Gold is a simple form of chemical element gold (chemical element symbol Au), which is a soft, golden yellow and corrosion-resistant precious metal. Gold is one of the rarest, most precious and most valuable metals. Generally speaking, the gold in the world is in ounces. In ancient China, gold was measured in ounces, which was a very important metal. It is not only a special currency for reserve and investment, but also an important material for jewelry industry, electronics industry, modern communication and aerospace industry. The international gold price soared after entering 20 15, and the gold price in new york market rose from $0/200 per ounce to $0/300 per ounce in less than a month. Statistics show that the gold futures price in new york market has increased by 9.3% this year. Silver is a chemical element with chemical symbol Ag (from Latin Argentum) and atomic number 47. It is a silver-white transition metal. A small amount of silver exists in nature in the form of free elemental substance, mainly in ores containing silver compounds. Silver has stable chemical properties, low activity, high price, good thermal and electrical conductivity, is not easy to be corroded by chemicals, and is soft and malleable. Its reflectivity is extremely high, reaching over 99%.
In different dynasties in ancient times, the amount of gold and silver conversion was different. We don't know the amount of gold exchanged for silver, because there is no reliable data to verify it in the distant years. This paper briefly introduces the amount of gold exchanged for silver in Qing Dynasty and Ming Dynasty. Ming Dynasty: One tael of gold can be exchanged for five taels of silver.
The valuation of gold, silver, copper and tin recorded in the Collection of Laws and Regulations of the Ming Dynasty' with the rules of play' records that "124 penetration of gold, 128 penetration of silver and 1,080 penetration of copper coins" is the unit of calculation for issuing paper money in the Ming Dynasty.
It can be concluded from this record that an ounce or two of gold has a market value of 400 banknotes, and an ounce or two of silver has a market value of 80 banknotes. The exchange rate of gold and silver is 1:5. In other words, one or two ounces of gold can be exchanged for five or two ounces of silver.