| 释义 |
tael|teɪl|
Also 7 taile, tayel, tayl, 7–9 tale, 8 tahel, 20 tahil; 7 tay, taye, pl. 6 taes.
[a. Pg. tael (pl. taeis), ad. Malay tahil, taïl weight. The early tay, taes, etc. represent the Pg. plural.]
1. The trade name for the Chinese liang or ‘ounce’, a weight used in China and the East.
In Chinese use the liang varies according to local custom, and to the commodity weighed; but the weight of 11/3 oz. avoirdupois is fixed by treaty for commercial purposes.
1598W. Philip Linschoten 44 A Tael is a full ounce and a halfe Portingale weight. 1613J. Saris Voy. to Japan (1900) 222 Bezar stones are there bought by the Taile..which is one Ounce, and the third part English. 1699W. Dampier Voy. II. i. 132, 5 Tale make a Bancal, a weight so called. 1854in R. Tomes Amer. in Japan (1857) 410 The Japanese have a decimal system of weight, like the Chinese, of catty, tael, mace, candareen, and cash, by which articles in general are weighed; but gold and silver are not reckoned above taels. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXIII. 813/1 Tahil..Straits Settlements 11/4 oz. av. = 10 chee = 100 hoon. 1908Morse Trade Chinese Emp. 149 It is necessary always to bear in mind the distinction between the tael of value and the tael of weight. 1947R. O. Winstedt Malays vi. 112 Soon after the founding of Malacca Chinese annals under 1416 record..that, ‘tin..is cast into small blocks weighing 1 kati 8 tahil or 1 kati 4 tahil official weight... They use these pieces of tin instead of money.’ 1972Straits Times 25 Nov. 15/1 The gold bars, weighing 15 katis seven tahils.
2. a. Hence, A money of account, originally a tael (in weight) of standard silver, the value of which fluctuates with the price of the metal.
The Haikwan tael, i.e. the tael accepted by the Chinese Foreign Custom-house in payment of duties, is the equivalent of 584·85 grains of pure silver (Morse 152). From 1745 to 1860 its value was between 6s. and 7s., in 1864 6s. 8d., in 1900 about 3s., in 1904 2s. 10d.
1588Parke tr. Mendoza's Hist. China iii. iv. 61 They giue him foure million..Taes. 1598J. Davis Voy. (Hakl. Soc.) 152 Foure Masses makes a Perdaw. Foure Perdawes makes a Tayel. 1613J. Saris Voy. to Japan (1900) 97 Bantam Pepper..was worth here [Japan] at our comming tenne Tayes the Peecull... A Taye is five shillings sterling with them. 1726G. Shelvocke Voy. round World 457 They demanded 6000 Tahel. 1745P. Thomas Jrnl. Anson's Voy. 215 Taëls, each of which in our Money comes to about six Shillings and Threepence. 1800Chron. in Asiat. Ann. Reg. 62/2 His wealth, which..is said to have amounted at the lowest computation, to eighty millions of tales, near twenty-seven millions of pounds sterling. 1901Empire Rev. I. 394 The land tax is levied upon the cultivable land, and may be put at half a tael or 1s. 6d. per acre. 1908Morse Trade Chinese Emp. 151 The Haikwan tael..is a purely fictitious and non-existent currency... At no Custom House does any merchant tender Haikwan taels in payment of duties.
b. A Chinese gold coin based on the value of a tael of silver.
1926E. Kann Currency China i. i. 13 Taiping tael gold coin... During the rule of the T‘aipings in Nankin a gold coin was issued there..supposed to represent 25 taels of silver. 1962R. A. G. Carson Coins 543 A rare tael in gold was also struck in this issue. 1979Courier-Mail (Brisbane) 9 July 4/3 Some Chinese had sufficient savings tucked away in gold taels, the traditional, and sensible, way of saving adopted by many East Asian societies, to bribe officials or simply to pay for the right to escape. |