According to the records of the Qing Dynasty, China experienced the most serious outflow of silver in the early 9th century. The outflow of silver reduced the money supply including coins, banknotes and deposits by 9%- 1 1%. It is estimated that during the period of 18 14- 1856, the silver outflow from China reached 18% of the total silver supply in China.

However, from17th century to 192 1 year, there was no nationwide and long-term silver outflow in China. In the17th century, due to the prohibition of maritime trade in 16 1- 1683, the supply of silver was particularly short. The fundamental problem is not the increase of silver exports, but the decrease of silver imports.

Silver in late Qing dynasty

From 1808- 1856, about 368 million silver dollars went abroad, while from1721-kloc-0/800 and from 1857- 1886. From 1888- 1898, China's trade balance turned into a deficit, but remittances from overseas Chinese made up for this deficit, so there was still a net inflow of silver. During the period of 1899- 192 1, in addition to remittances from overseas Chinese, foreign loans and investments allowed by treaty of shimonoseki also made up for the trade deficit, making China's balance of payments positive.

/kloc-In the first half of the 9th century, the Qing government could hardly come up with any policy tools to deal with the decrease in the growth rate of money supply. /kloc-The monetary structure of China in the 20th century was more influenced by the international market than that of China or Britain in the same period. From1905-1911year, although the price of silver increased, it was limited to North China and Central China. Its impact on the economy cannot be compared with the national impact caused by 1808- 1856 silver outflow. Making money at this time is not as important as it was during 1808- 1856.

Silver ingot in Qing dynasty

At this time, there were more banknotes in circulation, and the Qing government began to cast silver dollars. As silver and coinage become less important, paper money becomes the most important currency, thus minimizing the impact of silver outflow. At the beginning of19th century, when Britain faced the situation that the world silver production decreased, it made up for it by issuing modern bank notes.

Besides, Britain didn't rely too much on making money, and it didn't suffer from the severe crisis that China experienced. In the early 1930s, India also experienced rising silver prices and deflation. In addition to domestic factors, the decline in the inflow of silver in the United States is also one of the reasons. However, with the sharp increase in opium exports to China, the situation in India improved greatly in the mid-1840s.

Opium trade

The factors leading to the serious outflow of silver in the Qing court:/kloc-the decline of global silver supply and opium trade in the 9 th century.

Six years before the Opium War broke out, Lin Zexu, the minister of smoking prohibition, advocated opium cultivation to stop the outflow of silver. So the root cause of the Opium War is the silver problem. For a long time, opium has been used to explain the silver outflow and the crisis of expensive silver and cheap money in the early19th century. China does use more opium than Britain.

As far as Britain is concerned, the estimated consumption during the period of 1827- 1839 is about100000 people 1.62. In the same period, 4120,000 people in China consumed 5.48 tons of imported opium per10,000 people. Therefore, China's per capita opium consumption is about 3.4 times that of Britain.

However, although China's opium import value doubled during the period of 1856- 1886, the silver inflow in this period was 6.91100 million silver dollars because the world market was favorable for China's silk and tea exports. On the contrary, although the opium import in the period of 1808- 1856 was less than that in the later period of 19, China had 368 million silver dollars in the same period.

silver

During the periods of 1790- 1799 and 1820- 1829, the global gold and silver output decreased by about 50%, and the opium trade was actually used to absorb the silver of the Qing Dynasty. Although the world silver production gradually recovered after these political upheaval, it didn't really reach the production level of 1800 until 1860.

From about 1755, except Yunnan and Guangxi, almost all the silver in China was imported from Latin America through European countries, which was directly affected by the decline of silver production in America in the19th century. It was not until the global silver supply resumed in the late19th century that Britain re-supplied silver to India.

At the same time, after the Latin American independence movement broke out, Jardine Matheson and many Spanish businessmen gave up the silver trade in this region and began to engage in opium trade. 1808, when western countries stopped supplying silver to eastern countries, was also a year when the price of silver in China market rose above the official price, and at least from 1809, China officials also noticed the outflow of silver.

During the period of 18 14, the silver supply of western countries to eastern countries, especially the Qing government, decreased sharply; This year is also the first time that London Customs reported the flow of silver from China to India. However, with the trade balance between China and other countries, China did not face the national trade deficit for a long time until after 1827.

