China was one of the first countries in the world to use currency, and the history of using currency has been 5,000 years. In the process of formation and development, ancient Chinese currency has undergone five major evolutions:
1.The evolution of natural money to artificial money: shellfish is the earliest currency in China, and the Shang Dynasty used shellfish as currency. In Chinese characters, most of the words related to value are related to "bei".
2.The evolution from chaotic shapes to standardized shapes: From the appearance of copper shells in the Shang Dynasty to the Warring States Period, there were many shapes of currency in China. During the Warring States period, not only did each country mint its own currency, but also each region within a vassal country
3.The evolution from local coinage to ** coinage: In 221 BC, after Qin Shi Huang unified China, he stipulated that the whole country should use a unified currency, and the square hole yuan coin was used in Chinese history for more than 2,000 years;
4.The evolution from the weight of the instrument to the treasure and ingot: The coins minted since the Qin and Han dynasties usually clearly indicate the weight of the money in the money text, such as "half a tael", "five baht", "four baht" and so on (twenty-four baht is one tael).
5.The evolution of metal money to paper money "Jiaozi": During the Northern Song Dynasty, due to the shortage of copper materials for coinage, in order to make up for the shortage of copper coins, a large number of iron coins were minted in some areas. Iron money is bulky and difficult to carry, so the banknote "Jiaozi" came into being in Sichuan.