Chapter 10 Section 3 Currency Changes in the Northern Dynasties

During the Sixteen Kingdoms period when northern China was divided, the Tuoba tribe of the Xianbei tribe rose in northern Shanxi.In 386 A.D., the name of the country was changed to Wei, and it was called Northern Wei in history. In 439 A.D., it unified the north and confronted Liu Song in the Southern Dynasties.At the beginning, they still lived a nomadic life, and their economy was backward. They practiced barter or used grain, silk, cattle and sheep as the medium of exchange.Emperor Xiaowen (471-499 A.D.) reformed the system, strictly enforced the New Deal, implemented the land equalization system, quickly developed agricultural production, and quickly developed domestic and foreign commerce.In the nineteenth year of Taihe (AD 495), the "Taihe five baht" was cast, weighing three to four grams.Official salaries are also paid in money.Emperor Xuanwu Yongping three years (AD 510) cast "Yongping five baht", weighing about 3.4 grams, with five characters crossed as straight pens and wide edges.At the beginning, the production was slightly better, but soon the weight was greatly reduced. There were so-called corns, ring chisels, etc., and some coins were thinner than elm pods.The circulation in various places is complicated, some only use ancient coins, while others use silk.Money is more important than goods, and the price of rice is a bucket of thousands of coins.In the second year of Emperor Xiaozhuang's Yong'an (529 A.D.), "Yong'an five baht" was recast. The shape and weight are the same as Yongping coins.The people are allowed to bring copper to the official furnace to make money.Deliberately raising the value of the currency. At that time, the market price of silk cloth was 300 yuan per piece, and the government sold it at 200 yuan per piece. It was originally intended to be used to return folk coins, but unexpectedly it stimulated private minting, and the value of the currency dropped even more.Moreover, the price of copper was 81 Wen per catty at that time, and more than 200 Wen could be obtained by melting and casting small coins.

In 534 AD, the Northern Wei Dynasty split into the Eastern Wei (534-550 AD) and the Western Wei (534-557 AD).The Eastern Wei Dynasty was politically corrupt, financially difficult, and the currency system was chaotic. The official decision continued to use Yong'an five baht, and there were many and miscellaneous private mints.The north of Jizhou refused to use money and only used silk cloth.In the first year of Wuding, Emperor Xiaojing (543 A.D.), he recast a small sample of Yongan five baht to reduce weight, and collected copper and bad money in various places. Private casting is still difficult to stop.At the end of the Eastern Wei Dynasty, it was planned to stipulate that money must weigh five baht before it could pass and be inspected by official scales, but it didn't work.Gao Yang destroyed the Eastern Wei Dynasty and built the Northern Qi Dynasty (550-577 AD), and cast "Changping Wuzhu" in the fourth year of Emperor Wenxuan's Tianbao (553 AD). It is exquisitely made, weighs 4.2 grams, and has a high currency value.But because of the extravagant lewdness of the court in the Northern Qi Dynasty, the prevalence of corruption and excessive expropriation, the people used private casting to deal with it.During the Qianming and Huangjian years (560-561 A.D.), there were more private castings, and even copper-iron alloys with mixed lead and tin were used to cast bad money. Wait.After the master Wuping (570-575 A.D.), private castings were flooded, and pig iron blocks were used as currency.

The situation in the Western Wei Dynasty was similar to that in the Eastern Wei Dynasty.In the sixth year of Datong (AD 540), Emperor Wen first cast the "Datong Six Baht", which is called five baht in text, and its shape imitates Yong'an five baht. The copper color is pale, and there is a stroke on the right perforation.Six years later, it will be recast to reduce weight and shape.There is a saying that the "five baht for sample" that imitates Yong'an money is still pending.In 557 A.D., the Northern Zhou Dynasty destroyed the Western Wei Dynasty, and the Northern Qi Dynasty was destroyed in 577, and the north was unified.Three kinds of new money were minted in the Northern Zhou Dynasty.In the first year of Baoding (561 A.D.), Emperor Wu cast "Buquan", which was equivalent to five Western Wei coins, parallel to the five baht coins.The calligraphy of Qian Wen is jade tendon seal, the strokes are simple and full, and the spring characters are continuous vertically, which is different from Wang Mang Buquan Qian Wen.Outer Guo raised, weighing about 4.3 grams.In the third year of Emperor Wu Jiande (574 A.D.), he cast "Five Elements Big Cloth" money, which is about the same weight as Buquan.Because there are too many piracy and casting at the border, it is forbidden to enter and exit the five-element big cloth money. The cloth spring can only enter and exit, and private casting is strictly prohibited.Later, the cloth spring was abandoned.In the first year of Jingdi Elephant (579 A.D.), "Yongtong Wanguo" coins were cast, which generally weighed six grams, and one was used as ten pieces of five-element cloth, which was 500 pieces of five baht coins, which was equivalent to reducing the weight to 1/166.The money varies in size, and has broad sides and lead money.When it was first cast, the money was extremely exquisite, the seal method was perfect, and the artistic value was high, so it was a treasure for collection.However, due to excessive weight loss and depreciation, people are not willing to use it.Folks use silk and gold and silver as coins, and even some areas use gold and silver coins from abroad.

In short, the currency of the Northern Dynasties gradually developed from low-level to high-level, and the currency system reform was continuously carried out during many political changes, and new coins were minted. The quality was generally poor, and it was not until the Northern Zhou Dynasty that it was greatly improved.However, in terms of currency circulation, except for the severe inflation in Northern Qi, the rest are all minor ailments, and the illegal coining of bad money has been consistent to the end.