# Tael
A **tael** is a traditional East Asian unit of weight, the Chinese *liang* (兩), which in China also served as the money of account for uncoined silver. The English word came through Malay *tahil* and is probably connected with the Hindi *tola*, both meaning weight.[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael) As a monetary unit the tael was not a coin: silver circulated by weight in ingots called sycee, and the tael of silver was the standard in which large transactions, taxes, and customs duties were reckoned.[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Name | European rendering of Chinese *liang* (兩), via Malay *tahil*; probably related to Hindi *tola*[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael) |
| Weight | Standard Qing kuping tael: 37.3 g; Hong Kong tael: 37.7994 g (1/16 catty); Taiwan tael: 37.5 g; metricated in mainland China as exactly 50 g[4](https://brill.com/downloadpdf/display/book/9789004482692/front-3.pdf) • [6](https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/english/bc/bc56/papers/bc5620171121cb2-297-2-e.pdf) • [5](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tael) |
| Subdivisions | 1 tael = 10 mace (qian) = 100 candareen (fen) = 1000 li[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael) |
| Form of silver | Uncoined; silver circulated as sycee ingots and, in Shanghai, as demand deposits; there were few tael-denominated banknotes and no tael coins[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael) • [2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/explaining-premiums-for-spanish-and-mexican-silver-coins-in-qing-and-republican-china/0981CC91051AD44D330ACED68DD59DE2) |
| Variety of standards | Wagel (1914) counted seventy-seven distinct varieties of the tael in China, differing by city and purpose[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/explaining-premiums-for-spanish-and-mexican-silver-coins-in-qing-and-republican-china/0981CC91051AD44D330ACED68DD59DE2) |
| Exchange with cash | In nineteenth-century China one tael (37.43 g) of silver was equal to between 1200 and 1300 copper cash[3](https://www.hkma.gov.hk/media/chi/publications-and-research/reference-materials/monetary/1-1.pdf) |
| End of the system | China abandoned the silver standard in November 1935; Hong Kong followed within days[3](https://www.hkma.gov.hk/media/chi/publications-and-research/reference-materials/monetary/1-1.pdf) |
## Etymology and the liang
The word reached English through Portuguese trade with the Malay world: Malay *tahil*, a weight, is probably connected with the Hindi *tola*. In Chinese the unit is *liang*, literally the ounce, one sixteenth of a catty (*jin*). In the Qing standard system 1 liang = 10 qian (mace) = 3.73 g per qian, and the standard kuping tael of the Qing period (1644 to 1911) was 37.3 g of silver of 1.000 fine.[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael) • [4](https://brill.com/downloadpdf/display/book/9789004482692/front-3.pdf) In monetary contexts liang is conventionally rendered tael in English.[7](https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14535/1/Jianan_LI_ethesis_final_version.pdf)
The liang has an ancient monetary pedigree. The round coin with a square hole, the form used in China for two thousand years, traces back to the half-tael circular coin issued in the third century BC under [Qin Shi Huang](https://www.edgepedia.org/qin-shi-huang), the First Emperor of the [Qin dynasty](https://www.edgepedia.org/qin-dynasty).[8](https://www.imes.boj.or.jp/cm/english/FAQs/FAQcurrency/index.html)
## A weight-based silver currency
Through the nineteenth century China operated a bimetallic system in which copper, bronze, or iron cash handled small daily transactions while uncoined silver ingots served for large business, tax payment, and wealth storage; Spanish and Mexican silver dollars handled international trade.[3](https://www.hkma.gov.hk/media/chi/publications-and-research/reference-materials/monetary/1-1.pdf) The tael was a unit of account rather than a coin. By government standard a cash was the one-thousandth part of a tael of silver of the treasury scale, though in practice the exchange rate moved with the intrinsic value of the debased copper coinage; in Beijing in 1869, 525 ten-cash tokens were needed to buy a tael of silver.[9](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1878/d93) A contemporary American memorandum observed that a European remitting earnings home found his silver tael varied in value every day.[10](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1888p1/d155)
**Many taels, one name.** Different cities and government departments defined their own tael. The Shanghai tael, defined by the foreign banking community in January 1857, was a hypothetical amount of pure silver of about 1.08 troy ounces that circulated as silver bars and demand deposits, with few banknotes and no coins denominated in it.[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/explaining-premiums-for-spanish-and-mexican-silver-coins-in-qing-and-republican-china/0981CC91051AD44D330ACED68DD59DE2) Wagel's 1914 handbook counted seventy-seven distinct varieties, with weights ranging from 548.9 grains (a Kweichow merchant's scale) to 562.7 grains (Kweifu), and at least ten local weights current at Chungking alone.