From which dynasty did silver appear in China?

The Currency History of Silver in China

In China, silver has a long history as a currency. "Historical Records of Pinghuai" records: "The currency of summer, gold is three products, not yellow, not white, not red." Yellow represents gold, white represents silver and red represents copper. In the pre-Qin period, China began to use silver. The silver shell coins unearthed in the pre-Qin period and the silver cloth coins unearthed in the Spring and Autumn Period of Chu have been recognized by the archaeological community.

In the currency history of China, founding ceremony, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, officially used silver as the trading currency in the fourth year (BC 1 19). In order to restrain the plunder of the powerful families and realize the prosperity of the literary world, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty reformed the monetary system and adopted the "Platinum Tri-product" currency as a domestic product. The face value of "platinum" is divided into three classes, and the round dragon is worth 3,000 yuan; The square horse is worth 500 yuan; This oval turtle is worth 300 yuan. The "platinum" we are talking about is actually a kind of silver-tin alloy, in which the silver content is less than tin, and this platinum currency was abolished two years before and after circulation. Nevertheless, the "Platinum Tri-product" is the earliest silver coin that China saw in the history books, and it is also the first time to cast a silver coin with patterns on its surface. Later, the new dynasty Wang Mang promulgated the "treasure goods system" and also cast "three products of silver goods", but it was only a flash in the pan.

During the Five Dynasties, silver was used for offering sacrifices, importing goods, accepting money, bribing and other fields. And the amount of silver used each time is quite huge, but it is just cast into silver collars, silver ingots, silver cakes and other forms, and it participates in circulation by its own weight.

In the Song Dynasty, besides "Jiaozi" banknotes, copper coins and iron coins, silver was also used as currency. At that time, silver coins were scattered, with five taels, twelve taels, twenty-five taels, fifty taels and even one thousand taels. Most of them are waist-shaped long silver pieces, and some are square and round.

During the Jin and Yuan Dynasties, silver was more widely used. The silver collar of "Cheng 'an Treasure Goods" in the Jin Dynasty was divided into five grades, from one to twelve, which was the beginning of the use of legal counting silver coins in China. The Yuan Dynasty further established the monetary status of silver. In 1260, shortly after the ancestor Kublai Khan ascended the throne, he began to cast a batch of silver ingots, each weighing 50 taels. Although the name of Yuanbao has always been used in copper coins, silver ingot means "Yuanbao". Yuanbao Silver Ingot began in Yuan Dynasty, and since then "Yuanbao" has become a fixed synonym.

The widespread circulation of silver

In the early Ming Dynasty, in order to promote Daming's paper money, the Ming government explicitly prohibited the trading of gold and silver. According to the Records of Foodstuffs in the Ming Dynasty, in the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), "people were forbidden to buy and sell gold and silver, and offenders would be beheaded if they exchanged gold and silver for banknotes." However, with the development of China's economy, the market demand for silver is increasing, and the Ming government gradually lifted the ban on silver. After the opening of the ban on silver, a part of the silver stored in the official treasury was put into commodity circulation with the issuance of official salaries and military salaries, thus making the official treasury silver become living silver.

In the middle and late Ming Dynasty, silver became the main currency in circulation. When Ming Chengzu moved from Nanjing to Beijing, due to the restriction of conditions, the salaries of Beijing officials still had to be paid in Nanjing. The case handler "sold rice to officials for goods trading, and one grain was not as good as one. The court wasted rice and the officials benefited." In the first year of Ming Yingzong orthodoxy (A.D. 1436), in order to overcome this drawback, the Ministry of Housing decided to exchange the rent in the south of the Yangtze River for silver, cloth and other items and transport them to Beijing for official salaries, and in the following year, the remaining nearly 730,000 stone grains in Suzhou, Songjiang and Changzhou were also exchanged for silver for official salaries. These decisions of the Ming government made silver the legal tender officially recognized by China at that time. Since then, China's fiscal revenues and expenditures have gradually turned to silver-based monetary payment.

With the expansion and development of economy and trade, the domestic demand for silver is increasing. At the same time, due to the difference of gold and silver in different countries, foreign silver also flowed into China in large quantities, making silver widely circulated as the main currency.

During the Wanli period, mining boom appeared all over the world. Due to the increasing demand for silver, the Ming government began to mine in China, which increased the domestic silver production. After the middle of Ming Dynasty, the increasing foreign trade of China also made foreign silver flow into China. Among them, from the fifth year of Qin Long (1572) to the seventy or eighty years in the late Ming Dynasty, the Spanish imported more than 4OO0 million U.S. silver into China through the Philippines.

