Money is the product of commodity exchange. At the end of primitive society, the earliest currency was physical currency. Generally speaking, nomadic people use livestock and hides to realize the function of money, while agricultural people use grains, fabrics, farm tools, pottery, seashells, pearls and jade as the earliest physical money. According to archaeological excavations, a large number of pottery pots were unearthed as sacrificial objects in late Neolithic sites such as Banpo. Dawenkou culture buried a large number of pig heads and jawbones, indicating that pigs and pottery had played the role of monetary wealth in the late primitive society. But as we all know, the physical currency that was widely circulated in ancient times was a "shell". Because as physical currency, cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock are inseparable, grains will rot, pearls and jade are too few, and knives and shovels are heavy, so they are finally concentrated on seashells as physical currency. Seashells can be used as neck ornaments, which are valuable and easy to carry and count, so they have been selected as the main currency in the long-term commodity exchange. In the archaeological excavation, a large number of natural shellfish were unearthed from the sites of Xia and Shang Dynasties, and shellfish were used as physical currency until the Spring and Autumn Period. Therefore, most of the words related to wealth and value in China Chinese characters are related to the word "Bei". Such as: expensive, capital, greed, poverty, wealth, purchase, etc.
China is the first country in the world to use coins. Three thousand years ago, many "copper-free shells" were unearthed in tombs in the late Yin and Shang Dynasties, which were the most primitive metal coins. By the end of the Western Zhou Dynasty, in addition to Beibi coins, there were some metal-weighed coins in circulation, such as loose copper blocks, copper slag and copper ingots, which were also unearthed in archaeological excavations.
To sum up, in the late primitive society, the main currency form in Zhixia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties was physical currency, and natural shellfish was widely circulated. In the later period, a small amount of metal weighing currency and coinage appeared, which belonged to the period of currency germination and formation.
Second, the pre-Qin currency.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, with the development of commodity economy, the metal weighing currency that needs to be divided and identified in circulation gradually became unsuitable and was replaced by metal coins.
From the Spring and Autumn Period to the metal coinage stage to the Warring States Period, four major currency systems, namely cloth coins, knife goods, ant nose coins and ring coins, were established successively. Here is a brief introduction.
1, the central plains is the royal family of Zhao, Han, Wei and Zhou, mainly in cloth coins. Cloth coins are born out of bronze shovel-shaped farm tools, and the word "cloth" is homophonic. The cloth coins in the Spring and Autumn Period were mainly hollow cloth, that is, hollow coins with handles. The cloth coins in the Warring States period were mainly flat-shouldered cloth, that is, compared with the "empty-shouldered cloth", they had no hollow handle, but were shaped like shovel-shaped copper sheets. The shapes of cloth coins can be roughly divided into flat shoulders, flat shoulders, round shoulders and square feet, pointed feet and round feet. The most common thing is that the flat shoulder plain cloth or flat shoulder square ruler evolved into the shoulder pointed ruler cloth, and the round shoulder evolved into a round foot, and the region later expanded to Chu State and Yan State.
2. Qi in the east and Yan in the north mainly use knife coins. Knife coins are divided into "Yan Ming Dao" and "Qi Dao Hua". The shape of knife coins is similar to that used by northern nomadic people such as Shanrong and Beidi. Because the face of the knife has the word "Hua", it is called "Dao". The back of the knife is divided into arc back, folded back and straight back, and the cutter head is divided into flat head and pointed head. It was also an early copper coin in China.
3. The state of Qin in the northwest used ring coins alone, and its shape evolved from spinning wheel or jade wall. There are two kinds of ring coins: round hole and square hole. During the Warring States Period, round holes were cast earlier, and Wang Huiwen and Qin Shihuang in the late Qin Dynasty cast "half-liang" coins with round holes. Circular money is the original state of square hole money.
4. The copper shell cast by the southern Chu State is called Ant Nose Money, which evolved from shell coins. Qian Wen, a copper shell, looks like a grimace, which is a combination of two characters. An ant's small nose means small money. Chu has bronze shell coins commonly known as "face money" and "ant nose money". In addition to ant nose money, Chu also has gold as the weighing currency, which is the only country in the Warring States period that used gold as the currency.
