Money is a commodity (or a special commodity) that acts as a universal equivalent. Before the emergence of money, people mainly obtained a certain commodity through barter. With the development of commodity exchange, the process of barter exchange is too rigid, and people gradually find that there is a commodity on the market, either durable bronze ware, painted pottery, or other things that everyone is willing to accept, so this commodity has become the initial physical currency. So what things or materials became money in ancient times? Beibi: Beibi and Shell Coin can be said to be the earliest and longest-lasting physical currency in China. Until the late Ming and early Qing dynasties, this currency was still used in Yunnan minority areas. There are several conditions for shells to become money: first, they have practical functions (such as the use of their decorations); Second, it has natural units; The third is strong and durable; The fourth is easy to carry. In particular, its natural unit had its unique natural advantages in ancient times when metal smelting technology was not developed. Ancient people used coins and strings together, so a string is also a unit. The earliest monetary unit of Northern Currency is Peng, that is, ten pieces are a string and two strings are a friend. In ancient Oracle Bone Inscriptions in China, the word "Beipeng" was often linked together, and the meaning of the word "Beipeng" was similar to that of the word "Cai" now. Today, in China's works, many words are related to monetary meanings, such as wealth, expensive, poor and cheap. , all with the word "Bei" as the radical. Metal money: (1) Bronze tools: From the Western Zhou Dynasty to the Spring and Autumn Period, due to the continuous improvement of bronze production technology, a large number of bronze production tools appeared, and the importance of bronze tools has been the shells as decorations. Therefore, in the process of exchange and trade, knives, shovels, yarn wheels and other production tools have become circulation means and payment means, and developed into universal equivalents. There are two reasons why bronze tools replace shells as money: First, because the number of shells actually used as money is small, it can no longer meet the growing market demand. The second reason is that the practical value of production tools is greater than that of shells that can only be used as decorations. (2) Bronze currency: From the Spring and Autumn Period to the Warring States Period, those tools made of bronze gradually evolved into bronze currency, because the tools regarded as the universal equivalents in market circulation were too large to be exchanged. People began to accept bronze coins that looked like tools. During the Warring States period, there were three main systems of money: distributing money, cutting money and circulating money. Cloth money is not money made of cloth. At that time, there was no cloth, just a metal coin that evolved from agricultural tools and shovels. The earliest cloth coins completely retained the shape of a shovel. The circulation area of cloth coins is very extensive. Jin in the Spring and Autumn Period and Zhao, Han and Wei in the Warring States Period all used cloth coins. Knife coin evolved from a practical knife at first glance, and it was a fishing and hunting tool at that time. The circulation of knife coins is not as wide as that of cloth coins, but in the eastern countries such as Qi and Yan. This is because most people in the ancient western regions were mainly farming, so farm tools were used as money. The eastern region is offshore with many rivers. People are mostly engaged in fishing and hunting, so knife coins are used as money. The ring money is round with a round hole in the middle. There were drilled stone beads in the Paleolithic Age and stone rings and beads in the Neolithic Age. Many earthen and stone spinning wheels have been unearthed in Yangshao ancient cultural site in China, all of which are round and have holes in the middle, which are similar to the early money circles, so the money circles probably evolved from spinning wheels. The ancient Yuhuan was Yuhuan. Ring money varies in size and has many words on it. Its circulation scope is much smaller than cloth money and knife money. According to experts' research, Huan Qian was the currency in the early Qin Dynasty. Knife coins, cloth coins and ring coins are all tangible metal coins. At first, letter-shaped money saved its shape by reducing its weight, but later it changed its shape and only kept its name. This kind of currency is a tendency system of natural coins such as shell coins to transition to metal coins. In our country, their appearance has the historical function of connecting the preceding with the following and carrying forward the past. (3) Qin Banliang Money: After Qin Shihuang unified the whole country, he introduced the monetary system of Qin State to the whole country. The upper currency was gold, and the unit was 20 Liang, while the lower currency was copper, that is, "half Liang" money. The reason why gold is a coin is