls in the smaller divisions, by fifths, fiftieths, &c.: if one in the smaller compartment is placed against the middle bar, the opposite unit or integer, which may be any one of the digits, is multiplied by five.

Having heretofore cursorily alluded to the vast sum annually expended in the importation of opium, I now proceed to give a more particular statement concerning the trade, the number of smokers, &c., &c. The opium-trade, which scarcely attracted the notice of merchants previously to the year 1816, has now swollen into great importance, by the rapid and extensive sale of one of the most destructive narcotics which the world ever knew, and which is used in China as a pernicious indulgence, by smoking. The government has passed the most rigorous laws to prevent its importation and use, but as the officers of the revenue boats, from Linting and Cap-shuy-moon to Canton, are bribed, and receive a stipulated fee on every chest of opium, and every other article illegally imported, smuggling is no longer fraught with any material risk, and has at length assumed the appearance of a regular branch of commerce. Once in two or three years, the Chinese admiral is ordered to proceed to the smuggling depots at the island of Linting, (alias Ling-ting) the “Solitary Vail,” or the “Destitute Orphan,” or to Cap-sin-moon, alias, Cap-shuy-moon, or the “Swift water passage,” and exterminate the “foreign barbarians.” He goes down in formidable array, with an immense number of flags flying; and the sound proceeding from an endless number of great gongs and other noisy instruments, is heard, with a favourable wind, long before his fleet “heaves in sight;” the smugglers are previously informed of his coming, (for public notice is given many weeks, perhaps months, before he arrives;) the imperial fleet is then hove to, at a safe distance, far beyond the reach of cannon-shot, from three to five miles; the gongs are then beaten with the utmost fury, the trumpets blown, and the thousands of warriors shout and bellow with loud vociferations, to frighten away the monsters, and a cannon-shot or two is fired, perhaps; the “barbarians” then get under way very leisurely with a topsail or two bent, and proceed towards the Ladrone, or Rogues islands, called by the Chinese “Low man-shan,” or the “old ten thousand hills;” this satisfies the commander, who returns back, and sounds far and wide, his valorous deeds in alms, (arms,) (for he is one of the beggars who asks a douceur.) Forthwith a courier is despatched to the imperial court, announcing, that the Fankwai, or “Foreign white devils” are blown into “ten thousand atoms,” and that their carcasses have been given to the fish, and to birds of prey. As soon as the Chinese fleet “about ship” to return, which is done immediately if possible, down drop the anchors of the “Fankwai,” the sails are unbent, the smuggling boats are laden again as usual; and thus ends this ridiculous farce.

To show the destructive tendency of this trade in every point of view, to the Chinese empire, a statement is herewith presented, setting forth the alarming increase of the imports from 1817, to 1833:

In the season ending in 1817, three thousand, two hundred and ten chests of Patna, Benares, and Malva opium, containing one hundred and five catties, or one hundred and forty pounds each chest, were imported, which sold for the sum of three millions, six hundred and fifty-seven thousand dollars: in the season ending in 1833, fifteen thousand six hundred and sixty-two chests from India were imported, which sold for thirteen millions, seven hundred and fifty-seven thousand, two hundred and ninety dollars; the whole value of the known importations during the time named, being seventeen years only, was the enormous sum of one hundred and fifty millions, one hundred and thirty four thousand, six hundred and sixty-eight dollars: the number of smokers, allowing three candareens of 17.40 grains troy, per day to each, had increased from about one hundred thousand, to about one million, four hundred and seventy-five thousand, seven hundred and twenty-six. If to the quantity already stated, there is added the importation of Turkey opium, of which we have no regular account, as well as the quantity smuggled by Chinese junks from Singapore, &c., all of which may be fairly estimated at one third more; the number of chests imported in the year 1833, would be about twenty-one thousand, which probably sold for the sum of twenty millions of dollars: the number of smokers may be estimated at nearly two millions. The crude opium undergoes a very expensive process by boiling, or seething and straining, not less than twice, before it is fit for use; it is then made into small pills, or put into the pipe, in a semi-fluid state, and taken off, at two or three whiffs, the smoke being vented very slowly through the nostrils, the recipient lying at the same time in a recumbent posture. Although the Chinese are well aware of its baneful effects, and that it is yearly draining the country of the value of many millions of dollars, yet they say, “it is a Josh Pigeon,” (meaning that God hath so decreed it,) and they cannot prevent it. A chest of opium, which cost eight hundred dollars, is said to quadruple in price, when prepared for use.

