上海开埠后不久,中外客商云集,当时外滩十六铺码头是国内各路来沪客商的交汇地,生意十分兴隆。一些从外地来的小商小贩,白天在十六铺做生意,晚上就在那里休息。由于小本生意经济不是太宽裕,这些小商贩舍不得花钱去住旅馆,于是往往就在路边打个地铺过夜。这样,一些巡捕、地痞流氓就乘机前来勒索“买路钱”。当时通用的货币是铜钱、银元,携带很不方便,那些小商贩为了防止意外,就喜欢将铜钱、银元装 Shortly after the opening of Shanghai, Chinese and foreign merchants gathered. At the time, the Bund Shiliupu Terminal was a meeting point for domestic customers from all over the country. The business was booming. Some small business hawkers coming from other places do business at Shiliupu during the day and rest there in the evening. Since the small business economy is not very affluent, these small vendors are reluctant to spend money to live in hotels, so they often spend time overnight on the roadside. In this way, some patrols and rogue rogues took the opportunity to extortion “buy money.” At that time, the common currency was copper coins and silver coins. It was very inconvenient to carry. In order to prevent accidents, those small traders like to install coins and silver coins.