In a word, the four monetary systems in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period evolved from the tools of labor production such as knives, shovels and spinning wheels, which showed the regional characteristics and social features of economic life such as fighting, fishing and hunting, pottery making, textiles and trade exchanges. At the same time, the formation of the four major currency areas is also the product of various separatist regimes. With the development of economy and commodity trade. The mutual circulation of currencies in various countries requires and correspondingly promotes the trend of unification and standardization of monetary systems.
Third, the evolution of money in past dynasties.
Gang Qian refers to a currency legally issued by the state or local government. "Eye money" is derived from different versions of an outline money. The outline is raised to form a coin system. Taking money as a clue, we can understand the history of currency evolution; Taking money as a clue, we can intervene in the appreciation and archaeology of ancient coins. The following mainly explains the political, economic and historical changes in ancient times from the evolution of currencies in previous dynasties.
The system of outline money from Qin and Han dynasties to Ming and Qing dynasties can be divided into two stages. The first stage: the Qin, Han, Sui and Tang dynasties were dominated by copper coins, which was a dual-system stage dominated by Qin's "half two coins" and Han's "five two coins". In the second stage, from the Tang and Song Dynasties to the Ming Dynasty, the year number of coins was cleared, and the Bowen system was different from the first two systems, and the paper money silver standard system also appeared, which was divided into two parts.
(A) Qin and Han Dynasties "half a penny"
After Qin unified the six countries, political unity needed economic unity as the basis. Qin Shihuang followed the historical development trend and unified writing, weights and measures and currency. It is stipulated that "gold" is the upper currency, 20 taels is the unit, and copper coins with round holes are the lower currency and half taels are the unit. Qian Wen's "half Liang" is consistent with the actual weight. As the main form of China currency, this square hole round money has been used for more than two thousand years. Why take this shape? Mainly ring-shaped, easy to carry, the square hole is not easy to rotate through the rope, which can prevent wear. Some people think that this form expresses the world outlook of ancient people. Square hole round coins in Qin Dynasty were the earliest official legal tender in the world.
To distinguish the "half-taels of money" between the Warring States and the Qin Dynasty, we can start with calligraphy. During the Warring States Period, Qian Wen's "Half Beam" was a big seal; In the Qin Dynasty, Qian Wen's "Half Liang" was a small seal. According to legend, Qin coins were cast by Prime Minister Lisi. Probably influenced by this, most of Qian Wen after Qin Dynasty came from dignitaries or calligraphers. There was also money for imperial books in the Song Dynasty. One of the differences between Chinese ancient coins and western currencies is that the layout of Chinese ancient coins is mainly Qian Wen, and there are few patterns of circulating coins, while western currencies are mainly animals, plants, people and other patterns. The art of ancient money calligraphy is another topic.
It is said that Qin Shihuang collected weapons from all over the world and cast twelve gold men to prevent the people from rebelling. This will inevitably affect the casting amount of copper coins. Due to the extremely high copper price and insufficient currency circulation, Qin Banliang's money is of high value. At the beginning of the Han Dynasty, the problem of "Qin money is heavy (expensive) and difficult to use" appeared. Han inherited the Qin system in a semi-literary style, but when Liu Bang became emperor, the country was very poor, and a lot of small money was cast instead, including "Yu pod half 28 baht half two, four baht half two, etc." One or two is 24 baht. Because Qin Banliang's weight loss effect is remarkable, the name of "Banliang" is inconsistent with reality. In particular to an elm-shaped' white elm', the weight of which is less than 1g and the diameter is less than 1cm. In the Han Dynasty, private minting was allowed, and coins were minted in counties, which led to currency disorder and inflation. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty made great changes to the monetary system.
(B) "Five baht money" in Han Dynasty and its evolution
1, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty initiated "five baht money".
After Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty ascended the throne, it was urgent to open up financial resources. At the same time, counties and countries freely cast money, which leads to currency confusion and rising prices, threatening the central finance. So Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty in BC 165438 ordered the abolition of the coinage right of counties and states in the early Han Dynasty, and changed it to central unified coinage. Set up "Shanglin three officials", that is, Guan Zhong (in charge of casting money), distinguish copper (in charge of raw materials) and equal loss (in charge of making models), and form a central coin-making institution to be responsible for casting five baht money, also known as Shanglin money and three official money. The high quality of five baht money has changed the phenomenon of currency confusion, which is conducive to centralization and economic development. From Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to the Western Han Dynasty, Xin Mang, Eastern Han Dynasty, Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties to Sui and Tang Dynasties, it lasted more than 700 years. Five baht has long been the legal tender of each dynasty. Because the weight of five iron coins is suitable, China's square round coins with "five baht" as the main shape have also influenced Japan, Annan, North Korea and other countries. The current monetary unit in Thailand is still called "Thai baht", which is not unrelated.
