On Ancient Monetary Policy and Coinage Right

After the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the ruling class with more political vision quickly introduced its own coinage policy. In the fourth year of Wude (62 1), in July, "Five baht money was wasted, and Kaiyuan Baotong money was used, with a diameter of eight cents and a weight of two quarters, ten products weighed one or two, and a thousand products weighed six pounds and four liang." [1] established the legal tender status of the National Mint. At the same time, it inherited the tradition of taking silk as currency in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and implemented the monetary system of "paying equal attention to money and silk"-money is copper coins, and silk is the general name of silk products, including brocade, embroidery, silk, silk, crepe, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, silk, in fact,

As far as the monetary system itself is concerned, there are obvious defects: diversified monetary forms not only inevitably lead to complex and changeable price comparison problems within it, but also easily lead to chaos in currency circulation, which contradicts the function and exclusiveness of money as a value measure. Marx pointed out: "Two commodities that exclude all other commodities are mutually exclusive ... All historical experience can be summarized as follows: where two commodities act as value scales according to law, only one commodity actually maintains this status ... In fact, only overvalued metals can play a value scale." [2] It has also been said: "The function of the value scale and the duality of the value scale are incompatible". [3] Qiansi system is that a variety of commodities act as currency according to law, which leads to the diversification of legal tender, and its internal contradictions and conflicts are naturally more intense.

However, the monetary system is also a problem of historical development, and the shortcomings in development should be viewed historically and should not be demanding. As we all know, according to Marxist monetary theory, the monetary system in a certain historical period is fundamentally determined by the development level of commodity economy in that period. With the development of commodity economy in the process of human history, the change of currency form from physical currency to metal currency to paper money clearly proves this point. However, the monetary system in a certain historical period, as an organizational form of currency circulation stipulated by national laws and as a legal system, has a counter-effect on the development of commodity economy in that period: the monetary system promotes the development of commodity economy, and vice versa. This monetary theory is also suitable as the guiding ideology for us to study the monetary system in the Tang Dynasty. Judging from the overall process of historical development in the Tang Dynasty, the monetary system of money and silk can adapt to and promote the development of small commodity economy, and it can't adapt to the further development of commodity economy and hinder its development.

The Tang Dynasty was built on the ruins of the Sui Dynasty. At the beginning, the social economy was dominated by natural economy, and the commodity economy was in the recovery stage, with a low level. In this case, the monetary system of paying equal attention to money and silk has a variety of physical currencies and copper coins with small unit value, which better meets the needs of small commodity trading. This is its reasonable side. However, with the continuous development of commodity economy in the late Zhenguan period, especially in the periods of Gaozong, Wuhou and Xuanzong, the money and silk monetary system gradually exposed its backward side. First of all, silk as currency began to be unpopular in the market because of its shortcomings such as large size, heavy weight, inconvenient division and difficult transportation and storage. The function of silk as a currency tends to decline, and commodity trading tends to like to use more advanced copper coins as intermediaries, which puts forward the requirement of increasing the number of copper coins in circulation. However, the official mint in Tang dynasty could not meet this requirement, which led to the increasing shortage of copper coins in circulation, which led to the serious phenomenon of private casting of copper coins and price fluctuation. The Tang government issued a decree to crack down on private casting and prohibit the use of bad money. However, due to the serious shortage of copper coins, the currency value has risen steadily, and private casting is profitable, so the effect is not ideal.

Silk and silk are excluded from the market, and there is a shortage of copper coins, which shows that the monetary system with both money and silk can no longer adapt to the new level of commodity economy development. The development of commodity economy puts forward the objective requirement of reforming the monetary system and realizing the equal emphasis from physical currency and metal currency to all metal currencies. At that time, the copper resources were limited, the efficiency of official coinage was not high, even at a loss, and the total amount of coinage was small, which could not meet the market demand for metal currency. It is the best way to adapt to the development of commodity economy to learn from the historical experience of using gold as the upper currency and copper as the lower currency in Han Dynasty and adopt precious metal gold and silver as the main currency and copper as the auxiliary currency in time. However, due to the influence of the wrong and backward monetary thought, the ruling class in the Tang Dynasty did not realize this and did not take the initiative to adjust the monetary system. Instead, various measures are taken to vigorously safeguard the system of combining money with silk. As a result, with the continuous development of commodity economy, the objective requirements of good currency circulation can not be met, and the contradiction with the backward monetary system is getting worse and worse, which has become a long-standing contradiction in social development since the middle Tang Dynasty, especially after the implementation of the two tax laws, and is highlighted by the so-called "money shortage"

