In 221 BC, Qin destroyed the Six Kingdoms, created a unified feudal autocratic state, and implemented a centralized system. In this context, a unified monetary system began to be established. On the basis of the Qin system, the Western Han Dynasty continued to consolidate and improve it, and finally established a monetary system that met the needs of the development of the ancient centralized system and the commodity market, and continued to influence it for more than two thousand years. The Qin and Han monetary system has always revolved around a core issue, that is, the central central control of the right to mint and issue money, which is the economic basis for ensuring the normal operation of the centralized system. However, since the issuance of the Qin and Half Coins, the phenomenon of piracy has continued to appear in the private sector, which not only disrupts the normal currency issuance mechanism, but also undermines the order of market transactions. To this end, the feudal government formulated severe crackdown measures and launched a protracted war of annihilation against civil forgery.
The way and scale of the pirate casting
During the Qin and Han Dynasties, there were three main ways for people to steal coins: the first was to "make small with large", and the outlaws privately minted smaller and lighter coins by imitating the form and denomination of standard official money, which was one of the most common ways to steal coins in ancient China. "Sleeping Tiger Land Qin Jian Jin Bulu" describes the currency circulation in the Qin Dynasty market, "the people use money in the city, beauty and evil are mixed", and the "evil" here refers to evil money, that is, stolen money mixed in the circulation field. According to the Qin Dynasty balance system, the standard weight of half two coins should reach about 8 grams, but the archaeological excavations of the Qin Dynasty half two coins showed the characteristics of different sizes and uneven weights, of which many were roughly minted, weighing only 2-3 grams, reflecting the popularity of the phenomenon of pirated coin minting in the Qin Dynasty.
Qin officials minted money and stole money
The second way of stealing is "heterogeneous lead tin". Official coinage uses copper as the main material, combined with lead and tin; due to the high price of copper and the low price of lead and tin, unscrupulous people often dop a large amount of lead and tin in the process of minting money to achieve the purpose of reducing the cost of casting, which was particularly popular in the early Western Han Dynasty. The "Book of Han and Food Goods" records: "The county and the country mint money, the people are more adulterous, and the money is lighter", Yan Shigu notes: "It is said that it is cleverly cast, mixed with lead and tin", which shows that the pirated money at this time is not only "large and small", the weight becomes lighter, but also mixed with cheap materials such as lead and tin, which significantly reduces the quality of the coins. The scale of pirate minting in the early Han Dynasty was very large, and in the fourth year of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Wu adopted Zhang Tang's suggestion, enabled the policy of inflating money and issued three platinum products, which directly stimulated the pirated minting behavior of the people, "the number of pirates of the people who minted platinum was innumerable." A year later, the five-baht of the county began to go, and the phenomenon of piracy and casting became more rampant, and the "Book of History and Equalization" recorded: "At the age of five years after making platinum and five baht money, hundreds of thousands of people who died of stealing money were pardoned by the people, and they did not find that the murderers were invincible." It can be seen that the phenomenon of piracy in the early days of the Western Han Dynasty was not only huge in scale, but also caused a serious social crisis. During Wang Mang's reign, all kinds of inflated and large amounts of money competed to be issued, so "the people who stole money cannot be prohibited", and what is more serious is that the people who stole money at this time were not limited to the illegal people of the people, but even government officials were also involved. At this point, "the peasants and merchants lost their jobs, the food and goods were wasted, and the people wept in the city", and the monetary system was destroyed.
In the middle of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the phenomenon of cutting and chiseling money began to appear, becoming the third way of folk theft. After the official money flows into the market, the outlaws use tools to chisel and pound the official money, so that the complete five-baht money is divided into two, and the part of the inner circle that is chiseled out of the outer circle is called "shear money", and the outer ring is called "ring money". In recent years, archaeological excavations have unearthed a large number of sheared coins, and the Eastern Han Tomb in Wuwei Leitai, Gansu Province, has unearthed more than 20,000 shearing coins at one time, indicating that the act of cutting and chiseling coins is very popular in the Eastern Han Dynasty. Cutting and chiseling money is only a change of way, its essence is still a reduction in the weight of the coin, and the outlaws only need to process the official money, without having to prepare their own copper materials and tools for minting money, so it is easier to implement.
Cut the chisel money
Government measures to combat counterfeiting
Since the emergence of money theft, the feudal government has begun to formulate severe measures to control the breeding and expansion of the phenomenon of pirated money by constantly improving relevant laws and regulations. In the Qin and Han dynasties, the feudal government issued very strict legal provisions to crack down on theft and casting in an all-round way.
