Although it is normal for modern people to go abroad and exchange foreign currency in the bank, this unusual currency exchange business was widespread in the Republic of China, so that people had to exchange money first when they went shopping every day. What the hell is going on here? Why did such a strange phenomenon exist during the Republic of China?
Living in the early years of the Republic of China, you will find that sometimes you need to change your silver coins into silver dollars, sometimes you need to change silver dollars into copper dollars, or change copper dollars into money, change money into money tickets, and then change them into silver tickets, paper money and so on. Always be ready to change money into other currencies when you go out every day.
An important reason for this phenomenon is that in the early years of the Republic of China, there were many kinds of currencies circulating in the market. Taking Beijing after the May 4th Movement as an example, the currencies in circulation in the late Qing Dynasty mainly included Yuan Datou, Sun Datou (the head of Sun Yat-sen is silver), Mexican silver "Eagle Ocean", British silver "Liyang" and Yang Long (Guangxu Bao Tong silver). In addition, there are various local currencies, such as Guangdong and Guangxi's "Milli Ocean" casting and Sichuan's "Factory Ocean" casting.
At that time, if you want to buy some goods in Beijing, you may use the hard currency at that time-ingots, mostly twelve or fifty-two ingots; Of course, you can still see copper coins in small transactions. Compared with these metal currencies, at that time, we could still see a large number of paper money, including various currencies issued by major banks, major banks and local governments, and the number was no less than dozens.
After this phenomenon appears, many currencies that are well-known locally may be like waste paper in other places. As I said just now, the "foreign factory" made by Sichuan Army is very famous in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan provinces, but it can't be spent in Beijing. However, after the second direct service war, the "free tickets" circulating in Northeast China and Mongolia are still inexhaustible in the Beijing market, just like waste paper.
Take the story described in Wu Yu's diary as an example. Once, in order to move, he even changed money several times. Another example is 1922, Cai Yuanpei, Hu Shi and Zhou Zuoren. After eating in Beijing once, they have to tip several times to pay for the meal. It can be seen that people who lived in that period really lived abroad when they went out shopping every day.
Of course, in China at that time, hard currency like silver ingots could be spent everywhere, even in international trade. However, its value is too high and it is often used in commodity trading. Generally, if you buy a commodity, even if you take out the smallest silver ingot, the vendor may not be able to give you all the change. It can be seen that during the Republic of China, many ordinary people were reluctant to go out shopping. On the one hand, the world is too chaotic, changing money is too troublesome, and even traveling abroad is too troublesome.