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Chapter 658 Unified Currency System

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    Next, Zhang Hanqing wanted to rectify the currency system to end the complicated currency situation in the early years of the Republic of China.

    In the history of my country¡¯s currency, silver has gradually become a monetary metal since the Han Dynasty. By the Ming Dynasty, silver had been monetized, and China truly became a country that uses silver.  However, what is implemented is a silver-two system, which is valued based on the weight of the metal. It is a weighing currency system and has not entered the stage of a currency system.

    In the second year of Xuantong (AD 1910), the "Currency Regulations" were promulgated, and the silver standard was officially adopted, with "yuan" as the monetary unit, the weight was Kuping seven coins and two cents, and the fineness was 90%. It was named Qing Silver Coin.  However, silver dollars and silver coins are still used together on the market.

    After the Revolution of 1911, the National Currency Regulations were promulgated in 1913, which officially stipulated that the silver dollar, which weighs seven cents and two cents and has a fineness of 89%, is the currency unit of our country. However, silver dollars and silver taels are still used together.

    China has a vast territory and its currency system has always been complicated and chaotic, which has seriously affected the circulation and transactions of commodities and is not conducive to the development of industrial and agricultural production and the stability of national finance and finance.  In order to expand their power, the warlords in each province issued many bonds and banknotes in various places, which were only circulated in their own provinces.

    For example, the Feng Clan issued "Fengtian Coupons" and "Feng Xiaoyang" in the Northeast for mandatory use to alleviate financial constraints; for example, Yan Xishan established railway, salt, reclamation and other banking accounts, and established the "Four Bank Accounts"  Physical preparation warehouse, and the "Copper Yuan Bureau" was established around 1917. Old-style coins with a copper content of 99.9% were used as raw materials, and three copper coins were used to recast a copper coin that could be used as 20 coins.  Internal circulation, etc.

    The military-controlled governments in various places printed non-cashable banknotes with legal qualifications, used inflated issuance methods to fill fiscal deficits, and concentrated financial resources for their own use, leading to hyperinflation, which later became an important factor in the collapse of the national economy in many war-torn provinces.  reason.  This is also one of the important factors why the warlords in the Republic of China changed like a lantern, but they were able to rise again and again.

    As long as the currency is unified and the power of collecting and casting is transferred to the central government, the central government's centralized dominance and authority can be guaranteed, just like Qin Shihuang unified the currency after unifying the six countries.

    Although this principle is simple, it is difficult to do.  Originally, the "National Currency Regulations" promulgated in the second year of the Republic of China officially stipulated that the silver dollar weighing seven cents and two cents and having a fineness of 89% was the currency unit of our country. This is how the "Yuan Datou" silver dollar was minted.  However, since the death of Yuan Shikai, warlords have arisen everywhere, and the continuation of the state of war in various places has turned them into vassal states economically and become an independent entity.

    Minting and issuing banknotes are the guarantee for the survival of warlords in various places. Of course, the weak central government cannot take back monetary power.

    Only when a strong central government emerges can a unified currency be truly put on the table.  However, with the improvement of the national economy, even though the silver dollar and silver tael were still used together from the beginning of the Republic of China, the existing currencies in circulation were no longer enough, and it was urgent to add a new batch of currencies.

    At Zhang Hanqing¡¯s suggestion, the Nationalist Government announced the ¡°Regulations on the Minting of Silver Standard Currency¡±:

    At the beginning of the Republic of China, a Yuan Datou weighed approximately 26.6971 grams, with a proportion of 88 silver and 12 copper, which means it contained 23.493448 grams of pure silver.  Since 1923, the National Government has abolished the two reforms to the Yuan, implemented the silver standard, and unified currency casting rights.  The silver standard currency is named "yuan". The weight and fineness of each yuan of the silver standard currency shall not exceed the legal weight and fineness by more than 0.3%. It is also stipulated that all public and private transactions shall be given and received in silver standard currency, and the amount shall be  There is no limit on the number of times, this is to prevent wear and tear caused by use.

    If the value is defined only by face value, it seems that issuing banknotes has the same effect, but this is just a theory.  In the Republic of China, when the country was still very weak, paper money was not accepted by the great powers. Especially for the people who had been in a state of chaos, there was a market for real money.

