As we all know, the Republic of China is a relatively chaotic era, although for many modern scholars, it is a very beautiful era, but for the common people is a period of poor livelihood.
In the beginning, the living standards of the people were very low, and then they encountered a very serious stage of price appreciation, so the people have begun to abandon the official currency and hoard gold.
Perhaps we modern people cannot understand that in those days only gold could buy things, and other people could hardly buy goods even if they had more paper money. It is also in this context that the gold of the Republic of China has become a frequent number, so all communication activities are based on how many grains of gold. So the question is, in the Republic of China period, a piece of gold is roughly equivalent to how much money in modern times?
Regarding the ancient monetary changes, there were actually different stages. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, the official currencies were copper coins and silver, and gold was not a commonly used currency at that time. For example, when Qing dynasty officials paid indemnities, they were all in units of silver, while ordinary people generally used copper coins as a means of exchange.
However, the Qing Dynasty soon went bankrupt, and after the Qing Dynasty ushered in a new stage, this stage is known as the Republic of China period.
It should be said that the feudal system is coming to an end and the era of democracy is coming, then the country will inevitably develop steadily, and the original chaotic monetary system should be reformed. But unfortunately, although the remnants of feudalism were dead but not rigid, first the restoration incidents that appeared in turn, followed by frequent foreign interference in the revolutionary ideas of the country, and later the rude intervention of the Japanese.
During this period, although a warlord leader was briefly killed, Chiang Kai-shek, and also briefly proposed the New Life Movement, but also proposed legal tender reform. Unfortunately, Chiang Kai-shek's New Life movement was too short-lived, and the legal tender reform failed to get rid of the economic chaos that followed.
In the "Life History of the Silver Dollar Era", it is recorded that in the era of legal currency reform, when the economy was relatively stable, a meal of two chickens (eggs) and a piece of oil cake for breakfast only needed 4 copper circles, the price was relatively standard, and the people could also carry out basic life through copper coins.
But helplessly, the subsequent surge in prices, especially the necessities of life, is even more incomprehensibly high. In the past, 1 stone of rice only cost 14 yuan, and later in the war period, 14 yuan could only buy two pounds of rice, and even later a dollar could only eat a bowl of rice.
Moreover, according to historical records, when the Japanese invaded, the Japanese were occupied by our side behind enemy lines, so they could not convert the resources of the occupied areas into their own combat strength, so they could only plunder the resources by issuing legal tender. During this period, Chiang Kai-shek and the Japanese government started printing machines at the same time, and they were frantically raising prices, so that later paper money became waste paper that no one wanted, and 100 yuan could not necessarily buy a chicken.
Against such a horrific backdrop, paper money lost its purchasing power, and everyone began to collect gold. This is actually quite understandable, although legal tender is a legal currency recognized by the government, but gold is the basic currency recognized by the whole world, and looking around the entire historical period, gold is a stable general equivalent.
At the beginning, it was represented by Chiang Kai-shek, and several major families frantically hoarded gold, and then the common people also saw this sign, and also began to buy gold in large quantities, exchanging the paper money in hand for gold, in order to face the terrible era of price surge.
In the process, gold is minted into the basic currency, but gold is not as bad as we think, and is roughly divided into two types. A type of gold was known as the yellow croaker, and the official weight at the time was twelve, equivalent to 312.5 grams today. This gold was often used by bureaucrats and military forces such as Chiang Kai-shek as a strategic reserve, to buy arms or to sell supplies.
For example, some Kuomintang officers we often see in TV dramas are holding a box of gold when they are paid, and when they open it, they are called big yellow croakers.
Of course, the price of this kind of yellow croaker is very expensive, and in the era of relatively stable prices, Mr. Lu Xun once bought a set of courtyards with three large yellow croakers. It can be seen that the unit price of these large yellow croakers is almost equivalent to the current 10,000 yuan bill.
Some scholars have carried out a meticulous conversion, today's gold price is about 400 yuan, even if it is relatively stable, it is also the price of 350 yuan a gram, so for simple conversion, the price of yellow croaker is equivalent to 100,000 yuan. Of course, this is only a simple conversion, because in the war years, the price of basic goods soared, but some things became worthless. For example, 10 yuan can buy a 14-year-old girl, 15 yuan can buy a strong laborer, and even form a gang with a big yellow croaker, which is very different from now.
Of course, with the big yellow croaker, there are naturally small yellow croakers, which are used by the richer people in the upper echelons, and the small yellow croakers are the reserves used by the more ordinary people to avoid natural disasters and man-made disasters. According to the data, the weight of the small yellow croaker is about one or two, which is about equal to the current 10,000 yuan.
Many low-level people use the savings of generations to be nothing more than a small yellow fish, and these things can save lives in times of crisis, sometimes they can buy a few months of food, and sometimes they can buy a life.
It can be seen from the above content that in the era of the Republic of China, when the soldiers were in chaos, the life of the common people was very difficult. In the past, we used to joke on the Internet that everyone in Zimbabwe was a billionaire, but they couldn't buy a piece of cake for hundreds of millions of dollars, and we thought that the people at that time were too pitiful. But in fact, in the Republic of China era, we also had such a tragic period, when we were forced to abandon the paper money and turned to the feudal era, with heavy metals as the basic circulating currency, we are actually similar to Zimbabwe.
But fortunately, the war of that year has passed, and if anyone has stored large yellow croaker or small yellow croaker in the Republic of China era, it can now be used as an antique and can be sold at a very good price.
Again, the Old Saying, the Republic of China is not a beautiful era, no matter how beautiful it is, it is only the beauty of cultural people and high society, and we ordinary people are more concerned about prices and life. Perhaps for the older generation in the Republic of China period, the autumn of 10,000 Yu Dafu is not as good as a small yellow fish, or a bowl of rice.
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