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In the Tang Dynasty, legal, financial and administrative means were comprehensively used to maintain the Qian Si monetary system. In order to describe the order, it can be summarized from the following aspects.

First, protect the monetary status of silk, silk, copper coins and other legal objects should also be used as currency, and encourage the priority use of physical currency. In September of the 20th year of Kaiyuan (732), Xuanzong promulgated the dual-purpose system of money and goods, which was called "silk, cloth and groceries". All transactions are universal. It is unreasonable to hear that the market must see money. From now on, if you use it with money and things, offenders will be investigated. " [4] In October of the 22nd year of Kaiyuan (734), Xuanzong republished the book Dual Use of Life, Money and Things, which stipulated: "Money can be used for both purposes, based on cloth and silk, and the money knife is the end, which has deep disadvantages. There should be a change between law and education. From now on, all the horses in Zhuangzhaikou will be traded, silk cloth will be used first, and the rest of the cities will buy more than 1000, so that money and goods can be used together. " [5] In the twentieth year of Zhenyuan (804), Dezong "ordered the fair trade, and silk, cloth, groceries and money were used". [6] In February of the sixth year of Yuanhe (8 1 1), Xian Zong said: "For public-private exchanges, those who spend more than tens of yuan must use both, and the salt and iron will be used as a score, and all articles will listen to it." [7] In the fourth year of Taihe (830), the imperial edict of literate Sect said: "Anyone who trades more than 100 tons shall have half of rice and millet. Henan Province, Yangzhou and Jiangling Prefecture are all bound by the dramas of metropolises such as the capital. " [8] it is clearly stipulated that money and goods are used together, and things take precedence over money. In addition to these mandatory legal provisions, the Tang Dynasty also used financial means to maintain the function of physical currency such as silk and prevent it from depreciating as currency. For example, in the sixth year of Kaiyuan (7 18), "the teacher paid 50,000 yuan, which was divided into two cities, the north and the south. Buying things sold in the private sector at a fair price is equivalent to storing official demand. " [9] Another example is Yuanhe eight years (8 13). In April, Xianzong awarded "pay more attention to money and pay 500,000 yuan from the state treasury, so that the two cities will be closed, and each horse is estimated to increase by 11%". [10] Yuan and 12 years (8 17), Xianzong also awarded "Goods of Pingquan", which said: "Public and private affairs are not good, and it is appropriate to look at the money of 500,000 yuan. Let Jingzhao House choose the right place to start, trade at the market price, choose strong officials and cut activities. [1 1] government procurement is used to regulate the supply and demand of silk in the market and maintain the price of silk. What's more, in the late Tang Dynasty, the "false estimate" price policy was introduced and implemented, and the "false estimate" of silk and other physical objects was determined, in an effort to raise its market price and maintain its functions of money and currency status.

