In ancient times, you must carry a heavy silver two to buy things, only silver is a symbol of wealth. Since silver is a rare metal, it is precisely because it is rare that it appears valuable, so how much is the silver in circulation in the circulation market now worth? I believe that many people are very curious about this, so they know the contrast between the two, and they also know which is higher and lower than the consumption power of ancient people and modern people.
Before silver, there were actually many forms of money, such as the earliest shell coins, copper coins, coins, etc. During the Tang and Han dynasties, the economy developed rapidly, and the value of copper coins was relatively small, so it could not meet the trading needs of merchants, and silver appeared. Silver is a very rare mineral with relatively high value, so it has become a high-value currency in the circulation market. By the time of the Ming Dynasty, silver had become the main circulating currency.
For a long time after this, silver has been the most important means of payment, so how much is this so-called silver worth? The answer to this question is complex and needs to be analyzed according to different periods.
To know the value of one or two pieces of silver, to compare the purchasing power of ancient and modern times, it is necessary to first choose a reference object, and the most suitable is grain.
Because whether it is ancient or modern, people are to eat, food is a daily necessity for people, and according to the corresponding value of food, the value of money can be compared.
Many people may see on TV that the ancients shopped a few, dozens, or even hundreds of two, thinking that silver is not valuable, in fact, these are misleading. The value of silver is very large at any time, because it is worth money in itself. Ordinary things actually do not need to use one or two silver, only loose copper coins are enough, when the silver is really used, it must be a relatively large value luxury.
During the Tang Dynasty, one or two pieces of silver represented one thousand pieces of money, and at that time, one or two pieces of silver could buy two thousand five hundred catties of rice. At present, one pound of rice costs about two yuan, which means that two thousand five hundred pounds of rice costs five thousand yuan. The value of one or two pieces of silver is not small, and you can buy a luxury product. By the time of the Song Dynasty, the currency had depreciated relatively, one or two pieces of silver represented two thousand yuan, while the price of rice was constantly rising, and one or two pieces of silver could barely buy eight hundred and forty catties. In the Ming Dynasty, the economy was sluggish, silver once again suffered depreciation, and now one or two silver can buy four hundred catties of rice, which is equivalent to more than seven hundred yuan. In the Qing Dynasty, although the economy was more developed, the number of silver in circulation became more and more valuable, and one or two pieces of silver were almost only worth more than two hundred yuan.
Now that everyone knows it, silver is still quite valuable when it first circulated, and one or two pieces of silver in the family can also be regarded as rich families, and two or two are considered to be ten thousand yuan households, and the purchasing power at that time was leveraged, much stronger than we thought. With the development of the times, the circulation of silver is more and more, and it becomes less and less valuable, and people's purchasing power has also decreased a lot. In fact, this is the truth of inflation, like the modern currency depreciation, which is an inevitable problem of the state in the circulation of money, almost every era is the same. In terms of the value of silver, the purchasing power of ancient people is definitely no less than that of modern times, and may even be greater than modern times.