Baowu Bureau in the Qing Dynasty was established in the seventh year of Yongzheng reign and was located in Jiangxia County, Wuchang Prefecture, Hubei Province, that is, Wuchang the provincial capital .
Baowu Bureau is the money bureau that has been minted the longest and has the largest amount of coins in Hubei Province. It was opened in the seventh year of Shunzhi (1650) to the copper coin bureau in the 28th year of Guangxu (1902) and ended at the silver round bureau. It lasted two hundred and fifty years. The establishment of
Baowu Bureau played an important role in promoting currency circulation and economic development in Hubei region.
The development history of Baowu Bureau for more than two hundred years not only reflects the economic development of Hubei region, but also the end of its money-making drum casting and the rise of machine-made coinage copper round , which means that Hubei's economy has gradually entered the modernization process. The specific performance of .
1. The background of the establishment of Baowu Bureau
1. The necessity for government to mint money
The main forms of currency in the Qing Dynasty were silver and money. In addition to national fiscal revenue and large-scale private transactions, it was also used by ordinary people for small-scale trade. is mostly made of .
Therefore, making money is related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and mastering the power to make money is crucial to maintaining rule.
When the Qing soldiers first entered the customs, there were only Baoquan and Baoyuan coin minting bureaus in the country to cast Shunzhi Tongbao . With the re-establishment of political order and the steady development of the economy, the Qing government began to plan to reorganize the money-making system and decided The central and local minting bureaus were set up to mint and make money. The casting and making of money were monopolized by the imperial court. Private casting and selling were strictly prohibited.
In the first year of Shunzhi, the Ministry of Household Affairs decided to issue Shunzhi Tongbao coins to all provinces and towns. Those who encouraged them to cast coins in response to needs were ordered to start. All provinces and towns have successively completed the correct questions and set up bureaus one after another to start casting.
2. The demand for currency in Hubei is
. China is so big, why should we set up a money minting bureau in Hubei? The Qing Dynasty followed the Ming system and established the Huguang Province, which was divided into three provinces in the third year of Kangxi's reign. It was roughly bounded by Dongting Lake and Hubei Province in the north.
Hubei Province is located in the plain of the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. The land is fertile and the conditions for crop growth are excellent. For a long time, there has been a saying that "Huguang is ripe and the world is rich".
Moreover, Hubei Province is located in the middle of China and in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River . It has convenient transportation and is well connected in all directions. In addition, the Hankou Town in Hubei Province is known as the "Four Famous Towns" with a large population and intensive trade exchanges.
Wuhan, known as the "thorough of nine provinces ", has a prosperous economic situation. With the development of the commodity economy, the demand for currency in Hubei is also increasing. Therefore, Hubei is in urgent need of a money casting bureau.
3. Conditions for minting money in Hubei region
If you want to build a money minting bureau, it is not enough to have demand; you also need to have enough currency materials.
Due to its superior geographical location, Hankou Town has always been a distribution port for copper, lead, tin and other metals in the Qing Dynasty. These metals can be used as currency materials and directly used in the casting of money.
On the one hand, Hankou is the transit place for Yunjing copper, lead and tin .
According to records, since the fourth year of Qianlong's reign, Yunnan has shipped more than 6.3 million kilograms of so-called Beijing copper for drum casting every year, and Guizhou and Hunan have also supplied more than 520 kilograms of white lead and black lead. Thousands of kilograms, plus the bits of tin required for casting, etc., during the Qianlong reign, the copper, lead, and tin transported to Beijing from the southwest and other producing areas every year were more than 11 million kilograms, which was a considerable amount.
On the other hand, Hankou is also responsible for the task of transferring currency materials to various provincial minting bureaus.
Starting from the third year of Qianlong's reign, the copper mined in six provinces including Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Fujian, Hubei, and Shaanxi, which were cast with Yunnan copper in various provincial bureaus, were also transferred back to the province via Hankou. The total number was also 1.5 million. More than kilograms.
The property is close to the water, first come first served. Taking advantage of Hankou's conditions and advantages, establishing a coin minting bureau here can greatly save freight. From a cost perspective, it is also very suitable for building a coin minting bureau.
2. The evolution of Baowu Bureau
1. The initial development of Baowu Bureau
The right time, place and people were in the right place. Based on the above demand and convenient conditions, Hubei Province established four bureaus: Jingzhou Bureau, Xiangyang Bureau, Wuchang Bureau and Yunyang Bureau The money making bureau makes money with drums.
Among them, Wuchang Bureau is a provincial bureau, and the remaining three are military town-type money bureaus. These four coin minting bureaus played an important role in the political stability and economic recovery and development of Hubei Province in the early Qing Dynasty.