Second, ensure the monopoly position of government-run coinage. The Tang Dynasty paid the most attention to this and took the most measures. First, the law on private coinage by non-judges was enacted to crack down on the indiscriminate coinage, and monetary legislation was passed to stipulate that the right to coin is the privilege of the state and private coinage is not allowed. Accompanied by this, a number of laws and regulations have been enacted to prohibit the private sale of coinage materials, the casting of bronzes, and the prohibition of bad money, so as to fully guarantee the unity of the monetary system and protect the official currency from infringement. See Policy and Management of Coinage in Tang Dynasty for details. The second is to collect bad money by financial means. This is a remedial measure for not completely prohibiting private casting and indiscriminate casting. For example, Emperor Gaozong "celebrated September of the fifth year, so that local officials could get more market money, and one good coin was rewarded with five bad coins", because "the people kept the bad coins cheap, and the officials banned them, and Emperor Gaozong ordered them to buy two bad coins with good coins", [12] increased the collection efforts. In April of the fourth year of Yifeng (679), Emperor Gaozong "ordered Du Dong to produce brown rice and millet in the distant future and give the market a fight against evil money." Its bad money makes Shaofu and the four peasants know each other, even if it is broken. Its thick diameter is equal to its weight, and it can be used. "[13] In February of the seventh year of Kaiyuan (7 19), Xuanzong" collected 150,000 Dan from Taifu and Fuxian millet to collect evil money from the world and send it to Shaofu for destruction ". [14] In June of the eighth year of Kaiyuan (720), the imperial edict that officials should collect bad money was issued. In view of the incomplete collection of bad money, it is required that "identification must be carried out, and the people are willing to pay a thousand yuan for bad money, weighing six kilograms, that is, the official earns three hundred yuan for good money, and there is no good money, and the cloth and silk sundries are discounted according to the special estimate. At the end of each quarter, all orders will be completed. [15] In February of the 11th year of Tianbao (752), Li Yi, the Prime Minister, proposed that "it is evil for our company to collect money", saying that "hundreds of thousands of money in two cities is the crime of dereliction of duty ... in January". [ 16]

Third, maintain the circulation of copper coins. The Tang Dynasty had a clear understanding of the function of the means of currency circulation, and believed that the amount of money in circulation was directly proportional to the purchasing power of money and inversely proportional to the price, and held the traditional mechanistic theory of money quantity. In order to maintain the necessary amount of money in circulation, the Tang Dynasty adopted five main measures:

First, try our best to increase the official currency and increase the amount of money. Xuanzong kaiyuan "set up a money supervisor in Xuanrun and other States in 26 years". [17] In the first month of the fourth year of the Emperor's reign (769), all the money makers in Shanhaiguan Pass were allowed to make a request for the fifth time. "In the prisons of Fenyang and Tong Yuan in Jiangzhou, five furnaces will be added respectively." [18] In September of the first year of Dezong Jianzhong (780), Du Zhi Han Hui was granted the request of "setting ten furnaces to cast money in Hongya Luoyuan prison in Shangzhou". [19] In the first month of the ninth year of Zhenyuan (793), Zhang Pang, the ambassador of quasi-salt and iron, proposed to allow all copper mines in the world to be mined at will, and the copper materials obtained were bought out by the government and used as coins. [20] In May of the third year of Xian Zongyuan (808), Li Xun, a salt and iron envoy, proposed that "two furnaces should be built in Laoguiyang, Chenzhou to collect copper and cast money". [2 1] In June of the same year, Tang Xianzong issued an imperial edict prohibiting the mining of silver pits, which made silver miners in the north of Wuling switch to copper mining and "help officials to cast". [22] In February of the sixth year of Yuanhe (8 1 1), at the request of Wang E, Zhun Hedong appointed five furnaces to cast money in Yuzhou. [23] In February of the following year, the imperial edict to the branch office spent 30,000 yuan to fill the foundation of Zhou Zhu's money. [24] Wu destroyed the Buddha, and there are 4,600 Buddhist temples in the world, so that cities and towns in each state can use the copper coins obtained from destroying the Buddha for their own use.

