Nowadays, in many costume dramas, silver is used as a kind of currency circulation, and it is often a "big scene" of one hundred and eighty silver and two at every turn. Film and television dramas are mostly to attract the attention of the audience, exaggerate the statement, and receive better viewing effects.
In reality, however, this is not the case.
First of all, most of the people in ancient China were relatively poor, and there was very little idle silver, let alone so much at once;
In addition, silver is not a circulating currency, even if the people have silver in their hands, the store will not receive it. One is unwilling, the other is not dare, silver is not only difficult to sell, but also easy to cause trouble.
Nevertheless, in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the imperial court often levied taxes mainly on silver, and this standard brought many disasters to the people, leaving the people who were not rich in life to go.
China's territory is vast and resources are abundant, so much so that when Qianlong faced diplomatic envoys, he once uttered the arrogant words that "the Heavenly Dynasty is rich in products and has everything." However, China's silver ore has always been scarce, almost extinct in the central and southern regions, only slightly more in Inner Mongolia and northwest China.
However, most of these areas are under the control of a small number of famous people, and the rest of the places are also in the places where the two armies are at war. In addition, exploration technology at that time was limited, and many deeply buried silver mines were not discovered, so that for a long time in early China, silver was regarded as a scarce substance. So, to a certain extent, the status of silver has surpassed that of gold.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, China implemented a monetary policy in which gold and copper coins circulated together.
For example: the well-known "Shang martingale transformation method", the change of law at the beginning, did not get attention, Shang martingale in order to establish the prestige of the imperial court, the 50 gold as a reward, as long as the people move the wood to the north gate can get a reward.
In many ancient books, most of the transactions are mainly copper coins, supplemented by gold, as the main circulating currency. It was not until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that monetary reform began. Because at that time, the various places were ruled by different princes, and the currencies used were also very different, resulting in confusion in the style and weight of copper coins, so Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty decided to guide the policy and use five baht coins uniformly.
The use of five-baht money has lasted for a long time, but by the time of the Wei and Jin Dynasties, due to the division of warlords in various places and social chaos, many large families secretly minted coins. In order to profit from it, they also incorporated a large amount of inferior metal when minting coins, which eventually led to the poor quality and color of these copper coins.
What's more, when minting coins, a large number of incomplete copper coins were also minted.
Every time the people have economic exchanges with these big families, the big families will take the opportunity to trade these inferior copper coins, and although the people are reluctant in their hearts, they do not dare to say no. When these inferior copper coins were handed over to the people, they were used as ordinary currency, but it was difficult for the people to transfer them according to the value of ordinary money, and in the long run, the people were squeezed and miserable.
This situation did not improve until after the establishment of the Cao Wei regime.
At that time, the quality of the copper coins was so bad that they could be crushed at will, many people were dissatisfied with the oppression and became displaced, and the ruler finally issued a decree to circulate grain brocade as currency. This also reflects the difficulties of people's lives at that time, and cloth and food have become the last survival of the people. This situation did not improve until the establishment of the Sui Dynasty.
In 581 AD, the Sui Dynasty was established, and copper coins were used again, but the style of copper coins at this time had been greatly changed. Private coinage has been greatly controlled, and the quality of copper coins has also been greatly guaranteed. However, many people still use grain and cloth as circulating currency, and their status is even higher than the official currency copper coins.
By the time of the Tang Dynasty, the state had also issued documents stipulating the proportion of grain, cloth, and copper coins exchanged. Tang Xuanzong even stipulated that all horses in the field house should be traded with silk cloth, luo, aya, silk weft, etc., and the rest of the market price reached more than one thousand before the use of coins and goods was allowed, which shows that the status of copper coins at that time was not improved.
The status of grain cloth in the trade continued to increase, and in the Song Dynasty, due to the limited amount of gold, and copper coins were extremely inconvenient to use because of the weight problem, the purchasing power of grain and cloth has always been higher than that of copper coins. When the Song Dynasty was at war with foreign enemies, grain and cloth were often used as rewards for rewarding soldiers, and when the two sides came and went, grain cloth was particularly important.
Although copper coins are inconvenient to use in the Central Plains, many people still use them. In the land of Fanwai, the value of copper coins is far less than that of physical objects. Few ethnic minorities were willing to accept copper coins, and in addition to silver, grain cloth became the most important circulating item.
In the Yuan and Ming dynasties, the imperial court also levied taxes on the people mainly based on grain.
Over time, the people have come up with many ways to evade taxes and avoid taxes, and even once there was a stunt of "tipping and kicking". Beginning with the Longqing Emperor, the imperial court was also apparently aware of the loopholes in this method of taxation, so in order to change the original method of taxation, it was changed from collecting grain to collecting silver.
Of course, if the rulers were not extremely faint, they would not arbitrarily change such an important policy, and this move was also related to the situation in China at that time.
During the Ming Dynasty, China was plagued by wokou infestation, and trade between the imperial court and surrounding countries was cut off for a time.
Later, through the efforts of Qi Jiguang and others, the road of maritime trade was opened. At this time, the European countries, which had opened up new shipping routes, occupied many parts of South America. South America is rich in silver, Europeans are the first to profiteers, and Chinese porcelain, tea and other goods are widely popular in Europe, and the silver excavated by Europeans in South America eventually fell into the hands of Chinese.
With the massive inflow of silver, the Ming government began to change monetary policy, using silver as the main circulating currency. However, they overlooked the fact that although silver was imported a lot, it was basically in the hands of the nobles and powerful, and ordinary people basically had no chance to have it. Since the Ming Dynasty changed its policy, the people had to exchange their grain copper coins for silver to pay taxes.
However, the local tyrants took advantage of the opportunity to squeeze and secretly raise the price of silver, so that the people were always the one who suffered losses. The frequent peasant uprisings in the late Ming Dynasty were largely due to this irrational tax policy.
During the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government still followed this tax policy, due to the political corruption in the middle and late Qing Dynasty, and in the reign of Empress Dowager Cixi, it was even more profligate, and the shortage of silver became increasingly prominent. Most of the silver in the hands of the government came from the people, and whenever the treasury was empty, it increased its oppression, and many people were miserable and had to go into exile.
In several wars in modern history, the Qing Dynasty needed to compensate a large amount of silver for each defeat, and these indemnities needed to be borne by the common people, so it increased the pressure on the people. Due to the large-scale outflow of silver during the Qing Dynasty, there was a phenomenon of "silver is expensive and cheap", and the people had to sell most of their family property every time they paid taxes.
Later, the outbreak of a series of peasant uprisings, such as the Twister Rebellion and the Taiping Rebellion, although the reasons for their outbreaks were different, were supported by the local people, which was really "exhausted by the people's strength and could not be sustained".
Resources:
["Copper Imitation Shell - The World's Earliest Metal Currency", "Research on the Currency of the Southern and Northern Dynasties of the Wei and Jin Dynasties", "Food And Commodities of the Song Dynasty", "Currency and Currency Circulation in the Ming Dynasty"】