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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;The Eidolon, post: 8276232, member: 102103&quot;]I think it&#039;s a coincidence.&nbsp; China had its own units of measure which were not directly connected to Western ones.&nbsp; With more international trade bringing silver into China, it became useful to have a weight standard compatible with the Spanish dollar.&nbsp; Here&#039;s <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_currency#Qing" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chinese_currency#Qing" rel="nofollow">Wikipedia</a> on it:</p><p><br /></p><p>&quot;In 1889, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_yuan" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_yuan" rel="nofollow">Chinese yuan</a> was introduced at par with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar#Asia" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_dollar#Asia" rel="nofollow">Spanish dollar</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_peso" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mexican_peso" rel="nofollow">Mexican peso</a> or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_peso" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philippine_peso" rel="nofollow">Philippine peso</a> and was subdivided into 10 jiao (角, not given an English name, cf. <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_(United_States_coin)" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dime_(United_States_coin)" rel="nofollow">dime</a></i>), 100 fen (分, <i>cents</i>), and 1000 wen (文, <i>cash</i>). The yuan was equivalent to 7 mace and 2 candareens (or 0.72 tael) and, for a time, coins were marked as such in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_language" rel="nofollow">English</a>.&quot;</p><p><br /></p><p>So 1/5 of a Yuan = 20 fen = 1.44 mace = 1 mace 4.4 candareens.</p><p><br /></p><p>Most of China used a copper cash system which was not really compatible with international trade, so silver was secondary in importance until quite late in history.</p><p>[ATTACH=full]1461236[/ATTACH][/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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