limited to a large number of payments, such as the emperor's reward. However, in daily folk transactions, "half two" money is used. The appearance of "half-Liang" coins in the Qin Dynasty marked a new period for China's metal currency, that is, the unification of weight names and currency names. (4) Five baht money in the Han Dynasty: After the establishment of the Han Dynasty, five baht money was cast in the fifth year of Emperor Yuanshou (1 18 BC). It was not until the Sui Dynasty destroyed Tang Xing that the five baht money died out. Five baht is the longest and most successful coin in the history of China. In terms of its weight, five baht is the standard currency. Even after Tang Wude announced that he would stop using five baht for four years, the weight of the new currency was still five baht. (5) Bao Tong, Kaiyuan in the Tang Dynasty: The Book of the Old Tang Dynasty, Records of Food Goods, records: "(Tang Dynasty) Emperor Gaozu ascended the throne, and he still used five baht. In the fourth year of Wude (62 1), in July, I spent five baht, using Kaiyuan Baotong money, with a diameter of eight cents and a weight of two baht and four baht. Ten articles weigh one or two, and a thousand articles weigh six pounds and four ounces. " From then on, "money" became the unit of weight, and the carry system of ten money and one two was born. Bao Tong in Kaiyuan often makes us look forward to the significance of literature, thinking that the casting of Emperor Taizong in Kaiyuan actually means "opening a new era"; "Bao Tong" means "delivering precious goods in China". The appearance of Kaiyuan Bao Tong Coin ended the tradition of renaming with five baht coins that lasted for more than 700 years since the Western Han Dynasty, and created the system of Bao Tong and Yuanbao Coin. Since the Tang Dynasty, coins have been renamed as "Bao" instead of "Bao", or Bao Tong, or Yuanbao, or Chongbao, or other treasures. From the establishment of Bao Tong Qian Qi in the fourth year of Wude Kaiyuan to "Hongxian Bao Tong" in 19 16, the monetary systems of Bao Tong and Yuanbao have been in use for nearly 1300 years, and their longevity is really rare in the world monetary history. (6) Silver became legal tender in the Ming Dynasty. With the recovery and upsurge of commodity economy, coupled with the huge trade surplus since the middle and late Ming Dynasty, a large number of overseas silver flowed in, and the use of silver became increasingly widespread, becoming the main legal tender, forming a currency circulation system dominated by silver, supplemented by money. There are two kinds of silver coins: silver coins and silver coins. Silver coins have been used in China for a long time and belong to weighing currency. There are various shapes such as silver cake, silver ingot, silver ingot and silver piece. When you use it, you should look at the color and weigh the weight. Silver inflows from overseas are mostly silver dollars with stable value, which are welcomed and widely used by businessmen in coastal provinces. After the Opium War, various provinces successively minted Yang Long silver coins with dragon patterns. The price of silver is moderate and stable, and its wide use facilitates commodity trade and promotes the accumulation of commercial capital. Paper money: In the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, the commodity economy developed greatly, and trade also increased. "Every transaction100000 yuan", so the demand for money is also increasing. At that time, copper coins, silver coins and iron coins were popular in the market, and iron coins were also popular in some areas. Because iron coins are very heavy (1000 pieces weigh 25 kilograms, and the medium ones weigh 13 kilograms), it is extremely inconvenient to carry and use, which seriously affects the circulation of money and the development of commodity economy. In the early days of Song Zhenzong, 16 wealthy businessmen in Chengdu, Sichuan jointly issued a paper money-jiaozi, which is more portable than metal money. "Jiaozi" is Sichuan dialect, and "Zi" is a common ending in Sichuan dialect. "Jiaozi" means meeting, meeting, which means that two coupons can be converted into cash together. It printed pictures of houses, trees and people on a small piece of paper, and made a secret signal to prevent others from copying: the appearance of jiaozi replaced iron money. This is the beginning of the use of paper money in China, the earliest paper money in the world, and a great progress in the history of China's currency development. Jiaozi can be used in the market or exchanged for cash in jiaozi. Old and new jiaozi are exchanged every three years. In the first year of Song Renzong Tiansheng (A.D. 1023), Jiaozi was issued by the government in a unified way, with a limited number of issuances each time, with iron money as the reserve fund. In the fourth year of Song Huizong Chongning (A.D. 1 105), it was renamed "Yin Qian" to replace the devalued "Jiaozi". In the Southern Song Dynasty, Jiaozi was renamed Guanzi and Huizi. The Yuan Dynasty promoted paper money as the main currency, which