During the Jiajing period, the price of gold and silver in China was between 1: 6 and 1: 7, while the price of gold and silver in Japan was 1: 10 due to the increase of silver production. Driven by interests, Japanese silver is shipped to China in large quantities from different channels, because more gold can be exchanged from Japan to China. In order to profit from the silver price difference between Japan and China, the Portuguese once transported China's silk from Macau to Japan to sell silver, and then returned to Macau to buy China's silk, so as to go to Japan to get more silver. In addition, through the trade between Spanish and Portuguese businessmen and China, the trade between overseas Chinese in the Philippines and China, and the trade between Britain and China through the East India Company, a large amount of silver from the United States was imported to China. Through these direct or indirect trade, silver in the international market was transported to China in large quantities at the end of the Ming Dynasty.

The massive import of foreign silver promoted the development of commodity economy and the evolution of monetary system in China. However, there is no fixed exchange rate between these silver currencies from different countries, and they are priced and circulated separately. Silver bars of various shapes and weights appear in the money market, which makes China's already complicated monetary system more disorderly and chaotic.

From silver to silver dollar

In the early Qing Dynasty, silver became the main currency in circulation in China at that time. In the government's financial revenue and expenditure and industrial and commercial exchanges at home and abroad, the vast majority of economic activities are paid by silver, people take silver as wealth, financial institutions take silver as inventory, and inter-bank settlement also takes silver as the standard.

At that time, tea, raw silk and pottery in China were very attractive to foreigners. At that time, China's money market used to use silver as a means of payment, so many foreign businessmen used a shipment of silver dollars to go to China to buy a shipment of China goods. Because China was a self-sufficient feudal economy and seldom bought foreign goods, silver kept flowing into China.

At that time, there were many kinds of foreign silver dollars flowing into China, including Spanish native ocean, Mexican eagle ocean, British dependent silver dollar and Japanese Yang Long, among which Spanish native ocean was the first foreign silver dollar flowing into China. According to the records of the East India Company, from the 20th year of Kangxi (168 1) to the 13th year of Daoguang (1833), more than 70 million silver dollars and silver ingots were imported into China, most of which were imported by the East India Company. This ocean is produced in Mexico, where the most silver is produced in the world. Because Mexico is a subordinate country of Spain, the coins are engraved with two pillars and statues of Spanish emperors (Charles III and IV), so people mistake Mexico for Spanish silver dollar. Mexican Eagle Ocean is a silver coin minted after Mexico's independence. Because the face of the coin is engraved with an eagle, it is commonly known as the Eagle Ocean, and the world mistakenly thinks it is the ocean of Britain, also known as the Ying Zheng in the north of China. The quality of this foreign currency is purer than other foreign silver dollars, and the silver is 90.3 ‰, generally calculated as 94%. There are two kinds of British silver dollars circulating in China: one was cast by the Hong Kong Mint from 1866 to 1868, and the other was made by the Indian Mint after 1895. Yang Long was a common silver dollar in Meiji era. It was named "Yuan" and was commonly known as Yang Long or Dragon Sail because of the dragon pattern on the front of the coin.

Foreign silver dollars are beautifully made, with standard weight and easy counting. They are very popular with the people of China, and foreign silver dollars are constantly expanding in China's money market. In order to reduce the influence of foreign silver dollars on China's economy, the Qing government finally established the Mint Bureau in the 13th year of Guangxu (1887) and decided to cast China silver dollars by itself, which was welcomed by the people. When casting silver coins in the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government basically followed the habit of casting money in the Ming Dynasty, and called the copper coins cast in this dynasty "casting money" to distinguish them from the "ancient money" used earlier.

At that time, the silver coins minted in China were all high in silver content, which allowed foreign businessmen to find room for profiteering. When they were trading with China, they exchanged foreign currency containing about 90% pure silver for "perfect" striped silver coins made in China, and then shipped them to foreign countries for speculation. The pure currency transactions plundered by foreign capitalists at floating prices invaded China's economy. In addition, at that time, both foreign silver dollars and China's homemade silver coins had their own pricing standards and circulation scope, and there was no fixed price and exchange rate between them, which made the currency circulation market in China chaotic and complicated.

In the late Qing Dynasty, due to factors such as opium trade, treaty reparations, loss of sovereignty over customs duties and salt taxes, silver in China began to flow out continuously. A large amount of silver flowed out of China, which made domestic silver scarce and expensive. The price expressed by silver fell, while the price expressed by making money rose. The outflow of silver makes silver expensive and money cheap, which increases the burden of domestic people and seriously damages the agriculture and handicraft industry in China. Moreover, due to the decrease of tax revenue and the decline of national age, the Qing government began to face a serious financial crisis. In order to make up the fiscal deficit, the Qing government increased tariffs and Li Jin in large quantities. Over-issuance of convertible currencies has triggered hyperinflation, which has seriously impacted China's economy and politics.

