Jiaochao (simplified Chinese :交钞; traditional Chinese :交鈔; pinyin :jiāochāo) is a Chinese word for banknote first used for the currency of the Jurchen Jin dynasty and later by the Yuan dynasty.
Jiaochao (simplified Chinese :交钞; traditional Chinese :交鈔; pinyin :jiāochāo) is a Chinese word for banknote first used for the currency of the Jurchen Jin dynasty and later by the Yuan dynasty.
The Jurchens swept control over northern China, conquering the Liao dynasty and half of the Song dynasty by 1142. Initially they did not have a unique currency of their own but reused the coinage of the Liao or Southern Song dynasty coinage. In 1154, Wanyan Liang issued the Jiaochao banknotes three years before minting their own distinct coinage, a sequence in Chinese history that has never happened before or since. Jiaochao came in ten denominations. Small bills came in 100, 200, 300, 500, and 700 wén while large bills were in 1, 2, 3, 5, and 10 guàn. Like previous Chinese notes, there was a fee for redeeming them for copper coins: 15 wén per guàn. Jiaochao initially had an expiration period of seven years upon issue but in 1189 this was abolished, giving notes an indefinite lifespan. Like other early Chinese paper currencies, it was a victim of overprinting which led to runaway inflation. In 1214, due to severe hyperinflation, the government began printing notes worth up to 1000 guàn. The following year, Jiaochao was replaced with a new paper currency the Baoquan (寶泉) which suffered the same fate. Up until the Mongol conquest of the Jin dynasty in 1234, the state kept releasing new types of banknotes which were rejected by the public who were only willing to accept transactions in silver. [1] :9–33
Jin and Song notes continued to circulate in territories conquered by the Mongols. In 1227, during the last year of Genghis Khan's life, he had silk-backed imitation Huizi printed. Sorghaghtani Beki, Ögedei Khan, Güyük Khan, and Möngke Khan issued various paper scrips for their occupational armies. [1] :37
In 1260, the first year of Kublai Khan's rule, he issued two different Jiaochao notes. The first in July was backed by silk but was unsuccessful. The second was in October which used the silver standard. [1] :37 It was the first paper currency to be used as the predominant circulating medium in the history of China. [2] The primary press was the Imperial Mint established in 1260, probably in Yanjing. It was certainly located in Khanbaliq after that city was established the same decade. Regional capitals were sometimes authorized to print money as well. The money of the various eras of the Yuan were also separately known, as the Zhongtong notes and Zhiyuan notes of the reign of Kublai Khan. [3] They too suffered from devaluation and hyperinflation. In 1350 the final series of banknotes, the Zhizheng Jiaochao (至正交鈔) was issued. Unlike earlier notes, this was a fiat currency and was widely rejected. [1] :35–76
Jiaochao was described by Rustichello in his account of the travels of the Venetian Marco Polo. [4] They were also mentioned by William of Rubruck. [5]
Later in 1294, in order to control the treasury, Gaykhatu of the Ilkhanate in Persia attempted to introduce paper money in his khanate, which imitated the notes issued by the Yuan dynasty so closely that they even had Chinese words printed on them. However, the experiment proved to be a complete failure, and Gaykhatu was assassinated shortly afterward. [6]
A banknote is a type of negotiable promissory note, made by a bank or other licensed authority, payable to the bearer on demand. Banknotes were originally issued by commercial banks, which were legally required to redeem the notes for legal tender when presented to the chief cashier of the originating bank. These commercial banknotes only traded at face value in the market served by the issuing bank. Commercial banknotes have primarily been replaced by national banknotes issued by central banks or monetary authorities.
Khanbaliq or Dadu (元大都) was the winter capital of the Yuan dynasty, the main center of the Mongol Empire founded by Kublai Khan in what is now Beijing, also the capital of China today. It was located at the center of modern Beijing. The Secretariat (中书省) directly administered the Central Region (腹裏) of the Yuan Empire and dictated policies for the other provinces. Kublai and his successors also claimed supremacy over the entire Mongol Empire following the death of Möngke Khan in 1259. Over time the unified empire gradually fragmented into a number of khanates.
The history of Chinese currency spans more than 3000 years. Currency of some type has been used in China since the Neolithic age which can be traced back to between 3000 and 4500 years ago. Cowry shells are believed to have been the earliest form of currency used in Central China, and were used during the Neolithic period.
Jiaozi was a form of promissory note which appeared around the 11th century in the Sichuan capital of Chengdu, China. Numismatists regard it as the first paper money in history, a development of the Chinese Song Dynasty. Early Jiaozi notes did not have standard denominations but were denominated according to the needs of the purchaser and ranged from 500 wén to 5 guàn. The government office that issued these notes or the Jiaozi wu demanded a payment or exchange fee of 30 wén per guàn exchanged from coins to banknote. The Jiaozi were usually issued biannually. In the region of Liang-Huai these banknotes were referred to as Huaijiao (淮交) and were introduced in 1136 but their circulation stopped quickly after their introduction. Generally the lower the denominations of the Jiaozi the more popular they became, and as the government did not regulate their production, their existence eventually lead to inflation.
The Huizi, issued in the year 1160, was the official banknote of the Chinese Southern Song dynasty. It has the highest amount of issuance among various banknote types during the Song dynasty. Huizi notes came on three-colour printed paper and their usage was heavily promoted by the government of the Southern Song dynasty, the Huizi were backed by 280,000 guàn of copper cash coins.
