Currency of the Southern and Northern Dynasties: The Southern and Northern Dynasties were an era of great turmoil in history, as well as a period of great recession and chaos in the history of Chinese currency. Song, Qi, Liang, and Chen all minted money, resulting in a lack of unity and continuity in currency. Sex, leading to extreme currency devaluation and privately minting bad money to make a profit. During this period, there was also the extraordinary appearance of country name money and year name money that were not named after weight! It has a certain impact on the real economy and policy changes! The rise of physical currency

There are countless examples of the use of physical currency in the historical records of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Some scholars even believe that physical currency occupied a dominant position in the circulation field during this period. The decline of the commodity economy and the destruction of the system of using metal currency were the main reasons for the rise of physical currency in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

First of all, during the Han Dynasty, the political environment was stable, social productivity increased rapidly, and the supply of commodities on the market also increased significantly, thus the commodity economy prospered. In this context, people are willing to take out more surplus products to participate in exchange in the market, thereby harvesting a certain amount of currency. Even a large number of merchants have emerged in the commodity market, and they have achieved this by specializing in various types of commodities. The purpose is to obtain more currency.

This phenomenon is determined by the characteristics of currency itself. "Currency is a portable means of storing value." Timely conversion of surplus products into currency avoids the direct relationship between labor and commodities in the future. Exchange can also store the value of remaining products in a more convenient way. Of course, the guarantee of monetary credit is a prerequisite for people to be willing to exchange products for currency in a timely manner, and the Western Han Dynasty, which had a high degree of feudal centralization and unified power, met such requirements. It can be seen that the goal of traders (merchants) at this time in selling surplus products is to obtain currency containing profits, not the goods themselves. Purchasing goods is just a means for people to obtain money.

Secondly, as discussed before, the continuous devaluation of metal currencies in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties not only directly led to the rampant private and stolen private coining, but also further stimulated bad money to occupy the market. As the system for using metal currency is completely destroyed, the credibility of government-issued currency is eventually lost. At this time, people are unwilling to use low-quality and unrealistic money. This is not only unfavorable for exchange, but also causes users to suffer economic losses. loss.

Therefore, the decline of the commodity economy and the destruction of the system of using metal currency were the main reasons for the prosperity of real currency in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. In the past, various scholars regarded factors such as war and French copper as the reasons for the prosperity of physical currency. In fact, these are only external conditions that affect the prosperity of physical currency, and the real reasons must be affected and dominated by the laws of commodity exchange and the currency system. Changes in the monetary policy of the feudal government

After the issuance of the five-baht coin, the Western Han Dynasty government implemented a relatively stable monetary policy. Judging from the actual coins unearthed from archaeology, there was basically no coin weight loss throughout the Western Han Dynasty. This also shows that the original intention of the rulers of the Western Han Dynasty in formulating monetary policies was always centered on promoting social and economic development. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the weight of coins began to decrease. At the same time, the excessive supply accelerated the depreciation of coins. In the reign of Emperor Zhang, phenomena such as "everything is expensive" and "money is cheap" occurred; in the reign of Emperor Huan, "goods are worth money" appeared again. Thin, thus leading to poverty” state.

As a result, someone in the imperial court suggested promulgating and implementing the monetary policy of "not minting money" and "recasting big money". Although these two proposals were not fully approved after discussion by the ministers, they unintentionally influenced the following centuries and became the "standard rules" for the court to solve currency issues for hundreds of years in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties.

The purpose of rulers minting large amounts of money is nothing more than to obtain more profit margins from minting by significantly increasing the nominal value of currency, and use this as funding for the normal operation of the feudal government. Although the big money policy can quickly increase national income in the short term, it does so at the expense of people's interests and will also lead to hyperinflation.

Affected by this, the new regime established next could only adopt a policy of not minting money to slowly consume the excessive currency financial environment. The Western Jin government implemented a monetary policy of not minting money, which was the original intention of the rulers. If the government does not mint money for a long time, it will also have serious consequences. The most direct one is the intensification of underinflation and the emergence of deflation.

At this time, it was still ordinary people who suffered losses. Due to their small currency holdings, they had to bear the pressure brought by currency appreciation. Eventually, the gap between the rich and the poor in society widened and class conflicts became more acute. Since then, the Southern and Northern Dynasties have also implemented the monetary policies of "not minting money" and "minting big money" to varying degrees.

Especially in the Southern Dynasties, there was a situation where bad money was minted and money was not minted one after another. This also made the financial environment of the Southern Dynasties always under the dual ravages of expansion and contraction. The government mints bad money, that is, currency depreciation policy, by reducing the actual weight of the currency so that it is separated from the nominal weight to generate a profit difference. Although the method is different from minting big money, the result achieved is the same.

What deserves attention is the big money policy formulated by the Northern Zhou Dynasty regime. Since it was a foreign trade currency and the objects exchanged were gold and silver coins of high value, it was a great success. This was also the only success of the big money policy. Successful examples.

Whether it is a monetary policy of minting large amounts of money or not minting money, in fact the feudal government began to regard minting money as a means of profit. Skillfully using these two monetary policies to exploit the people became the usual political policy of the rulers in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties. Means, this is also different from the monetary policy of the Han Dynasty. Currency circulation is extremely chaotic

During the Qin and Han Dynasties, the monetary system was unified, and the five-baht coin became the only legal currency in circulation across the country. Whether it was settlement at the national level or transactions in the private market, the five-baht coin The figure can be seen everywhere, and it can be said that there is no obstruction.

This phenomenon has undergone obvious changes in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, which is reflected in three aspects: First, the coins circulating in the market no longer only have a single five-baht coin, but a new one. , the state of mixed circulation of old money; secondly, because the physical object once had a certain function of currency, it entered the circulation field and was used together with coins; thirdly, compared with the circulation scope of the five-baht coin in the Han Dynasty, Wei The circulation range of coins in the Shanxi, Southern and Northern Dynasties was much narrower, which was mainly reflected in the obvious regional differences in the field of currency circulation. In other words, the types of currencies circulating and the ways of using money are different in different regions.

The direct cause of regional differences in currency circulation is the split of political power. In addition, the imbalance of economic development and the inconsistency of monetary systems between regions also affect this phenomenon to varying degrees. process. In short, the unified and orderly currency circulation order during the Han Dynasty showed a clear turning point during the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, and currency circulation began to gradually become chaotic. This is also the most obvious feature of the currency during this period.

In short, we can see from the monetary characteristics of the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties a stage in line with the characteristics of China's feudal social and economic development, a transition period between the two major monetary economic climaxes. This period serves as a link between the past and the following. Without the various preparations and foundations for the development of currency in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, after the Sui Dynasty achieved short-term unification, five baht coins would not necessarily be circulating throughout the country, and it would not necessarily be the currency economy of the Sui and Tang Dynasties. Bring peaks.

Of course, today we should correctly view the mistakes in the monetary system in historical periods, especially the failure of weight-reduced coins to become a special tool to exploit the people. Against this background, the negative impact and painful lessons that the chaos of the monetary system itself brought to all aspects of the country's economic construction and people's daily livelihood are still vivid in our minds. At the same time, it has also given the most vivid historical inspiration to future generations. To this day, we can still draw lessons from the tortuous development of currency in the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, making us more clearly aware that currency should serve economic development and cannot be used as a tool for the ruling class to seek benefits.