Chapter 35 Section 4 The Ming Dynasty made money, and the weight loss in the early stage was chaotic in the late stage

The coins of the Ming Dynasty were always in an unstable state.At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, the money system was established, and the use of money was restricted and released from time to time. The people have been using money continuously.The previous generations cast coins and lost weight one after another.Mid-term stop casting.In the late period, there was excessive casting, and the money was numerous and miscellaneous, and private casting of bad money was rampant.The Ming Dynasty called the money cast in this dynasty as making money, and the money of the previous generation was called old money.Different prices are stipulated by the government, making the made money higher than the old money, and the folks deal with it according to the actual situation.Before the founding of the country, Baoyuan Bureau was set up in Yingtianfu to cast Dazhong Tongbao coins, with 400 Wen as Guan, 40 Wen as Liang, and Si Wen as money.After the founding of the People's Republic of China, Baoquan Bureau was set up in Jiangxi and other provinces to continue to cast large and medium coins, which were divided into two, three, five, and fifteen. Such as Gui Er, San Fu and so on.In the eighth year of Hongwu, the coin system was issued, and "Hongwu Tongbao" was cast. Compared with large and medium coins, it was divided into five grades. The money is 160 wen, and the weight is one qian, and so on.In fact, this money system has not been implemented, and the casting or weight reduction is often stopped, and it is forbidden and released from time to time.For example, in the 23rd year of Hongwu (AD 1390), Xiaoping coins only contained two cents of copper and lost 80% of their weight.Money is banned for twenty-seven years.Chengzu and Xuanzong cast "Yongle Tongbao" and "Xuande Tongbao" respectively.After that, the casting was stopped for a long time, and the money was banned and opened, and the folks traded in silver or in kind.Xiaozong cast "Hongzhi Tongbao", which is the same as Yongle Xuande money, only Xiaoping, bare back, miscellaneous lead and tin, and the amount is very small.In the eighteenth year of Hongzhi (1505 A.D.), Xiaoping coins weighed one cent and two cents, and every catty of raw copper was mixed with two taels of tin.

After Sejong, the money system was chaotic.In the sixth year of Jiajing (AD 1527), "Jiajing Tongbao" was cast, with nine tins of copper and one fineness, and one coin and three cents. It has names such as gold back, wax paint, turning edge, and a stick, etc., and its quality is very poor.In the 32nd year of Jiajing, the money of eight generations since Hongwu was recast.In the fourth year of Longqing (AD 1570), Mu Zong cast "Longqing Tongbao".Shenzong Wanli four years (1576 A.D.) cast "Wanli Tongbao", which weighs one coin and two cents and five cents. The fineness is 93.8% copper and 6.2% tin.In the 28th year of Wanli, 129 coin casting furnaces were set up to expand the casting of coins. The price of money fell and the price of copper rose, making money casting unprofitable.Some furnaces were closed, and the dismissed furnace makers engaged in private casting.During Xi Zong's time, the government also made bad money and competed with the people for profit.In the first year of Tianqi (AD 1621), Xiaoping coins of "Tianqi Tongbao" were cast, and the money bears the name of Ji Bureau, Ji place name or Ji Zhong.It is also cast as ten coins, and the back of the money has eleven liang, town, secret ten and so on.There are many kinds of these two coins.There are two kinds of Taichang Tongbao that can be discounted into twelve.There is a lot of bad money privately minted, and when the ten coins from Taichang are taken back, more and more are collected.In the second year of Tianqi, the weight was reduced to seven points; after two years, it was reduced to half copper and half lead, and in some places it was copper three lead seven.There was a civil uprising in Suzhou, and official money was refused for ten months.In the first year of Chongzhen (1628 A.D.), "Chongzhen Tongbao" was cast. At the beginning of Xiaoping's coin, it weighed one coin and three cents. In Chongzhen's third year, it was changed to one coin in the north and eight cents in the south.The size and weight are ever-changing, and there are dozens of characters on the back of the money, such as the name of the bureau, the name of the place, the heavenly stem, the weight, the order, and the system.There are also big money such as discounting two to five to ten.There are more than 100 kinds of Tianqi Chongzhen coins with the largest number, poor quality, mixed patterns, low fineness, weight loss and devaluation.The officials and the people compete to mint bad money and compete for profit.For example, the official family made profits, from 33.8% to 89.9% during the Wanli period.In the 10 years from the second year of Tianqi to the fourth year of Chongzhen, the cost of casting money was more than 12,400 taels of silver, and the profit of casting was 107,080 taels, which was nearly 10 times the profit, except for the corruption of officials.At that time, the price of copper had risen sharply, and the casting profit was still so large, which showed the corruption of the government.Excessive casting caused hyperinflation for decades and accelerated the demise of the Ming Dynasty.