Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

The Monetary System of China Under the Qing Dynasty

  • Reference work entry
  • First Online:
Book cover Handbook of the History of Money and Currency

Abstract

This chapter delineates the main trends that characterized Qing monetary history. The early Qing (1644–1722) was generally a period when military expenditure relative to fiscal revenue was high and coin casting sites in bad repair. The mid-Qing (1723–1842) was, on the other hand, a period of great territorial expansion, strong central government, and vigorous coin output, mainly under the Qianlong Emperor (r. 1735–1796). The late Qing (1842–1911) was, in turn, a period in which China came under intense foreign pressure and was rattled by the catastrophic Taiping rebellion. It was also a period in which China began suffering from an acute outflow of silver due to an adverse balance of payments. These circumstances eventually led the Qing government to reintroduce paper money. And while Japanese silver and copper imports had helped replenish the Chinese monetary system in the early-Qing period, late-Qing China saw a decline in domestic mining output as well as a drop in Japanese metal imports. These shortfalls were tempered in the mid-Qing era by the influx of Latin American silver, which lasted until the 1800s, as well as by the development of copper mines in Yunnan.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this chapter

Log in via an institution
Chapter
USD 29.95
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
eBook
USD 599.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Available as EPUB and PDF
  • Read on any device
  • Instant download
  • Own it forever
Hardcover Book
USD 849.99
Price excludes VAT (USA)
  • Durable hardcover edition
  • Dispatched in 3 to 5 business days
  • Free shipping worldwide - see info

Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout

Purchases are for personal use only

Institutional subscriptions

References

  • Allen RC, Bassino J-P, Ma D, Moll-Murata C, Van Zanden JL (2011) Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India. Econom Hist Rev 64(s1):8–38

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Broadberry S, Gupta B (2006) The early modern great divergence: wages, prices, and economic development in Europe and Asia, 1500-1800. Econom Hist Rev 51(1):2–31

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Burger W (2008) Coin production during the Qianlong and Jiaqing reigns (1736-1820): issues in cash and silver supply. In: Kim N, Hirzel T (eds) Metals, moneys and markets in early modern societies: east asian and global perspectives. LIT Verlag, Münster, pp 171–189

    Google Scholar 

  • Burger Werner (2015) Japanese and Vietnamese coins circulating in China: a numismatic approach. In: Leonard, Jane Kate, Ulrich Theobald (eds) Money in Asia (1200–1900): small currencies in social and political contexts. Brill, Leiden, pp 220–223

    Google Scholar 

  • Boulnois L (1983) Poudre d'or et monnaies d'argent au Tibet. Editions du Centre national de la recherche scientifique, Paris

    Google Scholar 

  • Chen Feng 陈锋 (2008) Qingdai caizheng zhengce yu huobi zhengce yanjiu 清代财政政策与货币政策研究. Wuhan daxuechubanshe, Wuhan

    Google Scholar 

  • Ch'ên J (1958) The Hsien-Fêng inflation. Bull Sch Orient Afr Stud 21:578–586

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chen Limao 陳禮茂 (2003) Zhang Zhidongzai Zhongguo tongshang yinhang chunagban guochengzhong de yanlun shuping 張之洞在中國通商銀行創辦過程中的言論述評. Anhui shixue 5:29–35

    Google Scholar 

  • Cheng Linsun (2003) Banking in modern China: entrepreneurs, professional managers and the development of Chinese banks. Cambridge University Press, New York, pp 1897–1937

    Google Scholar 

  • Cribb J (1992) Catalogue of Sycee in the British museum. British Museum, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Flynn DO, Giráldez A (2002) China and the birth of globalization in the 16th century. Ashgate, Farnham

    Google Scholar 

  • Crossley PK (2002) A translucent mirror: history and identity in Qing imperial ideology. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Davies, Glyn. [1994, rep. 2002]. A history of money: from ancient times to the present day. University of Wales, Cardiff

    Google Scholar 

  • Dunstan H (1996) ‘Orders go forth in the morning and are changed by nightfall’: a monetary policy cycle in Qing China, November 1744–June 1745. T’oungpao 82:66–136

