Because the types of currency in Wang Mang's new dynasty were too complicated and the names were too numerous, ordinary people at that time could not understand and remember them, so people still used to use the five-baht coin of the Han Dynasty. For this reason, Wang Mang attempted to enforce the currency of the new dynasty through severe punishments and laws, stipulating that those who carried and used five-baht coins would be subject to the same punishment as those who opposed the well-field system: immediately exiled to the frontier after being caught.

At the same time, in order to restrict the theft of private money, he stipulated that one family could mint money, and five families could sit together, and punish the prisoners and their family members as slaves. For this reason, in a few years, hundreds of thousands of people were punished as slaves because of the offense of coining money.

Portrait of Wang Mang

Privately minting general-purpose coins has been banned repeatedly since the rise of the Han Dynasty. During Wang Mang's new dynasty, due to the chaos of issuance and the complexity of the currency system, private coinage was extremely popular. Even if Wang Mang made private coinage a capital crime, he still could not stop private coinage.

In fact, the private coinage situation in the New Dynasty can objectively reflect the social reality at that time. When national standard money accounted for more than 60% of social circulation, it shows that Wang Mang's new money was popular at the time and his rule could still be maintained. The 40% share of privately minted money also shows that inflation in the circulation field is becoming increasingly serious, but it is still within the social affordability.

Currency during Wang Mang's period

Private coinage by private individuals has become a nationwide behavior during Wang Mang's era and has had an important impact on the national economy. Due to the increasing trend of pirated casting, Wang Mang had to issue an edict prohibiting private storage of copper and charcoal. In the second year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, Wang Mang became even more severe in punishing people, making private casting a capital crime, and even imprisoned his neighbors. In the fifth year after the founding of the People's Republic of China, he ordered the lifting of the ban on storing copper charcoal.

In the fifth year after the founding of the People's Republic of China and the first year of the Emperor's reign, Wang Mang issued two edicts, seemingly mitigating penalties for private castings. It was precisely this kind of "lenience" that showed that the social unrest at that time was already quite serious. . Because the bankrupt people were forced to make a living and had to coin money privately. After being discovered by the officials, they were taken away to pay for their crimes.

Portrait of Wang Mang

But as more and more people tried to plead guilty, there were fewer people to work and pay taxes and rent, and social production was eventually severely hit. For this reason, Wang Mang's government can only reduce the punishment, hoping to arrest fewer people with light punishment. However, in a vicious circle, people resorted to stealing coins again, eventually leading to a situation where currency chaos cannot be suppressed.

The original purpose of Wang Mang's currency system reform was to plunder and amass wealth to cope with huge military and political expenditures. Moreover, the new dynasty has pioneered the use of large face value virtual money, causing great damage. This large-money system aims to increase the face value and reduce the copper content by saving money-making raw materials and money-making costs.

Wang Mang stills

Faced with the imminent economic crisis, Wang Mang began to cast wrong knives, contract knives and large sums of money in the first year of residence. Based on the calculation of 3.33 grams of five baht coins, the largest wrong knife is only worth ten and a half five baht coins, but the circulating face value of this currency is as high as 5,000 five baht coins!

Although falsely issuing large amounts of official money can concentrate private wealth into the hands of the government in a short period of time, it will also cause huge losses to the private economy and cause a sharp rise in prices. For the government, this method is undoubtedly like drinking poison to quench thirst.

Wang Mang stills

Therefore, the currency reform of Wang Mang's new dynasty did not comply with the basic principles and value scale laws of currency at all, and the conversion ratio was extremely unreasonable, causing great confusion in the circulation link. . This kind of economic policy, which violated the laws of history, was implemented through cruel laws. The final result was widespread mourning and devastation for the people, which further deepened the people's hatred of Wang Mang personally and the new dynasty he represented.

The national currency circulation system in Wang Mang's era also had a certain degree of originality. He used the four-level currency system of wrong knife, contract knife, big money, and five baht for the first time, which was unprecedented. The two-level monetary system of the new dynasty, in which big money and small money go hand in hand, was also unprecedented. But his reforms, after all, were the whims of Wang Daidi and had many drawbacks, which eventually became the trigger for the collapse of the dynasty.