Tang Gaozu Wude four years "waste five baht money, line Kaiyuan Tongbao money, eight points in diameter, weight two baht four threads, accumulate ten Wen weighs one tael, one thousand Wen weighs six catties and four taels. The money is still imprisoned in Luo, And, You, Yi and other states. The king of Qin and the king of Qi each gave three furnaces to mint money, and the right servant shot Pei Lin and gave one furnace. If you dare to die, your family will not be worthy. On 5 May, he was placed in prison in Guizhou. The speaker is the most compromised with the new money, which is convenient from far and near." The monetary chaos was reversed, but soon "piracy began to flourish, and money was spent indiscriminately".

During the reign of Tang Gaozong, the use of new coinage to prevent private casting not only failed to solve the problem, but further deteriorated the private coinage. In the first year of Qianfeng, the Tang Dynasty "transformed the new money, and the text said that the Qianfeng Quanbao" and "the newly minted money of the Qianfeng was accepted by the company, and there was no need to cast." still ordered the world to be put in prison, and minted the Yuan Tongbao money. Even if they have more private coinage, the money will be indiscriminate."

During the Wu Zetian period, the phenomenon of private coinage was further aggravated. So "the order is suspended in the city, and the people are allowed to use the money in the same way." Russia also made it difficult to choose, and the transaction was sluggish, and it lowered the non-iron tin, copper, and piercing people, and allowed it to be used. It has cooked copper, buckets, sand astringent, and thick ones, all of which are not allowed to be simple." But soon after, "the swarms of piracy and the indiscriminate accumulation of evil." In the south of the Jianghuai River, the thieves may be in the Pihu Lake, the huge sea, and the deep mountains, the waves are steep, the people are inaccessible, and the states and counties can not prohibit the contract. So that when the dragon and the innate are born, the two capitals use money especially indiscriminately."

In the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, he took prohibitive measures against the phenomenon of private casting and indiscriminateness. "Song Jing is the governor of the government, and he asks for all forbidden bad money. In the first month of the sixth year, he cut off the evil money in the world and made two baht and four pieces of money. Those who are unusable will be broken and overcast". So "at the beginning of Tianbao, the money in the two capitals was slightly better, and the rice chestnut was rich and cheap." But "after a few years, it gradually became indiscriminate, and the prefecture and county did not allow the good to increase the price, and the likes and dislikes were universal." Rich businessmen and traitors, gradually collect good money, sneak to the south of the Jianghuai, every money and goods to get the evil people five Wen, pretending to trust official money, will enter Beijing for private use."

Looking at the Tang Dynasty dynasties, the period affected by "private casting" was very long, and there were many reasons for the prevalence of "private casting" in the currency circulation of the Tang Dynasty, which were mainly manifested as: 1. The problem of private casting in the early Tang Dynasty was very serious and had a lot to do with the private possession of copper. According to the "Six Classics of the Tang Dynasty", "Where all the states of the world produce copper and iron, they listen to people's private mining, and the government collects their taxes." If it is pewter, then the official is the city".

That is, the government only taxes privately mined copper mines, and does not forcibly sell copper mines to the government after taxes, but allows them to be bought and sold freely. This regulation kept most of the copper mined each year in private hands, which led to rampant private mining and a flood of bad money in the early Tang Dynasty. Although the government has repeatedly reiterated the prohibition of private coinage and the prohibition of minting evil money, it has not been completely implemented, so that in the 22nd year of Kaiyuan, Zhang Jiuling proposed that "no money is forbidden".

2. The gradual improvement of the status of coinage made private minting of money profitable. In the war at the end of the Sui Dynasty, cloth became the main means of circulation. With the establishment of the Tang Dynasty, the monetary system was re-established. However, there are many occasions in circulation where cloth is still used in large quantities. With the recovery and development of productive forces, the commodity economy is becoming more and more prosperous, so the status of metal money is also increasing, and the demand is increasing. By the time of Gojong and Gogo, commercial activities throughout the country were booming. The further development of industry and commerce also led to a corresponding sharp increase in the demand for copper coins, so that "money must be seen" in market transactions, while the status of physical money in circulation gradually declined due to the "light currency and silk". The improvement of the status of money has made private coinage profitable, and private coinage has become popular.

