Bad money, as its name implies, refers to coins with inferior materials. The word "bad money" first appeared in Sui Shu? Zhao Chuchuan:? When it is forbidden to make bad money, if two people exchange bad money for good money in the market, they will be heard and ordered to cut. ? Naturally, the existence of evil money was prevalent as early as before the Sui and Tang Dynasties, even in the Six Dynasties not far from the Sui and Tang Dynasties.

The emergence of evil money

1. There are four directions and different decrees.

The separatist regime has an irrefutable rule in minting coins: making money. Money itself has no value, but as a metal equivalent, money is endowed with value in the process of commodity circulation. But warlords don't care. Feudal warlords often used their power to stipulate that a certain amount of money should be used in a certain place, which would inevitably lead to currency depreciation, inflation and currency confusion, sucking up the bone marrow of the people and leaving a feather in the ground.

During the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, various regimes were complicated and particularly troublesome.

During the Three Kingdoms period, Wei, Shu and Wu successively issued currency. Cao Wei used to spend five baht. Shu Han first minted five baht, and then issued it? Straight 105 baht? . The weight of straight 105 baht is only three times that of Shu-5 baht, but the price is 100 times. Moreover, while its military and economic strength is gradually weakening, its weight is still decreasing and its depreciation is even more severe.

Sun Wu once published it? Big spring 500? 、? Da Chun 1000? And so on, the shapes and names of these rich men are obviously imitating Wang Mang's Da Chun, but their face values have increased by 10 to 100 times.

coin

The Jin Dynasty and the Southern and Northern Dynasties were even more chaotic. Different regions are divided and dynasties change frequently, so the shape, size, weight and figures of copper coins are chaotic and changeable.

In addition, the geographical scope ruled by separatist forces is relatively small, financial and material resources are limited, and the amount of coins is not enough to meet the needs of the circulation field, so we have to allow new coins, old coins, local coins and foreign copper coins to be mixed, so all kinds of light and heavy coins are intertwined, and there is no unified regulation between them. The difference between high and low, see the price of villages and towns? Moreover, the casting technology of official furnace is relatively low, and there is no unified money system.

2. Private casting, bad money drives out good money

The motive force of private casting is that the rulers are too exploited and overwhelmed, so it is unnecessary to mention it. Second, the development of commodity economy needs enough coins, but the money minted by the government cannot meet the needs of commercial development.

During the reign of Yuanjia, scarcity was the most precious thing, and wealth was the most precious thing for people. Lue Wang is open to the outside world, with a wide range of teaching and learning, spread with gold, but clothes are hard to catch. But the monetary system is chaotic and there are not enough coins. Narrower and narrower goods are used? . So what? There are quite a few people stealing castings. Digging for ancient money to get copper? .

Wei Qian enters the pen

Thereafter, in the first year of Xiao Jian, four baht were cast. The figure is thin and small, and the outline can't be reached. So Yun Qi, the thief? Everything is expensive? In the first year of Yong Guang, two more baht were cast, but the power was greatly used. These two baht were ordered to be used as the previous four baht, which of course aroused people's resistance. Private casting became more difficult to control and appeared? A thousand dollars is less than three inches long? Goose eye money? It doesn't sink into the water, but it breaks easily? The extension of money and so on.

It seems that only by understanding the chaos at that time can we better understand the pioneering position of Kaiyuan Bao Tong.

Countermeasures against bad money

1. abolish coins by administrative means and use grain and silk.

Barter is the most primitive way of commodity exchange, and grain and cloth are typical products of small-scale peasant families. Throughout the history of China, grain and cloth have never gone far in commodity exchange. Huan Xuan, Zhou Lang, Xiao Liang and Shen Yue in the Eastern Jin Dynasty all advocated abolishing coins and replacing them with grain and silk. ? But blocking is better than draining. Obviously, this road is impassable.

In the early Liang Dynasty, only the capital, Wu, Jing, Ying, Jiang, Xiang, Liang and Yi used money. The rest of the counties trade grain and silk. The territory of communication is wide. Do they all use gold and silver as commodities? . This may become a footnote to the throne, but it does not reflect the feasibility of replacing currency with grain and silk, but a country's unbalanced economic development, imperfect political construction and inconsistent monetary system, which in turn affects the efficient operation of commercial activities.

The reason why the imperial court abolished coins was not only because there were too many stolen coins, but also because the coin problem had affected the normal economic life of the country and threatened the stability of the national order. Since the Eastern Jin Dynasty, the imperial court minted less money, but the development of market economy preceded the national reaction, and the demand for coins was in short supply, which led to? Money is expensive and things are cheap? , or noble? Hide millions? Ordinary people only have food and silk.

Wei and Jin nobles

2. Imperial court casting, no semicolon.

In the case of the initial development of commodity economy, coins can't be completely abandoned and used for grain and silk, so they have to be? Open source? , coin. Is there any measure for the unification of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty? Put the right to make money in the central government? That's a remark.

The best way to solve the most intractable economic problems related to coinage in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties is obviously to recover the right to coin, but it is impossible to realize the smooth implementation of government decrees under the separatist regime. Therefore, the ruler's practice is to cast money by imperial decree, trying to compete with folk copper coins for the market.