2. The chaos of the new mang currency system and the appearance of fine coins.
At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang established a new dynasty, reformed the ancient system, and issued money indiscriminately. For example, "Daq50" is a large sum of money invested by Wang Mang to solve the economic crisis after he took office. "Spring" is a loan word of "money". Wang Mang believes in latitude theory. After he seized the surname of Liu, he was afraid of the word "Liu", which was composed of Mao, Jin and Dao. Therefore, Qian Wenzhong used the word "spring" instead of "gold". The weight of a "Daquan Fifty" is only two and a half times that of the Western Han Dynasty, but it should be used as fifty baht. This means that every time a large amount of money is issued, it will take away 47.5 baht of wealth from the people, which will inevitably cause people's dissatisfaction, so the people still use 5 baht for transactions. Because of this, Wang Mang stipulated in the "Severe Punishment and Cool Law" that anyone who dares to hide five baht money will be exiled as a prisoner. It can be seen from the chaos of the monetary system that Wang Mang's rule is unpopular and will undoubtedly collapse. In addition, there is another kind of banknote called "five thousand knives", that is, a banknote is five thousand baht. Someone must die and forge such a big coin. In order to guard against theft and forge private money, in addition to the criminal law, a new coin shape was created, that is, the world's first two-color metal coin, which was formed by combining ancient knife coins with round coins. In order to prevent counterfeiting and private casting, official bank coins such as "Daquan 50" and "Daoping 5,000" are "exquisitely crafted", and this distorted style has also made future generations cry for thousands of years.
The Eastern Han Dynasty restored the five-baht money system since the Western Han Dynasty. At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, Dong Zhuo went to Beijing to destroy five baht to make small money, which triggered inflation and plunged the monetary system into chaos again.
3, "Six Dynasties and Five baht" bad money
The Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were the split period of China, with frequent wars, political turmoil and social and economic destruction. History calls this period "the monetary law is very bad". In order to save copper, five baht is getting smaller and smaller, which is called "goose eye" and "corn eye". There is even a kind of cutting edge ring, called cutting five baht, which changes one yuan into two yuan, but it has a large denomination and can be used for thousands of purposes. The five baht money in this period is collectively called "five baht in six dynasties" in the coin world. The Six Dynasties were Wu, Eastern Jin, Southern Song, Qi, Liang and Chen. The five baht money in this period was badly cast, and the Cultural Revolution rate and strokes were incomplete. Some people write "five baht" as "hardware", while others write "five baht" as an anti-text. However, there are exceptions to the five baht, such as "Taihe Five baht" and "Yong 'an Five baht" in the Northern Wei Dynasty, which are called "as important as their prose" in history, and their high quality not only reminds people of a series of successful reforms of Emperor Xiaowen in the Northern Wei Dynasty.
4. "Five baht money" and rumors in Sui Dynasty.
Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty cast "five baht to open the emperor", which ended the complicated situation of the monetary system for more than 300 years since the end of the Han Dynasty and was also the last dynasty to use five baht. Emperor Yang Di was tyrannical. Some people recognized the word "five baht" or "X" in the Sui Dynasty and marked it with a vertical | to the left. After it was put down, it seemed to be the word "fierce", so some people said it was a bad omen for the Sui Dynasty, indicating that its demise was not far away. Therefore, the "five baht money" in the Sui Dynasty is very arguable. In fact, the Northern Wei Dynasty also wrote this way, but the people cursed the tyranny of the Sui Dynasty.
(3) Since the Tang Dynasty, the square-hole round banknotes have evolved from the two-baht system to the year number and the "Wen" system, and from the Song Dynasty to the Qing Dynasty, which is the second stage of currency development.