First of all, the theft of casting is regarded as an illegal act, and the people have the right and obligation to take the initiative to report it. The "Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian SealEd Diagnosis Style" once recorded the case of pirate casting in the Qin Dynasty: "A certain Riche Five A and B, bound man C, Ding and the new money one hundred and ten dollars, Rong Erhe, the admonition: C pirates cast this money, Ding Zuo cast." A and B capture their rooms and get this money and tolerance, and come to know it. The "Rong" here refers to the money fan used to mint the money, and A and B bundled C and Ding to the official palace, and reported C and Ding for stealing and casting, and the accompanying people seized one hundred and ten coins and two copper fans as evidence. This shows that in the Qin Law, it is illegal to steal casting, and after the discovery of pirate casting, the people have the right and obligation to report it to the government.
Second, the pirates are severely punished, and the relatives bear joint and several responsibility. Unearthed in the Jiangling area of Hubei Province, the "Zhangjiashan Hanjian Second Year Law Order" is a legal document of the early Han Dynasty, which includes a number of orders for stealing money. "Whoever steals money and adjutants, abandons the city." Cohabitation without complaint, redemption. Zhengdian, Tiandian and Wuren did not report, and fined four or two. The "abandoned city" here refers to the execution of prisoners in the downtown where people gather, which shows that the punishment of pirates in the Han Dynasty was very severe. In addition, not only the thief himself, but also his assistants must be treated equally to the death penalty, and even cohabitants, local responsible persons, and even guarantors must be punished accordingly, and relatives and family members must bear joint and several liability. The "cohabitation" in the Chinese law refers to a wide range of relatives other than the parents, wives and children of the cohabiting family. The "Book of Han and the Biography of Wang Mang" records: "Mang cannot be punished with coins, and those who steal money cannot be prohibited, but they are strict with their laws, one family mints money, five families sit together, and they are not slaves." It can be said that one person is involved in sin, and many people are involved.
Repeatedly, indirectly involved, treated equally. The Two-Year Decree also takes note of indirect participants in the act of piracy and severely punishes them. For example, "The wise (zhi) people steal money to buy copper charcoal, and in order to carry out their new money, if they are passed, they are guilty of the same crime", if they help the pirates to buy raw materials, such as copper, charcoal, etc., or provide convenience for the pirated money to enter the market circulation, the punishment imposed is the same as that of the pirate himself, and he must also be sentenced to death. Even those who participate in the planning of the theft of casting, and who have prepared the instruments but have not yet completed the work, must also be severely punished, "all those who plot to steal money and have their instruments that have not been cast are all considered to be the city dan, and those who are wise to buy the money casting tools are the same as the crime." "The dough is engraved on the face, and the city is a prison sentence, and the male prisoner who builds the city and the female prisoner who scoops rice are all life sentences at that time."
Finally, encourage arrest and surrender leniency. In order to improve the efficiency of cracking down on pirate casting, the "Two-Year Law" also stipulates: "If one person who catches the theft of money and the death penalty of the offender is given the first rank of knighthood." He who desires to absolve sinners, grant it. "According to the provisions of the Han Law, those who arrest the pirates or assistants may be given a knighthood of the first degree. If the arrester himself is a prisoner, it is also possible to demand that the credit be used to offset the punishment. In addition, the Han law also leaves a wide space for the self-surrender of the pirates, "if you first report yourself, tell them that they are quite successful with the arresters, and remove the crimes of the catchers", if the pirates turn themselves in, or help to help capture other pirates, their crimes can be exempted.
It can be seen from the above that the laws of the Han Dynasty formulated very meticulous punishment measures for the act of stealing casting, not only involving the pirate himself and his assistants, but also his relatives and family members were to bear the crime. Of course, the punishment for direct thief and participant is the heaviest. In addition, while severely cracking down on pirated casting, Han law also pays attention to clear rewards and punishments, and surrenders to leniency, which effectively cracks down on pirated casting and ensures the normal circulation of market currency.
Historical Reflection and Social Significance
It is true that the Qin and Han governments formulated very severe crackdown measures, but they still failed to effectively curb the phenomenon of piracy, and even often had uncontrollable situations. The Book of History and Pingzhuan records that in the early western Han Dynasty, "most of the world was full of money without worry, and the offenders were numerous, and the officials could not be punished." What is the reason why the phenomenon of Qin and Han piracy is so rampant? In fact, we should reflect more on the deep factors in the social, political and economic fields of the Qin and Han Dynasties through the phenomenon of piracy.