In the seventh year of Shunzhi, the Baowu Bureau was officially opened to cast Shunzhi Tongbao coins, the reign name of this dynasty. In the eighth year of Shunzhi, the Ministry of Household Affairs approved the establishment of one bureau for each chief envoy, so only the Wuchang bureau remained in Hubei Province.
However, from Shunzhi to Yongzheng, the money minting bureaus in various provinces were opened and closed. The reasons were mostly due to different forms of coining and chaotic market order.
For example, in the 14th year of Shunzhi, the Ministry of Household Affairs wrote: "At that time, there were a lot of drum castings in various provinces, and traitors may steal the castings. It is recommended that there is no harm in the money law, and it is better to unify the drum castings." Therefore, the imperial court ordered that all the casting furnaces in all provinces be stopped. Only the Beijing Bureau can mint money.
However, with the development of the times, the commodity economy has become more and more prosperous, and the money-making ability of the Beijing Bureau cannot meet the needs of the market. Three years later, after formulating new norms and rearranging the order, the provincial Zhengu Casting Bureau reopened .
At the same time, in order to unify the system, the Ministry of Household Affairs stipulated that each bureau cast money curtains and place names in Manchu and Chinese characters, and Wuchang Prefecture in Huguang cast the word "chang". Since then, the system of making money has undergone a change: "When making money, the word "宝" is used as the first word, followed by the character of each province."
Not only was the layout of the coined coins unstable, but the weight and color of the coined coins also changed several times. It can be seen that the Qing government's management system for the corresponding affairs of the money bureau was not yet perfect at this time.
2. The mid-term development of Baowu Bureau
The Qianlong Dynasty was a period when the national power of the Qing Dynasty was very strong. Its social and economic development prospered to its peak, and currency circulation was very active. Baowu Bureau also ushered in the "highlight moment" of and at this time, and the scale of money making reached its peak.
In the eighth year of Qianlong's reign, Baowu Bureau opened the furnace drum casting and tried to cast money for one year. In the ninth year of Qianlong's reign, it officially started casting Qianlong Tong Bao . In the late Qianlong period, the output of Yunnan copper dropped sharply, and Baowu Bureau Drum Casting had to purchase Han copper to make up for the shortage of Yunnan copper. However, private casting was prevalent and full of disadvantages.
In the 59th year of the Qing Dynasty, the Qing government stopped casting in all provinces, and the Baowu Bureau also stopped casting. It was not until the first year of the Jiaqing in the Qing Dynasty that casting was restarted to make the Jiaqing Tongbao .
However, Baowu Bureau faced the same problem encountered in the late Qianlong period - insufficient Yunnan copper. This time, Changlu officials and merchants could only go abroad to purchase foreign copper. was unable to support it until the 23rd year, and Baowu Bureau stopped casting.
During the Daoguang period, the situation of coining money was still not ideal, and the Baowu Bureau started and stopped. In addition, with the gradual development of the world market, the domestic economic form is increasingly affected by international influences.
Due to the decrease in silver production in the Americas , the price of global silver has also risen a lot. In China, there has even been a situation of " silver is expensive and money is cheap ". People are unwilling to buy minted money and tend to collect silver. Minted money is becoming more and more popular. "Not valuable" anymore.
3. The later development of Baowu Bureau
During the Xianfeng period, imperialism continued to invade China. Coupled with the impact of the Taiping Rebellion civil strife, military expenditures made the Qing government overwhelmed, and the treasury was unable to maintain the country's operations.
In order to alleviate financial difficulties, the Qing government allowed the minting of large coins in the third year of Xianfeng . Large coins such as five, ten, fifty, one hundred, five hundred and one thousand were minted in various places. Their large amounts and varieties The number is unprecedented in the monetary history of the Qing Dynasty.
Not long after the big money was exercised, private prices soared, currency depreciated, inflation was extremely serious , and the social economy reached the edge of collapse.
Baowu Bureau also participated in it and started to cast. However, due to the influence of the Taiping Rebellion, the provincial capital of Wuchang was occupied by the Taiping Army many times, and Baowu Bureau's founding was intermittent.
The last time the of the Baowu Bureau was minted in the Xianfeng period was from February to June of the eighth year of the Xianfeng period. After the Taiping Army withdrew for the third time, the Qing government took back control of the Baowu Bureau. This time, money was cast. A total of 269,000 strings of documents were handed over to the Treasurer, and the rest were handed over to the General Administration of Grain and Taiwan for settlement.
4. The late development of Baowu Bureau
Due to the Xianfeng dynasty's minting of large amounts of money, the currency system of the Qing Dynasty was in chaos. After entering the Tongzhi Dynasty, very few coins were minted across the country. All provincial bureaus have basically stopped minting, and the Baowu Bureau's minting time has been less than half a year. .
