Money has a long history, it was born to facilitate transactions between people, money itself may not be valuable, ancient times used many things as money, but they can measure the value of goods in transactions, is the market gives them value, money is the medium to buy goods, preserve wealth. Today, there is a complete system of laws in the development of currency, and world globalization allows currency to smooth the world through exchange rates, but in backward ancient times, the use of money is not so convenient.
For example, in Sichuan in the Song Dynasty, people in the province used iron money, and once they went out of the province, they could no longer use iron money to trade, because everyone used copper money, so they would exchange copper money in the iron shop in advance, and people from other provinces also needed to exchange currency if they wanted to come to Sichuan. It is recorded in historical records that when Su Dongpo and his brother were going from Sichuan to Kaifeng, they needed to go to a place where they could exchange currency, and they could only continue walking with copper money.
There was also a set of currency exchange rates in ancient times, but the ratios changed in different dynasties and places. At that time, the ratio was "one copper coin sold for four iron coins", that is, one copper coin was exchanged for four iron coins, but during the Song Taizong period, the ratio changed, and one copper coin could be exchanged for eight iron coins. In this way, the purchasing power of iron money at that time was not high, and people in Sichuan Province were using iron money, and when carrying out large transactions, it is conceivable that iron money would be carried by car, even if it was a small transaction, it was extremely inconvenient for people to carry.
It is because of this dilemma that the Song Dynasty gave birth to a new invention, some people in Sichuan Province printed paper money, named it Jiaozi, portable banknotes once issued have been widely used by businessmen, but at this time it is only "private" Jiaozi, the official has not yet recognized, and has not been issued, but in Sichuan, its value has exceeded the prescribed face value, in a large transaction, businessmen will give preference to paper money. When Su Zhi was a child, the circulation of banknotes was not high, there had been no inflation, "a hundred can be bought consistently", and a thousand-wen banknote could be exchanged for 1,100 iron coins.
When the circulation of Jiaozi became high, there was inflation at this time, and near the end of the year, Jiaozi depreciated, and a thousand yuan of Jiaozi could only be exchanged for more than 900 iron money. And the place of exchange is still in the iron shop, when there is a large amount of iron money to trade, people often choose to push the cart to carry the iron money to exchange for paper money, because the face value of the hand is very large, which can be convenient for people to carry, but it is precisely because the face value of the paper money is large, it is not convenient to use in daily life, so some people will exchange paper money for iron money.
The convenience of banknotes was recognized, and gradually Jiaozi began to go out of Sichuan, and by the Southern Song Dynasty, banknotes were renamed "huizi", and had been publicly issued throughout the country, and the printing and issuance of banknotes was managed by officials. Banknotes issued in different emperor periods have a certain period of time, such as banknotes during the Song Gaozong period cannot be used during the Song Xiaozong period, and after the new emperor takes the throne, there is a new version of the huizi, and people need to exchange the huizi in their hands for a new one.
Although the government uniformly issues currency throughout the country, not the people in every region can accept the use of the huizi, and with the large issuance of the huizi, there will be different degrees of inflation, which leads to the exchange rate of the huizi and copper money is constantly fluctuating, and even the exchange rate of the old and new huizi is changing. In the early days of Emperor Gaozong of Song, "money leads to sell copper money consistently", and a meeting with a face value of 1,000 characters can be exchanged for 1,000 copper coins, and after more than ten years, "money leads ten ways, and the market price is four times", and the value of paper money is greatly reduced.
But why does the exchange rate change between the old and new clubs with the same denomination? In the middle of the reign of the Southern Song Dynasty, when the ruler changed, the common people went to change the new meeting, but were told that 1,000 new coins needed to be exchanged for 1,300 old coins, and the old coins would not be recognized by the state, and they could only exchange more money for less money, which was a kind of exploitation of the people by the state, and the government was manipulating the exchange rate and exploiting the people's hard-earned money.
Lu You once calculated that he believed that the state has been issuing paper money, resulting in excessive issuance, which makes the money in people's hands have been depreciating, "the currency has been light, the fold has been very much, and one million reels can only be used for 800,000 threads", and the last sentence means that a meeting of 1,000 words can only be exchanged for 800 copper coins. It is not difficult to think that the loss of these two hundred letters was taken away by the government, such an act is essentially theft, big thieves do not steal, the government with absolute power can change the exchange rate, raise prices, they can get the money in the pockets of the people for nothing.
In the five years of Shaoding, the state issued more than 329 million huizi, and there will be forged huizi mixed into it for circulation, and the state continued to issue huizi in order to meet military needs, and the entire country's huizi reached 650 million, which led to the vicious expansion of the currency. In the ninth year of Chunyou, each meeting was exchanged for six million copper coins, and in the fifth year of Jingding, the meeting was abandoned, and the state issued the "See Money Guanzi", each exchange for 770 copper coins, and after Yuan Bing went south, these banknotes were replaced by "banknotes".