Unified currency
Money is not only a medium of commodity exchange, but also a special commodity and a general measure of value.
In The Origin of Family, Private Ownership and State, Engels roughly divided the origin and development of ancient money into barter period, physical currency period, metal weighing currency period and metal coinage period.
This division is basically consistent with the development of ancient currency in China.
The barter period is equivalent to the prosperity of matriarchal clan society, that is, the early and middle Neolithic period. Exchange is accidental, random, primitive, equivalent or unequal, and its function disappears when the exchange is over. Therefore, the "things" exchanged at this time cannot be called "money".
Physical currency period, that is, primitive currency or natural currency period. The exchange in this period took livestock, grain, fabrics, production tools, household appliances and some ornaments such as jade and shellfish as equivalents, and began to have the function of money. At this time, it has entered the patriarchal society, which is equivalent to the late Neolithic age.
During the period of metal weighing currency, the current historical materials can only be pushed back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, but experts infer that it probably began in the Xia Dynasty, of course, at that time, "it was just a simple exchange by weight." This is because the production of bronzes in the Xia Dynasty has reached a fairly high level, and in the era of "copper and stone used together", red copper and bronze have appeared. Copper should have been a very precious thing at that time. Copper, a metal weighing currency, continued until the Spring and Autumn Period, while gold and silver went to the Warring States Period, in parallel with the previous shell coins and the later mints.
The period of metal coinage is roughly the period when slavery was completely established. Experts estimate that coins should have been coined in Xia Dynasty, but it is the late Shang Dynasty that can see the real thing at present. 109 bronze shells unearthed in Baode, Shaanxi Province and the bronze shells unearthed in Anyang Yin Ruins are their physical evidence.
Copper cloth coins originated from farm tools and shovels, sprouted in Shang and Zhou Dynasties and were widely used in the Eastern Zhou Dynasty.
Gold and silver are weighing currencies, which began in the mid-Spring and Autumn Period. Gold weighing currencies include gold plate, gold cake and gold shell; There are also silver shovels, silver plates, silver cakes, silver cloth coins and silver shells. , mainly distributed in the romantic and rich Chu state in the south, and there are also a few countries such as Sanjin and Zhongshan.
During the Spring and Autumn Period, the Warring States fought for hegemony and was bustling. Large and small principalities created colorful pre-Qin currencies. Now we divide it into four currency systems: knife goods, cloth coins, ant nose coins and ring coins.
A kind of knife coin, also known as knife goods, was popular in Qi and Yan Dynasties, which evolved from practical knives.
Korea, Zhao and Wei all circulate coins, which evolved from ancient weeding tools. It is shaped like a shovel, so it is also called shovel coin.
Ant nose money, which is popular in Chu state, evolved from shell-shaped copper coins. The ant nose money protrudes from the front and is cast with characters. The strokes are like an ant, and two small mouths are like nostrils, so it is called ant nose money. Chu also uses gold, which is square, with one or two small pieces, and sixteen pieces are one gold (catty).
Zhou and Qin used round currency.
After Qin unified the six countries, it unified the characters, weights and measures, and also unified the currency. It is stipulated that "gold" is the upper currency, with "twenty taels" as the unit, and round square hole copper coins are the lower currency, with half taels as the unit. Qian Wen's "half Liang" is consistent with the actual weight. As the main form of China currency, this square hole round money has been used for more than two thousand years.
It's called Qin Banliang.
So why take this shape? Some people think that it is mainly ring-shaped and easy to carry, while the square hole is not easy to rotate after threading the rope, which can prevent wear.
Some people think that this form expresses the world outlook of ancient people.
Square hole round coins in Qin Dynasty were the earliest official legal tender in the world.
Later, we humorously called money "brother".
To distinguish the "half-taels of money" between the Warring States and the Qin Dynasty, we can start with calligraphy.
During the Warring States Period, Qian Wen's "Banliang" was a big seal, while Qian Wen's "Banliang" in the Qin Dynasty was a small seal. Of course, it is concluded that it was written by Prime Minister Reese.
May be affected by this, Qian Wen followed suit after the Qin Dynasty, mostly dignitaries or calligraphers.
In the Song Dynasty, there were also money for imperial books.
This is also the difference between ancient Chinese coins and western currencies. In China, the layout of ancient coins is mainly Qian Wen rather than patterns, while western money is mainly animals, plants, portraits and other patterns rather than words.
As for appreciating the calligraphy art of ancient Qian Wen, this is another interesting topic.
The so-called money, in plain English, is money. Thinking about it, loving it and spending it with its money are our endless happiness and troubles. I'd better simply sort out its evolutionary history or historical evolution in the form of items.
Currency in Qin and Han Dynasties: As we already know, during the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, Qin Chuang minted a semi-dual coin with square holes, letters and big seals, which is now commonly known as "Qin Banliang" or "Warring States Banliang".
After Qin Shihuang unified China, he was unified as "Qin Banliang" on the basis of unified weighing system and Qin Heng.
