In ancient times, we all know that there was a lot of silver, because the ancient circulating currency was silver. Once during the Qing Dynasty, there was a fire in Guangzhou, which caused the thirteen elements of Guangzhou to do business with foreigners to be burned by the fire, but the history books recorded that this fire melted the silver in the thirteen lines, and the melted silver flowed to the road, condensed, and even blocked the road.
China used to have so much silver, where is it now? One direction is to become the streets and alleys of gold and silver products, because people like to wear gold and silver, so a considerable part of the silver, into everyone's daily life jewelry.
There is also a direction, that is, industrial use. As we all know, silver has good electrical conductivity, so in industry, on some of the more expensive and sophisticated instruments, people often use silver to replace the role of copper. Not only that, silver, this element, but also has the effect of sterilization and disinfection, so a lot of silver is also used in food processing and medical and health fields.
In addition, limited by the ancient mining technology and processing technology, the most circulating currency used in ancient times is copper coins, and only the purchase of mass goods, or in large households, there is silver. In addition, the ancient nobles generally liked thick burials, so a large amount of silver was used to make funerary products and did not circulate in the market.
There is another reason, which is historical reasons. We all know that in modern Times, China was bullied by the great powers, who stole a large amount of silver from China through unequal treaties. In any case, factories were opened Chinese mainland to further squeeze Chinese. Prior to this, the British had sold opium, which led to a large outflow of silver from China. As a result, there is less silver. It is for these reasons that it is difficult to see silver now.