Ming flows into China100 million taels of silver, why is the silver still in starvation?
Some scholars believe that the fall of the Ming Dynasty was related to the silver famine, but at that time, the annual inflow of ** into China reached millions of taels, totaling nearly 300 million taels. And coupled with the accumulation of past dynasties, there were more than 800 million taels of ** in China at that time, where did these huge ** go?
Was the economy of the Ming Dynasty too large to consume these **? Today, we will look at this question through the evolution of the monetary system of the Ming Dynasty, analyze why the Ming Dynasty had a silver shortage, and what countermeasures they took after the silver shortage.
In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, the monetary system faced great challenges. Although Zhu Yuanzhang issued copper coins as the country's legal tender after the capture of Yingtian, other currencies in circulation were not interfered with, mainly because the country was still in the initial stage and needed a transitional period.
However, due to various internal and external reasons, the Ming Dynasty did not solve the basic problem of currency issuance and circulation, which undoubtedly became a key problem that determined the survival of the Ming Dynasty.
After Zhu Yuanzhang captured Nanjing, he issued Dazhong Tongbao. But in the eighth year of Hongwu, he decided to issue paper money "Daming Tongbao Banknote" and forbade the use of gold, silver and copper coins for trading, making it the only legal tender.
This was the money ban policy in the early Ming Dynasty, only paper money was allowed, and gold and silver were prohibited. However, unlike the later paper money system, Zhu Yuanzhang did not set aside reserves for paper money, nor did he intend to let the people exchange gold and silver.
That is, people can exchange gold and silver for paper money, but not paper money for gold and silver. In addition, the Ming Dynasty did not set a limit at the time of issuance, which quickly led to severe inflation and a credit crisis.
In the early years of orthodoxy, the market value of Mingbao banknotes has depreciated from one tael of silver to 1,000 taels, a thousandfold depreciation in 60 years.
Ming Bao banknote two: to solve the dead end of the money ban policy for the problem of paper money inflation, the Ming Dynasty has been concerned since the Yongle Dynasty, and has tried many times to ** too many banknotes in circulation, but the effect is not significant.
After Renxuan, a variety of countermeasures were proposed to curb inflation, but none of them achieved the expected target. In addition to the serious inflation problem, Ming Dynasty banknotes also faced depreciation problems.
At that time, there were no treasure notes issued, which led to the growing problem of depreciation of banknotes. Therefore, in order to deal with this problem, merchants began to discount the banknotes according to the new and old conditions, resulting in the phenomenon of the difference between the old and new banknotes.
There are even some places** who take the lead in money dumping, collecting new money when collecting taxes, but using old money when they hand it over to the treasury as a way to make the difference.
During the Chenghua period, Qiu Jun put forward the view that "things and currencies are of equal value", he believed that the implementation of the non-exchange paper money system and the inflation policy would bring many problems, and advocated the implementation of a parallel monetary system of silver banknotes.
However, at that time, the credibility of the treasure banknote had been lost, and it would not leave the market until the money ban was lifted. As for copper coins, because there were not many coins minted in the Ming Dynasty, the circulation of copper coins was insufficient, private coins were rampant, and bad coins were rampant, so they were not stable enough.
In addition, due to the developed economy of the Ming Dynasty, copper coins with limited purchasing power were not convenient when circulating and could not become the main currency. In this case, ** became the only way out for Daming.
Since ancient times, China's currency has mainly used copper coins and paper money. However, there are a number of drawbacks to these currencies. Copper coins vary in weight and weight, with light items being difficult to buy and heavy items being difficult to carry.
Banknotes, on the other hand, are susceptible to counterfeiting and carry the risk of being stolen. Therefore, from the Zhou Dynasty, people used money as currency, and it was not until the five-baht coin of the Han Dynasty and the Kaiyuan coin of the Tang Dynasty that the weight and weight were moderate.
Since the Song Dynasty, people have used paper money, but the value of paper money fluctuates greatly, and too little or too much will lead to insufficient currency or difficulty in circulation. Therefore, the Tiansheng banknotes of the Song Dynasty and the Zhongtong banknotes of the Yuan Dynasty achieved a moderate value.
In recent years, China has moved away from copper coins and paper money, and has instead practiced banknote laws. However, for decades, it has been difficult for banknotes to circulate in the world, and new solutions need to be found.
Liu Dingzhi's views on the issue of ** currency in the Ming Dynasty are unique. He believes that the main problem of copper coins is that their weight is difficult to control, especially the Ming Dynasty copper coins minted less, and it is impossible to effectively control the circulation of old coins and bad folk coins.
With the continuous expansion of the economic scale, copper coins that only meet the needs of small transactions can no longer adapt to the development of the times. The problem with paper money is that its value is unstable, for example, there is no reserve after its issuance, there is no limit on issuance, and it cannot be exchanged for gold and silver, so it naturally depreciates.
This is also the reason why although the Ming Dynasty strictly forbade the use of gold and silver as currency, merchants and wealthy people still preferred to hold gold and silver, because gold and silver are easy to use and have a strong ability to retain value.
