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Page 70.

On Sunday afternoon we usually went round the different monast^[[e]]ries and put in our bids for whatever we liked.  I bought many vases, neckchains and other curios.  Such a sale of course takes months.  I had my eye on a jade eating set, which had been used by the Living Buddah, 10 pairs of chopsticks, knives and forks, drinking cups and a pot for Chinese wine.  I asked the Lama, how much had been bid and he told me $130.-.  I went one Dollar better and left.  The next Sunday I came again and was told, that a Chinese had bit $140.-.  I therefore raised my ante to $145.-.  Again a week passed and when I came to the Monast^[[e]]ry the next Sunday The Lama told me, that the man who was bidding against me was present that that he had bid $150.-.  I promptly raised my offer to $155.-. and he ran over to where the Chinaman was standing and told him the glad news.  Then I went up some and the Llama spent the afternoon running backwards and forwards between the two bidders until I got up to $200.  Then the Chinaman, quite an old chap, came over to me, mad as a hatter, and told me, "why do you want to bid against me? you know jolly well that I want that set".  I told him I did not care what he wanted, I wanted that set myself, so he got sore, turned round and marched off home.  The result was, that I got the set, I still have it and every time I look at it, I remember how mad the old Chinaman was when he could not get what he wanted.  These auctions went on for weeks, even after I had been absent for weeks from Urga on business and came back to the monast^[[e]]ries where I had made an offer, they still had waited for me and told me the last prices which had been offered against my bids.  If I thought the price reasonable, I raised my bid.  I got some very interesting articles that way.

For hundreds of years the import and export business has been done by Chinese firms, who had their Head-Offices in Peking and Kalgan with branch Offices in Urga and all the smaller settlements in Mongolia.  The capital of these big traders ran into millions of dollars, their business was usually done on a barter basis.  They supplied the daily necessities of life to the Mongols