Currency of Zhou Dynasty: 1. Natural shells were still an important currency in the Western Zhou Dynasty. Metal currency is widely used, and bronze shell currency appears.
2. Eastern Zhou Dynasty: During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, the slave society in China collapsed and the feudal society was gradually established. The transformation of production relations has promoted the development of social economy. Due to the differences in political, economic and cultural development and habits in different regions, the diversity of monetary forms in this period was formed. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, besides cloth coins, there were knife coins, ring coins, ant nose coins and gold.
Xizhou beibi
In the ancient tombs of Waliu site in Zhengzhou, the staff of Zhengzhou Institute of Cultural Relics and Archaeology unearthed 1 1 Beibi dating back more than 3,000 years. Archaeologists at the scene said that these unearthed objects once again proved that Zhengzhou had a relatively active long-distance trade at that time.
The ancient tomb of Waliu site in Zhengzhou is located in the open space where the library will be built in the west campus of Zhengzhou University. On the afternoon of June 2 1, when the reporter rushed to the scene, archaeologists were still carefully cleaning up the unearthed objects in the ancient tomb. It is understood that the 12 tombs excavated and numbered by archaeologists are all tombs of Shang Dynasty and Western Zhou Dynasty about 3,000 years ago.
After intense excavation and cleaning, archaeologists found 1 1 coins in tombs No.3 and No.4. The eight coins found in tomb No.3 were large in shape, like adults' thumbs; The three northern coins in Tomb No.4 are obviously smaller, shaped like a jujube pit and a little finger of an adult. There is a round hole drilled and ground on the back of the coin, and the artificial trace is obvious. Archaeologists at the site preliminarily determined that 1 1 Beibi in the Western Zhou Dynasty has a history of more than 3,000 years. Archaeologists added that shellfish lived in the ocean, and Zhengzhou was located in the Central Plains. The excavation of Beibi proved that there was long-distance trade at that time. The excavation of 1 1 Beibi plays an extremely important role in studying the history, culture and life customs at that time.
In Tomb No.2, archaeologists unearthed a well-preserved human skeleton. Strangely, there is a "waist pit" with a length of 50 cm, a width of 25 cm and a depth of 20 cm at the waist of the bones, and a dog's skeleton was found in the waist pit. According to archaeologists, using dogs as human sacrifices was a major feature of tombs at that time.
Eastern Zhou currency
There are cloth coins, knife coins, round coins and gold and silver coins in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty. The coins circulating in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty also have their own characteristics. The appearance of currency metal coins in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty marked the important development and historical progress of social economy. The earliest currency that appeared in the late Spring and Autumn Period was the earliest metal coin in China, which entered a developed stage in the Warring States Period. Before the Spring and Autumn Period, shells, linen, tools or copper blocks were mainly used as exchange equivalents. In the late Spring and Autumn Period, due to the improvement of social productivity, physical currency was gradually replaced by metal coins with fixed shape and weight.
During the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, most countries, such as Eastern Zhou, Sanjin, Yan, Qi, Chu and Qin, made a large number of coins, including copper coins and gold and silver coins.
Copper coin was the most popular currency in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty, and it was the main currency circulating in the Central Plains countries at that time. According to the shape of copper coins, they can be divided into cloth coins, knife coins, round coins and copper shell coins.