In February 1912, China in the old era ushered in a huge change, and the new government led by Yuan Shikai stepped onto the highest stage of power. I thought the domestic political situation would be stable and the people would live and work in peace and contentment from now on, but Yuan Shikai revealed his huge ambitions at this time.
The dynasty restored and restored the imperial system, and the president of the Republic of China tried to become another dictator in the world. In order to further enhance his dominance, "Yuan Datou" came into being, but he got off the stage in shame after only 83 days of being the emperor.
, a selfish person who is changing and speculating in the face of the situation, is naturally not popular, but the "Yuan Datou" with Yuan Shikai's avatar is widely circulated in the domestic market, and the circulation even reached 750 million pieces at one time. The phenomenon of
makes people say it is abnormal. Why was "Yuan Datou" so popular in China at that time? If you think today's content is good, you can click a circle and save it and read it slowly!
Yuan Shikai tried to proclaim himself emperor, and "Yuan Datou" came into being
Speaking of currency, I believe everyone is familiar with it. Even in the era of such developed online payment, we will still frequently come into contact with paper currency, that is, the RMB issued by our country.
The circulation of RMB is a manifestation of market activity and the root cause of wealth accumulation for many vendors. A stable economic system cannot leave currencies with relatively wide liquidity.
In that era when paper currency was not yet born, sea shells became the medium of material transactions, that is, currency in the earliest sense, which was about four or five thousand years ago.
After this, human society developed rapidly, and currency also underwent a series of changes, from shellfish to gold and silver, and to today's paper currency.
And the "Yuan Datou" we are going to talk about today is the best among gold and silver currencies. Of course, all this has nothing to do with Yuan Shikai himself. Its wide circulation was completely created by a special era.
Speaking of "Yuan Datou", we inevitably want to mention Yuan Shikai. In 1859, Yuan Shikai was born in a big family in Xiangcheng, Henan. His ancestors were all heroes who made great achievements for the Qing government, so he could be regarded as the eldest master who was born with a golden spoon in his mouth.
Yuan Shikai in his childhood still had lofty ambitions. He dreamed of joining the army and serving the country one day and making unparalleled achievements on the battlefield. But life often goes against one's wishes. His father hopes that he can be a civil servant so that he can recreate the glory of his family in the future. Yuan Shikai, who turned to the road to imperial examination , was naturally unhappy, which directly led to his failure in many subsequent exams. He was angry and posted his resentment on imperial examination system . From that time on, a seed of rebellion had actually been planted in his heart.
In 1882, a coup occurred in North Korea. The Qing government sent troops to rescue at the request of the King of North Korea at that time. Yuan Shikai volunteered to join the rescue force.
Unexpectedly, Yuan Shikai really had excellent military talent, and soon he made his mark in the military camp. The war ended with the great victory of the Qing government.
After the war ended, Yuan Shikai was immediately valued, and the king of North Korea at that time also praised him. Taking advantage of this opportunity, Yuan Shikai successfully gained a firm foothold in the court and climbed the "big tree" of Li Hongzhang . For more than ten years after
, he had been helping North Korea train troops. Later, his ambition aroused the dissatisfaction of the North Korean top leaders. Only after Li Hongzhang's recommendation was Li Hongzhang's safe return to the country.
Not long after, the Sino-Japanese War between 1894-1895 and 1895, broke out, and the backward and corrupt Qing government retreated step by step on the battlefield, and the entire Beiyang Navy was almost wiped out.
This war shook the foundation of the Qing government's rule, and the voice of domestic reforms became louder and louder. The first ones were the reformists led by Liang Qichao and Tan Sitong .
At this critical juncture, Yuan Shikai demonstrated his cunning character of being able to do everything and take advantage of the situation. While expressing his support for the reform, he was also constantly currying over Empress Dowager Cixi who held military power.
Later Reform also ended in failure. Tan Sitong and others also had different bodies and heads, but Yuan Shikai was safe and sound, and even was reused later.
After gaining the trust of Empress Dowager Cixi, Yuan Shikai transformed into the leader of the Beiyang army. Now his strength can finally match his wolf ambitions.
After the outbreak of the Xinhai Revolution, he took the opportunity to force Puyi to abdicate, and deceived the trust of the Democrats with his support for the republic, and became the interim president of the Republic of China.