But the resistance is actually greater.

The first is the arrogance of feudal economic concepts.

The feudal court subjectively did not want to promote the development of commodity economy, so even casting money often created an accomplice to market chaos. Take silk as an example. Early Eastern Jin Dynasty to early Liu Dynasty.

In the past 100 years, the price of cloth has not changed much. Twenty-seven years from Yongchu to Yuanjia. In these twenty or thirty years, prices have doubled. After 30 or 40 years, it has been reduced by ten times, and a piece of cloth has been reduced from the original 1000. Essays worth only 100. Although the price drop is the performance of the surge in silk production, it is also affected by the money shortage.

scholar

Low prices hurt farmers' interests, but the rulers not only paid no attention to protection, but also adopted the policy of exhausting resources and fishing. From the fourth year of Yongming, when collecting rent, we have formulated a discount method of two cents for money and one cent for cloth. Next year, we will split the money equally.

The government not only uses the advantage of less coins to make farmers pay coins, but also requires all coins to be round and big, which increases the burden on farmers and affects the healthy market ecology.

The second is the normal circulation and private casting of ancient coins.

Interestingly, although the folk coins have brought troubles to the government, the folk coins of Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties have maintained normal circulation in the market for hundreds of years and have not been devastated. At the same time, due to various historical reasons, ancient coins continue to circulate in the market.

As mentioned above, the government of the Southern Dynasties actively explored official coins, but for the essential purpose of exploiting the people, private coins became more rampant and the disadvantages of coins were greater. This has seriously affected the normal development of commercial activities.

People's lives

So, in the second year of Emperor Song Ming, bad money was banned. Especially old money? . The casting of these new money not only did not make the business of the Southern Dynasties develop because of the increase of casting money, but also caused the fluctuation of market price, thus causing the twists and turns of business development.

The circulation and private casting of ancient coins disturbed the market order, but they had to disappear. Don't compete with the people for profit? The sense of honor lies in the decline of the government's coin casting technology and the reduction of copper, so it has to let itself go.

Development of handicraft industry

1. stagnation of handicraft industry

As mentioned above, the money minted by the government can't meet the market demand, and the lack of coins minted by the government is precisely because of the long-term depression of commercial handicrafts in society since the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty. It should be said that at the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty, natural and man-made disasters such as plague and war caused great damage to productivity, and handicraft business was forced to stagnate, and agriculture became the only job that could settle down.

At this time, money must have been almost abandoned with the shrinking market. So-called? From the north of Huaihe River, all horses are cities; Thousands of cockroaches from Jiangnan are goods? Yeah, yeah.

When Jin moved south, the border was not wide, or scholars used it for reference, so money was not widely used. ? However, regardless of the north and south, when the national economy finally slows down and the government needs to support commercial development, the previous way of reducing casting because the currency is useless is no longer suitable. It is the government's hesitation that makes bad money appear and get out of hand.

Women in Wei and Jin dynasties

2. Currency chaos

In the early Liang Dynasty, only the capital, Wu, Jing, Ying, Jiang, Xiang, Liang and Yi used money. The rest of the counties are mixed with grain and silk; The territory of communication is wide. Do they all use gold and silver as commodities? ; ? North of Jizhou, there is not enough money, and businessmen use silk? ; ? Hexi counties still use gold and silver money from the western regions, and officials can't help it. ; ? Shandong people still use Qi's old money? .

Due to the lack of money, due to the inaction and confusion of officials and people, the economic activities in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties were very chaotic, close to listening to their folk customs and developing freely. ? Under the premise of trying to exploit, of course. In this way, different regions have different habits of using money. Money is made of copper, and its credibility in trading places is judged according to its copper content.

Gold and silver are precious metals. Due to the unique funeral habits in Wei and Jin Dynasties, most of them were buried underground and mostly hidden in rich families. Silk, cloth, grain and silk, according to the local output, acted as universal equivalents in troubled times.

Therefore, the above quotation explains the deep-seated reasons for the different situations in different places. In addition, we also need to consider that the copper production in China was low at that time, and the shortage of copper coins was not because the government was unwilling to cast coins widely, but because of the shortage of raw materials. Even made the iron coins used in Liang Wudi's time. ? The output of high-speed rail has attracted a large number of people to vote, thus forming a vicious circle.

Women in Wei and Jin Dynasties

In other words, the main reason for the chaos of the monetary system in Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties was the weakness and greed of the central government, but it was the broad yeoman class that paid the price. The stagnation of business is not the cry of businessmen, but the bankruptcy of countless small farmers.

summary

Disrupting the market order with money is certainly a major event, and it is not conducive to the economic development of Jiangnan area under the trend of shifting the economic center of gravity to the south, but it still has little loss under the small-scale peasant economy.

Generally speaking, the economy of the Southern Dynasties was a natural economy. At that time, of course, there was commodity exchange and currency circulation, but in the vast rural areas, the exchange was only accidental. The main means of payment in society is in kind, and coins only appear in the market in an auxiliary way. Therefore, even if the monetary system is chaotic to the extreme, it only expands the scope of use of grain and silk.

However, the circulation of bad money is extremely harmful to the country and the people. When Kaiyuan Bao Tong appeared, this chaotic period may come to an end.