Many scholars are interested in the free banking system. Heyek has repeatedly pointed out that a free bank is the most ideal monetary system. Master Hai, on the other hand, has more thoughts and less evidence, while the latter is close to zero. Since the master suggested it, of course, people who learned it later will study it. If you want to find a role model, you want to go to old China. The free banking system means that anyone can set up a bank and supply money without the approval of the government to compete for fame and profit, while those who go astray seek short-term deception. Many banks and money houses in China during the Ming and Qing Dynasties are examples of free banks, which are on an equal footing with the money issued by the government.
I have been investigating the silver coins of the Qing dynasty these days. 10 years ago, I bought hundreds of Qing silver coins at a stall in Hong Kong. A self-proclaimed expert said that it was all fake, fake. Eight years ago, I saw a lot of paper money in a food stall in Yangzhou in the late Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, including some money coupons issued by banks. I thought most of them were true, so I bought almost all of my tens of thousands of dollars. After studying at home for several nights, I spent a lot of time and only published one article, which was enjoyable, but I didn't have any theory at all.
Recently, I bought a lot of silver coins from the early Qing Dynasty to the early Republic of China, and the price ranged from two yuan to one hundred yuan each. Of course, I should pay special attention to whether it is true or not. It's not that easy. First of all, the binary may be true, and the hundred yuan may be false. Holding more than a dozen pieces of authenticity, asking people everywhere to sell, no one passed the exam! I finally found the answer to this strange phenomenon: many silver coins are genuine and counterfeit! Imitation with real silver is real silver counterfeit money, which is false to collectors and not desirable, but real silver is valuable and it is understandable that it has been circulating in the market for a long time in the past.
How to distinguish between real silver and silver-plated non-silver metal? I'm not an expert, but I don't think it's too difficult to identify. First of all, after many considerations, aluminum is too light, tin or lead is too soft and easy to identify; Nickel is excellent and expensive, and it is not easy to coin. In 1950s, nickel coins were mostly bought by manufacturers for electroplating. The rest are all silver-free and silver-plated imitations, but only iron and copper. Iron can be known by magnets-many of them are made of iron and plated with silver. The biggest headache is copper. However, when silver is plated with copper, the silver surface is very thin. It is not difficult to see the copper color by carefully looking at the flower marks on the surface of the old coins, and no visible copper will be worn off. Iron is like silver, and magnetic measurement is foolproof. Secondly, true silver is black, so-called silver is black. Even after polishing with silver washing medicine, it always feels a bit "black".
How do I know there are real counterfeit silver coins? First, a woman mentioned something. She sells antiques. I saw her reading an archaeological book, and there were silver coins for sale in the shop, so I asked her how to identify the authenticity of silver coins. She spoke hesitantly for a while, and suddenly said that there is such a thing as real silver counterfeit money. Wake up the dreamer in one word, because I have seen many fakes, but what Silver thinks is true.
How do I know this is a fake coin? I found some pieces that should be real silver. One side of the coin says Philippines, and the other side says 1903 America. Many silver coins say Yunnan Province in English and Hubei, Jiangnan or Heilongjiang in Chinese. Similar unreasonable real silver is not uncommon.
To be sure, China has used the silver standard for at least several hundred years. The silver ingot I found belongs to the warehouse, which is the earliest explanation of Kangxi-there may be an earlier silver ingot. On the other hand, many Qing Dynasty money coupons bought in Yangzhou indicate that silver was taken by coupons.
China has had silver ingots for a long time, but the casting of silver coins began in 1889 (Guangxu), which was very late. Before Guangxu, all the silver coins in circulation in China were imported, which started from the Ming Dynasty. In the Qing Dynasty, the import volume was relatively large, and it flourished during the Qianlong period. The export of silk and tea introduced a large number of silver coins, but after Qianlong, the import of opium rose sharply, followed by the outflow of silver coins, which intensified after the Opium War, leading to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom uprising more than ten years later.
In the Qing Dynasty, a large number of silver coins were imported, and at least dozens of birds returned to their nests. The most common ones were Meiji in Japan, Britain, Spain, Mexico, the United States, and Hong Kong.
Readers should know that there was no electroplating technology in China at that time, but as advanced as Hongkong, the electroplating industry was started by my father Zhang Wenlai only 80 years ago. If you don't know how to electroplate silver, you can only make fake silver coins with real silver. Since it is also silver, why should it be forged? There are several aspects. On the one hand, imported real silver and real coins are more exquisite, but the cost of these imports is higher. On the other hand, I measured a batch of real silver coins and fake silver coins that look exactly the same with electronic instruments. The rule is that the latter is about three grams lighter. That's an attempt to cheat about thirteen percent. But in those days, silver coins were very valuable (copper coins were generally used in the market) and were easily deceived. As a result, real money and counterfeit money circulate together, just as RMB and foreign exchange certificates circulated together in China 20 years ago, with the same face value and different values. Those who know how to bargain with foreign exchange certificates will have a big discount on shopping, and those who don't know will fall into the price difference. Real silver counterfeit money is bad money, real silver real money is good money. The two circulate together. Bad money will not drive good money out of the market, which proves that the famous Gresham Law is wrong. I have analyzed this pitifully stupid law. Here is another piece of evidence.
There is a more important reason for the existence of real silver counterfeit money (I think it was quite popular before). That's because the imported silver coins are not enough, and the government since Guangxu is not enough. There is a real demand for real silver and counterfeit money. There are not many silver mines in China, but China has long had trade with Spain, which occupied Mexico, which is rich in silver mines. China can import it and imitate it with real silver.