Kong Dingyin.
As an ancient civilization with a long history, the invention of paper money is perhaps one of China's greatest contributions to the world's financial history. When other civilizations in Eurasia were still widely using metal money, China at that time had already widely circulated paper money that was low-cost, light-handed, and easy to carry and store, which provided great convenience for people's daily transactions, and the wisdom and creativity of the ancients in the financial field can be seen.
The Song and Yuan dynasties were the heyday of ancient Chinese paper money. In the Northern Song Dynasty, the world's earliest banknote appeared - "Jiaozi", and the annual circulation of banknotes in the Southern Song Dynasty ranged from 3 million to 10 million. There are many types of banknotes in the Song Dynasty, including the national banknote "Huizi", as well as the regional banknote "Sichuan Yin" and "Huaijiao". The Yuan Dynasty was the first country in the world to use uniform paper money as the basic currency. In the Yuan Dynasty, paper money experienced a complete cycle of appearance, rise, prosperity and decline, which can be called a classic example of the use and popularization of ancient paper money.
Paper money emerged out of war and financial necessity
The predecessor of the Yuan Dynasty was the Great Mongolian State established by Genghis Khan in Mobei, and the rise of Mongolia in the 13th century had a profound impact on the history of China and the entire world. In 1211, Mongolia declared war on its former suzerain, the Jin Dynasty, during the Jin-Mongolian War, a group of Jin ** led by Yelu Chucai have switched to Mongolia, they improved the paper money system of the former Jin Dynasty, and designed a set of paper money-based monetary system for the Mongols who had just entered the Central Plains at that time and only knew how to bend the bow and shoot the eagle. Before Kublai Khan established the Yuan Dynasty, Mongolia issued banknotes in North China three times: the first was during the Ögedai period, the second was during the Möngke period, and the third was the banknotes issued by Kublai Khan in his fiefdom before he became emperor. All three of these banknotes were short-lived, circulated in a small area, and had little impact. Among them, the banknotes issued by Möngke were recorded in the book "Rubrucke's Journey to the East" by the French missionary Rubruck who was sent to Mongolia in 1252, which was the first mention of Chinese banknotes by Europeans. According to his description, the banknotes of the time had three characteristics: they were made of cotton paper, the size of a palm, and they were decorated with patterns similar to the jade seal of the Great Khan of Mongolia.
The banknotes issued by Mongolia during this period were mainly for war and financial expenditures. During the reign of Ögedei, the Han princes of North China, who were attached to Mongolia, tried to promote the circulation of goods and obtain huge profits by printing paper money in order to effectively manage the region. In 1227, He Shi, who was stationed in Bozhou, Shandong, issued a meeting with silk as a reserve. Two years later, Xingzhou pacified Liu Su and printed coins in his own jurisdiction. In 1236, Ögedei accepted the proposal to print banknotes, but they were not widely circulated.
In 1253, Kublai Khan set up a currency issuing agency in his fiefdom to issue banknotes "for economic use". In addition to the banknotes issued by members of the Mongolian ** family, during this period, many local banknotes were also issued in northern China under Mongolian rule, which were limited to circulation in specific areas and changed every two or three years. Among them, Hebei Zhending Road to ** as the reserve issued silver banknotes in Yan, Zhao, Tang, Deng area circulation of more than 8,000 yuan, regardless of the circulation area or the amount of issuance is the leader in the issuance of banknotes.
Copper coins are the traditional metal currency of ancient China, but since the Jin Dynasty, there has been a serious shortage of copper materials in North China, where wars are frequent, and the cost of minting coins is high. In contrast, printing banknotes is inexpensive, easy to operate, and generally accepted. On the other hand, it is also convenient to achieve monetary unification by collecting and exchanging banknotes issued by various local forces in North China, thus paving the way for political unification. Based on this consideration, after Kublai Khan ascended the throne, he ordered the printing of banknotes in that year, and during his reign, he successively issued two banknotes: "Zhongtong Yuanbao Banknote" (hereinafter referred to as "Zhongtong Banknote") and "Zhiyuan Tongbao Banknote" (hereinafter referred to as "Zhiyuan Banknote").
Zhongtong ingots handed over banknotes.
To the Yuan pass treasure banknote.
The influence of Yuan Dynasty banknotes was wide and deep
As the earliest unified issuance of banknotes in the Yuan Dynasty, Zhongtong banknotes were presided over by Wang Wentong, a Han minister who Kublai Khan relied on, and he conscientiously summed up the lessons and lessons of the Jin Dynasty's issuance of banknotes, and put forward five principles for the issuance of Zhongtong banknotes: First, Zhongtong banknotes are not limited by time and geography, and can be used for a long time in various parts of the country; the second is to redeem the old banknotes originally issued in various places, so that the old banknotes are no longer in circulation; Third, all kinds of taxes are paid in the same banknotes; Fourth, it is reserved in silver and can be exchanged at any time**; Fifth, printing banknotes is limited to market circulation and cannot be diverted for other purposes. Through the above measures, the Yuan Dynasty guaranteed the credibility of the Zhongtong banknotes with a strong state administration. The Yuan court also set up exchange agencies in various places to hand over banknotes, which was convenient for the exchange of paper money** or new and old banknotes.
