Doubts about shell currency Why didn't the ancients pick it up themselves?Exploration of the origin of the pre-Qin shell coin system
The world is bustling, all for profit;The world is crowded, all for profit. "--Sima Qian, "Notes on Historical Records."
Wealth, fame, and fortune have always been things that attract people. The importance of money to people cannot be overstated. That's right"Money can make ghosts grind"、"A gentleman loves money and takes it in a good way"。While"A gentleman loves money and takes it in a good way"。We also remind people to get their wealth the right way.
In the distant pre-Qin era, there was the earliest prototype of ancient Chinese currency - shells, the use of natural shells as the first currency can be traced back to the end of the Xia Dynasty, the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the use of shells is very common, in the tomb of Marquis Wu of Yin Shang unearthed more than 6,000 coins made of shells.
According to the Book of Han. Food and Goods Chronicle.
Dabei is four inches and eight cents, the money is two hundred and ten, and Bei is friendly;Oysters are three inches and six points, flat money is fifty wen, and the shellfish is friendly;The young mussels are two inches and four points, the average money is thirty Wen, and the two mussels are friendly;The small mussel is one inch and two cents, the flat money is ten cents, and the two mussels are friendly'。
In other words, on average, two small shells can be exchanged for one large shell, then a large shell is equivalent to 210 copper coins, and the smallest shell is equivalent to 10 copper coins.
Since shells were so valuable at the time, and since shells were a ubiquitous natural resource by the sea, why didn't the ancients go to the beach to pick up shells?In fact, the collection of shells in the pre-Qin period was to some extent equivalent to counterfeiting currency.
Ancient numismatic experts have also explained this suspicion, saying that it is wise not to collect them. What does all this mean?
The origin of the shell coin.
First, let's learn a little about this amazing and ancient currency.
In antiquity, before the advent of money, bartering was the main way people traded due to low productivity and scarcity of goods. However, in the process of exchange, the lack of a clear understanding of the value of commodities often leads to conflicts between people.
For example, I exchange an item that I think is very valuable for an item that you think is equally valuable, but my item may be worthless to you. That is why contradictions and frictions, even quarrels and fights, often arise during the exchange.
Later, in the Xia, Shang and Zhou periods, with the progress of productive forces and the abundance of materials, people's demand for material life expanded to a certain extent, and barter gradually could not meet people's trading needs.
At this time, people turned their attention to the shell, which is a small, colorful, and durable ornament. Its small size, easy to carry, wear-resistant, non-perishable, beautiful appearance and other characteristics make it a favorite medium of exchange, thus forming the earliest currency used to exchange general equivalents in China, which belongs to the currency of natural things.
In the pre-Qin period, shellfish coins represented wealth. Especially before the middle of the Shang Dynasty, the value of shell coins was very high, and the Shang kings rewarded their ministers with shell coins, which was the glory of the ministers. The emergence of shell coins also promoted the circulation of goods and the prosperity of the country, and promoted the improvement of productivity.
According to the records of Xunzi-Wang, shell coins can be used to buy various special products in the east, west, north and south, rural residents can get timber, mountain residents can get aquatic products, farmers can get tools without smelting iron and pottery, and industrialists and merchants can get grain without cultivating the land.
It can be seen that the value of shell coins in the pre-Qin period was so great that it was impossible for ordinary people to tiptoe to the beach to pick up shellsIn fact, at that time, these shells were not so easy to harvest.
Why didn't the ancients go to the beach to collect shells?
Because at that time, shellfish was a kind of currency, it was a unified item, and a unified standard would be established, and the way shellfish was processed at that time was carried out by grinding holes"Standardization"。
After processing, the shell has been transformed into a shape with grooves and teeth on one side and holes at the ends or top, so that ordinary shells are easier to identify and more portable. Processed shells become"Peng", only"Peng"in order to sell in the market.
In the pre-Qin period, most of the people living in the inland of the Central Plains rarely had the opportunity to go to sea, and the road was far away, and there was no opportunity to collect shells, so it was used to make sparsely populated and inconvenient transportation in ancient times"Peng"The shells must be mussel shells.
