Donative Silver

Stephen Tai
Feb.07, 1998

The drum shape sycee as shown, was cast and circulated in Szechuan Province during late Ching Dynasty. Its inscriptions, on the left, read as Ba Nien Jiang Hsing Loong Yeoung 'cast in the 8^th year, by silversmith Hsing Loong Yeoung' on the right, read as Juang Su ('Donation'). 61x52 mm, 372g (10 tales).

In Ching Dynasty people were encouraged in donating money or crops to governments, and in return, the governments would reward the donors with fame, such as honored them with diploma, or virtual title of certain governmental positions. It had been a existing policy since the years of Kang Hsi (1662-1721 AD).
This policy had become one of the important incomes to the governments, in the latter part of the 19th century, when Opium War, Tai Ping Tien Kuo rebellion war... one after another broke out, the governments were financial exhausted by great deal of war funds and indemnities payable to the invading countries. With a view to secure more financial aids from people, local governments were responsible for certain quotas while collected donative silver. Eventually, donation was no longer to be a donation by people by their free wills, yet, it had become a compulsory tax added on the main taxes (land tax and poll tax), which people were forced to pay regularly accordingly to what they had been requested by the governments.
The shown donative sycee, to be correct, should be called as 'tax silver' in the name of donation.

A Legendary Currency in Late Ching Dynasty - A Study on Yunnan Pai-Fang-Ding