From the ancient times of China have appeared which currency

Currency in Ancient China

China has a long history of using currency, and in the evolution of thousands of years of history, it has gradually developed into a currency culture with a unique style, and has had a great influence on many neighboring countries and regions.

It is generally believed that in the Xia and Shang Dynasties, China has a currency. China's earliest currency is mainly physical currency, when the widest circulation, the largest amount, the longest time is the shell. Shell, glossy and beautiful, strong and wear-resistant, easy to carry, easy to count. There are a lot of shells unearthed in the sites of Xia and Shang, and there are also records about shells in the ancient documents of Shang and Zhou. In Chinese characters, all the words related to the value of the word, mostly from the "shell".

With the rapid development of commodity exchange, the demand for money is getting bigger and bigger, the sea shells can no longer meet people's needs, in the late Shang Dynasty, people began to use copper to imitate the sea shells, bronze imitation of shells became China's earliest metal coins. With the large number of workers minted coins, sea shells, this natural currency will slowly withdraw from the Chinese monetary stage. From the emergence of copper shells in the Shang Dynasty to the Warring States period, due to the lords to cut the drama, China's currency gradually formed a unique four major currency system, namely, shovel coins, knife coins, ring money, Chu coins (zhuanjin, ant-nose money).

After the unification of China by the Qin Dynasty, Emperor Qin Shihuang promulgated China's earliest monetary law in 210 B.C., which abolished all forms of national currencies and established gold and copper coins as the unified currency. Gold was used to pay for large transactions, while copper coins, i.e. Qin half-two coins with rounded square holes, were used in daily life. Round square hole of the Qin half-two money in the country, the end of China's ancient currency of different shapes, weight disparity of the chaotic state, is China's ancient monetary history from the chaotic shape to standardize the shape of a major evolution. Qin half-two money to determine the down of this round square holes in the form, has been continued until the early Republic of China.

Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty took back the right to mint coins from the counties in the fifth year of Yuanhao (118 B.C.E.), and centrally minted the five-baht coins in a uniform manner. The five-baht coins were minted by the central government, with the character "five baht" cast on the face of the round square hole, thus confirming the central government's unified management of the minting and issuance of coins. The five-baht coin was used until the time of Emperor Gaozu of the Tang Dynasty, a period of more than 700 years, making it the longest-used and most successful currency in ancient China.

In the fourth year of Emperor Wu De's reign (621), Li Yuan resolved to reform the coinage system by abolishing the five-baht coins and unifying the minting of the "Kai Yuan Tong Bao" coins. The four characters "Kaiyuan Tongbao" came from the handwriting of Ouyang Xun in the early Tang Dynasty. The word "Kaiyuan" means the beginning of a new era, while "Tongbao" refers to the common treasures in the unified country. In contrast to the old system of the Qin and Han dynasties, the Kaiyuan Tongbao coinage does not specify the weight of the money (coins minted since the Qin and Han dynasties usually specify the weight of the money in the text), which is the evolution of China's ancient currency from the weight of the instrument to the Tongbao and Yuanbao. Kaiyuan Tongbao money is China's earliest Tongbao money, it is in the Tang Wude four years (621 AD) in July to open casting, in the Tang dynasty general about three hundred years of history, never interrupted, which is also rare in the history of money. Since then, China's copper money is no longer used to mark the weight of money, all to Tongbao, Yuanbao, it has been used until after the Xinhai Revolution "Republic of China Tongbao".

The Tang Dynasty "Kaiyuan Tongbao", a new era in the history of China's currency. Since then, the bronze coins bid farewell to the half-two and five baht standard renaming tradition, began to abstraction, symbolization. The "Kaiyuan Tongbao" also set up a standard image of Chinese currency in terms of form and weight, which took one coin as the legal unit of weight, and every ten coins weighed one or two. The decimalization of ten coins into one or two was thus created, and had a profound influence on later generations.

In the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the shortage of copper material for casting money, there was a shortage of money, the government to make up for the shortage of copper money, in some areas a large number of iron money casting, iron money and copper money in parallel. According to the "Song History" records, at that time in Sichuan cast iron money consistently weighs 25 pounds 8 two. In sichuan to buy a pi Luo (silk fabric), to pay 130 pounds of iron money. Iron money is so heavy and inconvenient, so that the paper money "cross" in the Sichuan region came into being. "Jiaoci" using a unified paper, a certain shape, printed with complex patterns, and security secret mark. The emergence of "Jiaozi" is an important evolution in the history of China's ancient currency from metal money to paper money. "It is not only the earliest paper currency in China, but also the earliest paper currency in the world.

Yuan Shizuizu Kublai established a unified paper money system and issued the "Zhongtong Yuanbao Banknote", which made the Yuan Dynasty the first dynasty with a unified paper money as the basic monetary system.

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, silver was not a legal tender, and the Ming Dynasty banned gold and silver transactions. During the period of Ming Yingzong, the ban on the use of silver was lifted. At this point, silver as a currency and a measure of value, only to formally obtain legal status. In the late Ming Dynasty, silver was commonly used throughout the society and occupied a dominant position in the circulation of money.

In the early Qing Dynasty, during the past 100 years, silver was still cast into ingots at the end of the Ming Dynasty, and was used in the form of two pieces of silver, which were weighed and measured. At that time, the market circulation of silver in a variety of shapes, different colors, weight in one or two of the following said loose silver, one or two to five two said small ingot, for general transactions; bulk trading is used in fact does not exist grain silver, it is a national illusion of standard silver, weighing about ten ingots, weighing about fifty two yuan treasure, in the payment of the first must be converted into grain silver, and then converted into its pure silver, in order to complete the value of the exchange of things!

They are very inconvenient to use.

Before and after the outbreak of the opium wars, foreign silver dollar successively imported into mainland China, the local silver dollar in circulation in the market in various countries, Spain's Benyang, the Netherlands, the horse sword Yang, the British station of the people of the ocean, the Mexican eagle Yang, Japan's dragon Yang, etc., has reached dozens of kinds of more. Because of the silver counting nuclear value, the use of silver does not have to weigh, so the people are happy to accept. 19th century most of the time, it has become a choice of currency in China, but also become China's self-casting silver yuan catalyst. Daoguang, Xianfeng years, imitation casting of foreign silver from the coastal cities with foreign trade, and then spread to all parts of the country. In guangzhou called guangban, fuzhou called fuban, hangzhou called hangban, among them to Shanghai dao dai supervise the production of the most regular, the weight is generally consistent with foreign silver dollars. In this situation, the Qing government in order to maintain national dignity, the maintenance of the monetary system, began to plan for the casting of the country's silver dollar.

Guangxu years, Zhang Zhidong, Governor of the two sides of Canton in Guangzhou, Canton Money Bureau, purchased the British machine to start casting called "Guangxu Yuanbao" of the silver dollar, the year cast 1 million yuan. This is the beginning of China's formal machine casting of silver dollars, but also the goblet of the modern monetary unit system. Guangxu Yuanbao back decorated with coiled dragon pattern, and imitation of foreign silver made, so called dragon Yang. After the qing government in tianjin set up casting silver money factory, unified manufacturing silver dollar. The emergence of the mechanism of currency in the late Qing Dynasty, is an important evolution in the history of China's ancient currency from handmade coins to machine minting. From then on, not only the process of casting money has undergone a major change, and make the circulation of more than two thousand years of round square hole money end of life.