The phenomenon of pirated casting in the early Han Dynasty showed a large-scale outbreak, which was extremely closely related to the instability of the regime at that time and the contradiction between supply and demand in the circulation of currency. After the Chu-Han War, to the beginning of the establishment of the Western Han Dynasty, the world was in ruins, the state was in poor financial resources, a large number of peasants lost land in the war, and industry and commerce were also seriously damaged. In order to maintain normal survival needs, more and more people participate in the pirate casting industry, which has the characteristics of low cost investment and fast returns, although it is illegal, it caters to the social living environment at that time. At this time, coinciding with the existence of "Qin money is difficult to use" phenomenon in the field of currency circulation, the "heavy and difficult to use" here does not mean that Qin money weighs enough, but because of the reduction of the amount of money leading to excessive purchasing power, in order to adjust the phenomenon of money in the market, the Han government once allowed the people to participate in the minting of money, in order to quickly increase the number of money, this policy of encouraging the people to mint money has greatly stimulated the smuggling behavior.
The issuance of large denominations of fictitious currency by the feudal government was also another reason for the concentrated outbreak of pirated minting. In the fourth year of the Western Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu issued three platinum products: the dragon coin was the upper, worth three thousand; the second was the horse currency, worth five hundred; and the turtle coin was worth three hundred. The so-called "platinum three products" is only a bronze alloy coinage with a high lead and tin composition, and its value is far from reaching the specified face value. In the sixteen years of Wang Mang's reign, he has carried out four currency reforms successively, and the inflated large money has emerged continuously, and the coins themselves such as "big cloth yellow thousand" and "one knife and five thousand" are not high in value, but they are often exchanged for five baht coins, one thousand and five thousand coins, which are undoubtedly imaginary currencies. The feudal government issued inflated money in an attempt to earn more minting profits from it, and the outlaws saw it and competed to imitate it, even if the minting of coins of the same weight as the official money could still be greatly profited, and the profit drive was the driving force for the people to actively participate in the theft of minting, which has been the case since ancient times.
The simplicity of coin minting technology provides objective operability for the prevalence of pirate minting. During the Qin and Han dynasties, the main popular flat plate model vertical casting method, this minting method is simple in procedure, convenient in operation, and can be minted without complex technical conditions. The case of piracy in "Sleeping Tiger Di Qin Jian Sealed Diagnosis Style", in fact, only two people cooperate, which also reflects the simplification of the coinage technology. Because of this, outlaws can easily master the art of minting money, and can skillfully mold the same coins as the official coin system. In addition, official money lacks obvious anti-counterfeiting characteristics, which also provides a possibility for the smooth entry of pirated money into the circulation field.
In summary, although counterfeiting is a chronic disease in the ancient socio-economic field, the determination of successive governments to combat counterfeiting has not changed. The fight against theft and counterfeiting has very important social significance: First, to maintain the centralized system. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty "specially ordered the three officials of Shanglin to mint money", the minting power of currency has been exclusive to the central government, and cracking down on private theft is the political embodiment of maintaining centralized power; second, to ensure the state's financial revenue. Coinage generated certain profits, which usually became a fixed fiscal revenue of the feudal government and were used in important aspects such as national construction, army supply, and disaster reduction and relief. Actively cracking down on counterfeiting not only guarantees the state's fiscal revenue, but is also conducive to the stable development of society; third, maintaining the order of market transactions. Most of the pirated coins belong to the thin and rough mint of inferior money, such coins into the market, by the bad currency to expel the influence of good money, will accelerate the occupation of bad money in the market, seriously disrupt the market trading order, and eventually lead to hyperinflation, triggering soaring prices. Effectively cracking down on counterfeiting can maintain the normal trading environment in the market and promote the orderly development of the commodity economy. Fourth, reduce penalties. During the reigns of the early Han Dynasty and Wang Mang, countless people were punished every year for the crime of treason, which brought great pressure to the state, society and judicial departments. In short, for the feudal government, cracking down on counterfeiting was a long-term and arduous basic task. Today, familiarity with and understanding the phenomenon of ancient theft and minting and its government response measures are also of great practical significance for actively preventing the epidemic of counterfeit currency and financial crime.
(This article was originally published in China Finance, No. 5, 2021, and was quoted from the public number Dingzang Guquan)
Author: Jingxinquan China Coin Museum