Qing dynasty coinage was based on a bimetallic standard of copper and silver coinage. The Manchu-led Qing dynasty was proclaimed in 1636 and ruled over China proper from 1644 until its overthrow in 1912 as a result of the Xinhai Revolution.. The Qing saw the transformation of a traditional cash coin–based cast coinage monetary system into a modern currency system with machine-struck coins, while the old traditional silver ingots would slowly be replaced by silver coins based on those of the Mexican peso.Cribb, Joe: A Catalogue of Sycee in the British Museum. Chinese Silver Currency Ingots c. 1750 – 1933. British Museum Press, London, 1992.Chang, H.: "The Silver Dollars and Taels of China". Hong Kong, 1981 (158 pp. illus.). Including Subsidiary Notes on "The Silver Dollars and Taels of China" Hong Kong, 1982 (40 pp. illus.). After the Qing dynasty was abolished, its currency was replaced by the Chinese yuan of the Republic of China.
Later Jin dynasty coinage (1616–1636)
Prior to the establishment of the Qing dynasty, the Aisin Gioro clan established the Later Jin dynasty, named after the Jin dynasty of the Wanyan clan. Nurhaci had united the many tribes of the Jianzhou and Haixi Jurchens under the leadership of the Aisin Gioro clan, and later ordered the creation of the Manchu script based on the Mongolian vertical script. In 1636, Hong Taiji renamed the realm as "Great Qing", and the Jurchen people as the Manchu people, while adopting policies which fostered ethnic inclusivity.
In 1616, the Later Jin began producing their own cash coins; the coins issued under Nurhaci were written in an older version of the Manchu script without any diacritics, and generally bigger than Later Jin coins with Chinese inscriptions. Under Hong Taiji these coins bore the legend that they had a nominal weight of 10 qián (or 1 tael) modelled after contemporary Ming dynasty coinage, but in reality weighed less.
The following coins were issued by the Later Jin:ChinaKnowledge.de – An Encyclopaedia on Chinese History, Literature and Art "Qing Period Money" . Retrieved 3 July 2017.
Inscription Latin script Denominations Years of mintage Image Khan Abkai fulingga han jiha 1 wén 1616–1626 Abkai fulingga Khan 天命通寳 Tiān Mìng Tōng Bǎo 1 wén 1616–1626 Abkai fulingga Khan Sure han ni jiha 10 wén 1627–1643 Sure Khan
History
In 1644, the Qing dynasty captured Beijing from the Shun dynasty,Wakeman Frederic (1981). "The Shun Interregnum of 1644", in Jonathan Spence, et al. eds. From Ming to Ch'ing: Conquest, Region, and Continuity in Seventeenth-Century China. Yale University Press. and then marched south capturing the forces loyal to the Ming. One of the first monetary policies they enacted was accepting Ming dynasty cash coins at only half the value of Qing dynasty cash coins, because of this Ming era coinage was removed from circulation to be melted into Qing dynasty coinage, this is why in modern times even Song dynasty coins are more common than those from the more recent Ming dynasty.
Early history
At first the Qing government set the exchange rate between bronze and silver at 1 wén of bronze per lí (釐, or 厘) of silver, and 1000 lí of silver would be 1 tael (两), thus one string of 1000 bronze cash coins equated to a single tael of silver.
The Shunzhi Emperor created the Ministry of Revenue and the Ministry of Public Works in Beijing to oversee the casting of bronze cash coins, these ministries produced 400,000 strings of cash coins annually. Later the Shunzhi Emperor ordered military garrisons to start minting their own coinage, and though the official weight for cash coins was first set at 1 qián, in 1645 this increased to 1.2 qián, and by 1651 this had become 1.25 qián. In 1660 the order was given to re-open provincial mints and have them cast their mint names in Manchu script. The standard copper-alloy was 60% copper and 40% lead and/or zinc, yet diverse market conditions dictated what would be the de facto composition. This official composition was officially changed over time, initially it was at a ratio of 3:2 (3 parts copper to 2 parts lead and zinc).
The coins produced under the Shunzhi Emperor were modeled after Tang dynasty Kai Yuan Tong Bao coins, as well as early Ming dynasty coins, and have a Chinese mint mark on their reverses these were produced from 1644 until 1661, though these coins had a large range of mint marks from various provinces all over China, from 1644 until 1645 there were also Shùn Zhì Tōng Bǎo (順|治通寶) coins being cast with blank reverses.
Kangxi era
Yongzheng era
Under the Yongzheng Emperor various measures were undertaken to ensure a vast supply of cash coins, though the weight was increased to 1.4 qián per wén, the copper content was lowered from 60% to 50% in 1727. In 1726 the Ministry of Revenue was split into 4 agencies each named after a wind direction, and in 1728 all provincial mints were ordered to open again as only the mint of Yunnan was operating prior to this order, and finally in 1728 the Ministry of Public Works mint was split into a "new Ministry of Public Works mint", and an "old Ministry of Public Works mint". Though by 1733 the Qing government realised that the costs of making standard cash coins at a weight of 1.4 qián was too much, so they lowered it back to 1.2 qián.
In 1725 the province of Yunnan had 47 operating furnaces. In 1726 the governour of Yunnan, Ortai made the province's coin minting industry more profitable by implementing new systems for regular, and supplemental casting as well as for casting scrap metal making sure that only regular cast coins would carry full production costs, he also closed down mints in the province with a lower production efficiency and started exporting Yunnan's coins to other provinces. This system proved so successful that other provinces started to adopt these reforms.