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dunstan H (2006) State or merchant? Political economy and political process in 1740s China. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Elliott MC (2002) The Manchu way: the eight banners and ethnic identity in late Imperial China. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Elvin M (1973) The pattern of the Chinese past. Eyre Methuen, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Faure D (2000) The Mackay treaty of 1902 and its impact on Chinese business. Asia Pac Bus Rev 7(2):79–92

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Feuerwerker A (1958) China’s early industrialization: sheng Hsuan-huai (1844–1916) and the mandarin enterprise. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Flynn DO, Giráldez A (2002) Cycles of silver: global economic Unity through the mid-eighteenth century. J World Hist 13(2):391–427

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Foust CM (1969) Muscovite and mandarin: Russia's trade with China and its setting, 1727–1805. University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill

    Google Scholar 

  • Giráldez A (2015) The age of trade: the Manilla Galeons the Dawn of the global economy. Rowman & Littlefield, Lanham

    Google Scholar 

  • Golas PA (1999) Mining. In: Needham J (ed) Science and civilisation in China vol. 5, Chemistry and chemical technology, Part 13. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK

    Google Scholar 

  • Goldstone JA (1991) Revolution and rebellion in the early modern world. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Greatrex R (2008) Layers of deception: counterfeiting cases in the mid-Qing. In: Hirzel T, Kim N (eds) Metals, monies, and markets in early modern societies. Lit Verlag, Berlin, pp 309–331

    Google Scholar 

  • Hall Ray Ovid (1921) Chinese national banks: from their founding to the moratorium. s.n, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Hamashita Takeshi 濱下武志 (1980) Chūgokutsūshōginkō no setsuritsu to Honkon Shanhaiginkō中国通商銀行の設立と香港上海銀行. Hitotsubashironsō 84.4:448–464

    Google Scholar 

  • Hao Yen-p’ing (1986) The commercial revolution in nineteenth-century China. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • He W (2013) Paths toward the modern fiscal state. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Helleiner E (2003) The making of National Money: territorial currencies in historical perspective. Cornell University Press, Ithaca

    Google Scholar 

  • Ho Hon-wai 何漢威 (1993) “Cong yinqianhuang dao tongyuan fanlan — Qingmo xinhuobi de faxing ji qi yinxiang” 從銀錢荒到銅元汎濫——清末新貨幣的發行及其影響. Zhongyang yanjiuyuan lishiyuyanyanjiusuo jikan 62.3:389–494

    Google Scholar 

  • Horesh N (2009) Shanghai's Bund and Beyond: British Banks, Banknote Issuance, and Monetary Policy in China, 1842–1937. Yale University Press, New Haven Conn

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Horesh N (2014) Chinese Money in Global Context: historic junctures between 600 BCE and 2012. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Horesh N (2015) Gerschenkron redux? Analysing new evidence on joint-stock enterprise in pre-war shanghai. Asian-Pacific Econom Liter 29(1):25–46

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hou Houji 侯厚吉, Wu Qijing 吴其敬 (1982) Zhongguo jindai jingji sixiang shigao 中國近代經濟思想史稿. Heilongjiang renminchubanshe, Haerbin

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang Jianhui 黃鑒暉 (1992) Shanxi piaohaoshi. Shanxi jingjichubanshe, Taiyuan

    Google Scholar 

  • Huang Jianhui 黃鑒暉 (1994) Zhongguo yinhangyeshi 中國銀行業史. Shanxi jingji chubanshe, Taiyuan

    Google Scholar 

  • Ichiko Shōzō 市古尚三 (2004) Shindai kaheishikō 清代貨幣史考. Hōshobō, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Irigoin A (2009) The end of a silver era: the consequences of the breakdown of the Spanish peso standard in China and the United States, 1780s–1850s. J World Hist 20(2):226–229

    Google Scholar 

  • Cao Jin, Vogel HU (2015) Smoke on the mountain: the infamous counterfeiting case of Tongzi district, Guizhou province, 1794. In: Leonard JK, Theobald U (eds) Money in Asia (1200–1900): small currencies in social and political contexts. Brill, Leiden, pp 188–219

