It should be said that there has been a very special profession in our country from ancient times to the present. This business has extremely high entry barriers, huge profits, and equally huge risks. At the same time, the harm is also quite terrifying. It is counterfeiting banknotes.

Throughout the history of my country’s currency development, what is directly connected to the development of my country’s currency is the history of counterfeit banknotes in our country. It can be said that since our country has currency, counterfeit banknotes have begun to appear. So what are the weird counterfeit banknotes in our country’s history? Where do these counterfeit banknotes come from?

Above picture_ The crazy currency history of Qin Banliang, Pre-Qin, Han and Southern and Northern Dynasties

It is unknown when the first batch of counterfeit banknotes in our country was born. But what we can know is that shortly after Qin Shihuang unified the currency, the Qin Dynasty produced counterfeit banknotes specifically targeted at Qin Banliang. It is recorded in the Qin bamboo slips: a two-person gang who forged Qin Banliang. ("Bing stole this coin, Ding Zuo cast it") It can be seen that the young geniuses who wanted to "make a fortune" at that time already knew that casting counterfeit coins would be a huge profit. It can be seen that the criminals in ancient times had already had the idea of ????currency.

In the early years of the Western Han Dynasty, Liu Bang, the emperor of the Han Dynasty, mistakenly believed that the Qin banliang was too heavy to be circulated, and then he came up with a very funny strategy: Then you can make money yourself and spend it. At that time, it was called elm pod money, and this elm pod money was really a mess of demons, and there were all kinds of defective products. Copper coins Copper coins, copper is the most important thing. Because of its high density, the weight of copper coins is also a natural anti-counterfeiting mark.

Above picture_ Five baht from the Western Han Dynasty, an ancient coin from the Western Han Dynasty

At that time, people had learned to add iron to it to reduce costs and make huge profits. This situation did not change until Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty came to power. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty can be called the second Qin Shihuang in the history of our country. In his hands, the minting power returned to the imperial court. Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty established the five-baht coin as the highest standard of currency in circulation, and the legitimacy of other currencies was completely was cancelled.

Although this suppressed the arrogance of those lawless elements for a time, the so-called stick cannot defeat the laws of economics. As long as there is profit, some people will take risks. The Han Dynasty counterfeiting group soon figured out the "magic" of subtracting a circle of five baht coins and using the lost copper to mint new five baht coins. This thing is also called Cut the wheel of five plants?.

Although the five-baht coin is also in danger of being stolen, the craftsmanship is mature and the production is difficult, so ordinary people cannot imitate it. After the test of history, it is definitely more reliable than Mr. Wang Mang's "Big Money". Wang Mang modified it. Replacing the five-baht coin with the so-called "big money" not only failed, but also led to the economic collapse of the new dynasty, accelerating its own destruction. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the five-baht coin was resumed as the official currency, and the situation gradually improved.

The reason why the five-baht coin has repeatedly become the so-called "good medicine to save the world" is really out of helplessness. After all, the manufacturing technology of the five-baht coin was relatively good in the entire Han Dynasty, and it also became a gang of counterfeiters. Insurmountable obstacles, at least ordinary people cannot imitate them. Of course, for those who can imitate them, we have to say: What can you do with your intelligence? ?

Above picture_Map of the Three Kingdoms

Starting from the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the historical pattern of counterfeit currency rampant in troubled times broke out instantly. The entire Three Kingdoms of the Eastern Han Dynasty became a paradise for counterfeit currency. The three kingdoms of Wei, Shu and Wu were manufacturing all kinds of inferior currencies. Naturally, this problem could not be solved in the short-lived Western Jin Dynasty. It became more and more serious in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. Especially in the Liang Dynasty, it is worth mentioning that during the Liang Dynasty, due to the unprecedented chaos of the entire country's currency and the excessive corruption of Liang Dynasty officials, Emperor Wu of Liang Dynasty Xiao Yan took a shot. Thigh made a decision that was even stupider than that of Liu Bang, the founder of the Han Dynasty, who asked the people to mint their own money. Instead of using copper coins, they made iron coins instead.