Qianlong era
Jiaqing era
Under the Jiaqing Emperor the Chinese population had reached 300,000,000 which was twice as much as just a century prior, famines had plagued the land, the government was corrupt, and hordes of secret Anti-Manchu organisations popped up everywhere, stability would not return until 1803 but this had come at tremendously high costs.Li Yung Ping, Outlines of Chinese History, Commercial Press. The Qing government started to increase quotas for the production of copper cash coins while constantly changing the standard content of the alloys beginning with 60% copper, and 40% zinc in 1796 to 54% copper, 43% zinc, and 3% lead not long after. Corruption plagued the provincial mints, and the exchange rate between cash and taels rose from 900 wén for 1 tael of silver to 1200 wén for a single tael, this was also due to a large outflow of silver to European and American merchants which pressured the Chinese monetary system. Under the Jiaqing Emperor an annual quota of 2,586,000 strings of cash coins for production was set, but in reality this number was rarely met.
Daoguang era
Under the Daoguang Emperor China's silver reserves were depleting due to the trade of opium with other countries, and as Chinese cash coins were based on the silver standard this eventually lead to the debasement of Qing era cash coinage under Daoguang because the costs of producing cast copper coins was higher by about one third than the face value of the cast coins themselves, by 1845 2,000 wén was needed for a single tael of silver. Coins produced under the Daoguang Emperor tend to be diminutive compared to earlier Qing dynasty coinage because of this reason.Joachim Bonatz, Kalenderblatt zum Jahr 1821: Einiges zur Geschichte Chinas, u.a. zum Opiumkrieg (Ein Käsch aus China und ein Doppelgroschen Sachsens des Jahres 1821) (German Edition) Publication date: 9 March 2015. ASIN: B00UI4EXT2.
Under the Daoguang Emperor a new mint was established at Kucha in Xinjiang province with coins cast there bearing the mark "庫" as well as coins with the reverse side inscription of "新" to circulate within the aforementioned province that was far away from China proper.
Lin Zexu suggested in the year 1833 to create a series of Daoguang Tongbao (道光通寶) cash coins with a weight of 0.5 tael, and that two of these cash coins would be exchangeable for one tael of silver. But this proposal was not adopted.
Inflation during the 19th century
Tongzhi era
For the first year of the Tongzhi Emperor he bore the reign name of "Qixiang" (祺祥), though a few coins with this inscription were cast they were never put into circulation. While the reign title "Qixiang" the 10 wén Daqian continued to be produced, for a brief period of time Daqian with the inscription Qixiang Zhongbao (祺祥重寶) were produced. Because the Qixiang era name was not used for that long, cash coins with this era date were cast for such a short time, that only a small number of the government mints produced cash coins with this inscription. These mints included the Ministry of Public Works Mint (寶源), the Ministry of Revenue Mint (寶泉), the Yunnan mint (寶雲), the Gansu mint (寶鞏), and the Suzhou mint (寶蘇).
Tongzhi's mother the Empress Dowager Cixi changed his reign name to Tongzhi in 1862. Tongzhi's reign saw the end of the Taiping rebellion and the beginning of a large Muslim revolt in Xinjiang. The era also saw the rise of the Self-Strengthening Movement which wanted to adopt western ideas into practice in China including reforming the monetary system.
The coins produced under the Tongzhi Emperor remained of inferior quality with the 10 wén coin being reduced from 4.4 to 3.2 qián in 1867. Copper shortages remained and illegal casting would only become a larger problem as the provincial mints remained closed or barely productive. The first machine-struck cash coins were also produced under the Tongzhi Emperor in Paris at the request of governour Zuo Zongtang in 1866, but the government of the Qing refused to introduce machine-made coinage.
Modernisation under the Guangxu Emperor
Under the Guangxu Emperor various attempts at reforming the Qing dynasty's currency system were implemented. Machine-made copper coins without square holes were introduced in Guangdong in 1899,"The Chinese Monetary System: From Ancient Times to the Early Modern Period" . By Sarah Gruen Econ 401 Money and Banking Dr. Herbener. Published: 15 December 2004. Retrieved 3 July 2017. and by 1906 15 machine operated mints operated in 12 provinces. The introduction of these machine-struck coins marked the beginning of the end of coin casting in China. In 1895 the Guangzhou Machine Mint had 90 presses becoming the largest mint in the world followed by the British Royal Mint with only 16 presses.
Many provinces were still slow to adopt machine mints, often due to the high costs associated with them, the machine mint of Tianjin cost 27,000 taels of silver but the cost of making a single string of machine-struck 1 qián cash coins more than twice as high as their face value forcing the Tianjin mint to buy more furnaces until it eventually had to close down in 1900.
Guangxu's reign saw the reclamation of Xinjiang and the presuming of minting red cash there, while Japanese experts revitalised the copper mining industry in Yunnan and many new veins of copper were discovered giving the government more resources to cast (and later strike) coins again.
The new coins often bore the inscription Guāng Xù Yuán Bǎo (光緒元寶) with an image of a Dragon and featured English, Chinese, and Manchu inscriptions. Further these coins tended to have their relation with China's older coinages (most often with cash coins) on the bottom, or their value in relation to silver coinage, and the Manchu words indicated the place of mintage. Meanwhile, the 10 wén "traditional" cash coins were discontinued as the production of these more modern coins began.Kenneth Pomeranz. The Great Divergence: China, Europe, and the Making of the Modern World Economy. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2000.