From that moment on, Yuan Shikai's mind changed quietly. After enjoying the pleasure brought by extreme power, he actually had the ridiculous idea of restoring the feudal dynasty and becoming an emperor. The idea of
was naturally resisted nationwide. In order to expand its influence, Yuan Shikai carried out many reforms, the most classic of which was the currency reform - "Yuan Datou" was born.
In the end, Yuan Shikai was on the throne for only 83 days and then got off the stage in shame. He was enough to be called the "short-lived" emperor in Chinese history. However, "Yuan Datou" did not fade out of the historical stage with him. Instead, he played an extremely important role in market circulation for a long time since then.
This abnormal scene makes people wonder why "Yuan Datou" is so popular that it allows people to let go of their prejudice against Yuan Shikai and start using this currency on a large scale?
actually has two reasons. One is caused by the chaos in the country at that time, and the second is the charm contained in the unique monetary system.
Paper money in troubled times becomes waste paper, how can you compare to real money?
Before Yuan Shikai took office, there was actually a relatively mature silver coin on the market. At that time, it was also minted and issued by relevant agencies of the Qing government.
But the Qing government at that time had already found it difficult to protect itself, so how could it still ensure a normal market environment? This also led to some of the subordinates having bad thoughts.
As long as there is a big enough profit, someone will be willing to take risks for it. It is obvious that minting counterfeit coins is a huge profit-making industry. Although this behavior was a loss of mind at that time, the rulers at that time did not have any deterrent power, and for a time, the counterfeit currency among the people was prevalent.
counterfeit coins are far behind the centrally issued currencies in terms of material and production process. The most obvious difference is the silver content.
Real silver coins can extract a large amount of silver after they are melted, but counterfeit coins obviously do not have such value, which makes the market extremely chaotic.
Some people try to use counterfeit coins as good ones, and the first ones are the warlords in various places. They relied on their military power to create counterfeit coins with extremely low silver content, and then used it to exchange for military supplies such as food, weapons, etc. In the end, the innocent civilians were injured.
Later, even if the Qing government fell, this kind of unhealthy trend was still not curbed. It was precisely because Yuan Shikai realized this that he took this opportunity to launch monetary reform.
This can not only stabilize the market environment, but also solve the government's financial problems. At the same time, printing your avatar can enhance your own influence. It is simply a business that can win three goals in one fell swoop and make sure to make a profit.
In February 1914, Yuan Shikai officially promulgated the National Currency Regulations as president, and decided to implement the bank standard system. Since then, a round of silver coins has entered the era of " infinite legal compensation ". The promulgation of the
law means that all silver coins in the past have been invalidated, which greatly improved the chaos among the people, so the people still agree with "Yuan Datou".
It is worth mentioning that the "Yuan Datou" with a coin weight of 26.6 grams contains as much as 90% silver, which is simply a copy of the white silver ingot . It is no wonder that the people admire it so much.
After all, in that turbulent era, real money was the most real, which was particularly obvious after Chiang Kai-shek came to power.
In fact, compared with the era when warlords were fighting and separatist, the National Government under Chiang Kai-shek was not much better. The problem of corruption among officials is extremely serious, and ordinary people still live in dire straits.
At that time, the urban economy occupied by the Kuomintang was actually in chaos. In order to reverse this dilemma, Chiang Kai-shek arranged his son Chiang Ching-kuo to introduce a series of economic policies.
On the one hand, Jiang Ching-kuo made money from the hands of those rich people, and on the other hand, he began to issue gold coupons , hoping to reunify the monetary system and bring the silent financial market back to life.
But the public obviously did not buy this move, because the "golden coupon" was just a pile of paper and did not have the function of preserving value at the time.
, after all, the arm cannot resist the thigh. Under the high-pressure policy of the Kuomintang, the real money in the hands of many people has been replaced with "equal" gold coupons, including "Yuan Datou" with better liquidity before.
If the government led by Chiang Kai-shek could make a difference, the masses would be able to accept it, but the facts prove that the Kuomintang was not worthy of the trust of the people.
As the domestic chaos continues to intensify, the National Government under Chiang Kai-shek has reached a point where it is difficult to protect itself, and it is not enough to care about the lives and deaths of the people. The "golden yuan coupon" depreciates rapidly.