The Yuan Dynasty had a vast territory and many ethnic groups under its rule, realizing the unification of ancient China. The coexistence of the Yuan Dynasty and the four Mongol khanates reopened the overland Silk Road, which had been interrupted since the Anshi Rebellion, and people from all walks of life in Eurasia followed the Silk Road to China for business and travel, including the famous Italian traveler Marco Polo. Marco Polo, who was born in a Venetian merchant family, has a natural sensitivity to ** and finance, and in China he was surprised to find that paper money made of bark can actually pass through the country, and is no different from gold and silver, this kind of monetary system ahead of the same era made Marco Polo, who had traveled all over Europe and Asia, and was well-informed, dumbfounded, and could only be summarized by a sentence "The Alchemy of the Great Khan".
In addition, relying on the strong political credibility of the Yuan Dynasty, the Zhongtong banknotes spread across the sea, and their circulation areas expanded to neighboring countries such as Japan, Goryeo, and Annam, which established an exchange rate relationship between their national currencies and Yuan Dynasty banknotes. Even some countries, such as Persia under the rule of the Ilkhanate, still issued their own banknotes based on the Zhongtong banknotes, which shows the great influence of the Yuan Dynasty banknotes in the world at that time.
Currency reform backfired
The Yuan Dynasty began with the founding of Kublai Khan, the ancestor of the country, through the emperors of Chengzong, Wuzong, and Renzong, and the development law of traditional Chinese dynasties in the imperial era, as the rule gradually decayed, the situation became increasingly disordered, and the paper money of the Yuan Dynasty did not last long, from the initial stable value of the currency, to the later dynasties printed a large amount of money, and the gold content of the banknote**. During the reign of Yuan Wuzong, there was a sharp increase in the issuance of paper money, continuous depreciation, coupled with the rampant counterfeit banknotes, when Emperor Yuan Shun ascended the throne, the banknote law established at the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty had been corrupted.
Faced with this situation, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty began to brew currency reform. In April 1350, Wu Qi, the head of Zuo Si, proposed to change money, which was supported by some **. The ruling Zhongshu Right Prime Minister Tokh Tokh convened the Zhongshu Province, the Privy Council, the Imperial Historical Observatory and other **institutions to discuss the method of changing money, and after fierce debate, Tokhtar finally decided to implement the banknote change. Subsequently, Emperor Yuan Shun approved the banknote change plan submitted by Zhongshu Province, and the specific method was: printing the "Zhizheng Pass Treasure Banknote" (Zhizheng Banknote), and the new banknote was always equivalent to 1,000 copper coins, or to the Yuan Banknote twice. Zhizheng and Zhiyuan banknotes are used in parallel, and at the same time, the "Zhizheng Tongbao money" is also minted, so that the money and banknotes are used together.
The original intention of the Yuan court to implement the currency reform was to curb the trend of corruption of the banknote law, but it did not want to backfire. In 1351, as soon as the Zhizheng New Banknote and Tongbao Qian were issued, they quickly caused hyperinflation. "Before the action is done, the price is soaring, and the price is more than ten times." At that time, the residents of Yuan Dadu were holding 500 yuan of new banknotes, and they could not even afford a bucket of corn. There are two main reasons for the mistiming of the banknotes: one is that the raw materials used in printing banknotes are extremely poor, and "they are rotten after a long time and cannot be replaced", and the other is the indiscriminate issuance of currency, resulting in the flood of paper money. Later, the imperial court clearly stipulated that the new banknotes were worth 1,000 copper coins, but in fact, in some places, the consistent banknotes were only worth 14 Wen. The tried and tested "alchemy of the Great Khan" has failed.
With the rapid depreciation of paper money, the people's attitude towards paper money has changed from general acceptance to discarding. In contrast, ** has sprung up and begun to circulate in China. Compared with the shoddy and indiscriminate issuance of banknotes, ** has gradually been favored by the people for its stability and high unit value, and the use of silver by the people is becoming more and more extensive. The Yuan court also had to comply with public opinion and lifted the ban on the circulation of gold and silver. With the increasing popularity of the currency, the banknotes of the Yuan Dynasty, which were once very prosperous, have finally become a yellow flower of tomorrow and have been lost in the long river of history.
Silver ingots in the fourteenth year of the Yuan Dynasty.
In July 1368, the newly established Ming Dynasty waved the Northern Expedition, and Emperor Yuan Shun fled north and fled back to the Mobei grassland, where his ancestors had risen. The uncontrolled issuance of paper money and the failed currency reform eventually led to the collapse of the Yuan economy, which became one of the important reasons for its demise. Today, as an important cultural relic of the Yuan Dynasty, the world's earliest surviving banknote "Zhongtong Yuanbao Jiao Banknote" is still quietly displayed in the museum for future generations to visit, continuing to silently tell its past glory.
Author's Affiliation: Bank of Communications Head Office).