    At the beginning of the New Year, the Nationalist Government implemented the "abolition of the two currencies and the reform of the Yuan" and issued a unified silver coin across the country.  Because the country's strength has gradually improved and its circulation has been guaranteed, there seems to be no need to invest so much silver in the new silver dollar.

    You must know that due to the efforts of Feng Xi, China¡¯s finances at this time increased more than ten times compared with the official history. For that era, the issuance of so much currency in circulation created a huge demand for silver.  Therefore, under Zhang Hanqing's suggestion, the new silver dollar will be slightly lighter, with each coin weighing about 25 grams and containing 80% silver.  But the new silver dollar with a face value of one yuan is equivalent to Yuan Datou.

    The portrait of the currency has always been the supreme prime minister of a country. Regarding the request within the old Feng clan to use Zhang Zuolin's portrait as the front of the silver coin, Zhang Hanqing defied all opinions and insisted on issuing "Sun Yat-sen's portrait" silver dollar to commemorate Sun Yat-sen's contribution to the Chinese revolution.  The great contribution and the selfless sentiments of the People's Party.

    With the Bank of China and the restructured China Bank of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce, Construction, and Communications as the issuing banks controlled by the state, this is the style of the famous "Sun Datou" in later generations.

    ZaishunAfter the bulk is circulated, it is stipulated that no other bank can continue to issue new banknotes. All grain tax payments and the receipt and payment of all public and private funds are limited to silver dollars and cannot be used in cash.  Other bank banknotes originally approved and issued by the Ministry of Finance are allowed to be used as usual and will be exchanged for statutory silver dollars by the Ministry of Finance on a regular basis.

    Implement the state ownership of gold and silver, prohibit the circulation of gold and silver, and use the nationalized gold and silver as foreign exchange reserves. All banks, shops, and other public and private institutions or individuals hold gold and silver standard coins or other gold and silver coins to produce silver, etc.  Silver coins should be exchanged for silver dollars (Yuan Datou or Sun Datou in the new version) to the Issuance Preparation Management Committee or its designated bank starting from the New Year of 1924.

    This move ended the tradition of the Kuomintang and other warlords privately minting currency to support their troops. Without money, everything is in vain.

    Through the exchange of silver dollars, the major banks under control also found out the details of local banks, especially the Shanghai-Jiangsu-Zhejiang Consortium on which the Kuomintang relied for survival.  Because "real money" cannot be circulated, even if Sun Yat-sen obtains foreign exchange from abroad like before, he cannot use it directly

    In order to stabilize the price of the silver dollar against foreign exchange, it was stipulated that the five banks of China, transportation, agriculture, construction, and industry and commerce could buy and sell foreign exchange without restrictions; the value of the silver dollar was expressed by the foreign exchange rate; the legal currency maintained a fixed exchange rate with the US dollar. At that time, it was stipulated that 1 silver dollar was equivalent to 0.5556 US dollars.  Maintain a fixed exchange rate.

    The reason why the US dollar was used as the standard instead of the British pound that was common at the time was that Zhang Hanqing clearly knew that the United States had already and irreversibly replaced Britain's number one position in the capitalist world.

    Historically, the implementation of China's silver standard and the formation of a fixed exchange rate with the British pound caused competition from the United States. Finally, at the end of 1935, the United States changed its silver purchase method, forcing the world silver price to plummet and affecting the stability of China's exchange fund.  In May 1936, the Nationalist Government was forced to conclude the "Sino-US Silver Agreement" with the United States. The result was that the Republic of China eventually replaced the silver dollar as a legal currency and became a vassal of the British pound and the US dollar.

    Now that China is taking the initiative to align itself with its invisible big brother, the United States, it will naturally have the opportunity for the United States to reciprocate the favor. After all, there will be many places where the United States will be used in the future. Anyway, with the current economic strength of the United Kingdom, it cannot influence a potential big country like China.

    The unification of the currency system is an advancement of China¡¯s currency system. After its implementation, it has played a certain positive role in the development of social economy. It has also caused all parties to completely lose the ability to compete with the central government.  (Remember the website address: www.hlnovel.com
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