User:Donald Trung/Currency units of the Qing Dynasty

Target: "Paper money of the Qing dynasty". ✅. --Donald Trung (talk) 11:26, 16 September 2019 (UTC).

Content


The denominations of the contemporary coinage was extremely chaotic with different standards being used across regions, making it a confusing mess to exchange between areas due to the wide range of systems and denominations used to categorise the many coinages of the Qing. There was likewise a wide range of types of paper notes. The traditional copper-allow cash was reflected in cash notes (錢票). Some of these banknotes used the traditional government mandated exchange rate of 1,000 wén per string of cash coins (串 or 吊) in a system for cash coins known as Xiaoping Qian (小平錢), while others used differing local exchange rates, like the Eastern cash or Dongqian (東錢) of the Fengtian province, with 160 cash coins per string, or the metropolitan cash (京錢) from Beijing which had an exchange rate of 500 cash coins per string. Local banknotes usually reflected local exchange rates. During the late Qing dynasty Japanese cash coins circulated in China, as well as cash coins from earlier dynasties of different shapes and sizes at different exchange rates.

On the local markets, the exchange rates even deviated from the fixed denominations, as had been the case with cash coins of substandard quality for an extended amount of time. The silver currency was reflected in silver notes (銀票), and also in other types of paper money, there were great differences in the conversion rate depending on the region where the banknotes were traded or used in. In Beijing, the imperial Kuping tael (庫平兩), which had a standard weight of 37.5 grams, exchange rate was used side by side with the local metropolitan rate which was known as the Jingping Liang (京平兩), while the Shanghai tael (上海紋銀) was used on banknotes issued by both the Huifeng Bank (匯豐銀行) and the Shanghai Tongshang Yinhang (上海通商銀行). The banknotes of the Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation were principally denominated in "Chinese dollars"; however, the tael, Mexican dollar, and various currencies based upon the local Chinese dollar were also employed as denominations.

The denominations on the silver yuan banknotes (銀元票) were the most standardised, but exchange rates still differed on the individual Chinese markets where they circulated, depending on the local value of the silver yuan coins. The imperial government attempted to clarify this chaotic situation with the Statutes for Paper Bills (通用銀錢票章程) decreed in the year 1909. For silver currencies the standardised government currency units were "1 Kuping Tael (庫平兩) = 10 mace (錢) = 100 candareen (分) = 1000 cash (厘 / 釐)" for taels, which were based on units of weight, while the round silver coins were standardised at "1 yuan or dollar (元 / 圓) = 10 jiao or hou (角 / 毫) = 100 fen or sin (分 / 仙) = 1000 cash (厘 / 文)", and 1 yuan was worth a coin with a weight of 0.72 taels as standardized in 1910.

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 * == 壹仟文 ==

Alright, I've been working on Chinese currencies for years and I still don't get the Qing Dynasty and Republican currency systems. So 1 串 = 10 角 = 100 分 / 仙 = 1000 文, and also 1 兩 = 10 角 = 100 分 / 仙 = 1000 文, and 1 圓 / 元 = 10 角 = 100 分 / 仙 = 1000 文. So 串, 兩, and 圓 seem interchangeable to me, but for whatever reason it's not uncommon for the same bank to issue banknotes denominated in 串, 兩, and 圓. And how is the 吊文 different from the 串文? --  徵國單   (討論 🀄) (方孔錢 💴)  2019年9月13日 (五) 18:39 (UTC)

In short, there is no relationship between 串, 兩, and 圓.
 * If a banknote denominated in 串, it denominated in cast cash coins 铜钱. The equation of "1 串 = 10 角 = 100 分 / 仙 = 1000 文" is wrong, the right relations is "1 串 ≈ 1000 文". A standard cash(小平钱) valve 1 文 (wen ,cash). for the "串", you can see the article of "String of cash coins (currency unit)"
 * If a banknote denominated in 兩, it denominated in the weight of silver 银两. "1 兩 = 10 钱 = 100 分 = 1000 厘", all of the units are units of weight rather than units of currency.
 * If a banknote denominated in 圓, it denominated in the modern silver coins 银元. "1 圓 / 元 = 10 角 = 100 分 / 仙 = 1000 厘 / 文", the units of "仙" and "文" usually only appear in Cantonese.--  苞米  ( ☎ )💴 2019年9月14日 (六) 04:40 (UTC)

--  苞米  ( ☎ )💴 2019年9月14日 (六) 05:05 (UTC)


 * Wow, thanks a lot for the clarification, do you have a source? (especially online) so I can use this in an article for clarification? --  徵國單   (討論 🀄) (方孔錢 💴)  2019年9月14日 (六) 17:59 (UTC)
 * There is a Chinese article of 论我国现代货币单位“元、角、分”体系的确立 from 史学月刊(Journal of Historical Science):

--  苞米  ( ☎ )💴 2019年9月15日 (日) 01:16 (UTC)
 * 铜钱为国家铸币（明清两代称本朝官铸钱为“制钱”），计数单位为“文”，辅助单位百、千（或串、吊、贯）
 * The copper coins were minted by the government (The cast cash coins minted by their own dynasty were called as "standard cash" during Ming and Qing dynastys), the unit of cash coin is "文"(wen/cash), superunits included hundred(百), thousand(千), thousand(千) can also be called as 串, 吊 or 贯.
 * 贵金属货币白银由民间自由铸造，称量单位是“两”，辅助单位有钱、分、厘
 * Silver, as precious metal currency, was allowed to be cast by the public, its base unit was "两"（liang/tael）, and subunits included mace(钱/qian), candareen(分/fen), li(厘).

"分" is very common in traditional Chinese measurement system, it is 1/100 of 尺(Chi, Chinese foot) as a unit of length, and 1/100 of 两 (tael) as a unit of weight, and 1/100 of 畝 (Mu, Chinese acre) as a unit of area. After 元/圓/Yuan/Dollar was accepted as a currency unit, "分" was also used as a currency unit which valved 1/100 of 元/圓/Yuan/Dollar and could be translated as "cent" in English.--  苞米  ( ☎ )💴 2019年9月15日 (日) 01:32 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much (謝謝您). --  徵國單   (討論 🀄) (方孔錢 💴)  2019年9月16日 (一) 07:24 (UTC)

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