Even for those who live by the sea, it is not so easy to make pengbei, because the raw materials must be relatively rare tiger chrysalis, golden clams, snake-eye clams, and even some clams that live in water tens of meters deep, which means that one clam cannot be taken at random. It's not something you can make fun of with a clam.
Even if you are lucky enough to find the right shell, you will not be able to cash it out. At that time, grinding hard shells was a technically demanding task that only those of the ruling class could master, and ordinary people often got unsuccessful"Imitations"and cracked shells.
The pre-Qin period attached great importance to morality and etiquette, especially emphasizing the importance of integrity, and even the rulers took integrity as the main content of social education"Nine virtues and nine elements"As for the edification of the people"Religion"。Therefore, in the social context of the time, dishonest acts such as the use of counterfeit money were extremely contrary to mainstream values and had to be criminalized.
During the pre-Qin period, rulers were influenced by Legalist ideology and advocated excessive punishment in order to maintain a highly centralized administration. The pre-Qin criminal law was mainly based on:'Five sentences'As the main means of law enforcement, the policy and idea of strict punishment and strict law naturally improved people's obedience, so under the social atmosphere of emphasizing morality and honesty in the pre-Qin period, few people did illegal things. Few people will get away with counterfeiting coins.
By the Shang and Zhou dynasties, anti-counterfeiting measures were more perfect, and the earliest treaties appeared. It is written in the Historical Records - The Biography of the Cargo Colonies:"Large market media, small market media"。The quality intermediary here refers to the contract system used in the transaction, which must be flexible in form, complete in content, and issued and used by the local government. All business activities, even as small as buying a bag of rice and stealing a bottle of soy sauce, must sign a contract and submit an invoice to **.
If anyone violates the shellfish counterfeiting contract, once they are caught, they will not only face penalties, but also pay a large amount of compensation. Therefore, for the people of the pre-Qin era, instead of going to great lengths to find shells and risk being killed to pierce them, it is better to work honestly to earn money and exchange the shell money in a legal way, which will be more efficient and faster.
Therefore, for people before the Qin Dynasty, people who did not buy shells were smart people.
Why are shells no longer used as currency?
Why did the shell money gradually disappear later?
In the middle and late Shang Dynasty, the population increased, the production level improved, the industry and agriculture developed, and the first exchange became more and more frequent, and the shell currency gradually disappeared. In order to cope with this situation, people made special ones with materials such as stone shells and bone shells"Imitation shellfish"。
However, due to changes in the quality of shells and imitation shells, it is common to use easy-to-cast, stable quality metal as a raw material for coinage. As a result, people began to mint metal coins from copper, becoming"Copper money shells"。The emergence of copper money shells is an important development in the process of transformation from natural money to artificial money.
During the Spring and Autumn Period and the Warring States Period, due to the rule of the vassal states, each country minted different kinds of coins according to its own characteristics: shovel money, sword money, yuan money, and Chu money. It was not until after the Qin Dynasty unified China that China's first monetary law was promulgated, unifying the form and norms of currency - the Qin Dynasty's square hole round money and half two coins, and the currency changed from a chaotic state of different shapes and weights to a state of standardization and unity, the shell system was officially abolished, and the shell currency gradually withdrew from the stage of monetary history.
Conclusion. Therefore, in the distant pre-Qin era, it was not an easy task to collect shells, and collecting shells as shell coins was a bad act that violated integrity and moral turpitude, so people did not collect shells and keep them and issue them as real shell coins. Even in today's society, making counterfeit money is a crime. Therefore, we should abide by the principle of honesty and trustworthiness, and only through diligence and common sense can we obtain legitimate wealth.
Although we no longer see shell money in our lives today, shell money is closely related to the daily use of Chinese characters. As long as it has to do with the value of the money, it will appear"Bey"words, such as:"Baby"、"goods"、"Wealth"Wait.