Introduction
This article is excerpted from the eighth series of "Wuhou Literature and History", written by Zhao Guangtian, and the original title is "The Beginning and End of the Casting Sichuan Version of the Silver Dollar".
At the end of the Qing Dynasty, China began to produce circulating currency with the color of modern industrial civilization. Chengdu Mint in the Qing Dynasty Guangxu 22 years (1896) by the original silver dollar, copper dollar two bureau merger, although the opening of early, its fashion called silver, copper dollar bureau, attached to the Sichuan Machinery Bureau, the address is located in Chengdu East Gate boring palladium street.
In the second year of Xuantong (1910), the longitude branch was approved, and it was renamed Chengdu Mint Branch, which was received by the department, and the silver dollar and copper dollar in the factory were combined into one.
The weight and fineness of the silver and copper coins minted in the early days of the Chengdu Mint basically complied with the provisions of the "National Currency Regulations" formulated by the Qing court at that time, and the main shop coins also paid attention to maintaining the legal proportions, and the circulation and use were also normal.
Body
During the rule of the Kuomintang, the Sichuan warlords in the Chengdu area racked their brains and minted a large number of five-jiao silver dollars in poor condition, from which they profited from it, making the people miserable and complaining, but the warlords filled their pockets and made a windfall.
From 1923 to 1925, when Yang Sen was in the Chengdu Mint, he ordered the minting of the one-yuan main coin to be stopped due to the shortage of Sichuan silver, and only the five-jiao auxiliary coins were minted. According to the ratio of silver and copper at that time, the main coin was silver nine bronze one, and the auxiliary coin was silver seven bronze three. By changing the main currency to the auxiliary currency, Yang Sen not only made a windfall, but also set a precedent for minting bad coins. Pentagon coins do not contain enough silver. It cannot become a half-dollar ocean, and the common people call the five-pointed silver dollar minted by the mint "factory ocean" or "factory version" to show the difference. Deng Xihou saw that Yang Sen's method of minting silver dollars from large to small was the way to make money, and he also handled the "factory version" according to this.
When Deng Xihou and Liu Wenhui took over Chengdu, Deng was in the mint, and Liu had only one ordnance branch. Liu was dissatisfied with this, and under the pretext that the Sichuanbian area he operated needed to use Tibetan silver dollars, he also installed a minting machine in the Ordnance Branch to mint five-jiao silver dollars.
Deng made coinage one after another; Deeply afraid that the dissatisfaction of the division and brigade commander would affect the morale of the army, he put on a high posture of sharing blessings and blessings, and pretended not to know and not interfere with the division commander Li Jiayu's secret minting of silver dollars in Chengdu Martyrs' Shrine Street and the establishment of a second private foundry in Suining. For a while, the coinage was in full swing. Liu Xiang of Chongqing was not to be left behind, contrary to the old system of Chongqing Copper Yuan Bureau, which could only mint copper yuan, and made a large number of inferior coins of half yuan. At that time, the Sichuan warlords minted silver dollars privately if they had the conditions, and those who did not have the conditions did everything possible to create conditions for them to mint silver dollars privately. The so-called "steel plate", "Zhou version", "Quanchuan version", "Ya version", "Chongqing version" and other dozens of half-yuan silver dollars suddenly flooded the whole Sichuan. These half-dollar silver dollars, known as "silver coins", have a very low silver content. The main currency of the ocean is ninety, Yang Sen's "factory version" is seventy percent, and Deng's "factory version" is fifty percent. The rest of the half-dollar coins are mostly in.
Between three and four percent, and some are even as low as about twenty percent. It is called "miscellaneous board".
Although these "miscellaneous plates" have low silver content, they are the same as the factory plates, which will inevitably be mixed. In order to protect the "factory version", Deng not only stamped the "factory version". Two identification methods have also been announced. One is to rinse the silver coin with nitric acid, so that the copper particles on the surface of the coin fall off, and the "miscellaneous plate" contains more copper, and the gap is large. Second, the weight of 100 main coins and 200 half-yuan auxiliary coins is 72 taels, and the "miscellaneous plates" contain a lot of copper, and the weight is obviously insufficient. As soon as these two identification methods were made public, the "factory version" and "miscellaneous version" parted ways. The exchange of copper dollar value has also widened the distance. At that time, on the market, the "factory version" was exchanged for one yuan for seven copper dollars, while the exchange price of "miscellaneous plates" was much lower. The high ones are no more than four hangings, and the low ones are even less than two hangings. In this way, the interests of all the warlords who minted bad money were affected.