    Google Scholar 

  • Ji Zhaojin (2002) A history of modern Shanghai banking. M.E. Sharpe, Armonk

    Google Scholar 

  • Kann E (1927) The currencies of China. Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • King FHH (1965) Money and monetary policy in China, 1845–1895. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Kishimoto Mio 岸 (1997) Shindaich¯ugoku no bukka to keizaihend¯o淸代中国の物価と経済変. Kenbun, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Kwan Man Bun (2001) The salt merchants of Tianjin: state-making and civil society in late Imperial China. Hawai’i University Press, Honolulu

    Google Scholar 

  • Kuroda, Akinobu 黒田明伸 (2003) Kaheishisutemu no sekaishi : “hitaishosei” o yomu 貨幣システムの世界史 : 〈非対祢性〉をよむ. Iwanami Shoten, Tokyo

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin Man-houng (2006) China upside down: currency, society and ideologies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, pp 1808–1856

    Google Scholar 

  • Lin Man-houng (2015) The devastation of the Qing Mints, 1821–1850. In: Leonard, Jane Kate, Ulrich Theobald (eds) Money in Asia (1200–1900): small currencies in social and political contexts. Brill, Leiden, pp 155–187

    Google Scholar 

  • Liu Qiugen 劉秋根 (2000) Ming Qing gaolidaiziben 明清高利貸資本. Shehui kexue wenxian chubanshe, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • McElderry AL (1976) Shanghai old-style banks (Ch’ien-Chuang), 1800–1925: a traditional institution in a changing society. Center for Chinese Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

    Google Scholar 

  • McLean D (1976) Finance and ‘informal empire’ before the first world war. Econom Hist Rev 29(2):291–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Millward J (1998) Beyond the pass: economy, ethnicity, and empire in Qing Central Asia, 1759–1864. Stanford University Press, Stanford

    Google Scholar 

  • Morse HB (1906) Currency in China. Kelly & Walsh, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • Mu Yuan 穆渊 (1994) Qingdai Xinjiang huobishi 清代新疆货币史. Xinjiang daxue chubanshe, Urumqi

    Google Scholar 

  • Nishimura S (2005) The foreign and native banks in China: chop loans in Shanghai and Hankow before 1914. Mod Asian Stud 39(1):109–132

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pan Liangui 潘連貴 (2004) Shanghai huobishi 上海貨幣史. Shanghai renminchubanshe, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • Peng Xinwei 彭信威 (1958) [rev. 1970, 1988, 2007] Zhongguo huobishi 中國貨幤史. Shanghai renmin chubanshe, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • Peng Xinwei 彭信威 (1994) A monetary history of China (trans: Edward H. Kaplan). Western Washington, Bellingham

    Google Scholar 

  • Perkins D (2017) Agricultural development in China, 1368–1968. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Perdue PC (2009) China marches west: the Qing conquest of Central Eurasia. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Pomeranz K (1993) The making of a hinterland: state, society and economy in inland North China, 1853–1937. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Pomeranz K (2001) The great divergence. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Quan Hansheng 全漢升 (1987) Ming Qing jingjishiyanjiu 明清經濟史研究. Lianjing chuban shiye gongsi, Taipei

    Google Scholar 

  • Rang Huey-shin [Zhang Huixin] 張惠信 (1988) Zhongguoyinding 中國銀錠. Liu Qiuyan, Taipei

    Google Scholar 

  • Rawski TG (1989) Economic growth in prewar China. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosenthal J-L, Wong RB (2011) Before and beyond divergence: the politics of economic change in China and Europe. Harvard University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Rowe WT (2005) Provincial monetary practice in eighteenth-century China: Chen Hongmou in Jiangxi and Shaanxi. In: Moll-Murata C, Song J, Vogel HU (eds) Chinese handicraft regulations of the Qing dynasty. Iudicium, München

    Google Scholar 

  • Rowe WT (2009) China’s last empire: the great Qing. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Sargent TJ, Velde FR (2014) The big problem of small cash. Princeton University Press, Princeton

    Google Scholar 

  • Shi Yufu 石毓符 (1984) Zhongguo huobi jinrong shilüe 中國貨幣金融史略. Tianjin renmin chubanshe, Tianjin