The Yuan dynasty, officially the Great Yuan, was a successor state to the Mongol Empire after its division and a ruling dynasty of China established by Kublai Khan, leader of the Mongol Borjigin clan, lasting from 1271 to 1368. In Chinese historiography, this dynasty followed the Song dynasty and preceded the Ming dynasty.
Fiat money is a currency established as money, often by government regulation, that does not have intrinsic value. Fiat money does not have use value, and has value only because a government maintains its value, or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value. It was introduced as an alternative to commodity money and representative money. Representative money is similar to fiat money, but it represents a claim on a commodity.
The Yuan dynasty was the ruling dynasty of China and Mongolia established by Kublai Khan and a khanate of the Mongol Empire.
The History of Jin is a Chinese historical text, one of the Twenty Four Histories, which details the history of the Jin dynasty founded by the Jurchens in northern China. It was compiled by the Yuan dynasty historian and minister Toqto'a.
The Yuan dynasty was a Mongol khanate that ruled over China from 1271 to 1368, after the Mongols conquered the Western Xia, Western Liao, and Jin dynasties they allowed for the continuation of locally minted copper currency, as well as allowing for the continued use of previously created and older forms of currency, while they immediately abolished the Jin dynasty’s paper money as it suffered heavily from inflation due to the wars with the Mongols. After the conquest of the Song dynasty was completed the Mongols started issuing their own copper coins largely based on older Jin dynasty models, though eventually the preferred Mongol currency became the Jiaochao and silver sycees, as coins would eventually fall largely into disuse. Although the Mongols at first preferred to have every banknote backed up by gold and silver, high government expenditures forced the Yuan to create fiat money in order to sustain government spending.
The Southern Song dynasty refers to an era of the Song dynasty after Kaifeng was captured by the Jurchen Jin dynasty in 1127. The government of the Song was forced to establish a new capital city at Lin'an which wasn't near any sources of copper so the quality of the cash coins produced under the Southern Song significantly deteriorated compared to the cast copper-alloy cash coins of the Northern Song dynasty. The Southern Song government preferred to invest in their defenses while trying to remain passive towards the Jin dynasty establishing a long peace until the Mongols eventually annexed the Jin before marching down to the Song establishing the Yuan dynasty.
The Jurchen Jin dynasty was an empire that ruled over Northern China and what would later become Manchuria from 1115 until 1234. After the Jurchens defeated the Khitans, and the Chinese they would continue to use their coins for day to day usage in the conquered territories. In 1234 they were conquered by the Mongol Empire.
During the Mongol-ruled Yuan dynasty (1271–1368), many scientific and technological advancements were made in areas such as mathematics, medicine, printing technology, and gunpowder warfare.
The Da Ming Baochao was a series of banknotes issued during the Ming dynasty in China. They were first issued in 1375 under the Hongwu Emperor. Although initially the Da Ming Baochao paper money was successful, the fact that it was a fiat currency and that the government largely stopped accepting these notes caused the people to lose faith in them as a valid currency causing the price of silver relative to paper money to increase. The negative experiences with inflation that the Ming dynasty had witnessed signaled the Manchus to not repeat this mistake until the first Chinese banknotes after almost 400 years were issued again in response to the Taiping Rebellion under the Qing dynasty's Xianfeng Emperor during the mid-19th century.
The paper money of the Qing dynasty was periodically used alongside a bimetallic coinage system of copper-alloy cash coins and silver sycees; paper money was used during different periods of Chinese history under the Manchu-led Qing as the Qing had learned from the previous experiences of the Song, Jurchen Jin, Mongol Yuan, and Ming dynasties with paper money where uncontrolled printing lead to hyperinflation. During the youngest days of the Qing dynasty paper money was used but this was quickly abolished as the government sought not to repeat history for a fourth time, however under the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor due to several large wars and rebellions the Qing government was forced to issue paper money again.
The Da-Qing Baochao refers to a series of Qing dynasty banknotes issued under the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor issued between the years 1853 and 1859. These banknotes were all denominated in wén and were usually introduced to the general market through the salaries of soldiers and government officials.
The Hubu Guanpiao is the name of two series of banknotes produced by the Qing dynasty, the first series was known as the Chaoguan (鈔官) and was introduced under the Shunzhi Emperor during the Qing conquest of the Ming dynasty but was quickly abandoned after this war ended, it was introduced amid residual ethnic Han resistance to the Manchu invaders. It was produced on a small scale, amounting to 120,000 strings of cash coins annually, and only lasted between 1651 and 1661. After the death of the Shunzhi Emperor in the year 1661, calls for resumption of banknote issuance weakened, although they never completely disappeared.
A string of cash coins refers to a historical Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Ryukyuan, and Vietnamese currency unit that was used as a superunit of the Chinese cash, Japanese mon, Korean mun, Ryukyuan mon, and Vietnamese văn currencies. The square hole in the middle of cash coins served to allow for them to be strung together in strings, the term would later also be used on banknotes and served there as a superunit of wén (文).
The banknotes of the Ta-Ching Government Bank, known as the banknotes of the Ta-Ching Bank of the Ministry of Revenue from 1905 to 1908, were intended to become the main form of paper money in the Qing currency system. These banknotes were issued by the Ta-Ching Government Bank, a national bank established to serve as the central bank of the Qing dynasty. The Ta-Ching Government Bank had branches throughout China and many of its branches outside of its headquarters in Beijing also issued banknotes.
Chinese paper money | ||||||||||||
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| Imperial China |
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| New Taiwan dollar | ||||||||||||
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| Exonumia | ||||||||||||
See also: List of Chinese inventions | ||||||||||||
