When discussing ancient money, we usually use the following assumption:
1 two gold = 10 two silver = 10 copper coin = 10000 copper coin.
Although the exchange rate of gold, silver and copper has been fluctuating, this assumption should be basically reasonable. Mr. Wang Zengyu, an expert in contemporary Song history, once mentioned in the chapter "Victory" in the seventh chapter of Yue Fei's New Biography that the imperial court sent a provincial letter to Yue Fei: "Fourth, 60,000 pieces of stone and rice and 400,000 pieces of military supplies were handed over. 400,000 yuan is converted into100,000 taels of silver and 5200 taels of gold. At that time, gold and silver were not used as independent currencies. It can be seen that 400,000 copper coins in the early Southern Song Dynasty were equivalent to 65,438+100,000 silver and 5,000 gold, which basically met the above assumptions in order of magnitude.
To discuss the purchasing power of money, we must first mention the methods of two famous experts. In his Great History of China, Mr. Huang Renyu basically used the price of gold as the benchmark for conversion. He basically calculated the value of today's 1 copper coin based on the assumption that 1 two gold coins = 10 two silver coins = 10 two copper coins. In the book Hidden Rules, Mr. Wang takes rice price and silver price as the benchmark at the same time, and gives two figures. On the other hand, Mr. Wang prefers to use data converted from rice prices.
Then, according to the two gentlemen's methods, let's see how consistent RMB is with Song Dynasty today (June 65438+October 20041October).
1) gold benchmark
According to the international quotation, the price of gold basically fluctuates around 400 dollars per ounce. Let's take $400 an ounce as an example. One ounce is equal to 28.3 grams. In the Song Dynasty, the Jin of 1 was 640 grams ("1975, the bronze ruler of Jia Diao unearthed in Xiangtan, Hunan, weighed 100 Jin, 64 kg"). 1 Jin has 16 Liang, so 1 Liang in Song Dynasty is 40 grams today. In this way, one or two ounces of gold in the Song Dynasty is equivalent to 565 dollars, which is equivalent to 4650 yuan at today's 8.23 yuan. According to the assumption that 1 gold is 10 silver, that is, 10 money, copper coins in the Song Dynasty have always been equivalent to 465 yuan.
2) Silver benchmark
According to the international quotation, the price of silver basically fluctuates around $6 per ounce. Similar to the conversion of gold price, one or two pieces of silver will always be copper coins, equivalent to 70 yuan RMB.
3) rice price benchmark
Song dynasty 1 kg was 640 grams. In the Song Dynasty, 65,438+0 stone was 92.5 Jin Song (there are three works in Shen Kuo's Meng Xi Zhuan Juan, "Whoever makes stone takes 92.5 Jin as the method, and the Han balance is 34 1 Jin"). Therefore, a stone of rice has 59,200 grams, or 59.2 kilograms. If special famine years or bumper harvest years are not considered, the rice price is about 300-600 Wen per stone in the early Northern Song Dynasty, 600-700 Wen in the middle period (Renzong period) and 2.5 in the early Southern Song Dynasty. Therefore, it should be reasonable that the penetration of each stone is about 1 in Song Huizong in the late Northern Song Dynasty. According to the current rice price per kilogram of 2.5 yuan, a stone of rice in the Song Dynasty is 59.2 kilograms, which is 148 yuan, which is 1 copper coin, which is 148 yuan.
So far, we have three prices, gold 465 yuan, silver 70 yuan 148 yuan and food price 148 yuan. Because China is not a big country producing silver, the cost of refining silver after industrialization is greatly reduced, and the value of ancient silver is bound to be much higher than the present value. Obviously, it is unreasonable to take today's silver price as a reference. This can be seen from today's silver price of $6 and gold price of $400 per ounce. Today, one or two ounces of gold can be exchanged for 66 ounces of silver, while the exchange rate of ancient gold and silver we assumed was 1: 10. Gold production is stable, and it is still regarded as an important hard currency reserve by all countries in the world today. So it is more reasonable to use gold as a benchmark.
In addition, although the rapid development of modern science and technology and Mr. Yuan Longping's hybrid rice have greatly increased the grain output, the population consuming grain has also greatly increased today. According to the historical geography of the Song Dynasty, the population of the Northern Song Dynasty was less than 50 million, while the population of China today is 654.38+03 billion. Food is the most important thing for people, and food price should still be an important benchmark.