Lin Zexu

By 1833, Britain not only stopped supplying silver to India, but also absorbed silver from India with cotton sold. Also in this year, Lin Zexu said:

"The two evils are the lesser. Some people in the mainland are privately planted, and the silver they sell is still in the mainland, which is different from going abroad."

It can be seen that after 1833, the Qing Dynasty faced a worsening predicament caused by "silver outflow". 1856, the west replenished enough silver to the east. At this time, Feng Guifen, a scholar in Qing Dynasty, was amazed at the sudden change of silver flow and the sudden relief of the crisis of expensive silver and cheap money.

Summary: When the global silver supply was in short supply in the early19th century, the phenomenon that the price of silver in China was higher than that in European countries in the17th and18th centuries disappeared, and the amount of silver arbitrage in China also decreased. The crisis of cheap money in China19th century began in 1808, and gradually worsened in1968+0820s, and reached its peak in 1844- 1856. After 1856, silver began to flow in gradually, and the price of silver decreased, which remained at a moderate level until the late Qing Dynasty.

Schematic diagram of the scene of officers and men transporting silver in Qing Dynasty

The influence of silver outflow on the Qing Dynasty was nationwide.

Many scholars believe that the silver problem in the19th century mainly affected the southeast of the Qing Dynasty. Although different currencies are used in different regions of China, silver is used in every region.

However, in the early19th century, when carrying out small transactions, the paper money with coin face value was mostly used in the north, and the coin was mostly used in the south, because the water transportation in the south was more developed, and it was possible to transport heavy coins in large-scale trade, while silver was mostly used in the north and foreign silver dollars were mostly used in the south. In some border areas of southwest and core provinces, silver is used more than money because of transportation costs. Just as the body has many organs, China under the rule of Qing Dynasty also has many regional economies, but silver is like a blood system, which connects these regional economies.

Therefore, we can be clear that money manufacturing will not be used for inter-provincial trade except that some provincial mint bureaus provide money to neighboring provinces or circulate money between provinces through certain waterways. Compared with making money, in the early19th century, the weight of silver with the same value was about 150: 1, which means that silver is more convenient to transport to distant markets than making money. As far as the province is concerned, silver is mainly supplied by cities; Francisco, located in the provincial capital, is a provider of money in the province.

Silver in Guangxu period of Qing Dynasty

In addition to some mountainous provinces, remote places in non-mountainous provinces also rely on small quantity and high value silver trading. In addition, the farther away the provinces are from the advanced urban centers, the amount of silver used to make money will gradually decrease, but every place in the province will be affected by the supply of silver in the city for the following reasons:

1 First of all, the prices of silver and money are determined by the banks in the city according to their respective and mutual supply and demand relationships. Since the whole economy was valued by silver from the late18th century, the relationship between supply and demand for making money in the early19th century was also influenced by the relationship between supply and demand of silver.

2. Secondly, although 80%-90% of ordinary people pay taxes with money, the tax amount is calculated in silver; Therefore, the tax amount is also affected by the exchange rate between currencies in the market.

Thirdly, Shanxi merchants strengthened the nationwide silver circulation network, especially after the second half of18th century. This nationwide trade network has been expanded by the import of opium with light quantity and high value. The outflow of silver, even the border areas will be greatly affected by the national trade network.

silver

Fourth, the silver reserves in the border areas are far less than those in the core areas, but silver should also be used to pay land taxes or buy daily necessities. Therefore, some border areas are more affected than the core areas.

5. Fifth, the upward trend of silver prices in different provinces is similar. Even the border areas like Xinjiang suffered a great loss in the1840s.

Evidence shows that, like the severely affected southeast region, the local tax revenue of Henan and Shandong has also dropped by one third. The decline of salt fields in Gansu, Hedong, Luchang, Shandong, Yunnan, Sichuan and Guangxi provinces in the north and southwest is the same as that in Huaibei, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Fujian provinces in the southeast. Soldiers in Zhili, Hunan, Jiangsu, Shanxi, Fujian, Jiangxi and other core provinces, like soldiers in Guizhou, Shaanxi, Xinjiang and other marginal provinces, are deeply mired in the crisis of expensive silver and cheap money. Bandits have mushroomed from Zhili, Shandong and Henan in the north to Hubei, Hunan, Zhejiang, Guangdong and Guangxi in the south.

