Source | People's Tribune Magazine and People's Tribune (RMLTWZ)
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Leave the old and welcome the new auspicious, and the New Year red envelope is indispensable! For thousands of years, the development of China's currency has always revolved around the three main categories of copper coins, silver taels and banknotes. The form of issuance of money also reflects the renewal and iteration of China's currency. During the Ming and Qing dynasties, most coins were tied with red ropes, and from the Republican period, they became red paper bags containing money.
From traditional New Year money to "electronic red envelopes", what are the types of Chinese currency? What is its history? Let's take a look at this issue of "Reading History"!
The currency styles and materials of China's pre-Qin period are extremely rich, among which bronze coins are mainly cast, including knife shape, shovel shape, bridge shape, fish shape, round shape, shell shape, Ge shape and many other shapes. But if you want to ask what best represents the Chinese currency, the answer must be square hole round money. "Brother Kong Fang" is in the same vein as the pre-Qin Qin Qian Yuan, the difference is that the former is a square hole, and the latter is a round hole. At present, the earliest known square hole round money appeared in the Yan, Qi, Qin and other states during the Warring States period. But the biggest influence on later generations is Qin Banliangqian. The Qin Banliang Qian is said to have been minted in the second year of King Huiwen of Qin (336 BC), but the history books do not clearly record it, only mentioning the "first money" of this year. Qin Banliang should have originally been ten heavy weights, that is, twelve baht in real weight. After the peasant war at the end of the Qin Dynasty, by the beginning of the Han Dynasty (186 BC), the half-tael coin had been reduced to eight baht in real weight, and a few years later it was reduced to two baht and four baht (historically known as "five cents", the weight was one-fifth of the weight of half a tael). In the fifth year before Emperor Wen of Han (175 BC), due to the relatively stable social and economic development, the weight of half two coins increased from two baht to four baht (historically known as "three cents"), and by the first year of the founding of Emperor Wu of Han (140 BC), the weight dropped to three baht. A few years later (136 BC), the three baht money was abolished and changed to "half two coins", and the history books do not specify the actual weight of "half taels" here, suspected to be "three cents". All of the above proves that the weight of the half-taeld is not consistent, but constantly adjusted with the needs of the market, and is not worth enough in most periods (the most surviving "half-taeld" weighs about 13 grams, and the lightest "elm pod half-tael" is less than 0.5 grams).
In the fifth year of Yuangari (118 BC), Emperor Wudi of Han abolished "half two coins, five baht money", and during the subsequent 121-year minting period, the amount of minting was astronomical, and it was calculated that the average annual minting volume during this period was nearly 230 million. Until the abolition of the five-baht money in the fourth year of Tang Wude (621), it became the longest single-format minting period (up to 739 years) and the largest amount of metal casting in the history of world currency.
Through the combination of surviving cultural relics and historical materials, it can be seen that in the Chengdu area of Sichuan during the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the earliest era money in the history of Chinese currency, known as "Hanxing money", was minted by Li Shou in the southern suburbs of Chengdu as an empress (338). The Chinese year name money began with the Hanxing Qian and ended with the Qing Xuantong Tongbao (1912), and the minting period lasted about 1574. The development process of heavy money, year money and imaginary money is not sequential, but appears alternately or simultaneously according to the needs of monetary development. For example, Qingxianfeng heavy treasure has a heavy format such as "weighing five or two big money", which is both a year number money and a heavy money. This also confirms from the side that the development process of China's currency is not linear, but adjusted at any time according to actual needs.
Copper money period
Theoretically, the market circulation value of gold, silver, copper, iron, tin and other metal currencies should match the commodity value of the metals they contain, which is also the basic principle of Ji Zhongqian. However, in the actual circulation process, because the commodity value of metal fluctuates under the influence of mining, trade, transportation, man-made and other aspects, most of the period of heavy money is actually not worthy of the name. For example, although the face value of the five-baht money is five baht, the surviving physical objects and historical materials show that there are a large number of five-baht money weighing less than two baht, and this insufficient value of the historical weight money is called "elm pod money". According to the "Northern History", "the thin elm pod is broken, and it is placed on the water, and it is unsinkable." This kind of five-baht money that is not worth enough can actually float on the water, which shows its thinness!
The emergence of "elm pod money" is due to the minting cost of metal coinage. To process metal raw materials into metal currency, in addition to paying the cost of raw materials, you also need to pay other costs such as freight, labor, and fire consumption. Serious discipline means that drumming will inevitably "lose money". Therefore, successive officials have used cheaper metals than copper, such as lead and iron, to replace the amount of copper used when drumming, or directly reduce weight to solve the problem of "losing money". According to the Book of Han, "If the love of money is not mixed into coincidence, it cannot be won." This means that when drumming, you cannot make a profit without mixing cheap metals. However, doping with cheap metals can lead to a flood of the market with more impurities or thinner currency, while higher-quality currency is hoarded and withdrawn from circulation. Therefore, on the one hand, the official needs to maintain the quality of metal money to stabilize the original commodity pricing system, and on the other hand, it is necessary to add an appropriate amount of impurities or reduce weight to reduce the cost of minting when drumming. This also constitutes the main contradiction in the development of metal money.
