As the saying goes, "Three years in the Qing prefect, 100,000 snowflakes of silver", satirize the corruption of officials with high silver and two incomes. Since the appearance of gold and silver in human society, it has been sought after as a precious metal. With the development of productive forces and the progress of human society, they are gradually used as money and have a closer relationship with people.
The ancient monetary system of the mainland was very complicated, not only had metal currencies such as gold, silver and copper coins, but also paper money such as Jiaozi, and even grain and cloth could be used for transaction settlement. The use of silver in the money market can be traced back to the Han Dynasty, which has a history of more than two thousand years, until the advent of modern money, silver ended this process.
The "snowflake silver" that people often call it is actually a full-value silver ingot minted by the official and used for trading. Due to the restriction of the level of minting and the phenomenon of "bad money expelling good money", the color and value of "snowflake silver" are different from the specified standards. Perhaps people today can't imagine that the true face of "snowflake silver" is actually a currency with teeth marks and dirt on the surface.
First, the application process, a long history
Compared with the original use of silver as a currency in the Han Dynasty, the discovery and utilization of silver ore in China was much earlier. According to archaeological evidence, as one of the earliest countries in the world to discover and use silver mines, China has a record of using silver as jewelry and decoration as early as the Neolithic Age.
From the Spring and Autumn Warring States to the Han Dynasty tombs are full of silver collars, silver earrings and other ornaments, the history books record that there are more than ten silver mines that can be excavated. It can be seen that at this time, the mining, smelting and production process of silver by the ancients have been relatively mature. With the further expansion of the currency market, silver was gradually used as a currency.
During the Han Dynasty, silver officially became one of the official currencies, but because silver mine development was not much and the scope of use was not widespread, and most of them were cast into silver cakes or silver plates, there was still a considerable distance from the well-known silver ingots. It was not until the large-scale excavation and smelting during the Tang and Song dynasties that a sufficient amount of silver was available as currency, and the scope of use began to expand.
In the Ming Dynasty, "silver two" was widely used, according to the "History of Ming", at that time, there was a situation in which "the rate of government and opposition all used silver, and the small ones used money", and the use of silver two was even more extensive than copper coins. The reason behind this is that silver, as a precious metal, is more valuable than copper coins, so it has been favored by people.
The developed commodity trade in the Jiangnan region in the middle and late Ming Dynasty brought fire to the use of silver. Paying with "snowflake silver" became a popular phenomenon at that time. Literati and inkers, in writing novels and operas, consciously or unconsciously added these elements of life, thus giving people the illusion that the use of silver is a very common one.
In fact, the use of silver is mainly because with the increase of large transactions, copper coins alone can not complete the transaction, and gold is too precious, silver is undoubtedly more suitable for these transactions. This has led to the widespread use of silver, and for ordinary people, the use of silver is not so extensive.
And just as the so-called "sticks can not defeat the economic law", silver for money and minted into silver ingots, indeed has many advantages, but this scope of use has reached the peak of silver use, the size of the economy is doomed to the scope of silver use, after the scenery of silver use will gradually appear "bad money to expel good money" Problem.
Second, bad money is full of bad money, and tooth marks are tested
In ancient times, the officially minted "snowflake silver" initially paid great attention to the content and color of silver to ensure the stability of the currency market. However, with the widespread use of silver, many people have moved their minds. They minted and melted the silver they received and mixed it into other metals, thus obtaining "bad money" with greatly reduced color and value.
The emergence of these "bad currencies" has affected and impacted people's production and life. In order to protect their interests from being harmed in the transaction, people naturally have to use various ways to identify the color and value of the silver they receive. Unlike the novels, which often use two as a unit of measurement, the ancients generally did not involve such a high amount of silver in transactions.
At that time, people would cut the silver ingots they received with scissors and become broken silver in circulation in the market. To test the quality of silver, people chose a very simple and crude way - to bite with their teeth. This is because the full value of silver is very soft and can bite teeth marks, while the "bad money" mixed with lead and mercury is mostly hard and cannot bite teeth marks.
In this way, in order to identify the value of silver, the ancient "snowflake silver" inevitably stained people's tooth marks on the surface, and with the increase of use time, "snowflake silver" is no longer "snowflake". What's going on here?
Third, stained with dirt, it is difficult to recognize when it falls to the ground
Because a large amount of insufficient silver exists in the market, people are mostly following the tide for their own interests, and they are no longer willing to use the silver of their own sufficient value for trading. In this way, most of the silver on the market cannot withstand the long-term use of "snowflake silver".
Due to the incorporation of inferior raw materials, the silver made of this impurity is easily oxidized and deteriorated in the air, which is reflected in the color that it will turn yellow and black, and the appearance is very ugly. Over time, tooth marks were mixed with the metamorphism of impurities, and the synthesis led to the ancient "snowflake silver" from pure white to a rather ugly black color.
In this way, the original precious metal silver has changed from a full-value currency to an oddly colored "bad currency", and it is no exaggeration to say that if it falls to the ground, people may not be able to recognize it. In addition, because of the infestation of bad money, the status of silver in the trading market has gradually declined, and the government even has to enforce the color of silver when collecting taxes and silver.
During the Qing Dynasty, the official implementation of the silver money parallel monetary system, stipulating that the exchange unit of copper coins and silver coins is one thousand copper coins that can be exchanged for one or two full-value tattooed silver. For the widespread occurrence of bad money, the imperial court has no way to completely eliminate it, and can only introduce relevant exchange rules, and silver and copper coins of different colors have different exchange rules.
However, because silver, a precious metal currency based on stock, has dynamic flows in its market value and exchange rules, it is difficult to have a real pricing standard, and the use of silver is therefore in a state of confusion.
After the Opium War, Western colonialists rushed to invade China and plunder and squeeze China's economic trade. Unlike the paper money based on national credit that was commonly used in the West at that time, China's silver and silver did not have a unified standard from beginning to end, allowing western colonists to unilaterally formulate exchange standards, and economic interests were seriously damaged.
During the Republic of China period, the Beiyang military government promoted the use of silver coins, which is commonly known as "Yuan Datou", silver dollars were widely circulated, and "snowflake silver" gradually withdrew from the historical stage. After 1933, the National Government officially promulgated the "Decree on the Abolition of the Two Reforms", which announced the complete withdrawal of "snowflake silver" from the legal level.
brief summary:
Marx has a profound summary of the phenomenon of gold and silver as precious metals as money, "gold and silver are naturally not money, but money is naturally gold and silver", which generally illustrates the process of silver as money. From the beginning of its existence, silver did not act as currency, but because precious metals such as gold and silver could withstand the passage of time at full value, they could be used as currency.
Since silver as a currency, it has undergone a process of widespread use, and because the economic principle of "bad money expelling good money" has finally made the ancient "snowflake silver" gradually degenerate into an inferior currency that cannot be recognized when it falls on the ground, which is actually dominated by unbreakable objective laws.
Then again, although the "snowflake silver" was reduced to a bad currency with a face full of toothmark dirt, and even if it fell on the ground, it was the effective currency at that time in any case. That is to say, even if the contrast between "snowflake silver" is so large, if it really falls on the ground, someone is still willing to pick it up and use it.
References: History of the Ming Dynasty, Draft History of the Qing Dynasty
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