Note 1 — Letter from Santiago de Vera to Felipe II
Reading edition
The following table of Chinese weights is given in Clarke's Weights, Measures, and Money (N.Y., 1888): 10 mace = 1 tael; 16 taels = 1 catty or kan; 2 catties = 1 yin; 50 yin = 1 pecul or tam. The catty = 1⅓ lbs., or 604.8 grammes. Hence the pecul = 133⅓ lbs. The shik is a weight of 160 lbs. In China almost everything is sold by weight.