1. Money home
Though it is a small piece of paper not more than 14X7cm, what is printed and written on it tells a story of a different era, a different time.
Whenever I walked past the ICBC Bank in People’s Park, Chinatown, and seeing the foreign labors from China lining up to send money home, I would visualize a century and more ago, grandfather would have been doing a similar thing –i.e. remitting his hard earn money to his family in Songkou -
Perhaps with this thought in mind – it makes me feels a sense of connectedness & affinity to these folks. Our family too started off like them – albeit a hundred odd years earlier.
Well, by the time of this receipt dated 36.11.21 – that is, the 36th year of the Republican era （民国）in 1947 November 26th, grandpa was 64 years old, and had returned to his village for good. He came to Nanyang – 南洋- and ventured to the tin mining outpost of Menglembu in is his early twenties, together with his 2nd brother.
Well, by the time of this receipt dated 36.11.21 – that is, the 36th year of the Republican era （民国）in 1947 November 26th, grandpa was 64 years old, and had returned to his village for good. He came to Nanyang – 南洋- and ventured to the tin mining outpost of Menglembu in is his early twenties, together with his 2nd brother.
For the greater part of the next forty odd years and more – he was engaged in th timber industry – a service industry to the tin mines, supplying logs and planks for the palong ( in open cast mines) and the mining kongsi (dwellings for workers, operations headquarters, depot - all rolled into one) in the vicinity of Lahat, Papan and Menglembu. His circle of business partners were mostly fellow Hakka tin miners who hailed from the neighboring Hakka districts of South China.
Remittance to the home village was similarly sent thro the Hakka business network, in Ipoh.
On this receipt, one can find two English words – a) LEEBROS – which was the telegraphic code of the remitting company – Li Sanmao - 李三茂 - and b) Koo Kwat Chin – 古国祯 - in the red stamp on the right bottom corner – grandpa’s chop which was a modernized version of the seal.
LEEBROS located at 39, Leech Street, was the main agent used by grandpa to remit money to the village. The other agents were Eu Yang Sang, and thro Charted Bank.
This receipt was an acknowledgement that the sum of 5 million Republican yuan - 圓- was duly received by the countersigned– on 21Nov1947, and stamped with the grandpa’s chop.
The person countersigned on the receipt was not grandpa, but was 4th uncle – with his nicely written namely as 古锦琳. – Gu Jinlin (pinyin) . The person who remitted this sum from Ipoh – was dad -古锦宏 – Gu Jinhong.
The establishment where this sum was remitted to, was located in the upper main street of Songkou town – Xinhe Zhuang - 信和庄松口上大街 – marked by the dark colored chop in the center of the receipt.
2. Exchange rate 121 - Straits $ to Republican 圆 1945 – 1947
2. Exchange rate 121 - Straits $ to Republican 圆 1945 – 1947
How much was this princely sounding sum of 5million Republican yuan equivalent to?
Well, luckily the sum could be traced to accounting record. From the handwriting it further confirmed that it was dad’s entry.
It stated : On Nov 06, a remittance of $5million republican yuan was made thro Li SanMao to - to be received by Daren – 大人手收 - (Daren - an honorific old school address for one’s superior - grandpa) . Following was a note in Suzhou character for a sum of $190.00 Straits dollars.
It stated : On Nov 06, a remittance of $5million republican yuan was made thro Li SanMao to - to be received by Daren – 大人手收 - (Daren - an honorific old school address for one’s superior - grandpa) . Following was a note in Suzhou character for a sum of $190.00 Straits dollars.
This would make it at an exchange rate of $1= ¥26,315
Interestingly from the first record entry made just after the end of WW2 in Dec 1945 to the last entry made two years later in Dec 1947, the Republican yuan would have depreciated by close to 140 times against the Straits dollar! The slide was especially drastic starting from 1947 -
Here’s a sample the exchange rate on remittance sent thro Li Sanmao, Ipoh, to Songkou, China.
10Dec1945 $1=¥256
16Mar1946 $1=¥625
27Jan1947 $1=¥2,040
26May1947 $1=¥10,000
26Aug1947 $1=¥11,674
23Sep1947 $1=¥Y14,705
06Nov1947 $1=¥26,315
09Dec1947 $1=¥35,714
Well, this is an unexpected lesson in economics coming out of the family history. This was a period of turbulent upheaval in China. Perhaps we have a pretty good hindsight now, to come to think of it.
To grandpa who longed for his homeland – come what may home was where the heart was. In the hills lie his ancestors, and it would be there he would return. Perhaps, the mountainous terrain of the Hakka highlands had nullified the impact from the hyperinflation, and dulled the distant din of the gunshots raging south.
PS –
1. Republican Yuan -indicated as ¥ / 圓
Here to mean the existent currency in circulation at that time. It could be called by different notation。
Well, a google on the republican yuan - leading to Chinese currency indicated that there were two period of hyperinflation in China that brought about the downfall of the regime. One was towards the end of the Yuan dynasty - 元 - (1271–1368 ) and the next was during the end of the republican rule in mainland China - 民國 - (1911-1949)
Chinese currency –
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