[24] Part of this chapter appeared as an article in the Century Magazine,
March, 1904.
[25] ``Commercial China,'' p. 2902.


The depreciation in the value of silver has still further complicated
the situation. The common Chinese tael, which formerly
bought from 1,500 to 1,800 cash (the current coin of
China), now buys only 950 cash. The Shanghai tael brings
897 cash, and the Mexican dollar only 665. This of course,
means that the common people, who use only cash, have to pay
a larger number of them for the necessaries of life. The same
difficulty is being felt to a greater or less extent in many other
countries of Asia, while in China, an already serious advance
in prices is being heightened by the heavy import taxes which
have been levied to meet the indemnity imposed by the Western
Powers on account of the Boxer outbreak.

The prices of labour and materials have sharply advanced in
consequence of the enormous demands incident to the construction
of railways, with their stations, shops and round-houses,
the vast engineering schemes of the Germans at Tsing-tau, the
British at Wei-hai Wei and the Russians at Port Arthur, the
extensive scale on which the Legations have rebuilt in Peking,
the reconstruction of virtually the entire business portions of
both Peking and Tien-tsin, as well as the coincident rebuilding
of the mission stations of all denominations, Protestant and
Catholic. It will be readily understood what all this activity
means in a land where there are as yet but limited supplies of