Chapter 24 Section 6 Reading and Recalling

There are two common monetary terms commonly used in the literature of the Song Dynasty.One is depreciation, which refers to currency depreciation, currency instability, and currency problems.The second is mentioning, which is to rectify and manage the abnormal situation in the circulation of currency issuance.These are two terms commonly used in the Song Dynasty in terms of banknotes.It was rarely used after Ming and Qing Dynasties. The most fundamental reason for inflation in the Song Dynasty was political corruption. The imperial court was fatuous and extravagant. Therefore, the government has to implement the inflation policy for a long time and live by issuing money.Secondly, paying tribute to several strong neighbors every year is a heavy burden and deepens financial difficulties.Thirdly, the monetary policy system is chaotic. Orders are not followed, and laws are not followed.The measures are also full of loopholes, doing whatever they want, and contradicting each other.The specific manifestations are: silver, copper coins, iron coins and banknotes run side by side, interfering with each other and full of contradictions, often causing market chaos.Among them, there are too many changes in the types of banknotes issued, which are completely financial issuances, without guarantees, unlimited quotas, arbitrary issuance, forced exercise, not to mention breaking promises, and repeatedly reneging on debts.Copper and iron money are used together, iron money drives out copper money, and public and private evil money is banned more and more.In the late Southern Song Dynasty, not only copper coins disappeared, but iron coins were also expelled by paper money, which aggravated the confusion of currency.What's more, there are many policies, erratic measures, and various obstacles are artificially set up.

The depreciation of coins in the Song Dynasty is mainly manifested in six aspects: iron money, tin money, big money (fold three, five, ten and one hundred), bad money, private casting and private melting. The main problem of the currency in the Northern Song Dynasty is iron money, etc. Inflation caused by discounting.Inflation in the Southern Song Dynasty was mainly manifested in the flood of paper money and the chaos of the currency system.To this end, the government and the opposition have proposed a variety of countermeasures, that is, measures to combat inflation. These countermeasures can be summarized into four categories.

First, regarding the rectification of money laws and banknotes.According to changes in the situation, the money law has been rectified many times.The minting and quota of coins, as well as the approval of the minting supervisors, are more cautious.Adjusted the casting and issuance quota of copper and iron coins many times, adjusted the market circulation of coins, banned bad money, private money and melted castings, and strictly prohibited all kinds of money from going north and flowing out; revised the Banknote Law, and tried to maintain the centralized and unified issuance by the central government for many times The right to issue by demarcation, exchange the new for the old when the demarcation is full, there are issuance quotas and banknotes, and control the circulation of banknotes within the legal limit.This method has been continuously modified, extending from three years to ten years, and then abolishing the establishment of the boundary, and changing it to be used indefinitely.The banknote, banknote and cast version have been determined many times.The proportion of the amount set at the beginning is very disproportionate, and it will not be mentioned later; timely control the issuance quota, circulation quantity and price comparison relationship between various coins and banknotes.Implement the half-and-half method of Qian Chu, that is, when coins and banknotes are issued and used in circulation, they are matched in half, or in threes and sevens.

Second, organize the return of coins and banknotes.Many measures have been taken in this regard over the years.Jiaozi, Qianyin, Guanzi, and Huizi, which sold off the accumulated gold and silver in their internal treasury several times for depreciation, failed to meet the requirements of "rescuing the crisis" due to too many banknotes and too little gold and silver.In the later stage, it was just a show and self-deprecating; using the money raised by the government as the capital, it purchased various military reserves such as rice grains and civilian living supplies, and threw them to areas with excessive money and serious depreciation, and recovered the money; The public sale of certificates and various official ID cards is tantamount to the public sale of official titles, which can also be resold at a price among the people.In the Northern Song Dynasty, this method was mostly used to recover bad money, while in the Southern Song Dynasty it was used to recover banknotes; a variety of complicated financial and taxation methods were used, clever names were set up, taxes were added to taxes, and various taxes were squeezed out.These methods emerged in endlessly in the Song and Song dynasties. The taxation was strict and detailed, and the fish were exhausted; money was used many times to collect banknotes to reassure the people.According to different situations in each period and place, banknotes were exchanged for iron coins, banknotes were forcibly collected for copper coins, banknotes were exchanged for private money, and iron coins were exchanged for copper coins.

Third, in terms of regulating currency circulation and maintaining currency value stability, the main measures include: limiting the circulation of one type of currency or a certain type of banknote in an area.For example, Sichuan dedicated self-cast iron coins, and later used Sichuan Yin.In doing so, the purpose is to prevent Qian Chu from different districts from interfering with each other, being melted down or flowing out of the country.Issuing new banknotes to exchange old banknotes, using banknotes from areas with better banknote value to exchange bad banknotes from areas where banknotes have depreciated greatly. This kind of exchange of old and new banknotes cleverly conceals the truth of the sharp rise in prices of banknotes; Expand the scope and quantity of iron money, big money, and banknotes, and enforce them with severe punishments; in addition to various taxes, force people to pay banknotes under clever pretexts; speed up the dumping of banknotes, and burn or remake old banknotes; Tighten the circulation of money, such as reducing coin minting, and abolishing bad money such as tin coins or sand coins.Reduce the supervision of casting money, tighten the scale or amount of casting money, or change the money with high casting price.

Fourth, formulate protective measures.The main measures are as follows: it is strictly forbidden to hide copper coins and melt down copper and iron coins to make utensils, and later put all kinds of raw materials and equipment for making money and banknotes into the government treasury; strictly enforce the ban on copper, and those who collect copper and bronze wares must pay to the government within a time limit; Copper and iron coins, copper materials, and copper and iron wares went abroad or entered the Huaibei area.