In order to take care of the interests of the giants, the military has readjusted the exchange **: the factory version of the "eight hanging money", the "miscellaneous board" four hanging money, and the two "miscellaneous boards" for one "factory version". This has been raised for the "miscellaneous board", but it is difficult to be satisfied. This decision has not yet been made public, and the division and brigade commanders who privately minted bad coins have learned about it, and they immediately agitated it, believing that the "miscellaneous board" was set too low and that their own interests were harmed. Because these divisions and elders privately cast "miscellaneous boards". In order to settle the situation, the military giants had no choice but to adjust the "miscellaneous board" ** to one yuan for five hangs and six hundred yuan. As soon as this price was announced, the people were immediately in an uproar, especially the merchants, who refused to use the "miscellaneous board" and neither bought nor sold, forming a disguised strike. This exchange rate is performed by the Chengdu Mint. In this way, the situation that the "miscellaneous board" is higher than that of other places has been formed, so the "miscellaneous board" has poured into Chengdu in large numbers. At that time, Deng Xihou, Liu Wenhui, and Tian Songyao stipulated that each person could only exchange one yuan, and each of the three armies would send a battalion of soldiers to Xiang Yuren, the deputy commander of the 24th Army, to carry out the inspection task. But the divisions and brigade commanders of the three armies ignored them. Deng Guozhang, commander of the Jiang Defense Army of Guan County, and Xie Dejiao, commander of the Pixian Brigade, all escorted the "miscellaneous plates" to the Chengdu Mint to exchange for the "factory version" with heavy troops. The mint couldn't cope and had to close its doors. The soldiers were agitated and had the potential to storm the factory. Deng Xihou was helpless against his fierce generals, so he had to order the exchange to be stopped.
"Miscellaneous boards" have become unpopular, and they have engaged in "licenses" to deceive the people. The so-called "license" is a kind of credit certificate used by merchants to and fro. After the warlords made money, they opened their own banks, banks, or trade names, and issued a large number of "licenses". The amounts are one yuan, five yuan, ten yuan, fifty yuan, one hundred yuan, and so on. You can withdraw it at will.
This is tantamount to issuing a large number of disguised banknotes. In order to inflate the value of their "licenses," the banks, banks, and trade names run by the warlords all claimed that they would only accept their own numbers and a few of them when they sent people to the market to exchange silver and copper dollars for their "licenses." In view of the uneven fineness of the "miscellaneous board" and the difficulty of exchange, and the "license" indicates that the ocean is the ocean, and the "miscellaneous board" is the "miscellaneous board", and it can be used after taking it. At first, the common people were willing to use the "license", but soon, they found out that they had been deceived!
The "license" letterhead only writes a certain note, the owner of the false book business, and the "license" of the warlord money bank defrauded the cash, and then carried the money away, and the Yibu money bank went bankrupt. Fooled citizens searched for their roots according to the address of the business indicated in the "license", and some of them turned out to be a "toilet". At that time, there were no less than hundreds of "license" companies in Chengdu, and the cash was in hand. Say it, pour it. Citizens were afraid that the "license" would become waste paper, so they hurried to run on it. And those warlords who minted bad money and opened businesses took advantage of the run to let a large number of "miscellaneous boards" come out of the cage. The "license" and miscellaneous board were mixed together, thus deepening the currency disaster. The "license" could not be redeemed for cash, the "miscellaneous board" could not buy anything, and the whole city was in chaos. Of course, the people who suffer the most are the people living at the lowest level. There is no shortage of people who were forced to jump into the river and jump into the well by the currency rebellion, and the miserable situation is unbearable to witness.
The factory version "led to the "miscellaneous board", and the "miscellaneous board" messed up the "license", and the Sichuan currency system was in chaos, and people from all walks of life complained. Deng Xihou knew that it was difficult to get rid of the culprit. In addition, he was worried that this would affect military funds, so he decided to eliminate the "miscellaneous boards". At that time, Liu Xiang was in Chongqing, and the whip was beyond his reach. had to turn to Liu Wenhui to stop casting. And Liu clearly asked Deng to restrain his subordinates first. Deng Xihou had no choice but to take the lead in "Anne". First, Wang Xiusheng, the commander of the machine gun, was removed from his post and investigated, and then the "Gong Ji Industrial Society" founded by Li Shenfu that produced parts for minting machines was confiscated. However, the brigade commander Xie Dejiao wanted to blackmail Deng to pay the brothers with a full ocean. The division commander Deng Guozhang also instigated: We worked hard for him to make a fortune, and Lao Tzu rebelled against him!
The matter dragged on until the beginning of 1928, when a large-scale wave of citizens against the currency rebellion broke out in Chengdu. Workers went on strike, merchants went on strike, teachers went on strike, and students took to the streets to give speeches, clearly demanding that "the private mints be destroyed immediately, that all miscellaneous materials be purged of the market, and that it be strictly forbidden to export the land for profit." Deng Xihou saw that the people's grievances had become boiling, so he decided that the time had come, and instructed his staff to draft a telegram proclamation announcing his resignation. In fact, Deng's Shimono is just a gesture.
Liu Wenhui detected the sound of Deng preparing to go into the wilderness, and was as anxious as an ant on a hot pot. Although he knew that Deng Xiaye was not sincere, he was worried that Deng Bu's group of fierce generals would not give up their vested interests, and he was also worried that Xia Ye would make the fake come true, and his plan to fight for territory with Liu Xiang would also fall short. Therefore, it promised to bind the headquarters to stop minting bad money. This is the end of the two-year miscellaneous rebellion.
Call for Papers: Wu Rongwu).
Source**: The Eighth Series of Wuhou Literature and History.