Most of today's students know that the economic base determines the superstructure, so for a country, the importance of the economy is naturally self-evident.
In recent years, the frequent outbreak of trade wars between countries may not be without the intention of weakening the power of other countries in this way. But in fact, in China's thousands of years of history, there have also been enemy forces that have tried to seek benefits through this method. It happened in the Qing Dynasty, during the reign of Qianlong, Japan minted a coin of "Kuan Yong Tong Bao" and put it into the market of China's coastal areas. As a result, the people only know the "Kuan Yong Tongbao" and do not know the national currency, and the situation is critical, which almost causes a catastrophe and shakes the foundation of the Qing Dynasty.
When the "Kuanyong Tongbao" was first unearthed in the coastal area, most scholars believed that this should be cast by The King of Kuanyong, a separatist regime located in the lower reaches of the Heilongjiang River in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty. Later, through the study of the writing and pattern on it, experts concluded that it was not minted by the Kwan Yong King, but a copper coin minted by Japan in imitation of the Chinese copper coin style.
The "Kuanei Tongbao" arose in the second year of Emperor Go-Mizuo's reign, and the patterns behind it are various. During the popular period of Kuanyong Tongbao, it coincided with the most prosperous period of Sino-Japanese trade exchanges. Geographically, the geographical location between China and Japan is extremely close, only separated by a sea, making maritime traffic very convenient. In terms of historical evolution, exchanges between China and Japan are extremely frequent in history, and trade exchanges have a long history.
However, with the continuous development of navigation technology, trade exchanges between China and Japan have been further developed. In addition to these factors, there is another important person who has greatly promoted trade between China and Japan, and he is the famous one: Zheng Chenggong. If you pick up Zheng Chenggong's family tree, you will find that Zheng Chenggong's mother is Japanese. Therefore, the relationship between the Zheng family and Japan is very special.
In addition, Zheng Chenggong has a strong influence on the southeast coast, so under his impetus, trade exchanges between China and Japan are naturally more prosperous. However, objectively speaking, even without the Zheng family, the trade exchanges between China and Japan in that period would not be much less. Because the fundamental reason for this matter is that the development of the Japanese economy requires Chinese trade, and the two countries have a mutually beneficial and win-win relationship.
According to historical records, from 1650 to 1661, a total of 607 Chinese merchant ships went to Nagasaki, Japan, to trade, of course, most of them were fleets sent by Zheng Chenggong, and the trade volume was very amazing. Moreover, after Zheng successfully recovered Taiwan, he traded with Japan with Taiwan as the center.
After Zheng Jing succeeded to the throne, he expanded the scale of trade, sending an average of 50 merchant ships to trade with Japan every year, exchanging Taiwan's sugar, deerskins and other worthless things for Japanese copper. It can be said that Zheng's successful recovery of Taiwan not only laid a solid foundation for friendly trade exchanges between China and Japan, but also made important contributions to building Taiwan after the recovery of Taiwan.
However, there are advantages and disadvantages to everything, and in the early century of the founding of the Qing Dynasty, the country has always been trapped in the situation of lack of "copper" and cannot get out, and even the copper needed to mint copper coins cannot be satisfied. In desperation, the government had to decide to use the old money that had been abolished, and then destroy the old money after the new money could meet the market demand, but it was not only the old money that was used.
Since most of the trade exchanges between China and Japan are in The currency of Japan's Kuanyong Tongbao, and the rice market salt works in the Jianghuai area also use the Japanese Kuanyong Tongbao, Qianlong had to recognize the legitimacy of the Kuanyong Tongbao to make up for the gap in new money. Since ancient times, the wealth has been moving, not to mention, the Japanese insisted on using this currency in trade, and they hoped to manipulate the economy of the coastal areas of the Qing Dynasty in this way.
It can be seen that wherever there is faith between countries, interests are always put first, and people have a greedy psychology.
Therefore, in the case that the Qing government was unable to mint coins, they really did not mind falling into the well in order to make huge profits.
Of course, all plans could only be carried out until Kuan Yong Tongbao really became popular in the Qing Dynasty. Therefore, at the beginning of trade, Japan was still very disciplined, and the Qianlong Emperor naturally would not prohibit the popularity of Kuanyong Tongbao, after all, he really did not have the ability to mint enough copper coins.
In the end, with the acquiescence of the Qianlong Emperor, Kuan Yong Tongbao became completely popular in China, and its influence became even greater and greater. According to historical records, some Jiangnan literati even used words such as "three years of Kuanyong" to mark the time when they wrote their articles. You know, this is the Japanese chronicle engraved on the currency! It can be seen that the influence of "Kuan Yong TongBao" is great.
In addition, when some japanese profiteers saw that the time was ripe, they could not wait to start privately minting the currency of "Kuan Yong Tong Bao" and putting it into the market, which seriously interfered with the market order and made the market almost collapse. Even the government's tax revenue has been greatly reduced, and the finances are facing a serious crisis. Such serious consequences sounded the alarm bell for many people of insight, and the governor of Liangguang and the governor of Jiangsu at that time played a warning to the Qianlong Emperor.
Qianlong attached great importance to it and immediately ordered that the use of the "Kuan yong Tongbao" should be stopped and that illegal merchants who minted money without permission be severely punished. Suddenly, the wind and cranes, Qianlong's decisiveness, and thoroughness quickly caught many Japanese people off guard and stopped their illegal behavior. Moreover, the local officials attached great importance to it and actively cracked down, so that the "Kuan Yong Tongbao" quickly disappeared from the market.
Today, we can only see this currency from some excavated artifacts in the southeast coastal area.
In fact, since ancient times, there have been private minting of copper coins by the people and seeking huge profits, and successive emperors have attached great importance to this. Because, as long as you ignore this, you will pay a heavy price for it, and even the throne will not be saved.
So, didn't so many ministers of the Qing Dynasty anticipate this? Why did it still make "Kuan Yong Tongbao" popular, and even control the Chinese market?
There are mainly the following reasons:
First, by the time the government perceived it, Kuan Yong Qian had already become popular in commercial trade, and even occupied half of the market share;
Second, the Qing government lacked the "copper" used to mint copper coins, even if Zheng Chenggong bought a large amount of copper in trade with Japan. Therefore, in order to fill the gap, the government decided to allow the "Kuan Yong TongBao" to be popular, adopting flexible policies and, of course, only a temporary measure. It can be said that it is precisely because of the government's permission that the "Kuan Yong Tongbao" has entered the field of currency circulation.
Kuan Yong qian is all over China's urban and rural areas, and it is even more common in the southeast coastal provinces. Since the era number "Kuanyong" cannot be found on the representative of the Chinese historical year, many beginners sometimes write to inquire. In fact, there are still many old ancient coins of neighboring countries circulating in China, such as the "Changping Tongbao" in North Korea and the "Jingxing Tongbao (Giant Treasure)" in Vietnam. It is the existence of these coins that reflects the great role played by China's ancient culture in history and culture, and has become a historical witness to the friendly exchanges between China and Japan and other neighboring countries.
Resources:
["Kuan Yong Tong Bao Qian", "Late Ming Dynasty Overseas Silver Internal Flow Research", "Yongle Tong Bao in the History of Sino-Japanese Exchanges"]