The academic concept of money is that we fix the commodity in the process of commodity exchange as a general equivalent, simply as we understand "money", its role and importance needless to say.
From ancient times to the present, people's exchange methods have changed with the development of productivity levels, from the initial exchange of goods to the later exchange of money, and money has been continuously adjusted at different times to better meet the needs of social development. Because ancient China was an agricultural society, to study whether the social prices at that time were high or suitable for the people, the best choice was to see whether their purchasing power of food was strong.
However, after all, ancient Chinese society is too far away from the present, and because prices are still affected by national policies, economic development levels and industry market conditions, it is still difficult to get accurate numerical comparisons. So let's take a look at the Republican period, which is relatively close to us, and understand how we looked at the price level at that time?
1. What are the types of currencies before the Republic of China?
Shell coins. It is the earliest currency on the mainland, barter is the most important way of exchange in the primitive society period, after the development of productive forces can exchange more and more types of goods, physical exchange is more and more inconvenient, people need more light and strong, easy to carry currency, so there is a shell. In the Xia Dynasty, shells became the original currency, mainly sea shells and freshwater shells, and their use was very common in the Shang Dynasty. Later, in order to meet people's needs, bone shells, stone shells, tao shells, copper shells, etc. appeared, and it was not until Qin Shi Huang unified the currency. I don't know if you have found that most of the Chinese characters related to money contain "shell", such as loan, finance, trade, poverty, etc.
During the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, because of the division of the group, the forces were diverse, and the corresponding types of currencies were more abundant, such as cloth money, knife money, round money, mosquito nose money, etc., which were all important parts of the ancient monetary system.
Coins. This is very familiar, it is the standard currency stipulated by Qin Shi Huang, gold is the upper coin, copper money is the lower currency. The shape of the copper coin is a round square hole, because each copper coin weighs half a tael (that is, twelve baht at that time), so the word "half two" is engraved on the face. Although the weight of copper coins was gradually reduced by later dynasties, its appearance was basically unchanged and became the basic currency of China's feudal society. During the Tang Gaozu period, the copper coins of "Kaiyuan Tongbao" were minted in one piece, and ten letters weighed one or two, and in order to be more refined, they also changed to decimal two, money, cent, centi, and other units, and copper coins also entered the stage of year number money.
Ingots. Yuanbao originated in the Tang Dynasty, according to the available documents and unearthed cultural relics can be known that the Tang Dynasty called it "silver collar", and later the Yuan Dynasty's treasury melted silver into "ingots" weighing 50 taels each, and renamed it "Yuanbao", which means "treasure of the Yuan Dynasty".
Folding money. The earliest banknotes are the "flying money" of the Tang Dynasty, but because it is relatively narrow in use and has not formed a scale, it is generally said to be relatively small, and we call the "Jiaozi" spawned by the development of the commodity economy of the Song Dynasty the first generation of banknotes. It was born because of China's lack of precious metals, the economic development of the Tang and Song Dynasties increased the demand for copper money, in order to solve this dilemma, the official chose iron money, but the iron money is too heavy and not conducive to trade and transportation, so there is a light handover.
2. What is the purchasing power of an ocean in the Republic of China?
The silver dollar, commonly known as "foreign money" and also commonly known as "Great Ocean", was originally minted in the Americas by Spanish colonists and flowed into China during the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty (1573-1620). During the Republic of China, the currency was very chaotic, and there were many types, of which there were 4 kinds of "Dayang", namely "Yuan Datou" printed with Yuan Shikai's head, "Sun Datou" printed with Sun Yat-sen's head, Mexican "Yingyang" printed with eagles and snakes, and "Longyang" printed with "Guangxu Yuanbao", they are all formal currencies recognized by the whole country and even overseas, so the folk also have the proverb of "big head and small head, buy and sell".
Until 1933, the Republic of China government "abolished the two reforms", in accordance with the promulgation of the "Regulations on the Minting of Silver Standard Coins", each silver dollar weighed 26.7 grams, containing 23.5 grams of sterling silver, and used the "foreign ship" in the pattern of a sailing ship as its pattern.
What can you buy from that ocean? According to the statistics of relevant scholars, in Beijing in 1912, you can buy 60 kilograms of rice, so that six people can enjoy a lamb hot pot in the time-honored Chinese brand "Donglai Shun". In Shanghai in 1914, you could buy 44 kilograms of rice for five people to eat a mid-range Western meal. In the suburbs of Guangdong in 1931, you could buy 25 kilograms of rice or 20 kilograms of beans. In Chengdu in 1937, you could buy 16 kilograms of rice or 5 kilograms of pork. From the perspective of time, the purchase of the ocean gradually declines with the reasoning of time, but the ocean as a hard currency can still buy a lot of daily necessities.
3. What was the price level during the Republican period?
According to Li Kaizhou's article "Tuition of Republic of China University", it can be seen that there is no unified college entrance examination for students in the Republic of China, students have to go to the target university to participate in the school's admission examination, students will also enroll in multiple schools in order to increase the probability of passing, in 1930 Peking University, Sun Yat-sen University are 3 oceans, and not refunded, candidates also have reference travel expenses, are not a small amount. Then there is the tuition fee, during the Beiyang government, Peking University 60 oceans a year, Tsinghua 40 oceans a year. In the 20s of the last century, Nankaihe was still a private school, and without government subsidies, the tuition fee for students was 100 oceans a year, and Tongji reached 200 oceans.
After talking about tuition, let's look at the lives of ordinary people. According to the humanist Chen Yuanming's article "The Purchasing Power of Silver Yuan in History", after statistical conversion, if a standard family of five (a couple with three children, or an elderly couple, a young couple and one child) in Shanghai from 1928 to 1930, their annual income of 400 silver yuan belonged to the family of poor laborers, of which basic food expenses accounted for 218.5 yuan, and then most of them spent a total of 88.7 yuan on clothing, rent, water and electricity, in addition to such things as medicine and transportation , tobacco and alcohol, etc., so that the family lives very poorly. If you go back and match the tuition fees, it is not difficult to see that many families at that time did not have the ability to support their children to go to school.
Also in the article "Tuition of the Republic of China University", it is written that in 1932, students of Yenching University investigated near the Summer Palace and found that some families had an annual income of less than 200 oceans, and the expenses for maintaining basic living had to use 105 oceans, and it was even more unthinkable to support a student.
We may often sigh that decades of food are a few cents or a few pieces a pound, and now it is often dozens or hundreds, feeling that prices are getting higher and higher, ridiculing themselves that they can't even afford to eat, and feel that the things that were still cheap before. So now after understanding the prices and living standards at that time, do you still think so?