Chapter 7 Section 5 Currency of Xinmang and Late Eastern Han Dynasty

In the eight years from the second year of Jushe (7 AD) to the first year of Tianfeng (14 AD), Wang Mang advertised "retro, good name, and good goods" and revised the currency system four times to weaken Liu Han's ruling power.Collect the wealth of the world to meet the heavy military and political expenses. In the second year of Jushe, Wang Mang began to revise the currency system for the first time.At the same time, four kinds of currencies are promoted: five baht coins; "big money and fifty", which weighs 12 baht and is worth five baht and fifty; "Deeded knife", with a big ring at the head, the body is like a knife, Qian Wen "deeded knife five hundred", worth five baht and five hundred.The latter three are falsely increasing the value of money, that is, the weight reduction of the official coinage, resulting in serious currency depreciation.

In the first year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (AD 9), Wang Mang made the second currency reform, announcing the abolition of two kinds of knife money and five baht money, keeping "big money fifty", and casting "small money straight one" money, which weighs one baht and destroys 12 coins. A small coin can be minted into a big coin, and the private minting of Dasheng will exacerbate the chaos of the currency system. In the second year of the founding of the People's Republic of China (AD 10), Wang Mang implemented the "treasure goods system", including five items (gold, silver, copper, tortoise, and shellfish), six names and twenty-eight items, that is, six items of money and one item of gold. The second grade of silver goods, the fourth grade of turtle goods, the fifth grade of shellfish goods, and the tenth grade of cloth goods.That is to say, there are six major categories of 28 types of currency in circulation at the same time, there is no relationship between main and auxiliary currencies, and the price comparison relationship between various currencies is not clear, and they all circulate in parallel.This is a complex, cumbersome, weird, and ridiculous currency system, which violates the basic requirements of the law of currency circulation, and it will not work even if the law is severely punished.The currency system is chaotic, public grievances are boiling, and social turmoil.This is no longer a question of the size of inflation, but an extremely serious monetary and political and economic chaos in the history of Chinese currency.Later, due to the complete collapse of the treasure goods system, large and small money resumed.

In the first year of Tianfeng (AD 14), Wang Mang abolished the big and small coins and changed to "Huobu" and "Huoquan".The cloth weighs 25 baht and is worth 25; the goods weigh 5 baht and are worth one.The calligraphy of the two coins is slender, and it is a vertical needle seal.The people are not happy to use it, so the big money and fifty money go hand in hand with the currency.In addition, there are "National Treasure Gold Chamber worth ten thousand" and "Buquan" and "Buqian" vertical needle seal round coins. In short, Wang Mang changed the currency system, which caused disastrous disasters to the people. Every time he changed it, the people went bankrupt.Some of the currency reform measures implemented try to imitate the titles recorded in historical books, imagining out of thin air, regardless of the current reality; some simply ignore the minimum requirements as a currency, which is like a joke;As a result, the money law was in a mess, the people were unemployed, complained and raised up, and the Xinmang regime collapsed immediately, leaving a profound historical lesson.Since then, folk miscellaneously use grain, gold and five baht coins.Some places self-cast coins, such as the "Gengshi five baht" of King Huaiyang and the "cast iron five baht" of Gongsunshu, both of which were not long ago.

In the sixteenth year of Jianwu (AD 40), Emperor Guangwu adopted Ma Yuan's suggestion and recast five baht coins, which will be followed by subsequent generations.In the late Eastern Han Dynasty, there was political chaos and financial difficulties.Emperor Huan planned to make a lot of money but failed.Emperor Ling cast "four out of five baht coins". There are four oblique lines on the back of the money from the four corners of the perforation to the border, which is also called dime money.Folk rumors that this money symbolizes that the emperor will go to court in all directions, which is a sign of impending doom.At this time, the Han Dynasty was extremely corrupt, the palace was desolate, the officials were corrupt, the people were in dire straits, the yellow scarves were proliferating, the towns were in dispute, and the world was in chaos.In the first year of Emperor Xian's Chuping (190 A.D.), Dong Zhuo collected bronze wares from Luoyang, Chang'an, and five baht coins, and recast them into small coins.Due to the soaring prices, the price per meter is as high as 50,000 to 60,000 to hundreds of thousands of dollars, and this kind of bad money is immediately invalidated.