Third, the increasingly acute contradiction between money demand and supply is an important reason for the emergence of the problem of "private minting". With the development of the commodity economy and the expansion of monetary taxation in the Tang Dynasty, there was a greater demand for coins, but the supply of coins was limited, and the contradiction between supply and demand of coins became increasingly acute.

The high cost of coinage in the Tang Dynasty was also the main reason for the proliferation of private coinage, which was composed of two parts: raw materials and labor costs.

First of all, there were 96 copper smelting places in the Tang Dynasty, but Gaozong Linde "abolished Shaanzhou copper smelting 48" in the second year, and "scrapped copper smelting 27" in Xuanzong, and a large number of copper smelting was abolished, and rarely increased new copper smelting, which led to a sharp decline in copper production, so that the government had to increase the purchase of copper, which would inevitably lead to an increase in the cost of coinage.

Secondly, the "General Dictionary" records, "The craftsmen work for twenty days in the year, and two days in the year of the leap." Those who need to remain in service shall be exempted from adjustment for 15 days and 30 days of rent and transfer." That is, those who exceed the 15-day service period are exempted from adjustment, and those who exceed the 30-day service period are exempted from rent and adjustment, which will undoubtedly increase the production cost of the government-run handicraft industry. Because the government usually needs to retain craftsmen, such as the Tianbao period to mint money, "about 30 craftsmen per furnace." Every year, except for June and July, it will be stopped, and the remaining October will be made ten times.

In October, each craftsman must serve for one month, which exceeds the rule that each craftsman should serve for twenty days, and the government must pay wages for ten days beyond the period of service, and the historical records also record that "the craftsman is outside". All of this is an indication of the rising cost of labor spent by the government in minting coinage.

In short, the increase in the cost of raw materials and labor for coinage in the Tang Dynasty increased the cost of the entire coinage. Therefore, when the cost of minting exceeds the income, and the minting loses more and more, the amount of minting will naturally be affected, so the supply of minting will be limited. The contradiction between the limited amount of money in circulation and the increasing demand for money became more and more acute, and privately minted coins began to prevail and entered the field of circulation.

The problem of "private casting" has always been the most troublesome problem in the Tang Dynasty, which has had a huge negative impact on the development of the commodity economy in the Tang Dynasty.

It is manifested in two aspects: First, it affects the value of the currency, so that the good money is driven out by the bad money. In June of the first year of Tang Suzong, "the edict said: Because of the time, the system is established, and the new money is discussed, and it is from the right, and it is not for a long time." For example, outside the official furnace, there are a lot of private coins, swallowing up small money, and indiscriminately. Although there are many people who have repented of crimes, the prohibition of adultery has not ended."

Second, the entry of privately minted coins into circulation has caused too much money, reduced its value, and raised prices. According to the "Old Tang Book", "In April of the fourth year of Yifeng, the eastern capital was ordered to return the brown rice and millet of the New Year, and the city gave it to the city, and the evil money was not accepted." Its evil money made the Shaofu Sinong know each other, and it was made to be cast. Its thick and heavy diameter is combined with the two, and it will be used. When rice millet became more expensive, the speaker thought that cast iron was increasing, so money was cheap and things were expensive. So the right to stop the young government supervisor to mint money, and find the old one".

The illegal minting of bad money led to the disorder of the currency system and seriously undermined the political and economic order of society. Therefore, the Tang Dynasty formulated a series of policies to deal with the private minting of bad money, but the results achieved were mediocre.

1. Redeem bad money. This is a measure that is more in line with economic principles. In the fight against the phenomenon of private minting, the government often adopts a combination of collection and prohibition to reduce the amount of bad money in circulation. The government provided silk cloth, rice, and official money to collect bad money.