1, Tang Gaozu pioneered "Bowen" and "Annual Money"
The Tang Dynasty was a powerful dynasty with developed economy and culture. According to research, Tang Gaozu Wude minted Kaiyuan coins in 62 1 year, ending the coin system named after two baht since Qin and Han Dynasties, creating the year number with "Wen" as the unit after Tang and Song Dynasties, and minting copper coins. "Kaiyuan" has the meaning of creation and initiative, and "Bao Tong" is a treasure in circulation. There has been a great breakthrough in the unit of weight. In ancient times, the weighing method of 24 baht was one or two. "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" initiated the decimal system. Each piece weighs two baht, four pieces are one penny, and the accumulated ten pence weighs one or two, that is, ten pence is one or two "to replace baht with money". Kaiyuan Bao Tong was cast in the Tang Dynasty for more than 200 years, which made the monetary system stable for a long time. The money system in the Tang Dynasty, with "Wen" as the unit and money as the unit of weight, lasted for thousands of years until the Qing Dynasty. According to another legend, Tang Gaozu's "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" was written by Ouyang Jian, a calligrapher in the early Tang Dynasty, and is known as a calligraphy coin.
After the Anshi Rebellion, in order to cope with financial difficulties and make a lot of money, Tang Suzong called it "dry yuan and heavy treasure". This is the earliest money called "Bao", and one treasure is the first ten pence, which has caused devaluation, soaring prices, serious counterfeiting and people's anxiety. At the end of the Tang Dynasty, Tang Wuzong abolished Buddhism and took a lot of money from Buddhist copper to cast "Huichang Kaiyuan", which eased the deflation that lasted for half a century. "Gan Yuan" and "Huichang" are both Gregorian years.
The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms was a period of separatist disputes among warlords, and it was also a period of currency chaos, because there were many regimes and various currencies. Besides copper, there are also tin and iron. Large coins cost ten to one hundred, even thousands to ten thousand. The confusion and complexity of the monetary system reflects the economic deterioration caused by the separatist war.
To sum up, the square hole coin of copper coins has changed from the two systems of Thai baht to the year number, and the Bowen system is a major turning point in the development of money.
(4) In addition to the removal of copper coins from Song Dynasty to Ming Dynasty, it also produced another turning point in the development of paper money and silver standard system.
1, annual money, imperial book money and paper money in Song Dynasty
The notable feature of copper coins in Song Dynasty is the adoption of year number. According to textual research, the title of the year originated from Emperor Wu of Han Dynasty, and the title of money began with Li Shou's "Han Xing Qian" in Chengdu, Sichuan Province during the Sixteen Kingdoms period. The last year's money was Yuan Shikai's "The first year of Hongxian, when it was ten coppers." The money collapsed with Yuan Shikai and existed for less than four months. "Nianqian" is cast with the year number and the casting time, which is clear at a glance when studying the age of ancient coins, and it is the progress of the development of coin forms. The coins of the Song, Ming and Qing dynasties are the easiest to collect in each dynasty.
In addition, the number of calligraphy in the past dynasties can be seen in the Song Dynasty. According to legend, there are four styles of Yuanfeng coins minted during Yuanfeng period in Song Shenzong, namely seal script, official script, regular script and cursive script. Among them, Su Dongpo's official script "Qian Wen" is calm and heroic, and is called "Dongpo Yuanfeng". During the reign of Song Zhezong, Sima Guang and Su Dongpo wrote Yuan Yu Bao Tong, a pair of calligraphy. Make the book currency popular in the Song Dynasty. The emperor who is good at calligraphy can't bear loneliness, and often shows his skill in Qian Wen. According to textual research, Song Taizong Zhao Huan was the first person who wrote "Imperial Calligraphy Money" by the emperor, and Song Huizong Evonne had the highest achievement in calligraphy among the emperors. He was incompetent in running the country and keeping the country safe, and the "shame of Jingkang" took his son Qinzong from Jinzong to be a nomadic people. However, I have a special liking for Qin Qin's chess and calligraphy, especially the calligraphy "thin gold body" iron painting silver hook, which is unique. The popularity of calligraphy coins in the Song Dynasty is not unrelated to the emperor's personal admiration, especially the popularity of royal calligraphy coins with year numbers. Qian Wen's style changed in the Ming Dynasty. Since the mid-Ming Dynasty, Qian Wen has been made by craftsmen, with plain fonts, no one cares about its layout and structure, and the art of calligraphy is out of the question.