This can be called a wonder in the history of Chinese currency. Iron coins are not only easy to rust, but also extremely easy to forge. There is also a very unfavorable factor, because the price ratio of iron coins and copper coins at that time was 2 :1, that is, 1 copper coin is equal to 2 iron coins. As a result, everyone started to forge iron coins. People thought that iron coins were easy to obtain, and they all made them privately. It can be called an official version of counterfeit currency, and the entire Liang Dynasty collapsed in a mess during the Hou Jing Rebellion. This is not unrelated to this.

Above picture_ Yang Jian (541-604), Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty

This crazy currency history reached its peak in the Sui Dynasty. At the beginning of the Sui Dynasty, Under the command of Emperor Wen Yang Jian, he once thought about rectifying the currency system. It has indeed achieved certain results, but no one could have imagined that after Emperor Yang Guang of the Sui Dynasty came to power, he would actually create a miracle in the history of Chinese currency: cutting leather and pasting paper into money. Because Yang Guang conquered Goryeo and built a series of super projects that shook the country, such as the construction of the Grand Canal, which led to the economic collapse of the Sui Dynasty, he tried every means to make money. However, he could not have imagined that his move that brought disaster to the country and the people could be considered a great invention, and the prototype of paper money in Chinese history was born.

After the demise of the Sui Dynasty, China's currency also entered a new era.

Above picture_Kaiyuan Tongbao, the financial bomb of the Tang, Song, Yuan and Ming Dynasties

After the Tang Dynasty took over the mess of the Sui Dynasty, the first thing it did was to rectify the monetary chaos at the end of the Sui Dynasty. For this purpose, the Tang Dynasty spent three generations. During the Wude years of Tang Emperor Li Yuan, the Tang Dynasty had already begun to mint Kaiyuan Tongbao coins.

At that time, the trend of counterfeiting copper coins that permeated the country was even punished with capital punishment, but it was still difficult to curb. In the final analysis, the profits from currency counterfeiting are too large, the probability of being discovered is too low, and the technology is easy to implement.

It was difficult to avoid this situation throughout the entire copper coin era. Even during the period of Wu Zetian, she publicly admitted that most of the forged copper coins could be used (Wu Zetian was also forced to admit it).

In order to cope with the increasingly explosive national situation in the middle and late Tang Dynasty, the Tang Dynasty had to mint "evil money" on a large scale, represented by all kinds of big money. These so-called big money were extremely inconvenient to use, but it was convenient for the court to make money. It is impossible for ordinary people to own it. The ancient pinnacle of bad money was the "mud money" invented by Emperor Jieyan Liu Shouguang in the late Tang Dynasty and Five Dynasties period. You heard it right, mud was used to make money. At that time, Liu Shouguang was in Youzhou, and mud money was very popular. This thing was simply appalling. If mud can be used as money, why can't it be used as money? The people of Youzhou could not bear the suffering, so they cheered collectively as soon as the soldiers of the Later Tang Dynasty arrived, which can be said to be very satisfying.

Above picture_ Song Renzong, Zhao Zhen (1010? 1063)

The problem of counterfeit money in the copper coin era was as serious as the Song Dynasty. The redundant officials and excessive expenses in the Song Dynasty forced Song Renzong to He repeatedly minted large sums of money to pay for the army. In fact, we can also see a reason for the proliferation of counterfeit money in the feudal era. Once the court was short of money and began to mint big money to make money, the emergence of counterfeit money was almost inevitable.

The negative consequences of Song Renzong's casting of large amounts of money in Shaanxi and other places eventually came back to bite him. By the eighth year of Xining, the reign of Emperor Shenzong of the Song Dynasty, the Song Dynasty had to purchase counterfeit money due to too much counterfeit money. It was originally thought that the maximum amount would be 20 Ten thousand, but it turned out to be as high as 1.15 million. This is just in Shaanxi. Looking at the whole country, it is even more serious.

However, if you think that copper coins are easy to forge and banknotes are difficult to forge through various anti-counterfeiting technologies, and that this problem can be avoided by large-scale issuance of banknotes in the Northern Song Dynasty, then you are totally wrong.

