quality, but it spoiled before 1 left China. Judging from the quantities of tea that have been condemned, the importation of spurious cargoes can hardly be a lucrative trade.
Although Chinese commercial morality has not run to such a very low ebb as some might imagine, yet the clever traders of the lower orders of Cathay are by no means above resorting to highly questionable and ingenious practices of adulteration, when such practices can be managed with safety and profit. Thus the foreign merchant finds it always necessary to be vigil- ant in his scrutiny of tea, silk and other produce, before effecting a purchase. But equal care requires to be observed in all money transactions, as counterfeit coining is a profession carried on in Canton with marvellous success ; so successful indeed, are the coiners of false dollars that the native experts, or schroffs, who are employed by foreign merchants (Mr. W. F. Mayers assured me), are taught the art of schroffing, or detecting counterfeit coin, by men who are in direct communi- cation with the coiners of the spurious dollars in circulation.
In many of the Canton shops one notices the intimation
- Schroffing taught here." This is a curious system of corruption,
which one would think would be worth the serious attention of the Government. Were counterfeiting coining put down, there would be no need for the crafty instructors of schroffs; and at the same time the expensive staff of experts employed in banks and merchants' offices could be dispensed with.
But the dollar in the hands of a needy and ingenious Chi- naman is not only delightful to behold, but it admits of a manipulation at once most skilful and profitable. The art of "schroffing" or detecting spurious coin and ascertaining the difference in the value of dollars of various issues, is studied as a profession by hundreds of young Chinamen, who find employment