When it was at its worst, one million "golden coupons" could not even buy a pound of rice, and its effect was simply inferior to waste paper.
And this trend does not seem to be in a state of ease. As the Kuomintang retreats step by step in the mainland, the "golden round coupons" are becoming less and less valuable.
What's more terrible is that before Chiang Kai-shek was defeated and fled to Taiwan, he also used military forces to loot a large amount of gold, silver and treasures from the people, and then "equally" returned them a large number of "golden round coupons".
This behavior is tantamount to robbery, and the people are therefore deeply disgusted with paper currency. This monetary system needs to be maintained by an effective and trustworthy government. The Kuomintang obviously does not have this ability.
In comparison, the extremely high silver content of "Yuan Datou" has become a real hot commodity. Many people are rushing to collect this hard currency, and the unique value of "Yuan Datou" itself has also made it circulated.
So even though Yuan Shikai was the emperor for only 83 days, he hurriedly stepped down, even though he died of uremia soon after, the product "Yuan Datou" under the monetary system he launched was widely circulated across the country.
All the people of the people recognize this kind of silver coin. Even if "Yuan Datou" cannot be used as currency in the future, it can be used to create some silver products.
All currency is a system, and strength is the hard truth
Silver Coin This unique currency system is not only suitable for the domestic environment, but can even be said to be universal all over the world. This is the charm of metal currency itself.
There is another famous case like this, that is, the international monetary system - Bretton Woods system established by the United States after World War II .
Bretton Woods system directly links the US dollar to gold, which greatly increases the circulation rate of the US dollar worldwide and also increases the influence of the United States in disguise. It is precisely because of the hard currency nature of gold that the United States was able to quickly establish its position as the world hegemon.
However, there are policies at the top and countermeasures at the bottom. Many countries have made a lot of profits from the Bretton Woods system, and some people even exchanged a large amount of gold specifically for US dollars.
This practice directly caused huge losses to the United States. After all, gold around the world is limited and it is impossible to mine it all the time.Later, in order to stop loss of , the United States directly replaced gold with oil in order to stabilize the international financial market.
But in the final analysis, the reason why the US dollar was widely circulated was due to the strength of the United States, which happened to Yuan Shikai at that time also met this condition.
plus "Yuan Datou" itself has a very high silver content, so this silver coin is widely used in China and has become the most popular currency. This is also the fundamental reason why "Yuan Datou" once issued a total of 750 million pieces.
If Yuan Shikai had not forced the restoration of the feudal dynasty to satisfy his own selfish desires, I believe the monetary system he established would remain stable.
Although he often appears in history textbooks as a speculator, from the perspective of establishing a monetary system alone, Yuan Shikai still made outstanding contributions to the people, although all this has nothing to do with him.
"Yuan Datou"'s unique circulation system also destined to its unique historical status, so that by the time New China was founded, some remote places still had "Yuan Datou" in circulation.
Although the central government has promulgated the new currency system , many ordinary people are still reluctant to believe it. It was not until the domestic environment completely stabilized that people gradually accepted the new currency.
It can be seen that only a stable and powerful government can implement the monetary policy that does not rely on "hard currency". "Yuan Datou" was also widely circulated because it took advantage of the "bid" of the times.
However, from another perspective, it has been able to circulate for decades in the war-torn era, "Yuan Datou" does contain its unique historical significance.
Later, in order to achieve complete unification of the currency, the central government also specially recycled the "Yuan Datou" that was crippled among the people, but a small number of people still kept some in their hands. Some of them were for the purpose of keeping them as a souvenir, while others saw the value of "Yuan Datou" himself.
Today, those "Yuan Datou" who are wandering among the people have become rare things, and their prices have also risen, becoming the targets of many collectors rushing to acquire.
Although the material of "Yuan Datou" itself is real silver, in fact, collectors pay more attention to the unique historical memory it carries. After all, it has left a unique mark in the history of Chinese currency.
Every era has stories of each era, and the era that belongs to "Yuan Datou" has passed. As our country's comprehensive strength continues to increase, the circulation value of the RMB is becoming stronger and stronger, and we are also constantly moving forward on the road to happiness.
After reading the historical reasons why "Yuan Datou" can be widely circulated, do you have anything to say? Welcome to leave your opinion in the comment section.