Summary: The economic activities of the Qing Dynasty from the imperial court finance to the general public generally depended on silver, and the sharp reduction of silver had a fatal impact on the whole Qing Dynasty. /kloc-the outflow of silver in the early 0/9th century plunged the whole Qing Dynasty into poverty.

Silver in Guangxu period

The outflow of silver caused three major crises in the Qing Dynasty.

By the end of Qianlong period in Qing Dynasty, not only did the use of silver expand, but the cultivated land and population of China also increased exponentially. However, the widespread use of silver, mainly from abroad, has become the achilles heel of this growing empire. The Qing imperial government could not grasp the supply of silver at all. Although the Imperial Foundry Bureau also makes money for ordinary people and the government has stipulated the units and styles of silver coins, imported silver coins can also be circulated and even used for paying taxes.

Except the silver deposited in the government treasury, most of the silver is still in the hands of ordinary people, especially businessmen, because almost all the silver comes from international trade controlled by businessmen. In fact, it is banks, not the government's Ministry of Finance, that monitor the flow of funds.

Qing army

Crisis 1: The outflow of silver weakened the military strength of the Qing Dynasty. /kloc-When the outflow of silver caused the price of silver to rise in the 9th century, the price of silver at that time doubled, which brought a sudden impact on the rule of the Qing regime and the market field. Compared with the increase of silver in the late18th century, in the early19th century, the Qing government's control over the army, bureaucracy, finance and society declined seriously.

At that time, the money earned by the Qing government mainly flowed into the trade market in the form of soldiers' salaries and public expenses. In order to benefit soldiers, one or two pieces of silver can only be exchanged for 800 francs in the market, but the Qing government stipulated that one or two pieces of silver can be exchanged for 1 000 francs. However, in the crisis period when money is cheap and silver is expensive, when the market exchange rate rises to 1, 500-2500, soldiers' salaries are still paid according to the official old system 1, 000. It can be seen that expensive silver and cheap money led to the increasing poverty of soldiers, and the military strength of the Qing court naturally declined.

Qing dynasty officials

Crisis 2: The outflow of silver reduces the income of honest officials. At the same time, the salaries of honest officials are paid in silver, and their normal salaries have not decreased. However, if they invest in land and business, their income will also decrease because of lack of money, so their total income may decrease. In addition, officials are often forced to make up for short taxes. In the18th century, one or two pieces of silver were exchanged for 800 pence in the market, and officials could use the remaining 200 pence to pay for freight, fire and administrative expenses when paying taxes.

In the crisis of your bank's cheap money in the early19th century, even though the exchange rate was higher than the market price, it was as high as 2,500 pieces per pair, but because of the heavy burden on taxpayers, the tax revenue was often insufficient and needed to be supplemented. Due to the decrease of officials' income and the shortage of taxes, their enthusiasm for governance has also relaxed.

The lack of money has reduced the income of many people. Because people have to pay taxes with more expensive silver, the tax revenue of the empire, including land tax, customs duty, salt class and miscellaneous tax, has been greatly reduced. Most government expenditures also use silver, and since officials have to exchange silver in banks, the amount of funds required has doubled. The lack of tax revenue encourages corruption and further weakens people's trust in the government.

Money shortage also affects the development of agriculture and commerce. Unemployment suddenly increased the number of refugees. Salt merchants and big landlords are even more miserable, because their income is calculated by making money, but they pay taxes with silver. The increase of unemployment, economic conflicts between different social classes and the lack of taxes all worsened the relationship between the government and the people, leading to frequent turmoil in the Qing court.

Qing Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Uprising

Crisis 3: The outflow of silver led to the outbreak of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement. All these problems and tensions, together with other reasons, led to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement in 1850. Some studies attribute the movement from An Baili to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom to population pressure. Other scholars believe that the economic recession in the early19th century is a key variable. The import of opium is the main cause of economic recession, which led to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement.

In fact, the reasons for the shortage of money include the increase of population, the decrease of demand for China products in the world market and the decrease of global silver production, and so on, not just the increase of opium imports. In the development of social contradictions, the crisis of expensive silver and cheap money has a greater impact than economic recession.