was an unprecedented period of paper money circulation in China's history and the earliest regime in the world to promote pure paper money circulation. In the first year of the unification of the Yuan Dynasty (A.D. 1260), the non-convertible banknote "Zhong Bao Tong banknote" appeared for the first time and was used for a long time in the Yuan Dynasty. In A.D. 1294, this "treasure of the Middle China" spread to Persia and from there to other countries. During the Ming and Qing Dynasties, paper money was still issued, but it was not widely circulated when used with metal money. In modern times, paper money has been widely circulated and gradually replaced metal coins. To sum up, we can sum up the evolution law of ancient currency in China as: 1. Evolution from natural currency to artificial currency: Shellfish is the earliest currency in China. With the rapid development of commodity exchange, the demand for money is increasing, and shells can no longer meet people's needs. People began to imitate shells with copper. With the extensive use of artificial coins, seashells, a natural currency, gradually withdrew from the currency stage in China. Second, the evolution from disorderly form to standard form: From Shang Dynasty to Warring States, China's currency includes shovel currency, knife currency, ring currency and Chu currency (gold and ant nose currency). After Qin unified China, Qin Shihuang promulgated the earliest monetary law in China in 2 10 BC, "taking Qin coins as the world's currency", which stipulated that the whole country should use Qin's square and semi-written language. The circulation of coins of round square hole, Qin and semi-Liang in the whole country ended the chaotic state of different forms and different weights in ancient China, which was a major evolution from chaotic form to standardized form in the history of ancient China currency. The shape of this circular square hole determined by Qin Banliang Qian continued until the early Republic of China. Third, the evolution from local coins to central coins: According to the Records of Hanshu Food, after the founding of the Han Dynasty, Liu Bang allowed the people to coin coins privately. Rich gentry, businessmen and local forces took the opportunity to make profits by casting bad money. Wendi was Wendi, "Dr. Deng Tong also made money to win the king." In the fourth year of Ding Yuan (before 1 15), Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty recovered the right to coin coins in counties and counties, and the central government unified the casting of five baht. From then on, it was decided that the central government would manage the casting and distribution of coins in a unified way, which was a major evolution from local coins to central coins in the ancient currency history of China. Since then, coins of past dynasties have been directly managed by the central government. The return of the right to coin to the central government played an important role in stabilizing the political situation and economic development of the dynasties. 4. Evolution from the weight of documents to Bao Tong and Yuanbao: Coins minted since the Qin and Han Dynasties usually clearly indicate the weight of money in Qian Wen, such as "half two", "five baht" and "four baht" (twenty-four baht is one or two). In the fourth year of Tang Gaozu Wude (62 1), Li Yuan made up his mind to reform the currency system, abolish ancient coins with different weights, take the meaning of "creating the world" and uniformly cast "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" money. Kaiyuan Bao Tong opposed the old system of Qin and Han Dynasties, while Qian Wen did not attach importance to weight, which is the evolution of ancient currency in China from document weight to Bao Tong and Yuanbao. Kaiyuan Bao Tong Coin is the earliest Bao Tong Coin in China. Since then, China's copper coins no longer take Qian Wen as the standard weight, but are commensurate with Bao Tong and Yuanbao, and have been used until the "Bao Tong of the Republic of China" after the Revolution of 1911. 5. Evolution from metal currency to paper money: The appearance of paper money in the Northern Song Dynasty was an important evolution from metal currency to paper money in the ancient history of China. Jiaozi is not only the earliest paper money in China, but also the earliest paper money in the world. 6. Evolution from manual coinage to machine-made banknotes: In the late Qing Dynasty, with the gradual introduction of advanced foreign science and technology, Guangxu began to buy coinage machines abroad to manufacture silver and copper coins. Later, Guangdong began to make ten copper coins without holes with machines. Because of the huge profits of manufacturers, provinces have followed suit. The emergence of mechanism currency in the late Qing Dynasty was a re-evolution from manual coinage to mechanism currency in the ancient monetary history of China. Since then, not only the process of casting money has changed greatly, but also the round square hole money that has been circulated for more than two thousand years has died.