Speaking of money, presumably everyone will not feel strange, and the related sayings are not in the minority, such as "having money can make ghosts push and grind, no money can still shave the head of ghosts", "money is not omnipotent, but no money is impossible", "do not believe and look at the wine in the table, cups and cups first respect the rich", etc., recently there is a sentence circulating on the Internet: "The world panics, but it is a few pieces of broken silver, but this broken silver is a few two, can solve the world's tens of thousands of panics"
Whether it is ancient broken silver, or modern money, essentially money, its definition is "the product of commodity exchange", that is, the so-called "general equivalent", the mainland has a long history, is one of the earliest countries in the world to use currency, according to research, as early as 4,000 years ago, the ancients have used money to exchange goods.
The ancients made a great contribution to the history of the development of money, and silver bills appeared in them. In people's impression, the ancient level of productivity, science and technology is relatively backward, ancient silver bills are not as advanced as modern paper money, ancient silver bills are a piece of paper, why no one to fake?
First, the development of ancient money
The earliest currency used by the ancients, for natural shells, in hieroglyphs, can also find obvious basis, now the value of Chinese characters, such as "wealth, purchase, greed, poverty, expensive...", all contain a "shell" next to the word, because the shells of the sea in the Central Plains are scarce, with the progress of civilization, natural shells are insufficient, it was born artificial imitation shells, the most typical is the Spring and Autumn Warring States period "copper imitation shells"
Metal currencies have appeared on the historical stage, from the gold of the Qin Dynasty, the silver that became popular at the end of the Tang Dynasty, and then to the copper coinage that has been used for the longest time, currency has played a key role in the prosperity of the ancient Chinese nation.
In the history of ancient currency development, the most critical period was the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty's commodity economy began to prosper, especially Sichuan, as the country of Tianfu, the prosperous scene is unparalleled in the world. In the process of commodity circulation, the traditional metal currency has a drawback, when the Sichuan generation is passed by iron money, buying a piece of cloth, it takes a full five hundred pounds of iron money, even if it is replaced with gold and silver, it is difficult to carry.
In order to solve this problem, sichuan merchants invented "Jiaozi", which is the world's earliest paper money. Initially, Jiaozi was only freely distributed and circulated among Sichuan merchants, and the portability of Jiaozi was generally welcomed, and large and small "Jiaozi shops" began to mushroom.
In the first year of the Reign of Emperor Renzong of Song, the imperial court began to establish a special organ in charge of paper money, called "JiaozhiWu", and began to issue "official jiaozi", and the first edition of paper money printed by the official government began to exist in history.
By the Yuan Dynasty, the official printing and printing of paper money had become popular, and Marco Polo, a merchant from Venice, wrote this grand event in his "Marco Polo Travels", and Westerners began to have the consciousness of printing and distributing paper money.
Second, the anti-counterfeiting of ancient silver bills
Compared with metal currency, silver bills have natural benefits, silver bills are easy to carry, easy to circulate, and more able to promote economic development, at the same time, metal currency in the process of use, more or less will wear, rust and other conditions, and silver bills will not.
At the same time, silver tickets also have the advantages of easy storage and low cost of production.
Of course, there is a favorable side to everything, there is also a disadvantage, silver bills are more demanding than metal currency, and the conditions for storage are more stringent. More importantly, if the necessary means are not taken, silver bills are prone to counterfeiting. So, in what ways did the ancients avoid the appearance of forged silver bills on the market?
First of all, in the choice of raw materials for silver tickets, is the first line of defense, ancient silver tickets, the use of special paper, for example, the Song Dynasty period of paper money, is Sichuan paper, the Ming Dynasty is mulberry paper, and in the Qing Dynasty, the use of Koryo paper, these paper in the era, are belonging to the "tribute paper", ordinary people are difficult to find this kind of paper.
Secondly, in the production process of silver tickets, it is another line of defense. Ancient silver tickets, for engraving printing, employ highly skilled engraving masters, specifically responsible for the carving of the template, and once the template is made, it is difficult to be responsible, even if the same engraving master, can no longer carve out the exact same template. In addition, there are various delicate patterns and patterns on the silver tickets, which increases the difficulty of counterfeiting.
Finally, in the anti-counterfeiting of silver tickets, it is the most confidential line of defense. The ancients would engrave several marks on the template of the silver ticket, and these marks are not easy to detect, they are confidential, once there is a forged silver ticket, the marks in the comparison can be quickly distinguished.
Most importantly, the relevant laws. Silver tickets are printed with the seal of the official government, forgery of the seal of the official government, itself is a felony to kill the head, in the Southern Song Dynasty, there was already a "pseudo-Society" law, which clearly stipulates that those who forge paper money will be executed, and those who report forgers will be rewarded with silver, good punishment is clear, and the two-pronged approach can naturally curb the forgery of silver tickets to a large extent.
On the side of the silver ticket, there will be a line similar to the word "forger chop", so no one dares to take the risk of forging the silver ticket.