Whenever there is a phenomenon of "copper expensive money" in the market, that is, the value of the metal contained in copper money is higher than the circulating value of copper money. There will be arbitrage phenomena such as cutting the edges of copper coins, financing money to sell copper, and exporting copper coins, resulting in the so-called "drum casting black hole problem", that is, on the one hand, the official continues to cast copper coins, on the other hand, the copper coins in circulation continue to decrease. The reason is that the people continue to sell copper coins for arbitrage, and the copper coins cast by the official drum are like being sucked away by a "black hole". At this time, it is necessary for the official to regulate and control, on the one hand, to implement the copper ban policy, that is, the "Book of Han" contains, "copper is returned to the top, and the copper is accumulated to protect the weight", so that the copper money after being sold and melted loses the channel of monetization, thereby reducing the phenomenon of molten money arbitrage. On the other hand, the export of copper money is strictly restricted, such as the Southern Song Dynasty's "Qingyuan Article Legal Affairs" stipulates: "Those who use copper money to leave the Chinese border shall be sentenced to three years." In addition, the official can also increase the proportion of copper money in taxes through fiscal policy, and then regulate the amount of copper money on the market, so that metal copper and copper money always maintain a relatively stable price relationship.
On the contrary, the phenomenon of "copper cheap money is expensive" will be formed, that is, the value of the metal contained in copper money is lower than its circulation value, and the copper money in circulation will indirectly become fictitious money. At this time, arbitrage phenomena such as buying copper private casting, imitation casting, and the inflow of overseas copper money will emerge among the people, which is the formation mechanism of "bad money driving out good money". At this time, it is necessary to officially collect and exchange bad money, otherwise excessive flooding of the market with bad money will disrupt the original commodity pricing system and cause a depression in commodity circulation. For example, in the fifth year of Tang Xianqing (661), "with a lot of evil money under the world, let the officials privately pay five evil money and one good money to redeem it"; Another example is that in the seventeenth year of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1752), a large number of Japanese "Kuanyong money" appeared in the coastal areas, and the official immediately carried out a 1:2 collection, "buying every person who paid Kuanyong money to the official and giving a large amount of money." The sensitivity of Chinese officials to the flood of bad money in the market can be seen.
Silver Age
The use of silver as a weighing currency in China can be traced back to the State of Chu in the Spring and Autumn Period. At present, the silver currency of the Chu State that has been unearthed has three forms: shovel, plate, and cake, and it is necessary to weigh and calculate the value when used. Silver weighing currency, also known as silver taels, has a market circulation value based primarily on the commodity value of the metal silver it contains. Essentially, silver taels are a kind of heavy money with full reserves. Because the silver-copper ratio of the same weight has been maintained at about 1:100 for a long time, the silver taels are more like copper coins whose value has been magnified a hundred times. For example, in the eighth year of Ming Hongwu (1375), it was stipulated that "every banknote is consistent, and the money is allowed to be a thousand letters, and silver is one or two", and in the forty-first year of the Kangxi Dynasty of the Qing Dynasty (1702), a new coin was cast, stipulating that "every thousand characters should be made into silver one or two".
Since China has not historically been a major silver producer, the monetization of silver needs to be supported by a strong foreign trade surplus (silver inflow). The silver circulation area of the Tang Dynasty was also a more prosperous area for foreign trade, especially the Lingnan region in the middle and late Tang Dynasty. The Old Book of Tang records that when Wang Wei was serving as an envoy to Lingnan, he "sent more than ten boats a day... When the Zhou Dynasty was born, the cycle continued", and there were records such as "from Lingling to the south, with gold and silver as currency", "Five Ridges bought and sold one with silver", "Lingnan miscellaneous gold and silver" and so on. It can be seen that with the development of foreign trade in the Guangdong region of the Tang Dynasty, silver monetization has become relatively mature. However, in regions where foreign trade is not prosperous, silver's monetary application is still relatively small. With the development of the Maritime Silk Road, a steady stream of silver flowed. By the Song Dynasty, silver taels had been widely used as commodity pricing standards, and the "History of Song" recorded that in the eighth year of the Taiping Xingguo (983), Xiang Gong "presented the north garden of Changxiamen in Xijing, and paid it with 5,000 taels of silver", and Meng Yuan of the Southern Song Dynasty said: "Promote weaving (crickets)... There are one or two silver for sale", it can be seen that in the Hangzhou area of the Southern Song Dynasty, even the private trading of crickets began to be priced in silver taels.
