Cash (unit)

Cash
Cash
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	釐
Simplified Chinese	厘
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	lí
Wade–Giles	li2
Yue: Cantonese
Yale Romanization	lèih
Jyutping	lei4
Southern Min
Hokkien POJ	lî
Korean name
Hangul	고칠 이
Hanja	錢
Revised Romanization
Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	gochil i
McCune–Reischauer	koch'il i
Japanese name
Kanji	釐
Hiragana	り
Romanization
Transcriptions
Romanization	ri

Cash or li (simplified Chinese: 厘; traditional Chinese: 釐 or 厘; pinyin: lí) is a traditional Chinese unit of weight.

The terms "cash" or "le" were documented to have been used by British explorers in the 1830s when trading in Qing territories of China.^[1]

Under the Hong Kong statute of the Weights and Measures Ordinance, 1 cash is about 0.0013 ounces (0.037 g). Currently, it is 1⁄10 candareen or 1⁄16000 catty, namely 37.79936375 milligrams (0.5833333269 gr).^[2]

^ Roberts, Edmund (1837) [First published in 1837]. "Chapter X. Weights and Measures". Embassy to the Eastern courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat : in the U. S. sloop-of-war Peacock during the years 1832-3-4. Harper & brothers. page 136, image 143. OCLC 12212199. Retrieved 5 April 2013. The highest weight used in reckoning money, is tael, (leang,) which is divided into mace, (tseen,) candareens, (fun,) and cash, (le.) The relative value of these terms, both among the Chinese, and in foreign money, can be seen by the following table. It should be observed here, that these terms, taels, mace, candareens, cash, peculs, and catties, covids, punts, &;c., are not Chinese words, and are never used by the Chinese among themselves; and, the reason of their employment by foreigners, instead of the legitimate terms, is difficult to conjecture.
^ "Weights and Measures Ordinance". Laws of Hong Kong.

[Roberts-1] Roberts, Edmund (1837) [First published in 1837]. "Chapter X. Weights and Measures". Embassy to the Eastern courts of Cochin-China, Siam, and Muscat : in the U. S. sloop-of-war Peacock during the years 1832-3-4. Harper & brothers. page 136, image 143. OCLC 12212199. Retrieved 5 April 2013. The highest weight used in reckoning money, is tael, (leang,) which is divided into mace, (tseen,) candareens, (fun,) and cash, (le.) The relative value of these terms, both among the Chinese, and in foreign money, can be seen by the following table. It should be observed here, that these terms, taels, mace, candareens, cash, peculs, and catties, covids, punts, &;c., are not Chinese words, and are never used by the Chinese among themselves; and, the reason of their employment by foreigners, instead of the legitimate terms, is difficult to conjecture.

[hk_law-2] "Weights and Measures Ordinance". Laws of Hong Kong.

[1]

[2]