Tael
Tael is the name for a nowadays unidentifiable common Chinese currency.
The tael or liang was a mass unit for silver, which was subjected to, depending on the time and place strong fluctuations.
After 1868 it was expected in China:
1 tael
The tael is still used as a unit of weight, with values from 37.4 to 37.8 g in some Southeast Asian countries.
The physical taels of silver bars was sometimes aware hatchets giert worth reducer antimony.
Name
The word derives tael over the Portuguese from the Malay word Tahil ago, which means as much as "weight". In Thai it is called ตำ ลึ [ tamlɯŋ ]. An older, popular name for the taels of silver bullion was Paes for " bread."
Historical value
Theoretically, the tael should have corresponded 1,000 Cash each. In the last quarter of the 19th century 10 Mexican pesos had a value of 7.2 taels. In total there were around 170 different taels, each of which had different weight:
The Government was also Haikwan - tael taels (Chinese海关/海关, Pinyin hǎiguān ) because with this money unit all duties (Chinese: Haiguan ) had to be paid. Among the more important of the other units of account Kuping - tael were ( 101.64 per 100 Haikwan ) or Tientsin tael ( 105.2 per 100 Haikwan ).
The value of the silver -based Haikwan - tael compared to the former reserve currency, the pound sterling, developed as follows: 1910: 2 sh 8 5/16 d, 1911: 2 sh. 8 ¼ d, 1912: 3 sh. 0 5/8 d, 1913: 3 sh. ¼ d, 1914: 2 sh. 8 ¾ d, 1915, 2s. 7 ¼ d, 1916: 2 sh. 8 ¼ d, 1917: 3 sh. 3 13/16 ¼ d
The determined as part of the gold standard exchange rate against the mark was in 1912 for 1 - Tael Haikwan 6.41 M and for 1 Shanghai tael 2.70 M. In the year 1932 was one Haikwan - tael and RM 2.97 1 1.64 Yuan RM.
Modern use
In some countries, the tael is still used today. On the Chinese mainland, the modern equivalent tael today exactly 50 g In Hong Kong, corresponds to the modern Tael 37.42900 g In Singapore and Malaysia, this corresponds to Tael 37.799366256 g In Taiwan corresponds to the tael 37.499995313 g and in Vietnam 37, 5 g
Quote
The confusion about the Chinese currency terms was so great that the author J. Schei Bert was forced at the beginning of the 20th century to provide a precise definition in foreign books:
" The tael is nothing more than a, concept ', and, moreover, a fluctuating, in every province and almost in every city, we can calculate its value different and also depends on the latter in international traffic by the respective prices of silver from .... The Chinese merchants, however, still have the old payment, in which Abraham already with Hephron with the purchase of the grave site Sarah dealt (1st Gen. 23, 16. ): They weigh their money. Embossed or cast silver pieces there are in fact inside the country are not, but the merchants carry silver bullion, depending on weight of slightly more than a kilogram with him and cut with a large pair of scissors always so much on how is the bill. These portions are collected in bags, and if a sufficient quantity is present, made to change-over and melted again by these bars. Thus, each merchant has a weighing pan, which is kept in a glass case, to maintain the stand by the words: ' Wage (sic) is busy, weigh daily goods worth many thousand taels '. The Chinese merchants have brought it in the performance of silver bullion to a wonderful skill, so that hardly needs to be cut off or added to you a bit when reweighing. The wicked world asserts, however, that the Chinese silver changer in the handling of the balance (sic) possessed an even greater skill than in the use of scissors and that it always make a little difference whether they are buying or selling. Anyway, the Wechsler always among the richest people of the city; but it is much more correct to treat them this is not quite correct extra advantage, than fall into the hands of cunning crooks who mix the silver with inferior metal or as a sharp eye easily detects the fraud, in the middle of the bar a hide piece of iron. "
( Quoted from J. Schei Bert: The war in China from 1900 to 1901, Berlin 1909)