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Daily Wages of Unskilled Chinese Laborers 1807–1902

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 March 2011

Sidney D. Gamble
Sidney D. Gamble
Affiliation:
New York City
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Extract

Many of the stores in and around Peiping (Peking) keep very full and complete accounts, recording in separate books the purchases and sales of the commodities in which they deal, their silver-copper exchange transactions, the expenditures for food purchased for their employees, their sundry purchases and their expenditures for wages. These account books have been looked on as valuable records and many of the stores have preserved them for many years. Some of the books have been lost through the years, but in many instances it is still possible to secure a relatively complete set of accounts covering from 100 to 150 years.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Asian Studies , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , November 1943 , pp. 41 - 73
Copyright
Copyright © The Association for Asian Studies, Inc. 1943

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References

1 Buck, J. L., Land utilization in China (Shanghai: Commercial Press, 1937), p. 118.Google Scholar

2 Cash, tiao, min, taels, and dollars are the monetary units in this study. They and other Chinese terms have not been italicized.

3 Hung-chang, Li, ed., Chi-fu t'ung-chih [Gazetteer of Chihli province] (Edition of 1884), chüan 108Google Scholar, passim.

4 S. D. Gamble, “Peking wages,” Department of Sociology and Social Work, Yenching University, Series C, No. 21.

5 Chinese economic bulletin. Quoted in China year book, 1928, pp. 1009–10.

6 Hung-chang, Li, op. cit., chüan 108Google Scholar, 79a–82a.

7 1 tael = 1 ounce of silver bullion.

8 1 tan = l bag (approximately 155 lbs. for rice).

9 1 min= 1 string of cash.

10 Quoted in The China year book, 1928, p. 1010.

11 Gamble, S. D., op. cit., p. 5.Google Scholar

12 Gamble, S. D., op. cit., p. 4.Google Scholar