Note 8 — Appendix: Buying and Selling Prices of Oriental Products

The tae of fine gold is equivalent to seven of silver. One cate of musk is sold for eight taes. Raw silk at eight taes per pico. The contrary kind, or twisted silk [sirguin], which is the best of the country, one hundred taes per pico. Good pieces of damask, seven taes; a piece contains fourteen varas. Other pieces of common silk, ten varas for one tae three maçes. Vermilion, forty taes per pico. Copper, seven and eight taes [per pico]. Quicksilver, forty taes per pico. Herd-bells, eight maçes per pico. White lead, two and one-half and three taes per pico. Cotton, eight taes per pico. Fine powdered vermilion, seventy maçes per cate. One ranquel of fine porcelain, one tae two maçes; fine dishes, fifteen maçes per ranquel. Large fine dishes, five maçes apiece. Medium quality earthenware is worth one and one-half maçes per ranquel, both chinaware [porcelana] and dishes. Fine pieces of taffeta of all colors, from Lanquin, each piece containing about twelve codos, are worth two and one-half and three taes. Large pieces of certain damasks, which contain sixteen varas, are worth twelve taes at the least and fifteen at the most. Common earthenware is worth less than one real per ranquel, either dishes or jars. Wheat is worth four maces per pico, and eight in flour. Rice is worth three and one-half and four maçes per pico. One cow is worth four taes in Macan. One pico of flour, delivered in Macan, one tae two maçes. Pork is worth two taes in Macan and one and one-half taes in Canton, per pico. Fowls, two taes per pico. One pico of salt fish, two taes and more—or less, according to the fish. Two cates of fresh fish, one conderin. [315] One pico of sugar, two taes, or, at the least, one and one-half taes. One pico of the finest iron, which resembles a manteca8 is worth two taes, and in nails two and one-half, and three taes. One pico of Chinese camphor is worth ten taes. One pico of cinnamon, three taes. Rhubarb, at two, two and one-half, and three taes; and there is an infinite amount of it in China. Pieces of thin, fine silk, which contain about twenty varas, arc worth three and one-half and four taes. Red silk headdresses for women, four and five maçes apiece. One pico of licorice, two and one-half taes. One pico of China-wood, at eight maçes, and one tae.