In the Song Dynasty, coins were cast in parallel with copper coins and iron coins. Because bronzes are more valuable than copper coins, there is a phenomenon of destroying money castings, and iron coins appear because copper coins are scarce. In addition, with the shift of economic center of gravity to the south and the expansion of currency circulation, the paper money produced in Song Dynasty is the earliest paper money in the world. This kind of paper money is a symbolic currency, a product of the development of social commodity economy to a certain stage, and also related to the progress of papermaking and printing technology. There were mainly Jiaozi in the Northern Song Dynasty, and Keiko and Guanzi in the Southern Song Dynasty. Jiaozi and Huizi were the general names of bills, securities and securities at that time. Whether the currency value is stable has become a barometer of the economic and financial situation.
Northern minority regimes such as Liao, Song and Xixia were influenced by the economy and culture of the Central Plains in their contacts with the Han nationality. They not only used copper coins cast in the Tang and Song Dynasties, but also issued copper coins in national languages and Chinese.
2. The monetary system in Yuan Dynasty was dominated by paper money.
A small amount of copper coins were cast in the Yuan Dynasty, but the currency mainly circulated paper money. This was outstanding in ancient China. Paper money in the Yuan Dynasty was called paper money. It is not allowed to misappropriate original banknotes, and the circulation of banknotes is strictly restricted. However, by the end of the Yuan Dynasty, political corruption, royal extravagance, huge military expenditure and fiscal deficit had to be compensated by the government's indiscriminate issuance of paper money, resulting in soaring prices. Coupled with the diversion and flooding of the Yellow River, natural disasters and man-made disasters are called "the root of the disaster of changing banknotes", which shows that the spamming of banknotes is closely related to the demise of the Yuan Dynasty.
3. The policy of paper money in Ming Dynasty was changed to a system of giving priority to silver, supplemented by money.
Although issuing paper money is a progress in the history of currency, the rulers of past dynasties used it to exploit and plunder the people, which led to the collapse of paper money policy. For example, at the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang carried out the policy of paper money and issued "Daming Treasure Notes" to be used together with copper coins. However, Daming's paper money had no fixed issue quota and no reserve, which soon led to inflation. Therefore, after Ye Jiajing's rule in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, paper money was no longer accessible, and people mainly used silver and copper coins. For example, in the "Banjiang" in the Ming Dynasty, silver was used instead of labor, instead of the wages of employees, and instead of the rich to accumulate wealth. The amount of silver was cast into a certain standard silver ingot from the Yuan Dynasty, and the silver ingot was named as "Yuanbao" from the Yuan Dynasty to the first year, which was the beginning of China calling the silver ingot "Yuanbao". At the same time, copper is very popular among the people. The material is changed from bronze to brass, and Bao Tong coins with year numbers are cast.
4. Copper coins, paper money and mechanism coins in Qing Dynasty
Copper coins in Qing dynasty followed the system of Ming dynasty, mainly casting Xiaoping coins. Xianfeng is the most complicated copper coin in Qing Dynasty. Qian Wen is divided into Bao Tong, Chongbao and Yuanbao, with different denominations and different money bureaus. In the Qing dynasty, folk businesses used silver, small money used money, and money and silver went hand in hand.
In the early Qing dynasty, silver ingots were used as the main currency, and cashiers were required to collect one or two more taxes. In the Qing dynasty, land tax was levied in summer and autumn every year, and the grain must be full of silver. Because the central government does not cast silver coins in uniform circulation, the silver used by the people may not be enough, and the shape, fineness and flat size of silver ingots vary from place to place. Therefore, before paying taxes, silversmiths and silver shops cast scattered silver coins into enough silver. Some silversmiths colluded with officials and took the opportunity to seriously deprive people of the quality and weight of silver, which caused many complicated social problems.
In the late Qing Dynasty, silver ingots began to transform into silver dollars. From the middle of the Ming Dynasty, foreign businessmen used their silver dollars to buy China's silk, tea and porcelain in foreign trade, which made all kinds of foreign silver dollars popular in China. During the light years of the Qing Dynasty, since the unequal treaty of nanking was signed, the silver dollar used for compensation was "foreign money", and there was no silver dollar in China at that time. The shortage of foreign currency in stock offset the sharp increase in foreign compensation, forcing the government to start casting silver dollars by itself in the late Qing Dynasty. The earliest foreign-style silver dollar mechanism in China was the Guangxu Yuanbao, commonly known as Yang Long, which was named after the dragon pattern on the back of the silver dollar. At the same time, there is also a mechanism copper coin, also called "copper coin". The appearance of machine-made silver coins and copper coins is a great impact on the traditional silver and copper coin system in China, which is dominated by square holes and circles.