In this context, the Tongzhi dynasty became the shortest dynasty in the history of Baowu Bureau.
After Emperor Guangxu succeeded to the throne, he tried to rectify the money laws and regulations, but the original money-making system of the Qing Dynasty was on the verge of collapse, and no matter how hard he tried, he could not turn the tide.
In the 14th year of Guangxu's reign, the price of foreign copper rose, and copper and lead were depleted too much. Instead of making profits, minting money actually cost money. Baowu Bureau was forced to stop minting one year after it resumed minting money. has not started again since then. .
At this point, the mission of Baowu Bureau has ended and it has withdrawn from the stage of history.
The development of the money casting industry in Baowu Bureau reflects the economic development trend of Hubei Province and even the whole country in the Qing Dynasty: the transformation from a closed feudal regional economy to an open capitalist economy is the process of China's economy gradually entering the modernization process. specific performance.
3. The format and flow of money minted by Baowu Bureau
1. The main format of money minted by Baowu Bureau
Baowu Bureau has gone through several changes in history, and the format has changed several times. Baowu Bureau Xianfeng money layout, many Miscellaneous.
Many of the formats have common attributes and characteristics, forming many format series, making Baowu Bureau Xianfeng Qian more distinctive and historical research value .
Scholars have summarized the main eight series of based on the different writing methods of Manchu and Wu characters on coins, as well as the characteristics of other characters and patterns : the Meizi Changwu series, the moon pattern series, the large characters Dawu series, and the large characters Xiwu series. , Xiaozi Xiaowu series, Fou Bao Duanwu series, Ministry-style series, Yishu Changwu series.
In addition, there are many special layouts, which are not series because only individual varieties exist. Each type of coin has a different shape and is full of beauty, containing the historical characteristics of the time.
Their collection value is also very high. In July 2004, a Quan friend from Henan came to the Wuhan collectibles market and brought a Fou treasure that broke the Wudang Hundred Coins. It was in good condition and was immediately bought at a sky-high price. .
The main feature of this series is that the first part of the Manchu character Wu is broken and composed of two strokes, a dot and a stroke. The writing method of Bao is "Fu Bao", so it is called the "Fu Bao Duan Wu Series".
This series of coins has a relatively complete range of values, but its quantity is very small. It is a rare variety .
2. The flow of money minted by Baowu Bureau
After more than two hundred years of Baowu Bureau, where did the money minted by go?
As the saying goes, take it from the people and use it for the people. The money minted by the Baowu Bureau is mainly put into the market for circulation through such channels as military pay, sales for civilian use, and money making and transportation.
In the Qing Dynasty, the money minting bureaus of each province were basically "self-sufficient" and served the needs of their own provinces, with only a small number needing to assist other regions.
Baowu Bureau coinage in the Qing Dynasty was mainly used to set up the province's military pay . The setting time was consistent with that of the capital. Initially, it was set up in February and August of each year at a rate of 50% of silver and 50% of coinage. Later, it was set according to the specific conditions of the province. Change the money placement ratio and money placement time at any time. In addition to
, private money will also be invested in and will be set up to sell it. The Qing government would adjust the issuance of currency according to market circulation to ensure the smooth operation of the national economy.
We are all compatriots across the country. Due to the different geographical and historical conditions in each region, the ability to mint money is also different. Therefore, the ruler will dispatch the money minted in areas with a large amount of money minted to areas with a small amount of money minted to ensure the overall circulation balance.
Summary
Baowu Bureau in the Qing Dynasty went through 250 years, and its overall development situation was changed with the political and economic changes of the Qing Dynasty.
In the late Qing Dynasty, national power was declining , and it was already at the end of its strength. The step-by-step invasion of foreign enemies and the decay of the ruling class made it difficult for the country to run .
The money-making system of the Qing Dynasty had long been difficult to maintain, and gradually gave way to copper coins. Money-making gradually faded out of people's sight. Baowu Bureau started and stopped, and finally withdrew from the stage of history.
The changing process of the money casting industry in Baowu Bureau reflects the modernization process of Hubei region. Its establishment and end are both inevitable results of the development of the times.
References:
1, Shen Fei. The whole story of money casting in Hubei Baowu Bureau in the Qing Dynasty [J]. Collection, 2019(04):98-101.
2, Liu Hongxia. Research on the Baowu Bureau in the Qing Dynasty [D]. Hebei Normal University , 2014.
3, clear An examination of the drum casting situation in Hubei Baowu Bureau during the Xianfeng period and the main coin formats [C]. The fourth issue of Hubei Coin Special Issue. 2005: 22-27.
4, Shi Ying. The coin market and Baowu in Hankou in the early Qing Dynasty Making Money[J]. Journal of Hubei University (Philosophy and Social Sciences Edition).1993.05.015.
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