The Ming Dynasty was an important period in Chinese history, because during this period, ** became the currency in circulation. Prior to this, although the phenomenon of ** was used in all dynasties, it was difficult to form a circulating currency due to the small quantity.
However, the rulers of the Ming Dynasty began to pay attention to silver mining, especially in Yunnan, where the annual silver tax reached 100,000 taels. According to the proportion of 3% of the silver class in the Ming Dynasty, the annual output of Yunnan Province can reach more than 300,000 taels.
In the Xuande Dynasty, the annual silver class could even reach more than 300,000 taels, which alleviated the shortage problem in the Ming Dynasty to a certain extent. More importantly, after the lifting of the ban on the sea in the middle of the Ming Dynasty, a large number of Americas and Japan** flowed into China.
Among them, the Americas can inflow 1 million to 2 million taels per year, and Japan can have an annual inflow of more than 3 million taels. These large inflows ensured the stable issuance and circulation of currency in the Ming Dynasty.
Therefore, the circulation and legal-tender currency of ** is not only because of its own value, but also has a close relationship with the economic exchanges between the Ming Dynasty and other countries.
During the Chenghua years, Qiu Jun reformed the currency system, canceled the money ban, and promoted ** to the first currency. He implemented a parallel monetary system of three currencies, using silver as the denomination standard, and stabilized the value of the three currencies through the method of "more money is issued to collect money, and more money is issued to collect money".
In fact, he positions ** as the core currency. Although Qiu Jun advocated the use of ** and opposed the use of paper money in concept, due to the fact that paper money was in circulation in large quantities, he did not completely deny paper money.
However, in his proposals, there was not much protection for the circulation of banknotes. At that time, there were problems with the credibility and practicality of banknotes and copper coins, so Qiu Jun's reform not only determined the status of the first, but also accelerated the withdrawal of banknotes and copper coins from the market.
* It became the currency of the Ming Dynasty, and the Ming Dynasty was also called the "** Empire".
Although the use of silver as currency temporarily alleviated the chaos in the currency market since the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, China lacked the best resources, especially after the Xuande Dynasty, China's annual output declined year by year.
This kind of currency circulation that relies on foreign ** is tantamount to putting the lifeblood of China's economy in the hands of others. As early as the 16th century, after the implementation of a whip law in the north, a social crisis was caused by a silver shortage.
In the 17th century, when the global ** crisis broke out, countries, especially Japan, began to restrict silver exports, and this huge ** empire was difficult to maintain. *Shortage?
Is it really powerless? In fact, it is inappropriate to describe this **crisis as **shortage, because at that time, the Ming Dynasty, like other regions, also experienced a serious **devaluation.
It's just that at the same time as prices and labor, there is no inflow of more** (because all countries are facing this problem, so they restrict **exports). And the continuous depreciation of ** has led to the reluctance of silver-producing countries to expand production, which has caused a "shortage").
In this case, the noble merchants of the Ming Dynasty were still frantically "silver-loving" and hoarding a lot, which made it difficult for a large number of ** to enter the market.
Song Yingxing's views in "Heavenly Creation" have important implications for modern people's understanding of the problems of wealth and poverty. He believes that the common belief that "silver causes poverty" is not correct, and that the problem of the country's poverty lies in the lack of social goods, not the lack of gold and silver.
Gold and silver are not in circulation, and banning gold and silver will not solve the problem, and the production and circulation of materials in society should be increased. This view was particularly valuable in the context of the time, but there were still many scholars who agreed with the "silver abolition theory".
Song Yingxing's view reminds us that the key to solving the problem of poverty lies in developing the social economy and increasing material resources, rather than restricting the circulation of money.
Huang Zongxi's oil painting art at the end of the Ming Dynasty advocated the abolition of silver, mainly because of the excessive concentration of the first in the society at that time, which led to the lack of social excellence and could not be circulated normally.
He believed that the purpose of scrapping silver was to eliminate its function of wealth distribution in order to eliminate the gap between the rich and the poor in society. Although the idea of abolishing silver was difficult to implement at that time, because ** had become the main currency in circulation, his views still had far-reaching implications.
And the treasure banknotes that Ming ** tried to implement also ended in failure.
The people, as stupid as they are, who would want to buy a piece of paper for a gold? "This method of plundering wealth no longer works, and Emperor Chongzhen's banknote plan has gone bankrupt before it has even begun.
More than 100 years after Zhang Juzheng opposed the minting of new money to improve finances, the Ming Dynasty's currency and silver were already showing a trend of gradually weakening economic control. The unprecedented prosperity of the commodity economy has made money no longer dependent on state power and finance, but because of its own value, it represents a commodity value or the power of money itself.
Emperor Chongzhen tried to obtain wealth by issuing paper money, but he could not achieve it, and even could not influence the value and use of money. Although this strange shadow was limited by the feudal system, it still could not change the fate of the financial collapse and the destruction of the country in the Ming Dynasty, because ** was no longer able to dominate the society.
Therefore, the fall of the Ming Dynasty was, in the final analysis, the result of the inability to control society.