At the beginning of Han Dynasty, Liu Bang began to make coins by himself, and Qian Wen imitated the old name of "Qin Banliang", but the actual weight was only about three baht, allowing people to make coins by themselves. Most of them are small and light, with shallow words, written by Han Banliang. The government and the people co-cast, different times and different places, the variety is complex. Half a penny to lose weight repeatedly, the credit is reduced.
Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty issued all the money in the state of war and ordered the casting of three baht instead of half a penny. At the same time, he also issued white deerskin coins (worth 400,000 yuan) in China and three kinds of gold abroad. Three kinds of coins, dragons, horses and turtles, made of silver and tin, are worth 3,000 yuan, 500 yuan and 300 yuan respectively, which is not enough to collect people's wealth. In the fifth year of Emperor founding ceremony of the Han and Yuan Dynasties (A.D. 18), Emperor Wudi of the Han Dynasty ordered the abolition of the coinage right of counties in the early Han Dynasty, and the central government unified the coinage. Set up "Shanglin three officials", that is, Guan Zhong (in charge of casting money), distinguish copper (in charge of raw materials) and equal loss (in charge of making models), and form a central coin-making institution to be responsible for casting five baht money, also known as Shanglin money and three official money. The high quality of five baht money has changed the phenomenon of currency confusion, which is conducive to centralization and economic development. Therefore, from Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty to Wude of Tang Gaozu for four years (AD 62 1), it lasted seven or eight hundred years. Five baht has always been the legal tender of all dynasties, and it has been the longest minted currency in China. The number of people left behind is huge and the categories are complex.
The weight of five baht is appropriate, and China's square-hole banknotes with "five baht" as the main form also affect Japan, Annan, North Korea and other countries. Thailand's current monetary unit is still called "Thai baht", which is not unrelated.
Currency in the period of Wang Mang: Since the second year of Wang Mang's independence (AD 7), three monetary reforms have been carried out successively, and a fine currency that attracted worldwide attention has been created.
In the first exchange of coins, three kinds of high-value virtual coins were mainly cast, namely "Daquan50", "Seven Roads" and "Wrong Roads".
The second time, I wasted money to ban five baht and went to Koizumi, that is, "50 books" and "Koizumi is one"
The third reform began in the second year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (A.D. 10), and the valuables system was implemented. There are five objects (gold, silver, copper, turtle and shellfish) and six people (Zhu goods, shellfish goods, cloth goods, turtle treasures, silver goods and gold) in the area, with a total of 28 products.
"Spring" is a loan word of "money". After Wang Mang took Liu's surname, he was afraid of the word "Liu". Because the traditional word "six" consists of three characters: Mao, Jin and Dao, the word "spring" is used instead of "gold".
Although the monetary system was chaotic in this period, the quality of coins was unprecedented. Among them, the combination of ancient knife coins and round coins created the world's first two-color metal coin. Therefore, although Wang Mang has a bad reputation, he enjoys the title of the first master of casting money in history. Follwed and Shufa Qian used hanging money to seal, casting money regardless of round money, cloth money, knife money, high-profile, so the text is well protected; The currency that has been handed down has made people fondle it.
The currency of the three countries: the dispute between Wei, Shu and Wu made the monetary system in this period a bit complicated. Wei is five baht; In addition to casting five baht in Shu, there are another 105 baht; Wu has five hundred springs, one thousand springs, two thousand springs and five thousand springs.
There are also "Taiping Hundred Money" and "Dingping Hundred Money". They were cast by Yizhou secretariat and Shu respectively.
Currency in the Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties: The Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were a period of division in China, with frequent wars, turbulent political situation and "bad money laws". In order to save copper, five baht is getting smaller and smaller, which is called "goose eye" and "corn eye". What's more, it is called "repairing five baht". Change one dollar into two, but the denomination is large and useful. The five baht money in this period is collectively called "five baht in six dynasties" in the coin world. The casting was rough, Qian Wen was sloppy and his strokes were incomplete. Some people write "five baht" as "hardware", while others write "five baht" as an anti-text.
At the end of the Western Jin Dynasty, after the Eight Kings Rebellion, all ethnic minorities went their separate ways and made their own money.
Pakistani leaders Te Li and Li Liu established the Han Dynasty in Sichuan and created "Hanxing", which was the first currency named after the year number in China history.
Schleswig replaced the Huns to establish the pre-Zhao, became king by himself, and was called the post-Zhao in history, casting "abundant goods".
Before cooling, stretch the track to cast "cooling to create a new spring".
In the 7th year of Yuanjia in Song Wendi (AD 430), four baht were cast, which rarely circulated. Later, it was recast as "filial piety of four baht". This spring, the style of writing is beautiful, and its seal script moves like a dancing sleeve, which is very beautiful. After I voted for Yong Guang, a few months later, I changed it to Jinghe, and then I voted for Jinghe. It is extremely rare for two money to survive in the world.
During Liang Wudi's period, there were two main types of five baht, one was with wheels and the other was without wheels, and the one without wheels was called "female money".
After Emperor Yuan of Liang moved the capital to Jiangling, it was changed to "two pillars and five baht".
In the second year of Taiping, Emperor Liang changed the casting of "four pillars and five baht" and used it for twenty years.