Money is a measure of the price of goods in a country or region, and it can also be seen as a means of preserving wealth when the currency itself is worth more money.
For example, precious metals such as "gold and silver" in ancient times on the mainland do not fluctuate much in value due to changes in the environment, but some currencies issued by countries or regimes are different.
At this time, money was just a "value symbol", and its purchasing power had a lot to do with the social situation and political changes at that time.
For example, during the period of the Republic of China, President Yuan Shikai once issued a currency called "Dayang", and what could a piece of ocean buy at that time? The purchasing power of the currency behind this was actually linked to the development of the times.
1. The evolution of currency during the Republic of China
Before the establishment of the Republic of China, the mainland was still in the period of feudal society, but the use of currency has been very common, because at that time to follow the basic principle of the heaven and the round place, so for a long time it was mainly round square hole money.
In the Qing Dynasty, silver taels were also used, but this was not silver coinage in the true sense.
Because there was no unified regulation of the currency at that time, the silver taels themselves were also divided into large, medium and small, and the weight was different, and the purchase scenarios that could be used for payment were also different.
However, from the beginning of the Republic of China, especially after the Lugou Bridge Incident, the government of the Republic of China was internationally recognized, and the reform of the monetary system also began at this time.
On February 8, 1914, the Nationalist Government officially promulgated the "National Currency Regulations", which was also a specific regulation on currency.
Among them, there are very detailed regulations on the style, texture, type, face value, and exchange method of currency through thirteen regulations, so the "silver dollar" was officially born, which is what people called "Dayang" or "Yuan Datou" at that time.
Perhaps because of the practical utility of this edict, silver dollars bearing Yuan Shikai's portrait were widely circulated during the Republican period, and continued to play an indispensable role even after his own death. So what was its purchasing power at the time?
2. Changes in purchasing power
The so-called "silver dollar" in people's lives is not 100% pure silver, and when the national government issued it, it was doped with unequal amounts of metal copper according to the size of its denomination.
The silver dollar coin, which we call "a piece of ocean", has nine cents of silver, one cent of copper, and the rest of the oceans in smaller denominations with decreasing silver content.
In other words, the amount of silver content determines the purchasing power of this ocean, and from the perspective of social prices at that time, the social gap is relatively large.
For example, in the 14th year of the Republic of China, the monthly income of ordinary citizens was 15 yuan, which was the same as the income of rickshaw drivers during the peak season.
In addition, the monthly food fee of the Peking University canteen is 6 yuan, and the monthly food fee of the single-family restaurant is about 10 yuan.
If converted according to the actual items, a piece of ocean can buy eight catties of pork, or half a bag of high-quality flour, or even invite friends to eat a full meal of mutton shabu.
At that time, this was already a very luxurious configuration, because 11 oceans could meet the normal food needs of a family of five for a month.
In addition, in a dinner party between Mr. Lu Xun and his friends, you can also see the purchasing power of Dayang, only 2 yuan, you can eat 4 cold and 4 hot 4 large bowls in the canteen, plus a large piece and a bowl of soup, such a hearty meal is enough to provide ten people to eat, even one yuan can meet the appetite of five people.
3. Changes in currency and purchasing power
Judging from the situation of the Republic of China at that time, because of the turbulent social situation in the early stage, prices always fluctuated in the early years.
Until the 17th year of the Republic of China, the governments of the north and the south were unified, the society entered a period of relative stability, and the economy also showed a certain upward development trend.
According to the records, from this time on, the purchasing power of the ocean for pork, beef, flour, etc. has dropped by half, taking the daily necessities at that time as an example, a piece of the ocean can only buy four pairs of socks in the 20th year of the Republic of China, compared with the previous table of sumptuous meals, its purchasing power is really greatly reduced.
The decrease in the purchasing power of the ocean in the past few years is also a very intuitive manifestation of the tickets for entertainment facilities, which were previously divided into points and angles and later changed to yuan, and later, rice can also rise to three or four oceans as expensive.
In 1933, the government's monetary policy changed again, changing the original silver dollar to Sun Yat-sen's portrait of Yuan Shikai, but the implementation of this policy was less than a year ago, and the social environment changed again.
The Nanjing Nationalist Government directly abandoned the use of silver dollars for reasons in the United States and switched to paper money, which is "legal tender". This was a forced move under the influence of the world trend at that time.
Due to the small amount of precious metals such as gold and silver in China at this time, there was no more accurate estimate of the issuance and exchange rate of fiat currency, which led to the phenomenon of extremely low purchasing power of large currencies.
In particular, after the phenomenon of inflation during the war, this super-large amount of money almost lost its credibility, and the issuance volume increased from 1.4 billion in 1937 to 500 billion in 1945, 16 trillion two years later, and 660 trillion in another year.
In 1937, 100 yuan could buy two cows, but in 1945 you could only buy two eggs, by 1946 you could not even afford a bar of soap, by 1948, 100 yuan could only buy 500 1 or 2 taels of rice, and there was often a funny situation in the store where you could only buy a box of matches with a large bag of money on your back.
The Nationalist Government has carried out a new round of monetary reform in this situation, that is, the so-called "Golden Yuan Bills" are mainly to recover the gold and silver held by the private sector through exchange;
In addition, the excess fiat currency was also converted into gold yuan bills, mainly in denominations of 1, 5, 10, 50, 100, etc., but this exchange was an estimate error by the national government.
The actual amount of fiat currency exchange required was as much as nine times as planned, and the scene instantly spiraled out of control, causing panic and panic buying of the gold yuan, which caused the newly created currency to lose credibility again.
summary
Therefore, there are many factors that affect the purchasing power of money, whether it is currency issuance or recycling and exchange, it must be determined in combination with the actual market situation, otherwise there will be fluctuations in the purchasing power of large amounts of money, which will cause market shocks and affect social order.