Opium is vended as openly as teas, by the foreign merchants; the quantity disposed of, and on hand, and the average price, are printed and published monthly, and are in the possession of every dealer; and the chits, or orders given on the commanders of the ships, are generally sold like scrip, to a great number of persons on speculation, before the delivery is finally completed.

The tremendous and horrible effects upon the personal appearance of its votaries, may be seen daily, about the suburbs of Canton, and of all the pitiable objects the eye ever saw, a confirmed opium-smoker is apparently the most degraded and worthless. When he has once passed the Rubicon, reformation seems to be impossible, the sting of death which is sin, has seized upon him, his feet are already within the precincts of the grave, and he has sunk like Lucifer, “never to rise again.” When the effect has subsided, an emaciated, nerveless wretch is seen, with a cadaverous skin, eyeballs wildly protruding from their sockets, the step faltering, the voice weak and feeble, and the countenance idiotic; but when an opium-smoker lies under the baneful influence of the narcotic, the images which flit before his diseased imagination, are exquisite, brilliant, heavenly: it is the NepenthÉ, prepared by the hands of the fair Helen, which so exhilarated the spirits of all who had the happiness to partake of it, that all care was banished for the time being, from their benighted recollections.

The Mantchou historians have endeavoured to conceal their very modern rise as a kingdom, by veiling their origin in fables, and deducing their descent from a divinity; through these fables, however, it is not difficult to ascertain with a considerable degree of accuracy, their real descent. Their nation is evidently formed by the union of several Toungouse tribes, occupying the country, to the north of Corea, and on the banks of the river Amour. These tribes had by their former unions rendered themselves formidable to their neighbours; and in the time of the Sung dynasty, from A.D. 960 to 1278, had, under the Chinese name of the Kin, or golden dynasty, answering to the Mantchou name Aisin, subdued several northern districts of China. Their farther progress was interrupted by the Mongols, under Agodai Khan, grandson of Genghis Khan, who, in the thirteenth century, destroyed both the Sung dynasty, and its enemies, and founded the Yuen dynasty. The kingdom of Kin, or Aisin, being thus destroyed, its tribes returned to their original country, where they continued more or less independent of each other, and of their Mongol conquerors. Among the chiefs of their tribes, was one Aisin Keolo, or Gioro, whom the Mantchous make the son of a divine virgin, who became pregnant of him by eating a fruit, brought to her in the bill of a magpie. This Aisin Gioro, at first, ruled over three tribes; but subsequently, others submitted to him, and he became king of a nation, to which he gave the name of Mantchou, or Manchow, which signifies “the full or well-peopled country.” At this point, the thread of Mantchou history is broken, and even names disappear for three or four generations; nor is the history resumed, till the close of the sixteenth century, when the chief, who then governed the Mantchous, incensed at the murder of his father, and grandfather, by a tribe which had revolted from them, and become confederate with the Chinese dynasty of Ming, began to wage war against the latter. After thirty-three years, he had gained such power, and ruled over so many tribes, as well Mantchou as Mongol, that in the year 1616, he took the title of emperor, and adopted “Teenming, Heaven’s decree,” as his Kwo-haou or title. Previous to this event, in the year 1599, he appointed persons to form an alphabet for the use of his people, for, up to that period, the Mantchous possessed no written language. The alphabet which they adopted, was derived from, and improved upon the Ouigour and Mongol alphabets, the Mongol being a modification of the Ouigour, a derivative of the Syriac. During the rest of his reign, which continued eleven years longer, Teenming was at constant war with the Chinese, and dying, left the throne to his eighth son, who first adopted the title of Teentsung, which he retained for nine years, and then that of Tsungtih, which continued till his death in 1643; though not of so warlike a disposition as his father, he continued the war during the whole of his reign; owing to the dissensions which prevailed among the Chinese princes of the Ming dynasty, and the numerous revolts, which took place throughout the empire, he was enabled with little trouble, to take possession of Peking, the capital, and to found a new dynasty in China.

This monarch died while yet on the field of victory, leaving the throne to his ninth son, a child of six years old, to whom was given, the title of Kwohaou of Shunche. The young monarch was, immediately after his father’s death, carried into the city of Peking, and proclaimed emperor, amid the acclamations of the people. His reign, and the commencement of the Mantchou or Ya-tsing dynasty, dated from the year 1644.

When about fourteen years of age, one of the regents dying, and some dispute arising, as to who should take his place, Shunche laid aside his minority, and assumed all the functions of imperial power. He made few alterations in the old system of government, being fully occupied in strengthening the dominion, which had been obtained for him; for many Chinese princes still possessed parts of the empire, and assumed the imperial title.