Therefore, the owner of Wuzhai took a gold price benchmark of 465 yuan and a rice price benchmark of 148 yuan's average of 306.5 yuan, rounded to the decimal point, and set 1 copper coin as 300 yuan RMB. Therefore, we have the following basic transformations:
1 two gold =3000 yuan.
1 two silver = 1 copper coin =300 yuan RMB.
1 copper coin =0.3 yuan RMB.
Look at the salary of Song officials at this exchange rate. According to the official records of Song history, the salary of a prime minister in Song Dynasty is 300 yuan per month, which is 90,000 yuan, with an annual salary of 1.08 million. A county magistrate with an average salary of Grade 8, with a monthly salary of 1.5 yuan, is 4,500 yuan and an annual salary of 54,000 yuan. Considering that a county magistrate in the Song Dynasty didn't manage thousands of households, it was not bad. In the Song Dynasty, besides the basic salary, there were various subsidies such as job money, millet, cooking materials, firewood, salary increase, public money, coupons, and job fields. No wonder people say that the Song Dynasty was extremely kind to officials. No wonder Song Jiang sharpened his head and wanted to be an official.
Judging from the concrete examples in the Water Margin, this exchange rate is also reasonable. Back to the fifteenth time, when Wu Yong persuaded SanRuan to join in and grab the birthday program, Wu Yong asked Ruan to buy an urn of wine, 20 Jin of raw and cooked beef and a pair of big chickens with one or two silver. It's almost one or two pieces of silver for 300 RMB. In addition, I went back to the Tenth Forest Temple in the Snow Mountain, and took out one or two pieces of silver when entertaining the battalion chief and the poor dispatcher in Li Xiaoer's shop, ordered three or four bottles of good wine and served a few dishes casually. Similarly, when Dai Zhong Yang Lin invited Shi Xiu to dinner on the 44th occasion, Yang Lin also casually threw out one or two pieces of silver for the store to serve. Generally speaking, in an ordinary small restaurant, three people in 300 yuan can order food at will.
Let's take a look at other examples in the Water Margin. When Yang Zhi was selling knives in Tokyo, Niu Er once said, "What a bird knife, it's worth a lot of money! I bought one for thirty pence and cut the meat and tofu. " A kitchen knife costs 30p, that is, RMB 9 yuan, which is very reasonable. When Lu was wandering in Wutai Mountain, he made a 62kg water mill mord and a Buddhist monk's knife with five taels of silver, which were made of fine iron. Considering that this weapon is superior and specially made, 1500 yuan is not too much. However, when Yum outsmarted Yang Zhi and his gang, the village wine brewed by Yum sold for 5 yuan. 1500 yuan was a bit too dirty. Perhaps it was because the liquor on Huangnigang was a scarce commodity at that time, Parkson was in a monopoly position, and at the same time, some classical gangs were competing to raise prices, so this barrel of wine was fried to a sky-high price.
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The Conversion of Ancient Currency in China
fundamental unit
There were many monetary units in ancient China, and each dynasty was different, especially before Qin and Han Dynasties. Only three basic units are discussed here:
A penny (that is, a standard square hole copper coin)
An ounce or two of silver.
An ounce or two of gold.
Although the above-mentioned units are different in different dynasties and generations, at least there is little difference after the Tang and Song Dynasties, so it is possible to obtain relatively stable and reliable data.
commutation relation
The exchange ratio between copper coins, silver and gold, just like the current foreign exchange price, is constantly changing, unlike 1 yuan is equal to 100.
According to the following description:
"The price of gold and silver rose from 1600 to 1: 8 in the middle and late 20th century, and doubled to 1: 20 by the end of 18."
It is known that 1 gold can be exchanged for about 8~ 1 1 silver.
Once again:
"In the early years of Daoguang, one or two pieces of silver were exchanged for money, that is, one thousand articles; By the time of the Opium War in the 20th year of Daoguang, one or two pieces of silver could be exchanged for sixteen thousand seven hundred pieces of silver. Since Xianfeng, the price of silver has soared, and one or two pieces of silver can be exchanged for as much as 22,300 pieces of silver. "
It is known that under normal circumstances, 1 silver can be exchanged for about 1000~ 1500 copper. Ancient 1 penetration money or 1 hanging money was 1000 copper coins.