The types of banknotes issued in Qing Dynasty are complex, including official banknotes and private banknotes. Official banknotes are issued by government financial institutions, while private banknotes are issued by private financial institutions. Paper money is divided into four types: copper coin (convertible square hole copper coin), copper coin (convertible copper coin), silver coin (convertible silver) and silver coin (convertible silver dollar). At the beginning of issuing paper money, there were bank reserves and paper money coupons.
To sum up, from the Song Dynasty to the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the emergence and circulation of paper money, the increasing status of silver currency, the establishment of the silver-based paper money system in the Ming and Qing Dynasties, and the emergence of the mechanism currency system in the late Qing Dynasty were the second stage of the development of Chinese currency history.
The above list is the history of circulating coins, and there are many non-circulating currencies in the coin industry, such as winning money to suppress evil spirits, tomb money to pray for evil spirits, and commemorative coins to commemorate major historical events and outstanding historical figures. These coins, commonly known as "spending money", are insignificant in currency circulation, but they can provide valuable historical materials for folk custom research.
In a word, numerology is a science. Combining the knowledge of ancient coins with history teaching activities will help us to understand and interpret the changes of China's ancient history and broaden our historical horizons. I hope this article can enlighten you, draw lessons from it and make some corrections.
200 1 April
Teaching plan design reference
First, teaching objectives and preparation
1, teaching purpose:
Ancient coins are the historical witness and epitome of ancient commodity economic activities: ancient coins are the treasures of China traditional culture. Knowing the common sense of ancient currency history for the first time is helpful for students to study and interpret the economic, political and social features of ancient China. It is a beneficial activity to enrich the connotation of history teaching and improve students' cultural literacy to carry out extended learning and research-based learning combined with theme visits.
2, teaching focus, difficult to deal with:
This paper takes the evolution of legal ancient coins circulating in slave society and feudal society as the main line, and combines the introduction of the framework knowledge of the evolution and development of ancient coins with the reading of specific ancient coins. Classroom teaching can be accompanied by charts and slide projections, so that students can have a more perceptual and rational understanding of the strange knowledge of ancient coins.
3. Teaching visit place:
Shanghai Duolun Road Cultural Street Coin Museum and Shanghai History Museum Coin Museum.
4, teaching bibliography:
Shanghai Ancient Books Publishing House issues "Illustrated China Coins"
Second, the teaching process:
Outline of the history of ancient coins in China;
First, the pre-Qin currency.
1, the origin of ancient coins and the spread of natural shellfish
2. A preliminary study of the four major monetary and economic systems in the Warring States Period: cloth coins in the Sanjin area of the Central Plains, knife coins in the northern Yan State and the eastern Qi State, round coins in the northwestern Qin State, and "ant nose money" cast in the bronze shell of the southern Chu State.
Second, the evolution of legal tender in feudal society
1, Qin unified currency and the popularity of Fiona Fang money in Qin and Han dynasties
2. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty decided "five baht money" and its evolution to the early Tang Dynasty.
3. Since Tang Gaozu, the square-hole round coins in the Tang Dynasty have changed from binary Thai baht to decimal year numbers based on characters, as well as Bowen coins.
4. The parallelism of two Song copper iron coins and the appearance of paper money.
5. The currency in circulation in Yuan Dynasty was mainly paper money, because there was no silver standard and the economy was in turmoil.
6. The establishment of the monetary system dominated by silver and paved with money and the paper money system based on the ancient silver standard in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. In the late Qing dynasty, the mechanism currency with yuan as the unit replaced the silver ingot and square hole round money with silver as the unit.
