Many people's understanding of the Qing Dynasty's finance is that the Opium War led to a large amount of Chinese silver outflows, which in turn caused financial constraints and led to the bankruptcy of the Qing court. What is the real reason? China has long used two currencies, silver and copper coins, but the copper coins used by the private sector are uneven, especially the private minting of private currencies is very serious, resulting in the expulsion of bad money and good money, and the official only recognizes silver. And China does not produce silver, most of which come from South America or Japan, during the French Revolution, Napoleon came to power, after the invasion of Spain, Spain's silver in the South American colonies fell sharply, resulting in a global shortage of silver. Opium is only a factor, the world at this time is already a whole, and we cannot be exempt from changes in the global economy.
<h1>The monetary structure of the Qing Dynasty</h1>
When it comes to copper coins, everyone's first impression is that copper coins are made of copper, in fact, in addition to copper, copper coins also contain a lot of lead and tin and other metals, but we are used to calling, copper coins are so conventional.
Since the Ming Dynasty, we have begun to use a large amount of silver, on the one hand, silver is full of color, less impurities, on the other hand, the ratio of silver to copper coins at that time was 1:1000-2500, it can be said that the weight is light and easy to carry, especially long-distance transportation of silver is much lighter than copper coins.
We can often see in film and television dramas that everyone often holds a large number of silver tickets in their hands, silver tickets are the exchange vouchers of the money banks, and the exchange areas of each money bank are not the same, but there is no large-scale use, like Wei Xiaobao' kind of thousands of quantities, tens of thousands of amounts is impossible.
As for gold, it was withdrawn from circulation after the Song Dynasty. This also led to a huge hidden danger, when the world turned to the gold standard, the Qing Dynasty was still silver as the main currency.
<h1>Monetary dominance</h1>
As I just said, the currency of the Qing Dynasty mainly relied on silver, and silver mainly relied on imports, so the dominance of money was not in the hands of the imperial court, and once there was a problem with the supply of silver, or there was a deficit in foreign trade, silver would flow out.
Although the Qing Dynasty had paper money such as silver bills, the right to issue them was in the hands of various money banks. At the beginning, bad money drives out good coins, when everyone gets silver coins and copper coins, because the quality of copper coins is different, it is easy to depreciate, so everyone saves silver dollars, and what circulates in the market is copper coins, which accelerates the shortage of silver.
In the 18th century, a Spanish silver dollar was popular internationally, because the silver dollar was engraved with the head of the Spanish king, and China did not know who turned this silver dollar into Buddha's head silver, and the silver dollar, a currency that was stable in quality and use, soon became popular. According to historical research, the amount of silver dollars flowing into China at that time reached as much as 170 million yuan. That is to say, the currency of the whole country is controlled by European countries such as Spain, and there is no currency dominance.
Unfortunately, when Spain was sacked by Napoleon, his colonies also revolted, setting off an American independence movement from Mexico to South America. This led to a massive reduction in silver production, and silver was tight all over the world, and if the British began to start the gold standard at this time, or issued paper money in national credit, there would be no shortage of money, resulting in insufficient market flow.
<h1>Did the Qing Dynasty print paper money? </h1>
The Qing Dynasty also tried to print paper money, and Jiangsu student Wang Jun, who suggested mainly establishing government-led monetary sovereignty, replacing the silver coins on the market with state-issued paper money, and issuing large amounts of copper coins at the same time to solve the silver shortage crisis. Government taxes and salaries paid to officials are also paid by paper money, which enhances the creditworthiness of paper money. Wang Jun did not have the concept of a central bank, and he suggested that the qianzhuang ticket number should be managed on behalf of him.
This proposal caused great controversy in the imperial court, when everyone felt that paper money did not have physical currency as an anchor, and the imperial court could easily overshoot and cause inflation. At that time, Lin Zexu, Gong Zizhen and other important courtiers suggested using precious metals as collateral. It looks good, but why didn't it go down in real time? This brings us to the party.
Wang Jun is regarded as the Tongcheng school in Anhui, the most famous Confucian school in the Qing Dynasty, which loves to talk about human nature and the Mandate of Heaven, and is relatively conservative. As for the Yanghu faction, they will take into account human feelings and current affairs, and be relatively open.
Wang advocated similar to Keynesianism, where the state exercised strong control, issued multiple currencies, and boosted the economy through government investment. Gong Zizhen and others advocate the protection of private property and the development of the private economy. At the same time, they are also worried that excessive state intervention will disrupt market order. Seemingly good economic policies, but mixed with complex political motives, and finally all of them are gone, this kind of laissez-faire, seemingly market liberalism. Because Zeng Guofan and others rose strongly in the suppression of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom movement, the state was worried that they would become bigger, so they turned to state intervention. In 1853 the government issued irreparable banknotes and large copper coins, but it ended in failure. It was not until the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century that the Qing government gradually established a modern monetary system through the establishment of the Bank of Communications and the Hubu Bank. However, at this time, the time left for the Qing Dynasty was running out, and the revolutionaries led by Sun Yat-sen gradually dominated the situation in the country, so the Qing court was on the road of no return.