Pre-Qin is an important period for the emergence and development of China's commodity economy. Earlier, due to low productivity, people had no spare products to exchange except for the necessities of daily life. With the gradual improvement of productivity and the expansion and refinement of social division of labor, surplus products that can be exchanged begin to appear. Due to the development of commodity economy, primitive currency, which played the role of exchange medium, began to appear in the late Neolithic period. During the Xia, Shang and Zhou Dynasties, agriculture and handicrafts developed further, social goods were gradually enriched, and cities gradually rose and prospered. After the use of primitive currency and metal weighing currency, the currency circulation field began to enter the era of using metal currency in the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period.

Qin and Han dynasties

In 22 1 BC, Qin Shihuang unified the world, not only unified the characters and weights and measures, but also unified the currencies of various vassal States that have been circulating since the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, and implemented a monetary system with gold as the upper currency, copper coins as the lower currency and half a penny as the legal copper coins circulating throughout the country, which greatly promoted the social and economic development. During the Western Han Dynasty, after self-cultivation, the social economy recovered and developed, and gradually entered a period of relative prosperity, and the monetary economy also developed accordingly. After experiencing the use of half-two, half-two, half-two, five-cent, half-two, three-point and three-point in the early Han Dynasty, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty not only took back the right to make money, but also began to establish a five-baht system. The use of five-baht became the main currency of the Han Dynasty from the fifth year of Yuanshou (from 1 18). At the end of the Western Han Dynasty, Wang Mang carried out monetary reform, but it ended in failure. During the Eastern Han Dynasty, the self-sufficient manor economy developed rapidly, and there was a serious shortage of currency casting and circulation, which led to the rise of material economy and the weakness of monetary economy.

Three Kingdoms-Sui Dynasty

The Three Kingdoms, the Jin Dynasty, the Southern and Northern Dynasties were in a split and turbulent environment, with frequent political regime changes, no unified national market in economy, poor currency casting and circulation, and the proliferation of bad money. Physical exchange became the main way in the commodity economy, and the monetary economy was depressed. These three countries have different monetary systems. Wei mainly bartered goods and then recast five baht; Wu and Shu mainly cast large denomination coins. During the Jin Dynasty, coins from Wu, Shu and the previous dynasties were mainly used. During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, various regimes were established one after another, and coins of different sizes were successively minted. Even so, five baht copper coins of different sizes have been the mainstream of currency circulation in this period. In 58 1 year, with the brief unification of China by the Sui Dynasty, the monetary system was reunified.

Tang Dynasty, Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms

The Tang Dynasty was the most prosperous period in China's history, with national unity, basically stable politics, great development of agriculture and handicrafts, and unprecedented prosperity of foreign economic and cultural exchanges, which made the commodity economy in this period very prosperous. In the fourth year of Wude (62 1), the Tang Dynasty began to abolish the dual currency system with the weight unit as the currency name and the currency unit, and began to implement the currency system, with "Chongbao" as the currency name and "Wen" as the currency unit. Great changes have taken place in the monetary system, which has had a great impact on the surrounding regimes. With the development of commerce, there were not only "flying money" for exchange, but also other forms of credit and financial institutions such as counters that specially kept money and currency. During the Five Dynasties and the Ten Kingdoms period, the social economy was divided due to the separation of securities, and the monetary system promoted by previous regimes was not unified, which led to the serious destruction of the commodity economy at that time, the resurgence of all kinds of bad money, the resurgence of physical exchange and the destruction of the monetary economy.

Song Liao Xia Jin and Western China

The period of Song, Liao and Xia is an important period of social and economic development in China. During this period, agriculture, handicrafts, commerce and overseas trade all developed greatly, especially the prosperity of cities and the rise of towns, which provided a broad stage for the development of commodity economy and the vigorous development of monetary economy. Nevertheless, the separate circulation of copper, iron and money made the whole currency circulation in Song Dynasty show the characteristics of separatism and regionalism. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the earliest paper money in China first appeared in Sichuan. Liao, Xixia and Jin, three regimes established by different nationalities, not only used the money of the Song Dynasty and the old money of previous dynasties, but also forged their own copper and iron coins. In particular, the Jin Dynasty implemented the trinity of money, silver and banknotes, which circulated with each other.

Yuanming

Apart from agriculture, handicraft industry developed prominently in Yuan Dynasty, and commerce and foreign trade developed, which promoted the prosperity of commodity economy. In the field of currency circulation, the Yuan Dynasty used paper money for a long time, and successively issued Zhongbao, Zhibao and Zhibao paper money, and made Zhongbao paper money in Mindfulness, which established the most perfect law of ancient paper money system in China, but less copper coins were minted, and large-scale money casting was only twice, which occurred in the third year (13 10) and twice respectively.

After the turmoil at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, due to the adoption of favorable measures, the social economy of the Ming Dynasty gradually recovered, and the development of agriculture and handicrafts was obvious, which promoted the prosperity of commerce and urban economy and led to the emergence of capitalist economic factors in some fields after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. Casting copper coins in the early Ming Dynasty. From the 25th year of Hongwu (1392), paper money was mainly used. After the mid-term, with the collapse of the paper money system, the small flat money system was gradually implemented, and the circulation of silver money gradually became common.

Ching Dynasty

In the early Qing Dynasty, the country was unified, the politics was stable, the economy developed rapidly, the urban industry was generally prosperous, and the coastal cities were increasingly prosperous due to the development of foreign trade. In the late Qing Dynasty, with the invasion of western capitalism, China's traditional self-sufficient economic system was impacted, and it began to enter a semi-colonial and semi-feudal economic environment, and great changes took place in all aspects of social economy. During this period, in the field of currency manufacturing and circulation, on the one hand, it inherited the money-making system of the Ming Dynasty, and used the silver system in silver; On the other hand, various central and local financial institutions issue paper money and allow foreign banks in China to issue paper money.

With the introduction of western paper money technology, from Guangxu period, a large number of mechanical silver coins and copper coins gradually replaced the use of silver coins and copper coins, which made the monetary system in Qing Dynasty begin to change.