    Google Scholar 

  • Shimada R (2006) The intra-Asian trade in Japanese copper by the Dutch East India company during the eighteenth century. Brill, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Van de Ven H (2014) Breaking with the past: the maritime customs service and the global origins of modernity in China. Columbia University Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Vissering G (1914) On Chinese currency: preliminary remarks on the monetary and banking reform in China, vol 2. De Bussy, Amsterdam

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel HU (1987) Chinese central monetary policy, 1644-1800. Late Imperial China 8(2):1–52

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vogel HU (2012) Marco polo was in China: new evidence from currencies, salts and revenues. Brill, Leiden

    Google Scholar 

  • Vogel HU, Theisen-Vogel E (1989) Der Kupferbergbau in der chinesischen ProvinzYunnan vom 18. Bis zur Mitte des 19 Jahrhunderts: Produktion, Administration, Finanzierung. Anschnitt 41(5):146–158

    Google Scholar 

  • Von Glahn R (2007) Foreign silver coins in the market culture of nineteenth century China. Int J Asian Stud 4(1):51–78

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Von Glahn R (2016) The economic history of China: from antiquity to the nineteenth century. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Wagel SS (1915) Chinese currency and banking. North China Daily News and Herald, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • Waley-Cohen J (2000) The sextants of Beijing: global currents in Chinese history. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Wang Yeh- chien [Wang Yejian] 王業鍵 (1981) Zhongguo jindai huobi yu yinhang de yanjin (1644–1937) 中國近代貨幣與銀行的演進 (1644–1937). Academia Sinica, Taipei

    Google Scholar 

  • Wei Jianyou 魏建猷 (1986) Zhongguo jindai huobisi 中國近代貨幣史. Huangshan shushechuban

    Google Scholar 

  • Xian Ke 獻可 (1958) Jinbainianlai diguozhuyi zai Hua yinhang faxing zhibi gaikuang 近百年來帝國主義在華銀行發行紙幣概況 [a survey of banknote issuance by imperialist banks in China in the last century]. Shanghai renmin chubanshe, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • Xiao Qing 萧清 (1984) Zhongguo gudai huobishi 中國古代貨幣史. Renmin chubanshe, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang Duanliu 楊端六 (1962) Qingdai huobi jinrong shigao 清代貨幣金融史稿. Shenghuo, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Yang Lien- sheng (1954) Money and credit in China: a short history. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Ye Shichang 葉世昌 (2003) Gudai Zhongguo jingji sixiangshi 古代中國經濟思想史. Fudan daxue chubanshe, Shanghai

    Google Scholar 

  • Zelin, Madeleine (1984) The Magistrate’s Tael: Rationalizing Fiscal Reform in Eighteenth-Century Ch’ing China. Berkeley: University of California Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Guohi 张国辉 (1989) Wan Qing qianzhuang he piaohao yanjiu 晚清钱庄和票号研究, Zhonghua shuju, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhang Jiaxiang 張家驤 (2001) Zhongguo huobi sixiangshi 中國貨幣思想史. Hubei renminchubanshe, Wuhan

    Google Scholar 

  • Zheng Jin 鄭瑾 (2007) Zhongguo gudai weibi yanjiu 中國古代偽幣研究. Zhejiang da xuechu ban she, Hangzhou

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhihong Shi (2016) Central government silver Treasury: revenue, expenditure and inventory statistics, ca. 1667–1899. Brill, Leiden, p 2016

    Google Scholar 

  • Zhongguo lidai huobi 中國曆代貨幣 (1999) Comp. by The People’s Bank of China. Xinhua chubanshe, Beijing

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Durham University, Durham, UK

    Niv Horesh

  2. Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Niv Horesh

Authors
  1. Niv Horesh
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Niv Horesh .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Social Sciences, Universidad Carlos III de Madrid, Madrid, Spain

    Stefano Battilossi

  2. European University Institute, Florence, Italy

    Youssef Cassis

  3. School of Commerce, Waseda University, Tokyo, Tokyo, Japan

    Kazuhiko Yago

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

Copyright information

© 2020 Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.

About this entry

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this entry

Horesh, N. (2020). The Monetary System of China Under the Qing Dynasty. In: Battilossi, S., Cassis, Y., Yago, K. (eds) Handbook of the History of Money and Currency. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-0596-2_54

Download citation

Publish with us

Policies and ethics

Search

Navigation