The last of these named Yungleih, was not slain, till the closing year of Shunche’s reign, nor did his death put an end to all fears, for Chingchingkung, known to Europeans, under the name of Koxinga, still hovered about the coast, with a large fleet.

At Shunche’s death, in the year 1661, his third son succeeded to the throne, at the age of eight years, a regency of four chief ministers being appointed to govern during his minority. The new monarch’s Kwo-haou was Kanghe.

Soon after Kanghe’s accession, the regency compelled all the inhabitants of the maritime districts throughout China to retire thirty Chinese miles from the east; by which means the power of Koxinga was much weakened; but at the same time a great number of families were reduced to want. In the 12th year of his reign, 1673, there was a general revolt of the Chinese princes, who were yet living, but from their dissensions and petty jealousies among themselves, they were unable to effect any thing. It was not, however, till 1681, that they were finally subdued. In the following year, 1682, the western part of Formosa was wrested from the grandson of Koxinga, and has since that time remained in the hands of the Chinese.

The conquest of China being firmly established, Kanghe was now able to turn his attention to his own country, which he visited, attended by his whole court and an army of sixty thousand men. He also sent ambassadors to the frontiers, to settle with the Russians the limits of the two empires—nor did he confine himself to the possessions already obtained, but under pretence of assisting the Mongols, many of whom had become tributary to the Mantchou monarchs, previously to the conquest of China, he extended his possessions northeastward, into the country of the Soungarians, whom, as well as some of the tribes of Turkestan and of Thibet, he entirely subdued.

After a long and glorious reign of sixty-one years, Kanghe died in 1722, in the sixty-ninth year of his age, leaving the succession to his fourth son; but his fourteenth son taking advantage of his elder brother’s absence from the capital, seized on the billet of succession, and having changed the number four to fourteen, assumed the throne and the Kwo-haou of Yung-ching.

Yung-ching’s reign is chiefly remarkable for his persecution of the Roman Catholic missionaries, most of whom were sent out of the country. He showed neither the literary nor the military talents displayed by his father, Kanghe, and by his son and successor Keentung; but he was attentive to the business of the government, and to the people. In the fourth year of his reign, the treaty of peace, now existing between the Russian and Chinese empires, was ratified. By this instrument, the Russians, among other privileges, are permitted to have an academy and church, with an archimandrite, three inferior priests, and six scholars, at Pekin. The time fixed for their stay there is ten years. Yung-ching reigned thirteen years, and died in the year 1735, leaving the succession to his fourth son who took the Kwohaou or title of Keentung.

Keentung’s reign produced many literary works, or rather compilations; it is remarkable for some brilliant conquests in Eastern Tartary or Turkestan and Thibet. The Soungarians having revolted, he entirely annihilated them as a nation, and peopled their country with the inhabitants of more peaceful districts and with Chinese.

On the south of Soungaria he extended his boundary beyond Cashgar, and rendered several of the neighbouring tribes tributary. In the fifty-eighth year of his reign, 1793-94, the first British embassy to China under Lord Macartney, reached Peking. The war in Thibet being brought to a happy conclusion about the same period, is supposed to have had a bad effect on the interests of that embassy. Two years afterward, Keentung, after a reign of sixty years, placed one of his sons on the throne, with the Kwohaou of Keaking, and shortly after died. Keaking ascended the throne in the thirty-sixth year of his age. During his reign numerous insurrections occurred among the Chinese, and much discontent existed throughout the empire. In the year 1805-06, the tenth of Keaking’s reign, the Russian embassy under Count Golovkin, failed in obtaining an interview with the emperor, in consequence of refusing to submit to the Kotow, or ceremony of thrice kneeling and nine times bowing the head to the ground. In the year 1816, the twenty-first year of his reign, the British embassy, under Lord Amherst, was sent back from Peking, in a similar manner. During the latter years of his life, Keaking was extremely indolent and inattentive to government, being wholly devoted to the gratification of his vicious desires. He died in August, 1820, in the sixty-first year of his age, and the twenty-fifth of his reign.

Taoukwang is the Kwohaou of the reigning emperor, who succeeded to his father Keaking in the thirty-ninth year of his age. The chief occurrences which have taken place during his reign, are the revolts in Turkestan or little Bukharia. In figure, Taoukwang is said to be tall, thin, and of a dark complexion. He is of a generous disposition, diligent, attentive to government and economical in his expenditures. He has also avoided through life, the vices to which his younger brothers are addicted.