Speaking of ancient currency , in addition to copper plate and copper coins commonly used by ordinary people, they are gold and silver, because both are precious metal , and China has not produced high since ancient times, and the gold and silver produced are sparse, so there is no need to worry about depreciation.
But at the beginning, the ancients used gold and copper plates as the main ones. This is because silver is more than gold. Although its ore in the earth's crust is more than ten times that of gold, it rarely exists in an elemental state. Although silver ore was mined later, due to its scarcity, silver was more expensive than gold for a long time.
In the early and mid-term of the Ming Dynasty, capitalism had already appeared in China. At that time, China had already accumulated a lot of wealth. The reason for this is because a foreigner named Mark Polo.
This foreigner is a traveler. In the "Travels of Mark Polo" that he left behind during his lifetime, China was rated as the richest country: "The Celestial Empire has rich resources, and there are real gold and silver everywhere."
It is precisely because of his emphasis on China's wealth that many countries in Europe and the United States have developed great enthusiasm for China. It happened that some powerful European and American countries have developed ocean trade and have plundered a large amount of silver in the hands of some weak countries.
At this time, they were rich and had no place to spend, so they all went to China to trade. At this time, China had a certain scale in agriculture and handicrafts. Although navigation trade was relatively closed, the industry was sound and there was no dependence on foreign goods. Instead, foreign countries were very interested in Chinese goods.
is also because they have a lot of silver in their hands, so they are very cheap. Therefore, many European countries use silver to buy a large amount of goods in China, and then return to earn the difference. For many special reasons, From the middle and middle periods of the Ming Dynasty - in the early Qing Dynasty , China had a trade surplus of more than two centuries.
This period can be said to be: You may make a profit, but I will never lose.
In fact, in addition to European countries, China also earned a lot of silver in Central Asia trade at that time, such as Japan and other countries. Later, due to the increase in trade volume, China used gold and cross-sea exchanges of large amounts of silver. This also led to China's silver reserves reaching the world's first place in terms of silver reserves, accounting for about half of the world's total silver.
But it is precisely because of this huge amount of wealth that foreigners have coveted the Central Plains.
Those countries that can cross the ocean to trade in China are all powerful countries in Europe and the United States. They are not stupid. They are not simple businessmen. They have also been bandits in the face of the weak. They cannot count how much silver, gold, or wealth they have, but they are definitely rich enough to "spill" . So during the Qing Dynasty, a large amount of opium was sold into China.
According to records, during the Qing Dynasty, Before the outbreak of the Opium War , the Qing Dynasty sent about 300 million taels of silver outflows, from hundreds of boxes at the beginning to tens of thousands of boxes later, resulting in the Qing Dynasty having to send out tens of million taels of silver outflows every year, and gradually offset the profits of the court's exports, and even failed to make ends meet, and finally dragged down the Qing Dynasty's finances.
After the outbreak of the war, the Qing Dynasty was defeated repeatedly and had to compensate the powerful amount of silver. In addition, after the defeat, the great powers plundered the local area, such as the Old Summer Palace, etc., which were the main reasons for the outflow of silver in the country.