Metal price
Because money made of gold, silver and copper has its own value, in theory, the value of money should be equal to the price of metal, so we can answer "how much is a silver?"
In the Tang Dynasty, each Kaiyuan Bao Tong copper coin was 8 cents in diameter, 10 pieces weighed 1 2 pieces, and 1,000 pieces weighed 6 Jin 4 liang. During the reign of Shunzhi in the Qing Dynasty, each copper coin weighed one yuan and twenty-five cents, and then increased to one yuan and four cents, so it weighed eight catties and twelve ounces per thousand articles. In ancient times, although the weight units of "two" were different, they were all about 40 grams, while "Jin" was about 700 grams. The average weight of each copper coin is 5 grams.
The current prices of gold, silver and copper (RMB) are as follows:
Gold: 100 yuan/gram
Silver: 2 yuan/gram
Brass: 0.02 yuan/gram
The calculation results are as follows:
1 two gold: about 4000 yuan.
1 two silver: around 80 yuan.
1 copper coin (1 paper money): about 0. 1 yuan.
Grain price
Many historical monographs directly measure monetary relations through food prices. Although considering food prices alone is not accurate and objective, it should be an extremely important reference. Kobayashi found the following records online:
"On the white rice (stone) nine money five points?
White rice (stone) is nine dollars and twenty-eight cents?
Eight dollars and three cents for rice (stone)?
White? Nine Notes on Noodles (Gold)
Silver is exchanged for 1000 pence every two. "
also
"According to the records of the Ministry of War of the Qing Dynasty, the grain prices of Shuntianfu, Daming House and Xuanhua House in Zhili in the first half of the fifteenth year of Guangxu were calculated based on millet, sorghum and corn, with an average of one, two, four and six cents per warehouse."
According to the calculation of 1 stone = 100 kg =70 kg, and the grain price is calculated by 2 yuan RMB/kg, the following average values can be obtained:
1 two silver: about 170 yuan.
1 copper coin (1 paper money): around 0.2 yuan.
conclusion
According to the above calculation, considering
1 the price of gold is more stable than others, and the focus is on.
Now silver has been used as an industrial product, so the reference value of silver price is low.
Due to the rapid development of agricultural technology, the relative price of grain is much cheaper now than in ancient times.
4 Respect the ancient exchange ratio
5 Round to the nearest integer, which is convenient for conversion and perceptual knowledge.
Therefore, the author suggests that it is convenient and wise to adopt the following conversion system when encountering ancient monetary units in the future:
1 two gold = 2000 yuan = 10 two silver.
1 two silver = RMB 200 yuan = 1000 = 1 customs (diao) money.
1 Qian Wen = RMB 0.2 yuan.
In addition: 1 stone rice = 1 two silver.
Disclaimer: The above conclusions are not academic opinions, but only used for the conversion of ordinary people watching costume TV dramas and martial arts novels.
confirm
The following are some ancient materials to verify the conversion method given by Kobayashi and improve perceptual knowledge:
The monthly salary of the Tang Dynasty Jiupin official is 5 stone meters = the monthly salary of the junior civil servants in the Tang Dynasty 1 0,000 yuan;
The annual salary of six officials in the Qing Dynasty is 45 taels of silver = the annual salary of bureau-level cadres in the Qing Dynasty is 9000 yuan;
Three years to clear the magistrate, 100 thousand snowflakes silver = those officials, that family is not tens of millions?
In the early years of Qianlong, I donated a Taiwanese flower 13 122 silver = 2.7 million yuan to buy a departmental level cadre, which was clearly marked.
The ancient system of weights and measures in China was extremely chaotic. There are differences between different dynasties, and there are also differences between different regions in the same dynasty. This is an indisputable fact.
The system of weights and measures in Qing dynasty was mainly "Kuping building system", which was basically the same as that in Ming dynasty. One kilogram is about 600 grams (more than 597 grams) of the international standard system. This system of weights and measures still exists in Hong Kong, Singapore and other places. For example, the gold units of measurement in Hong Kong and Singapore are "Liang" and "Qian", which are the units of measurement built by Kuping. A "two" is equivalent to 37.5 grams of international standard system, and a "money" is equivalent to 3.75 grams of international standard system.