With the great geographical discovery and the development of foreign trade, a large number of Spanish-Mexican silver coins (commonly known as "hoe silver", irregular blocks, with 5 kinds of face values) flowed into the southeast coast of the middle and late Ming Dynasty; By the late Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty, Spanish Mexican silver coins (at this time in the form of "double-pillar silver coins") were widely circulated, as can be seen from the compromise of Li Gongyao, then governor of Fujian and Zhejiang. In the fifty-second year of Qianlong of the Qing Dynasty (1787), in response to the uprising of Lin Shuangwen in Taiwan, Fujian Province urgently transferred money and silver to Taiwan. However, due to the "customs of Taiwan customs", foreign silver money needs to be exchanged for silver coins in the Fujian market and then shipped to Taiwan. In a short period of time, Li Gongyao exchanged silver taels into silver coins from the markets of Fuzhou, Quanzhou, Zhangzhou, Xiamen and other places, and asked Guangdong Province for assistance in exchanging them, because "Guangdong Province is accustomed to using foreign money." Sun Shiyi, the governor of Liangguang, immediately allocated 400,000 taels of silver "according to the market price, and it will be easy to exchange foreign money for Fujian to receive help." It can be seen that a large number of silver coins have been circulated in the southeast coastal provinces in the late Qianlong period of the Qing Dynasty.
In the Qing Daoguang period, Lin Zexu indicated in the fold, "The use of foreign banks is different from province to province. It was first only used in Guangdong, Fujian, and gradually in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Jiangsu." Since then, the circulation area of silver coins has continued to expand, and the legal tender "Yuan Datou" in the Republic of China period reached a historical peak. Since silver coins are not made of full silver, they are a silver fictitious value for Chinese grained silver (hypothetical full standard silver). In actual circulation, silver coins also produced a higher monetary premium, and Ma Shi, an American who worked in Qing Dynasty customs, recorded, "Chinese... Get it at a price that far exceeds its reality". The currency premium provides room for imitators to make a profit, resulting in the imitation of silver coins.
Banknote period
Banknotes are essentially a fictitious value and are designed with anti-counterfeiting in mind. For example, in the Song Dynasty, "Jiaozi" used a multi-color overprint pattern for anti-counterfeiting, and stamped with the official seal for anti-counterfeiting. Since the private engraving of official seals has been a felony in China throughout the ages, it is enough to make counterfeiters daunted. On the other hand, the imitation of metal coinage is much easier than banknotes, and the imitator only needs to melt the metal into the mold to form it, and it is difficult to be detected by the market. Chinese banknotes can be roughly divided into two categories, one is officially issued, called "official notes" or "treasure banknotes", mainly through the affixing of official seals and multi-color overprint patterns for anti-counterfeiting. The other type is issued by private financial institutions or shops, called "banker tickets" or "private tickets", mainly through industry text codes and trade names for anti-counterfeiting.
The original meaning of a banknote is a kind of exchange voucher with collateral. Collateral can be precious metals, foreign exchange, copper coins, commodities, or credit from countries, banks, companies, etc. The term banknote has a broader meaning than paper money, the former texture includes paper, cloth, plastic and other materials, in Chinese history collectively called the Chinese currency (originally refers to the bark fiber), while the latter is only based on paper. As a representative of non-metallic imaginary value, banknotes have long appeared on the Chinese currency stage. There are many theories about the beginning of Chinese banknote making, but regardless of the point of view, banknotes have a history of at least a thousand years in China, much earlier than other countries. Because banknotes are convenient to carry and have anti-counterfeiting functions, they effectively alleviate the phenomenon of "bad money driving out good money" caused by "copper cheap money", and are an important booster for promoting the development of commodity economy. However, the issuance of banknotes needs to be supported by strong credit, otherwise it is like waste paper, or even cheaper than the price of paper, such as gold round coupons and silver round coupons during the Republic of China.
The invention of banknotes not only had a profound impact on the development of China's currency, but also led the trend of world currency development. In the Yuan Dynasty, Wang Dayuan wrote in the Luo Hu (present-day Thailand) article of the "Island Yi Zhiluo", "The law uses the money of the bunzi as a substitute for money, and the circulation is exercised, and every ten thousand quasi-Chinese banknotes are twenty-four taels, which is very convenient for the people." This meant that the Yuan Dynasty banknotes could be used directly into local currency in present-day Thailand. In addition, the Persian historian Rasht recorded in his "Collected History" that the present-day Iranian region issued banknotes in the capital in 1294, which is modeled on the Yuan Dynasty Zhongtong banknote, which shows the far-reaching influence of Chinese banknotes. Ming banknotes were also widely used in diplomatic situations and as rewards. Obviously, Chinese banknotes developed into the Yuan and Ming dynasties, not only dominated the domestic currency circulation market, but also were widely exported overseas.
Throughout the history of China's currency, its development path is not linear, but presents a passive development law under market fluctuation conditions. In the process of the development of metal money dominated by copper coins, the phenomenon of selling and private minting together constitutes the main contradiction in the development of China's currency. The monetization of silver and banknotes is on the one hand a countermeasure to the phenomenon of metal currency sales and private minting, and on the other hand, it is also in line with the rolling torrent of historical development.
The above has been slightly deleted
From | People's Tribune magazine in December
Original title | Types of Chinese currencies and their development history
Author | Zheng Beijun, professor and doctoral supervisor of the School of Economics, Zhejiang University
New Media Editor | Liu Xuan
Original article responsible editor | Sun Yao