The second is to prohibit private savings and prevent coins from exiting the circulation field. Noble bureaucrats, wealthy businessmen and state capitals hoarded a large amount of copper coins, which reduced the circulation of coins and aggravated deflation. In the Tang dynasty, a law prohibiting the over-storage of money was enacted. In June of the third year of Yuanhe (808), Xianzong "ordered the merchants in the world to pay for livestock if they wanted to set up livestock money, and made them change markets instead of paying for livestock money". [25] In April of the twelfth year of Yuanhe (8 17), Xianzong awarded "Seeing Money without Private Storage", saying: "Recently, the cloth and silk are getting lighter and lighter, and the money is getting less and less, all because of congestion. It is advisable to make the civil and military bureaucrats in the capital, regardless of rank, and also serve as county guards and envoys. When you go to Jinshi, business trips, temples and Fangshi, all private savings should not exceed 5,000. If so, after Xu Cong leaves the hospital, he will be allowed to collect and store other things in the city within one month. If the amount of money is large and the disposal is outstanding, let it be limited to the border counties, please limit it. Even this color, it can't be two months. If there are other houses, shops, etc. In a family, the money saved can never be counted in this number. This restriction does not apply to people whose brothers originally lived in different places and have been analyzed. If there are violators, white people, etc. After the limit expires, they should be handed over to the company and beaten to death with a stick. Its military attache and princess, etc. , and appointed secretary WenZou, when heavy support demotion. Qi is the ambassador of China, and he was also given the title of country. The rest of the money is not limited, accept officials. Take one of the five points as a reward and stop at 5000. In addition, if it is discovered and someone talks about it, it will be severely punished and given to the accuser. " [26] A law prohibiting excessive savings was officially promulgated. In November of the fourth year of Emperor Wenzong Taihe (830), he said: "You should keep the money privately, except for the total deposit, 10,000 to 100,000, and you should dispose of it within one year; 100000 to less than 200000, within the second anniversary. Failure to keep the deadline and unsafe accumulation will be punished by anyone who exceeds this limit. The money earned will be fined 12 years, and one point will be awarded according to the number of five points. The number of people suing for reward is limited to 5 thousand. The decision-making department will demote the legal person who has committed the crime of money and punish him 12 years. What it perceives is also half of the reward. " [27] Reaffirm the Twelve-year Decree of Yuanhe.

Third, it is forbidden to cast bronzes to prevent other uses of copper materials, especially to prohibit the sale of cast coins and prevent the sharp depreciation of copper coins. In December of the seventh year of Dali (772), "it is forbidden to cast new bronze wares, only mirrors can be cast, and the old ones can be heard, but not used." [28] It is stipulated that no other bronzes can be cast except bronze mirrors, and no existing bronzes can be bought or sold for profit, so as to ensure that copper materials can be used for coinage. In the first month of the ninth year of Zhenyuan (793), Dezong reiterated the Dali kingdom system, "it is forbidden to buy and sell bronzes. There are copper mountains in the world, and anyone can take them. Its bronze official can be bought, except for casting mirrors. " [29] In June of the tenth year of Zhenyuan (794), in view of the ineffective prohibition of bronze casting and the high market price of bronzes, Dezong also "ordered the world to cast bronzes, and each catty should not exceed 160, and the seller was sentenced to steal casting". [30] On the other hand, he tried to limit bronze casting. In February of the first year of Xian Zongyuan (806), bronzes were banned with less money, and [3 1] intensified the crackdown. In May of the seventh year of Yuanhe (8 12), Xianzong issued an imperial edict prohibiting the sale of money-casting vessels, saying: "From now on, the state governments invite them to recast with broken clocks, so it is advisable to ask this official to supervise them, and they are not allowed to sell money to destroy vessels without adding anything." [32] continue to strengthen management. At the beginning of "Bao Li", Yin Wang of Henan asked people who sold money to buy Buddha statues to steal them. In the third year of Taihe, the Buddha statue was made of lead, tin, earth and wood, decorated with gold and silver. ? Stones, black oil, and blue iron, only swords, bluestones, nails, patent, and buttons must be made of copper, and the rest are forbidden, as well as those who steal molds. [33] The penalty of selling money to cast Buddha statues was aggravated, and the death penalty was introduced. By the eighth year of Taihe, the policy of "banning bronzes and making the city official" [34] still adhered to the high-pressure policy.

Fourth, the currency is prohibited from leaving the country to prevent the outflow of copper coins. For example, at the beginning of Zhenyuan in Dezong, "people in Luogu and Sanguan were forbidden to pay one yuan", [35] to prevent copper coins from being lost abroad by land. In June of the 4th year of Xian Zongyuan (809), coins were forbidden to leave Lingnan, [36] to prevent copper coins from being lost abroad through foreign trade ports such as Guangzhou and Jiaozhou.

