Why did the ancient people leave after dinner without asking how much money, and the bartender never stopped them?

A common "heroic scene" in martial arts films is "The Hero goes to a restaurant": often in a bustling restaurant, the "Hero" with a juryman's face is full of food and drink, but he doesn't even ask "how much", casually puts a dollar on the table and then floats away. The scene of "Haoheng" is also called how many "martial arts fans" can't even reach it, and they all yearn for it.

So how reliable is this "hero" scene in real history? First of all, if this kind of scene is placed in the ancient world of China before the middle of Ming Dynasty (16th century), it can be said that it is seriously unreliable. It is not that "heroes" have no money, but that before the middle of the Ming Dynasty, "using silver as money" was a serious violation of the law. Even if the Great Xia "dares to let go", the store may not dare to accept it.

How illegal is it? The history of using silver in China can be traced back to around 1600 BC. The silver nose ring unearthed from Huoshaogou cemetery in Yumen, Gansu Province is recognized as the earliest silver product in China. Tombs in the Warring States Period also tell us that silver was used by China people in various fields, such as "weapons" and "jewelry". But the history of "when money is used" is obviously much shorter-silver was only used for taxation in the first year of Hongzhi in the Ming Dynasty. Since the fourth year of Jiajing, a large amount of silver has been circulating in the market. In the first year of Qin Long, the Ming Dynasty officially announced that "all goods worth more than one silver dollar should be bought and sold with both silver and money". Silver is considered as a "superior product" and becomes legal tender.

Before that, how much trouble will it be to "take silver as money"? Just look at the so-called rich Tang Dynasty. In fact, even in the heyday of the Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty was often troubled by the "lack of precious metal raw materials". Not to mention silver, copper for casting money is scarce every year. In the Tang dynasty, businessmen were restricted from taking copper coins out of the country, and even people were prohibited from buying and selling copper materials. Copper is so expensive, and silver is certainly more extravagant: in the Tang Dynasty, silver was used to make a "silver tripod", which was then used to make various gold and silver vessels or as gifts. Use it directly as money? Hardly. In the Tang dynasty, a lot of money was paid by silks and satins.

What about the legendary Song Dynasty, where the commodity economy was developed? When silver is "used as money", there will be more. For example, in the Song Dynasty, the "Zen Temple Alliance" paid "money to buy peace", that is, it paid "silver100,000 taels" (later increased to 200,000 taels) every year to "buy peace". The "minister structure" was exchanged for the "killing fee", and Shao Yi also stipulated that the Southern Song Dynasty would pay 252,000 silver to "Uncle Jin" every year. In addition, the Southern Song government often paid "102,000 silver" when purchasing food, tea and other materials, and "military silver" when paying salaries. There seems to be a lot of "silver as money".

But in fact, in addition to "buying peace" and "honoring uncle Jin", the daily use of silver in the Song Dynasty, even if it was an official act, was often converted into copper coins before payment-silver was far from being "legal tender" at that time.

Therefore, even in the legendary Song Dynasty, heroes did not use silver to walk the rivers and lakes when spending money. For example, Zhang Yong, a famous hero in the Jianghu in the early Song Dynasty and later "invented paper money", often accepted "fans' gifts" when he wandered around the Jianghu in his early years. For example, the Tangyin county magistrate who admired him gave him "10,000 yuan". He has killed all over the rivers and lakes and stayed in many pubs and inns, but he also used copper coins when checking out. I really haven't done the heroic thing of "throwing down a piece of money and leaving"!

Why is this happening? There is still too little silver in the roots. China itself is not a silver producer. There are fewer copper mines, and of course there are fewer silver mines. During the Tang Dynasty, the annual output of silver in China was only 15200 liang. Handicraft industry developed greatly in the Song Dynasty, but in the Northern Song Dynasty, when silver earned the most, the highest output of silver was only 882,000 yuan per year, and only 200,000 to 300,000 yuan in normal years. With this silver, you have to dig up hundreds of thousands of taels every year to buy peace and honor Uncle Jin. This "accumulation of poverty and weakness" in the Song Dynasty shows how serious it is.

Therefore, when the Northern Song Dynasty was ashamed of Jingkang, the Jinbing Lion opened his mouth and asked the Northern Song Dynasty to "reward"12 million taels of silver. Bianjing City, known as "prosperous times", has been turned upside down. From the palace to the homes of ordinary people, every family cleaned up their own money, and finally only received one million taels of silver, which was only one seventieth of Li Zicheng's "reimbursement" income in Beijing more than 500 years later. In the Southern Song Dynasty, the silver-producing land was "cut" out, and the silver production in the Southern Song Dynasty dropped sharply. The "filial piety" of 252 thousand silver every year is often inconsistent with tightening one's belt. Every time it is sent, it often provokes the officials of the State of Jin to curse.

After seeing this scene, we know that most of the "high opinions" widely circulated on the Internet, such as "Silver income in Song Dynasty exceeded 100 million" and "Silver in Song Dynasty far exceeded Yuan, Ming and Qing Dynasties", are serious nonsense. In this era, which "hero" can "put down a piece of silver and leave after dinner" in a restaurant is clearly "coming at the wrong time".