Trade dollar

They all approximated in weight and fineness to the Spanish dollar, which had set the standard for a de facto common currency for trade in the Far East.

Following the establishment of Spanish Philippines, Manila (in the modern area of Intramuros) became an entrepôt for Chinese goods in one direction and Spanish silver dollar, from across the Pacific to the Spanish-held mints and silver mines of Mexico, Peru, and Bolivia, in the other.

Defeated in the First Opium War, China was forced to open its ports to foreign trade, and in the late half of the 19th Century Western nations trading with China found it cheaper and more expedient to mint their own coins, from their own supplies of silver, than to continue to use coins from Mexican sources.

27.2 grams; 7⁄8 troy ounce) and fineness .900 (90%), the Spanish-Mexican coins so long trusted and valued in China.

The piastre was therefore a direct lineal descendant of the Spanish pieces of eight that had been brought to the Orient from Mexico on the Manila Galleons.

[2] When Japan introduced the gold standard in 1897, the silver 1 yen coins, including the trade dollars, were demonetized.

The loser, China, had to open up a number of ports to British trade and residence, and cede Hong Kong to Britain.

Foreign banks were established and large silver coins from all over the world began arriving to pay for tea, silk and Chinese porcelain to be shipped abroad.

These .900 fine silver trade dollars were then circulated throughout China, where they were readily accepted as a medium of exchange.

The British trade dollar was designed by George William De Saulles and minted from 1895 for Hong Kong and the Straits Settlements.