Cash is a name for several historical currencies used in Asia. It is applied to units used in

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

, Vietnam, and of

Madras Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

and

Princely state A princely state (also called native state or Indian state) was a nominally sovereign entity of the British Raj, British Indian Empire that was not directly governed by the British, but rather by an Indian ruler under a form of indirect rule, ...

of Travancore in British India. It is also occasionally used to refer to the Korean mun and the Japanese mon.

Etymology

Tamil kācu/kāsu, Skr. ''karsha'' 'a weight of silver or gold equal to of a tulā' (Williams). The early Portuguese writers represented the native word by ''cas, casse, caxa,'' the Fr. by ''cas'', the Eng. by ''cass'': the existing Pg. ''caixa'' and Eng. cash are due to a natural confusion with CASH n.1. From an early date the Portuguese applied ''caixa'' (probably on the same analogy) to the small money of other foreign nations, such as that of Maritime Southeast Asia, and especially the Chinese, which was also naturally made into cash in English. (Yule)" The English word " cash," meaning "tangible currency," is an older word from Middle French ''caisse''.

Chinese cash

In China, ''cash'' - not to be confused with the type of copper coin - refers to a unit used for centuries for copper coinage and banknote equivalents known as ''wén'' (文). Being the first country to implement paper based currency, in 1023 the 交子 paper money currency occur to adapt the economical climate change of globalization brought by

fair trade Fair trade is an arrangement designed to help producers in developing countries achieve sustainable and equitable trade relationships. The fair trade movement combines the payment of higher prices to exporters with improved social and enviro ...

via

silk road The Silk Road () was a network of Eurasian trade routes active from the second century BCE until the mid-15th century. Spanning over 6,400 kilometers (4,000 miles), it played a central role in facilitating economic, cultural, political, and reli ...

, although metal coins were still in circulation. After the introduction of a unified currency system in 1889, cash continued to be used as a subunit of the yuan with 1000 cash being equal to one yuan. Coins continued to be denominated in cash until the 1920s nationally and for a time thereafter regionally.

Vietnamese cash

Cash (''văn'') was a currency unit for copper coinage in Vietnam until the introduction of the

French Indochina piastre The piastre de commerce was the currency of French Indochina between 1885 and 1952. It was subdivided into 100 ''cents'', each of 2~6 '' sapèques''. The name ''piastre'' (), from Spanish pieces of eight (pesos), dates to the 16th century and h ...

in 1885 when it became a sub unit of the piastre usually known as a ''sapèque''.

Madras cash

Cash was a currency unit of Madras Province during the period of British rule in India. Specifically, it was a subunit of the fanam,

rupee Rupee is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Africa, B ...

, and pagoda. *80 cash = 1 fanam *12 fanams = 1 rupee *42 fanams = 1 pagoda Copper coins of 20 cash were called

pice Paisa (also transliterated as ''pice'', ''pesa'', ''poysha'', ''poisha'' and ''baisa'') is a monetary unit in several countries. The word is also a generalised idiom for money and wealth. In India, Nepal, and Pakistan, the ''Paisa'' currently equa ...

, 10 cash were called dodees, and 5 cash were called half dodees.

Travancore cash

Travancore cash was similar to the Madras cash yet differed in the value compared to the rupee. *16 cash = 1 chakram *4 chakram = 1 fanam *7 fanam = 1 rupee thus, 1 rupee = 448 cash.

Notes