The monetary system in Han Dynasty was based on copper coins and gold coins. According to historical records, during the Western Han Dynasty, gold prevailed in the upper class as a means of circulation and payment, so the amount of gold in circulation was huge. According to Hanshu, the emperor of the Western Han Dynasty alone gave 900,000 Jin of gold, which is now 225 tons. However, after the Eastern Han Dynasty, the amount of gold circulating in society suddenly decreased. In other words, a large amount of gold suddenly withdrew from circulation in a short time and mysteriously disappeared. This unsolved mystery has been puzzling later generations, and it has also triggered various speculations about the whereabouts of these gold. Some people think that there was a deficit in foreign trade in the Han Dynasty, and a large amount of gold flowed abroad as a means of payment. Some people say that after Wang Mang usurped power, he embezzled a lot of gold for himself from the national treasury. When the New Deal collapsed, he kept it a secret and disappeared. Some explained that thick burial prevailed in the Han Dynasty, and a large amount of gold was gradually buried with it. Others said that it was because of the political turmoil and constant wars at the end of the Western Han Dynasty that rich children were afraid of accidents and hoarded their gold treasures underground. Later, the Song Dynasty ended in death and the treasures were gone. After careful analysis of these explanations, we can find that except for the first explanation, the other three explanations all think that gold is buried underground. On this basis, it is even further suggested that the mysterious missing gold was mainly buried in Luoyang and Nanyang, Henan Province, because Luoyang and Nanyang were both big cities at that time, rich in wealth and rich in giants. However, the above is only speculation. So far, we haven't heard any reports about a large amount of gold unearthed in the Han Dynasty. So whether these speculations are true or not remains to be tested by time.
China is one of the earliest countries to use money, and it is also the country that uses the most forms of money in the world. Judging from the shapes of metal coins that have appeared in history, ancient Chinese coins can be roughly divided into four periods, namely, primitive society to Shang and Zhou Dynasties, knife coins in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qin to Qing Dynasty, and no mechanism coins in the late Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.
Currency is the earliest form of currency in the world and the earliest currency used in China. Judging from the situation unearthed in China, shell coins (referring to the shells in the sea, also known as cargo shells) have appeared in primitive society and have been widely used in Xia and Shang Dynasties. More than 6,000 cargo shells have been unearthed from Fu Hao's tomb in Yinxu, Anyang. In the middle of Shang Dynasty, due to the development of commodity economy, commodity exchange gradually expanded, and the original cargo shells could not meet the needs of society, so artificial imitation shells such as ceramic shells, stone shells, bone shells, jade shells, lead shells and copper shells appeared. The copper shell is the earliest metal coin found in the world so far, which has been more than 3000 years. During the Spring and Autumn Period, the circulation of copper shell coins became larger and larger, and the production became more and more exquisite. There were also gold-plated and gold-plated copper shells. During the Warring States period, there appeared a high-tech imitation coin of pure gold and pure silver.
The history of knife and cloth coins began in the Spring and Autumn Period. The Spring and Autumn Period is a period of great change from slavery to feudalism in the history of China. The further development of commodity economy leads to a large demand for circulating currency, and the metal casting technology is becoming more and more mature, which provides the necessity and possibility for casting a large number of metal currencies. The biggest feature of currency in this period is the variety of coinage and the chaotic monetary system. At that time, due to the gradual weakening of the influence of the Zhou Dynasty, countries were fragmented and their economies were self-contained, so all countries forged their own currencies and circulated with each other, forming a special situation in which various monetary systems and types coexisted and used for a long time. Judging from the form and distribution, the money in this period can be divided into four types: cloth money, knife money, love money and ant nose money (face money). Cloth coins are shovel-shaped copper coins of agricultural tools, also called shovel coins. From the unearthed situation, it is mainly distributed in the capitals of Zhou Dynasty such as Jin, Zheng, Song and Zhao and the western foot of Taihang Mountain. Cloth coins can be divided into empty cloth coins and flat cloth coins according to their shapes. The hollow cloth is completely made according to the shape of the agricultural tool shovel, with flat shoulders and a round hole for mounting the handle. At first, the size of hollow cloth was the same as that of farm tools, and then it gradually narrowed. Flat cloth is a further monetization transformation of flat cloth form. The head is flat and there are many kinds. Shoulders and feet have three shapes: flat, pointed and round. Some have round holes in their heads, or three holes in their heads and feet. Knife coins evolved from the bronze cutting of tools in Shang and Zhou Dynasties, so the handle of knife coins has rings and cracks. The shapes of knife coins are needle-shaped, pointed, round-headed, arc-backed, etc. , mainly distributed in Qi and Yan countries in the east, and later developed to coexist with cloth coins in countries such as Zhao and Zhongshan. Yiqian is a kind of copper coin with a round hole in the middle and an outer circle inside, which is made according to the shape of the king's wall circle. Mainly cast in the Wei and Jin Dynasties. In the late Warring States period, countries such as Qin, Qi and Yan made round coins with square holes and used the weight of metal as the monetary unit for the first time. Ant nose coin is a kind of copper coin, which evolved from the shape of shell coin. Its back is flat and convex, and it is cast with a ghost face, so it is called face money, which is mainly cast in Chu State. In addition to copper coins, there were a small number of gold and silver coins such as silver cloth and gold plate during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, but the circulation scope was very small. Another feature of currency in this period was that the currency characters were extremely chaotic. Although most of the currencies have characters cast on them, because the characters of different countries are not uniform, and because this period lasted for more than 500 years, there have been many wars between countries, and the monetary policy is extremely unstable. Therefore, even on the similar currency minted in the same country, the writing position, content and number of words of the currency are not uniform, which has caused great trouble for future generations to identify the currency age.