[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/explaining-premiums-for-spanish-and-mexican-silver-coins-in-qing-and-republican-china/0981CC91051AD44D330ACED68DD59DE2) The Haikwan (customs) tael, in which duties were paid to the Imperial Maritime Customs, was yet another standard; its sterling value moved with the price of silver, from 3s. 1/10d. in 1905 to 2s. 8d. in 1908.[1](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael) The Kuping tael, the treasury standard, differed slightly from the Haikwan tael in the quantity of pure silver it denominated.[2](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/explaining-premiums-for-spanish-and-mexican-silver-coins-in-qing-and-republican-china/0981CC91051AD44D330ACED68DD59DE2)
Silver ingots cast in tael multiples survive as museum and collector pieces: the Shanghai Museum's silver exhibition displays 50-tael tax and tribute ingots, a 12-tael corvée tax ingot, and a 1-tael bank ingot, alongside the Spanish and Mexican dollars that competed with tael silver.[11](https://www.shanghaimuseum.net/mu/frontend/pg/article/id/E00004070) A Ming-era "golden flower silver" ingot of 1588 in the National Museum of China weighs fifty liang, showing the tael's role in remitting tax silver to the capital.[12](https://www.chnmuseum.cn/zp/zpml/hb/202106/t20210608_250187.shtml)
## End of the tael currency
The tael system ended with the silver standard itself. In November 1935, after a dramatic outflow of silver driven by the rising price of silver in the United States and elsewhere, China abandoned the silver standard, and Hong Kong followed within days, fixing the [Hong Kong dollar](https://www.edgepedia.org/hong-kong-dollar) at one shilling and threepence sterling.[3](https://www.hkma.gov.hk/media/chi/publications-and-research/reference-materials/monetary/1-1.pdf) In the 1930s exchange the tael stood at roughly 1.5 yuan.[4](https://brill.com/downloadpdf/display/book/9789004482692/front-3.pdf)
## Modern survivals
The tael remains a living weight unit in Chinese communities, with values that differ by jurisdiction. In Hong Kong the tael (leung) is legally defined as 1/16 of a catty, 37.7994 grams, and gold and Chinese medicine are still traded by tael and mace.[6](https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/english/bc/bc56/papers/bc5620171121cb2-297-2-e.pdf) • [5](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tael) In Taiwan the tael used for precious metals is 37.5 grams: the Central Mint's one-tael gold bars weigh 37.5 g at 99.99% purity.[13](https://www.cmc.gov.tw/en/Product/Detail/B51FC36791EB4515BB4519170497B33F) In mainland China the liang was metricated in the 1959 reform as exactly 50 grams, one tenth of a 500-gram jin.[5](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tael) • [14](https://www.tinghu.gov.cn/art/2023/12/22/art_31891_4125023.html)
## References
1. [Tael, 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica (Wikisource transcription)](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/1911_Encyclop%C3%A6dia_Britannica/Tael)
2. [Explaining premiums for Spanish and Mexican silver coins in Qing and Republican China, Financial History Review (Cambridge Core)](https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/financial-history-review/article/explaining-premiums-for-spanish-and-mexican-silver-coins-in-qing-and-republican-china/0981CC91051AD44D330ACED68DD59DE2)
3. [Money Past and Present: Monetary Systems in Hong Kong's History, Hong Kong Monetary Authority](https://www.hkma.gov.hk/media/chi/publications-and-research/reference-materials/monetary/1-1.pdf)
4. [Weights and Measures appendix (Hans Ulrich Vogel), Brill](https://brill.com/downloadpdf/display/book/9789004482692/front-3.pdf)
5. [Tael, Wiktionary](https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/tael)
6. [Appendix: Weight Conversion Table, Legislative Council of Hong Kong](https://www.legco.gov.hk/yr16-17/english/bc/bc56/papers/bc5620171121cb2-297-2-e.pdf)
7. [Grain Trade and Market Integration in China (thesis, University of Nottingham)](https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/14535/1/Jianan_LI_ethesis_final_version.pdf)
8. [FAQ Japanese Currency, Currency Museum, Bank of Japan](https://www.imes.boj.or.jp/cm/english/FAQs/FAQcurrency/index.html)
9. [Memorandum on the Currency of China (1878), Office of the Historian, US Department of State](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1878/d93)
10. [Historical Documents, FRUS 1888, Office of the Historian, US Department of State](https://history.state.gov/historicaldocuments/frus1888p1/d155)
11. [Silver in the History of Chinese Currency, Shanghai Museum](https://www.shanghaimuseum.net/mu/frontend/pg/article/id/E00004070)
12. ["Golden Flower Silver" ingot, National Museum of China](https://www.chnmuseum.cn/zp/zpml/hb/202106/t20210608_250187.shtml)
13. [Bank of Taiwan Gold Holobar, Central Mint (Taiwan)](https://www.cmc.gov.tw/en/Product/Detail/B51FC36791EB4515BB4519170497B33F)
14. [Standard Measurement article, Tinghu District Government](https://www.tinghu.gov.cn/art/2023/12/22/art_31891_4125023.html)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Physical world and mathematics › Measurement and time › Historical and customary measurement systems › National and regional customary systems › Chinese traditional units (shìzhì)*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 19, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Edited: Sep 19, 2026; Sep 30, 2026; Oct 15, 2026 · Last review: Oct 15, 2026*
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