In the 29th year of Guangxu (1903), China's monetary mechanism became more disordered under the double blow of huge compensation and the continuous decline of world silver prices. In order to save the decadent economic situation, China scholars and economists wrote to Emperor Guangxu many times, proposing to reform the current monetary system in order to maintain national economic and social stability. They suggested that a general foundry for casting silver coins should be set up in Beijing to issue new silver coins in a unified way. All the money paid by China is in the newly issued silver coins; The annual revenues and expenditures of the Ministry of Finance and the provincial treasury must abide by the unified provisions of the state, and are not allowed to be collected without authorization under various pretexts; Set up a central finance office to supervise the issuance, circulation and use of new currency, and be responsible for rectifying the national financial and monetary system.

With the efforts and initiatives of these people of insight to rectify China's chaotic monetary system, the Qing government repeatedly ordered the unification of currency circulation units, especially dual-use currency units, in order to solve the monetary system that seriously hindered China's currency circulation and commodity trading. In order to unify the currency value, the Qing government once changed the unit of valuation to "two" and "yuan". It was not until the second year of Xuantong (19 10) that the monetary system was promulgated by the Ministry of Finance, which stipulated that the national currency should adopt the' yuan' unit system, temporarily ending the chaotic situation of using two yuan and yuan in China's monetary history.

Establishment and abolition of sil standard system

On the eve of the Revolution of 1911, a large number of foreign silver dollars flowed into China's money market. By 19 10, the foreign silver dollar circulating in China market has reached about 1 1 100 million yuan, of which about 40,000 yuan is Mexican Angelababy, accounting for about one third. At that time, in addition to silver, silver, copper and other metal currencies. In addition, there are credit currencies issued by the Qing government's household department, government-run banks, local banks and banks, as well as various banknotes issued by foreign banks and self-run banks in China. In addition, during the period of Beiyang government, warlords were separated and wars were frequent, which further aggravated the confusion of China's monetary mechanism caused by the long-term disunity between the right to coin and the right to issue money.

19 14, in order to rectify the monetary system and enhance the national financial capacity, the Beiyang government implemented the monetary system reform and promulgated the National Monetary Regulations and its implementing rules. At the same time, the regulations stipulate that the newly minted silver dollar must be used as a means of trading in China. Subsequently, in order to facilitate the exchange of various Yang Long coins, the fineness of the one-dollar silver coin was changed to 89%. Silver became the standard currency of China, temporarily ending the mixed currency circulation in China and temporarily unifying the modern monetary system in China.

19 14 12, Tianjin Mint General Factory of the Ministry of Finance cast a new version of silver coin for the first time, with Yuan Shikai's profile head and the year of issue engraved on the front, and Golden Harvest decoration and currency value engraved on the back, commonly known as "Yuan Datou", with a currency value of one yuan, two yuan, two horns, one horn and five cents. Because the new silver coin has a brand-new unified pattern, accurate weight and color, easy to identify, it was quickly implemented throughout the country. This new currency was minted many times from 19 14 to 192 1 year. Because of a large number of new currencies circulating, it became the most important currency circulating in China at that time.

Although the National Monetary Regulations of 19 14 established the silver standard system in China, silver and silver dollar were used in domestic and international economic and trade at that time, and this monetary reform did not fundamentally change the chaotic currency circulation situation in China. By the end of 19, the industrial countries in the western countries gave up the silver functions of money, and China became the only important country based on silver in the world.

The world economic crisis that broke out in 1930s triggered the global economic depression. In order to get rid of economic difficulties and develop the national economy, major capitalist countries have abandoned the gold standard system and implemented paper money circulation. At that time, in order to pass on the domestic crisis, western powers used gold as the unit of valuation, and imported a large amount of their own surplus capital and commodities into China, which dealt a great blow to China's economy which used the silver standard. Because the domestic money market is more chaotic because of the simultaneous circulation of silver, copper and gold, there is a strong demand in China to "scrap the two and change them into yuan" and unify the monetary system. At that time, the gold standard that the National Government tried to implement didn't work in China, so it had to be abandoned.

1in March, 933, after repeated debates and discussions by domestic economic experts and scholars, the national government ordered the implementation of the currency system reform of "abolishing the two and changing the yuan". According to the law, all taxes and customs duties levied with silver should be changed to silver-based currency, and all other revenues and expenditures implemented with silver should also be changed to silver coins. Although the reform ended the dual monetary system in China, the silver standard was formally established as the monetary unit in China.

Since 1934, the international silver price has risen sharply after western countries abandoned the gold standard monetary system and the United States artificially raised the silver price. The rising price of silver in the international market has dealt a disastrous blow to China's economy which uses the silver standard currency system. In order to get rid of the serious impact of international silver prices on China's economy and save the monetary and financial system on the verge of bankruptcy, the National Government finally implemented the legal tender policy on June 30th1935+065438+1October 3rd, stipulating that the currencies issued by China Bank, Bank of Communications and Central Bank are legal tender, and prohibiting the circulation of silver dollars, but the circulation field is prohibited. After the liberation of the whole country, the people's government exchanged silver dollars at a certain price, except in a few areas, and announced that silver dollars were no longer in circulation, ending the history of silver dollars as currency.