Currency Issues During The Reign Of Emperor Daoguang And Xianfeng

The monetary system of the Qing Dynasty was a currency system based on both silver and coins,with silver and coinage as the common currency,and there was no division between principal and subsidiary coins.Generally speaking,silver was used for the large number of coins and money was used for the small number of coins.Silver is the common currency,but China has very little silver production,so it is mainly imported.In the first half of the 19 th century,China experienced a very serious silver outflow.The outflow of silver led to a decrease in domestic silver circulation.The outflow of silver led to expensive silver and cheap money,which seriously affected the normal operation of China’s society and economy.During the reign of Daoguang,around the silver base currency crisis,bring your money in one’s hand up and down had a heated discussion,the scholars and officials from different standpoint,put forward some solution to the crisis,such as the issue of money money,money base silver,and cast a lot of money,some of them to the government on monetary policy intervention,wants the government to reform of monetary system,Unify the issue of money to ease the social crisis.However,most of these methods are the old prescriptions derived from China’s traditional monetary thoughts and practices,which are of no help to the currency crisis facing China at present.During the Daoguang period,the proposals of issuing paper money and minting large copper coins were rejected.The monetary policy of the government was limited to reducing the minting of copper coins and prohibiting the outflow of silver.During the reign of Xianfeng,the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom Movement swept over most of China,and the suppression of the uprising caused the Qing government’s financial revenue and expenditure to become seriously unbalanced.In order to alleviate the financial crisis,the officials of the imperial court suggested the government to issue banknotes and coins and minting less than the value of big money.Some officials even opposed the minting and issuing of banknotes before.The currency proposal that was proposed in the Daoguang period but not adopted was adopted in the Xianfeng period.However,the issuing of big money and banknotes did not draw lessons from the previous generation,nor did it draw lessons from the issuing experience of the previous generation.The policy design was crude and simple,and it was not feasible at all.Apparently as a expedient for the government to raise money for military expenditure.In the third year of Xianfeng(1853),the Qing government began to issue a large number of new coins with huge denominations.The issue of these new coins brought huge profits to the government,but also triggered inflation and aggravated the social crisis.Issuing banknotes and undervaluing large copper coins is a kind of predatory monetary policy in nature,and failure is inevitable.