Project Details
Projekt
Qing Coinage, 1850 to 1911: Mint Statistics, Numismatic Evidence, and Monetary Policy
Applicant
Professor Dr. Hans Ulrich Vogel
Subject Area
Social and Cultural Anthropology, Non-European Cultures, Jewish Studies and Religious Studies
Term
from 2005 to 2012
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 13020509
Coins can provide an astonishingly truthful mirror of a country¿s economic health through history. This is particularly true for the monetarised economy of late imperial China. Within the scope of the proposed research group ¿Monies, Markets and Finance in China and East Asia,¿ this project will undertake an exhaustive analysis of Qing dynasty coins and coinage. This research on the basis of numismatic and documentary evidence has become possible because it will use the most complete collection of Qing coins worldwide, held by Werner Burger, and his equally comprehensive collection of routine administrative documents on all mints of the Qing Empire. The numismatic analysis will lead on to far-reaching implications provided by this tangible source for the period¿s monetary and financial history. Based on the close comparative scrutiny of the coins themselves and on information obtained from archival documents, mint statistics arranged by year and by mint will be compiled. These will offer almost unbroken data sequences, constituting a set of precise monetary and economic data for the Qing dynasty. Their analysis will provide new insights into the realities of economic and political changes and developments in the period under discussion.
DFG Programme
Research Units