Above picture_Jiaozi of the Northern Song Dynasty

On the contrary, Jiaozi of the Northern Song Dynasty and Huizi of the Southern Song Dynasty were the ultimate disaster areas for forgery. Before the official establishment of Jiaozi in the Northern Song Dynasty, the phenomenon of forgery had Already existed, and history says: There are also fraudsters, and there are many lawsuits. ?At that time, Jiaozi was still used by the private sector, and criminals had already made up their mind before it became official. Therefore, before the official use of Jiaozi in the Northern Song Dynasty, all the crimes for counterfeiting Jiaozi were determined.

However, the effect of preventing problems before they occur is almost zero. Jiaozi's fraud in the Northern Song Dynasty almost paralyzed Jiaozi, causing a spectacle: all the transit envoys in the birthplace of Jiaozi advocated the abolition of Jiaozi. son. Moreover, at that time, the situation of making fake friends and fake money had become group-based and large-scale. During the Jianyan period of the Southern Song Dynasty, a large-scale criminal gang was captured at one time: 300,000 fake coins were obtained and 50 people were stolen. The circulation volume of Hui Zi increased sharply in the later period, which led to the rampant counterfeiting of Hui Zi. Counterfeit coins were rampant in almost half of the entire Southern Song Dynasty, and even the sub-regime of the Jin Kingdom was like a joke.

Above picture_Northern Song Dynasty Jiaozi copper printing plate

However, the counterfeit banknotes in the Song Dynasty were not the most rampant. The Yuan Dynasty that followed was a paradise for counterfeiters in the history of our country. The prevalence of counterfeit banknotes in the Yuan Dynasty was beyond imagination and almost out of control.

At that time, counterfeiting banknotes became fashionable. The imperial officials took the lead in counterfeiting, and then all the people also entered the counterfeiting frenzy, and they were just short of holding a counterfeit banknote grand prix. As the saying goes: "9 out of 10 common banknotes today are counterfeit, and counterfeit banknotes are everywhere in the world." There are more fakes than real ones, and the economic situation in the Yuan Dynasty was also very collapsed.

The Yuan Dynasty is a famous dynasty in Chinese history whose economic foundation was destroyed by banknotes. The proliferation of counterfeit banknotes in the Yuan Dynasty led to severe fiscal tightening in the Yuan Dynasty. The Yuan Dynasty had more than three times the territory of the Song Dynasty, but its fiscal revenue was still Not as good as the Song Dynasty. There are three key factors.

The first is land tax evasion, the second is the limited financial power of the central government, and the third is the currency is extremely chaotic, counterfeit banknotes are rampant, and even real banknotes are very poorly made.

Above picture_? Zhongtong Yuanbao Banknote? It is the earliest existing physical paper currency in China officially printed and issued by the government (Zhongtong Banknote)

After the collapse of the Yuan Dynasty, the Yuan system was inherited The Ming Dynasty initially encountered almost the same problems as the Yuan Dynasty. Banknote counterfeiting was rampant and copper coins were minted too much privately. Although these problems were slightly curbed by the butcher's knife during the Zhu Yuanzhang period, they still persisted throughout the Ming Dynasty.

Especially after Emperor Wuzong of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty government often minted copper coins to pay debts due to financial constraints, which led to the proliferation of counterfeit coins among the people again. However, at this critical moment, silver currency began to be imported. Those Spanish silver dollars entered the inland from the coast, and everyone began to be surprised to find that there was such a thing in the world that could not be copied, was particularly reputable, and was very valuable at first sight? Silver dollars.

The monetization of silver in the late Ming Dynasty directly destroyed the last dreams of these counterfeiters. Our country entered the Silver Age, and the once treasured banknotes began to turn into silver notes, and the counterfeiters in the empire began to truly cease their activities.

Above picture_ Baihe County Lijin Bureau (Silver) in the Qing Dynasty

By the time the Qing Dynasty entered the customs, silver had officially become the official currency. However, the monetization of silver solved the problem of counterfeit currency, but it also brought Another problem comes? Soaring prices and worsening imbalances in economic development. The Ming Dynasty eventually died at the hands of peasant uprisings in this historical wave. It can be said that in a sense it also tells us: there is no perfect currency in the world, only the era that is most suitable for it.

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3 Xu Qianxue's "The Later Edition of Zizhi Tongjian"

4 Dou Yi's "Song Xingtong"

5 Peng Xinwei's "History of Chinese Currency"

< p>The text is created by the History University Team, and the pictures are from the Internet. The copyright belongs to the original author