After Qin Shihuang unified China, the extremely chaotic monetary system was unified for the first time since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period. The currency of the Qin Dynasty used gold as the upper currency, and the square hole copper coins used by the Qin State for a long time as the lower currency. Copper coins weigh half a tael, and the word "half a tael" is cast on them. This is the world-famous "Qin Banliang" copper coin. Since the Qin Dynasty, China's currency has entered a new era of unification and standardization, symbolizing a round place. As the basic form of currency, the square-hole banknotes were called "Confucius Brothers" by Mohist scholars, and were fixed by historical rulers. They have been in use for more than 2,000 years until the beginning of this century, and have also profoundly influenced the monetary systems of many neighboring countries. The most famous copper coin in Han Dynasty is "five baht money", which looks like "Qin Banliang". However, the front and back of money are covered with internal and external outlines, which makes Qian Wen protected. The weight is only five baht, and the square hole on the front is the word "five baht" in seal script, hence the name. Judging from the unearthed situation, there are not only five copper coins, but also five silver coins and five coins. After liberation, only two gold coins were unearthed, which are priceless among ancient coins. The "Five Treasures Coin" of Han Dynasty has been used until the early Tang Dynasty because of its exquisite casting, practical norms and popular among the people. After more than 700 years, it is the longest currency type in China history. In the Han Dynasty, in addition to five baht, Wang Mang also carried out four monetary reforms during the New Deal, casting dozens of currencies from "one knife equals five thousand" to "Koizumi Zhi". Although Wang Mang's currency reform is a farce, it has repeatedly failed, but it has left the world with a number of exquisite and elegant ancient coins, which are favored by coin collectors. From the Three Kingdoms to the Sui Dynasty, although coins with larger denominations were minted, the basic currency was five baht.
It is an epoch-making event in the history of China's currency to abolish the five baht and switch to the "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" currency, which marks the end of the weight-based monetary system and the beginning of Bao Tong's monetary system. The uniqueness of Bao Tong's currency lies not in its shape, but in its Qian Wen. The word "Kaiyuan" in "Kaiyuan Bao Tong" indicates the beginning of a new era, while "Bao Tong" indicates the passing of precious articles. Since then, Qian Wen, whose square hole is round, has been changed to four characters, that is, the year number or country number plus "Bao Tong" (followed by "Yuanbao" or "Chongbao"). This Qian Wen model became the standard of coin casting in later generations, and it was used for 1300 years from the Tang Dynasty to the Republic of China. Kaiyuan copper coins not only have strict rules on shape and size, but also have uniform standards on thickness, color and font. In terms of weight, it is stipulated that each copper coin weighs one tenth, and then the decimal system of 20 cents is implemented, and the original unit of measurement "baht" is abolished. The purity of copper is 83.32%, which ensures the value of the coin itself; In terms of fonts, we abandoned seal script and switched to official script and regular script. All these have provided a guarantee for the long-term circulation of Bao Tong currency.
During the nearly thousand years from Song Dynasty to Qing Dynasty, although other forms of money, such as paper money and silver ingots, appeared, generally speaking, Bao Tong currency was the basic currency. This period is also the period with the largest variety and quantity of cross-bank coins in the history of China. The parallel system of copper, iron and coins was implemented in Song Dynasty. In the Song Dynasty, almost every title was cast with title money. Besides Yuanbao and Bao Tong, there are dozens of currency names, plus the size of the currency, official casting and private casting, and so on. It is estimated that there are thousands of versions. Judging from the number of coins minted, only 5.02 million copper coins and1130,000 iron coins were minted in Yuanfeng period, which shows the huge number. Liao, Jin and Xixia currency