China and the Far East
The Use of Money
After their invention, coins became an important form of money in ancient
China, and they served a wide variety of monetary functions. Much as in the
West, coins were used in commercial transactions, and prices for goods were
commonly expressed in terms of coin. The Chinese imperial histories make
special mention of prices at times of exceptionally good harvests and in times of
shortage, such as droughts, floods or during wartime, when prices were
unusually high or low. Although the' 1 -cash coin' remained the basic denomination
in the Far East, its purchasing power varied over time and according to local
circumstances. The recorded prices for horses, for example, show a considerable
variety. In the Han dynasty (206 BC to AD 220), a horse cost around 4,500 cash;
in AD 636 (Tang dynasty) around 25,000 cash; in the Northern Song dynasty
(960-1127) 20,000 cash; during the Mongol Yuan dynasty (1206-1367) about
90,000 cash; and in 1362, in the early Ming dynasty, 10,000 cash. Other
evidence, however, suggests that payment for horses could actually be made
in a medium other than coin. A horse in the Western Han dynasty (206 BC to
AD 24) could be exchanged for three head of cattle; in AD 653 (Tang dynasty)
for two head of cattle; in 1362 (Ming dynasty) for one head of cattle. It is
possible in any context that the practical realities of buying and selling lying behind
the literary evidence for prices stated in coin did not always involve the use of
coin. But the common existence of a money of account expressed in coin
denominations is in itself evidence of the importance of coins in commercial transactions.
|