2. Recast coins, change to 10, 50 coins. Curb bad money by increasing the value of official money.

3. Increase the number of official coins. After Gaozong Qianyuan, the official casting was gradually expanded, and in the fourth year of Yifeng, some people regarded "more and more money" as the reason for "rice millet becoming more expensive", "when rice millet became more expensive, the speaker thought that the coinage was increasing, so the money was cheap and expensive." So the right to stop the young government supervisor to mint money, and to find and restore the old.

Fourth, the circulation of bad money is allowed. After the phenomenon of private coinage appeared, the rulers of the Tang Dynasty constantly tried to crack down on it by formulating decrees. However, these decrees do not address the need for money in circulation, so they are often left to nothing. Therefore, in addition to the redemption and additional casting, the Tang Dynasty had to give a certain tolerant policy to private casting.

5. Formulate strict punishment laws to prohibit bad money. "If you dare to die, your family will not be worthy." During the Suzong period, there were more and more people who violated the ban by privately casting, and Zheng Shuqing was Jing Zhaoyin, "more than 800 people died in a few months".

Sixth, hang the standard money sample in the market.

7. Implement a copper ban. The copper ban refers to the prohibition of the private sale of copper materials and the minting of bronze objects, mainly to ensure the source of coinage materials and prevent private minting. The Tang Dynasty ordered a ban on copper many times, but the final effect was not obvious.

Although Zhen Qian privately minted money and flew money, the materials of gold and silver coins were all strong and full currency, one did not lack two catties, two did not be shoddy, three was exquisitely made and full of anti-counterfeiting functions, and the bad money in the market drove out good money, that is because the good money is valuable, and naturally there is no dislike of the gold and silver coins of Zhen Qian's bank.

Peng Le studied the gold and silver coins of Zhen Qianqian Village, and found that the content of gold and silver coins was about ninety percent, and if the processing costs and labor costs were calculated, the value of a silver coin was more than 1,000 and 50 wen, which can be said to be worth the money.

Many people like to go to Zhen Qian's money village to exchange the gold and silver in their hands for gold and silver coins, which can not only play a role in maintaining value, but also convenient to carry and exchange at the same time, and the gold and silver coins in the money village are in short supply for a while, if it were not for the excessive amount of gold and silver coins will attract the attention of the government, Zhen Qian would have put the gold and silver coins on the market long ago.

···· Let's talk a few words...

In many historical novels, the protagonist is extremely generous as soon as he appears, throwing a few pieces of money is like asking for food, not to mention whether this is possible, the comparison between a penny and the currency of later generations is roughly between one to three to one to four, and the problem of inflation is not considered here, otherwise the price will be higher.

Here let's talk about the weight of metal money, ancient coins are mainly metal products, the most common is five baht coins, "baht" is a unit of weight, one baht is equal to 50 grams of twenty-four times. The Kaiyuan Tongbao of the Tang Dynasty is to imitate the five-baht coin of the Western Han Dynasty, and the successive dynasties are also like this, the Kaiyuan Tongbao weighs one tael per ten Wen, the weight of each Wen is called one coin, and the weight of one thousand Wen weighs six catties and four taels.

The one-dollar coin issued in 2000 weighed about 6 grams, and it didn't feel much in your pocket, but just imagine, of course, people who have the conditions can do an experiment themselves, find a hundred coins and put them in their pockets and go out for a spin, and I don't need to say how it feels to feel. The author likes to collect coins, there are often hundreds of coins in the plastic bucket, which adds up to one or two hundred yuan, and it is heavy in my hand, with a unique sense of accomplishment (a sense of heaviness)!

Consistent money is equivalent to five or six hundred coins, needless to say more about the author, what is it like to go out with so many coins, if you bring a few copper coins except for carrying the author can not think of any good way.

Those traversers who throw a few times of money at every turn to smash people think that they are all born strong men, and the reward is as if the money was stolen, which is really speechless.