Fifth, we must conform to the requirements of economic development, recognize and implement the form of currency circulation, so as to alleviate the shortage of currency. In addition to the stranger, it is also called owing stranger and padding stranger, which means that a few articles are removed from every thousand copper coins, but the price is still calculated by thousands of articles. After the middle Tang Dynasty, this method began to be adopted by private exchanges, which was an emergency and flexible means to solve deflation. This was initially forbidden in the Tang Dynasty. In March, the ninth year of Zhenyuan (793), Dezong promulgated "It is forbidden to owe money to foreigners", which stipulated that "money owed to foreigners should be prohibited according to law" and ordered that "from now on, anyone who owes money to foreigners due to customs clearance should be inspected and sent to officials, and if there is tolerance, the seller should be allowed to correct it." [37] Xian Zongyuan and four years (809), reiterated Zhenyuan nine-year system, "Anyone who spends less than 20 yuan in the capital and has lead and tin money will be arrested." [38] However, despite repeated prohibitions, in the first year of Mu Zong Changqing (82 1), we had to admit that it was legal to exclude strangers. In September of that year, Mu Zong published "The Mystery of Fixed Money", which said, "The meaning of spring goods is that it is expensive. If writing is to spend money, unlike that stranger, you should commit crimes against others. If it is not suitable for customs, you can keep the transaction and use its domestic and foreign public and private money. From now on, except for 80 articles, it is appropriate to use 1 article every time, and complete 920 articles. " [39] Then change, also called flying money, probably originated from Xianzong. Book of the New Tang Dynasty, Volume 54, Records of Foodstuffs, contains the statement of Xian Zongyuan and the early years, "When merchants came to the capital, they entrusted money to various factions and armies, making the rich rich rich, and making the four sides swim lightly, so they flew money", which is a kind of coin credit exchange between merchants, local governments and armies. It was invented by businessmen to solve the problem of long-distance transportation of coins and help solve the problem of deflation. At first, it was also forbidden in the Tang Dynasty. In February of the 6th year of Yuanhe (8 1 1), Tang Xianzong issued a decree that "tea merchants and other public and private businesses can exchange money and must be prohibited". [40] But it caused a serious accumulation of coins. In May of the following year, the quasi-salt and iron company, the Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development and the Ministry of Finance invited the three companies to issue policies to allow businessmen to change careers when they came to the three companies, and each job was given 1,000 yuan. At the same time, all other businesses were prohibited from changing careers in an attempt to change careers when the three companies monopolized. This policy was generally resisted by businessmen because of its unfairness. In July of the same year, it had to be changed to the policy of "exchanging money with businessmen" [4 1] The switching system has been used ever since.

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The above measures are generally considered by academic circles as the countermeasures taken by the Tang Dynasty to solve the realistic problem of light money (money shortage). In fact, the fundamental purpose behind solving practical problems is to maintain Qian Si's monetary system. These measures focus on two points: first, emphasize that money and silk are legal tender and safeguard the monetary system itself; The second is to straighten out the channels of currency circulation and strengthen the management of currency circulation. On the whole, relying on the state power, it is vigorously promoted by various means such as law, finance and administration, which is manifested in the coercion and intervention of political power on the monetary system and currency circulation. These coercive forces and interventions are trying their best to maintain the monetary system and the order of currency circulation. However, maintaining a monetary system that has lagged behind the development of commodity economy has not achieved satisfactory results, nor can it satisfy the government. Mu Zong Yuan Zhen pointed out that "it is forbidden to use copper for public and private purposes, and there is a law of trading money and silks at the same time. There is a limit to how much money you can accumulate. Every time I raise Yin, I have to add or delete useful money. However, bronzes are listed in public and private, money is not for sale, and money is not accumulated outside the wall. I will bully and abuse the streets. " [42] It can be seen that it is difficult to give an order and it is difficult to stop it. However, the Tang Dynasty insisted on money and silk, and refused to change, so the contradiction between the developing commodity economy and the backward monetary system-as the embodiment of the contradiction between the government's will and the laws of economy and nature-was not only insoluble, but intensified, which not only became the main crux of the Tang Dynasty's failure to solve the problem of money shortage, but also greatly restricted and hindered the further development of the commodity economy.