This _liung_ or, as it is more commonly called, _tael_ is the maximum monetary weight. Hence we hear always of payments in silver as being 1000 or 2000 ounces and so on, but never in the higher commercial units of the _catty_ or pound, and _pical_ or hundredweight, to which we shall come immediately. But though the Chinese never employed any coinage of gold or silver, beyond all doubt they have possessed and employed both metals for almost an incalculable time in the form of ingots of rectangular shape, and of very accurately fixed dimensions. The maximum unit employed in commercial relations between China, Cochin-China, Annam and Cambodia is the _nên_ or _bar_. It is of course among her less advanced neighbours that we can best see how the system developed and worked. For whilst China herself now reckons exclusively by the _tael_ or ounce, Annam and Cambodia still employ ingots of fixed weights and dimensions as metal units almost to the present time. Thus when Msg. Taberdier in 1838 published his account of the money of Annam, they had no coins except the ordinary cash or _sapec_ with a square hole in its centre, and which is there made of zinc and called _dong_[214], they had no coinage in the proper sense of the term. However they employed ingots of gold and silver of a parallelopiped shape. Five sizes of ingots were employed for both gold and silver alike. GOLD. 1. _Nên-Vang, loaf of gold_ = 10 _lu’ong_ or _taels_ (ounces). 2. _Thoi-Vang_ or _Nua Nên-Vang_ = 5 _lu’ong_. 3. _Lu’ong-Vang, nail of gold_ = 1 _lu’ong_ (39·05 grammes). 4. _Nua-Vang, half nail of gold_ = ½ _lu’ong_. 5. The quarter _lu’ong_ = ¼ _tael_ (9·762 gram.). SILVER. 1. _Nên-bac, loaf of silver_ = 10 _lu’ong_ or _taels_. 2. _Nua Nên-bac, half loaf of silver_ = 5 _lu’ong_. 3. _Lu’ong_ or _Dinh-bac, nail of silver_ = 1 _tael_. 4. Half _Lu’ong, half nail_ = ½ _tael_. 5. Quarter _Lu’ong_ = ¼ _tael_ (9·762 gram.). The lowest unit then was the quarter _nail_ of 152½ grains troy, whilst the largest was the _nên_ of 6500 grains. These ingots did not circulate freely but were generally kept in wealthy families as reserve treasure. In very similar manner in Greece and Italy gold and silver, fashioned into talents and bars or wedges, were employed side by side with the bronze _oboli_ or _spits_ which served as the ordinary currency of every-day life. We have now seen that the highest unit employed for silver and gold is the _Nên_ or bar of ten _taels_ or ounces. Before going further it will be convenient to describe briefly what we may term the Chinese system of _avoirdupois_ weight. Then we shall give the system borrowed from the Chinese and used in Cambodia and Cochin-China. _Chinese._