Dayang generally refers to the silver dollar with Yuan Shikai's image minted after Yuan Shikai became the president of the Republic of China after the founding of the Republic of China, commonly known as Yuan Datou.
In 1914, this year, Yuan Shikai promulgated the "National Currency Regulations" and "Implementation Rules of the National Currency Regulations" in Beijing in the name of the President, which clearly stipulated that "yuan" is a price unit, and the weight of each silver dollar is Kuping pure silver. Six cents, four cents and eight cents. Dayang began to mint and issue it in 1914, and by 1923, a total of 75 million pieces were minted. Therefore, Dayang was definitely the most popular hard currency on the market at that time.
So, how much is an ocean worth in today’s dollars?
In fact, when it comes to the conversion of ancient and modern currencies, we usually use two methods. A gold and silver price equivalent conversion; a purchasing power conversion.
First of all, the so-called equivalent conversion of gold and silver prices is actually to use the quality of gold and silver that the ocean was worth at that time to convert our gold and silver prices today. According to the "Regulations on National Currency" promulgated by Yuan Shikai, the cost of casting a Ocean coin is six cents and four cents and eight cents. Round "
According to the old system, the mass of 1 yuan should be 3.72 grams. So a piece of ocean sterling silver is almost 24 grams. If we use today's silver price of 3.5 yuan per gram to convert. So a piece of ocean is about 84 yuan.
Of course, due to the increase in mining intensity, the circulation of silver is increasing, and the price of silver fluctuates and depreciates greatly, so gold is generally used for conversion. The conversion into gold involves a gold and silver exchange issue.
During the Republic of China, wars broke out frequently, and the gold and silver exchange ratio fluctuated frequently and hugely.
For example, during World War I, the European powers were all fighting and had no time to care about China. Therefore, the domestic situation was good at that time, and industry and commerce were developing relatively well. At that time, the price of silver skyrocketed, and the exchange ratio of gold to silver was about one to fifteen. After the First World War, the great powers turned their attention. Domestic warlords were fighting, the market situation deteriorated, and the value of silver began to plummet. The gold-silver exchange ratio once reached 1:40.
And because they have no money, the warlords fight more and more fiercely to compete for territory and resources, and the more they fight, the less money they have because military expenditures are too high. According to Cao Rulin's "Diplomatic Memories of the Early Republic of China", at that time the Beiyang government's monthly expenditure was 20 million yuan, but its monthly income was only 12 million yuan. Such inability to make ends meet naturally formed a vicious cycle. By 1932, the gold and silver exchange ratio had almost reached one to eighty.
On average, in most peacetimes, the normal gold-silver exchange ratio fluctuates between 20 and 30. A rough estimate means that a piece of ocean can be worth one gram of gold. Based on the current gold price of almost 350 yuan per gram, a piece of gold is equivalent to more than 300 yuan.
Of course, if it is calculated in terms of purchasing power, it is another method. The so-called purchasing power actually reflects the price level at that time. For example, the price of rice. According to research by scholar Li Kaizhou, in Shanghai in 1914, a piece of ocean could buy 44 kilograms of rice. Comparing the price of modern rice, it is equivalent to about 150 yuan.
Of course, this method is not very reliable. First, the productivity level at that time was low, and rice was much lower than before; and the living standard at that time was low, and rice accounted for a larger share of household expenditures. Furthermore, it was an era of frequent wars and the price of rice fluctuated greatly, making it unsuitable as a comparison standard for purchasing power levels.
In short, the overall situation at that time was that of warlords fighting, the people were still struggling in misery, and all kinds of materials were scarce, leading to rising prices. Currencies made of precious metals such as Yuan Datou, Longyang, and Yingyang were more valuable. , because the prices of that era were relatively abnormal and could not reflect the normal value of commodities.
Of course, there is a more reasonable way, which is to make comparisons based on people's income and consumption levels at that time.
For example, in terms of income, I found here a social survey and analysis transcript of St. John's University students in 1917. The survey subjects were ordinary working-class families in the Caojiadu workers' colony. There is a lot of valuable information in it.
For example, the survey report stated:
"Workers had to pay 15 yuan a month to support a family of five."
This means that in Shanghai at that time, an ordinary worker family of five people had a monthly expense of 15 yuan.
For comparison, in our current first-tier cities, for an ordinary family of five people, if we only look at living expenses, excluding additional expenses such as rent, car loans or home loans, 10,000 yuan is enough. And this means that a piece of ocean is roughly equivalent to 600 yuan today.
Of course, in the survey report of St. John's University students, there are also records about income:
"It is common for male workers to earn 10 yuan, and the monthly income of women in silk factories is also the same."
In other words, the monthly income of ordinary workers in the factory at that time was only about 10 yuan. If an ocean is equivalent to 600 yuan today, then their monthly salary is 6,000 yuan. This salary level is naturally relatively low in our current first-tier cities. But you have to know that the status of workers at that time was actually relatively low, far from what it is now.
So it is more reasonable that a piece of ocean is equivalent to 600 yuan today.
Of course, this is limited to 1917. As the "hard currency" during the Republic of China, "Dayang" had different values in different years of the Republic of China. After World War I, as the gold-to-silver ratio rose, the price of the silver dollar also fell. For example, in 1925, the monthly salary of a skilled female worker in a Shanghai textile factory reached 30 yuan. When Mr. Lu Xun taught at Peking University, his monthly allowance was 300 silver dollars, which translated into an annual salary of one million.
Of course, the drop is not too severe. After all, the salaries of scholars and professors at that time were generally very high. Hu Shi, who joined the company in 1917, took the 280 yuan a month he received and excitedly wrote a letter to his family to announce the good news:
"This is the amount you get when you first enter college. It's not too much."
You need to know At that time, a newly hired young professor at Peking University could spend less than nine yuan a month even if he had a fine meal of "two dishes and one bowl of soup" for every meal. Even at that time, six people went to Dong Lai Shun to have hot pot, and it only cost an ocean.
Even if you buy a house, in 1925, you bought a 40-room mansion on Xizhimen Street in Beijing, "with electric lights, telephones, greenhouses, carriages and horses." The total payment was only 5,500 oceans, which was equivalent to a full professor at the university. Up to eighteen months’ salary. For the elites of the Beiyang era, even if they didn't make extra money and only had "dead wages", they couldn't spend all their money in this ocean.
Such a happy life of "having endless flowers while lying down" has also become a romance in many "Republic of China dramas". The reason why there were so many scholars in the Republic of China was that they had abundant material security.
Of course, this is quite a stretch.
Okay, let’s get back to the subject. In fact, Dayang’s value today is more of a collection. Yuan Datou itself is not worth much in terms of its metallic silver content, but it is different if it is a collectible.
