Qing Monetary Policies and the Lower Yangzi Economy, 1644 to 1850: The Interdependence between National Approaches and Regional Developments
Final Report Abstract
On the basis of the data available for the issues investigated during the first part of this project, we can determine that the mint metal procurement of the provinces of Jiangsu and Zhejiang delivered no evidence for a decline of the Qing administration's organisational capabilities in the course of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. It rather indicates that the state continued to function efficiently and flexibly into the middle of the nineteenth century. As the transport conditions for the transporting officials rather deteriorated than improved we argue that the organizational capabilities of the Qing state in the field of mint metal procurement did not only continue to be in effect into the nineteenth century but potentially increased from 1740 to 1840. Traditional statecraft in Imperial China held that the welfare and prosperity of the common people depended directly on the stability of the monetary system. Yet, according to our evidence, the high organisational capabilities in mint metal procurement of the provinces Jiangsu and Zhejiang stood in sharp contrast to a neglectful attitude towards measures to stabilize the cash-silver exchange rate. The investigation during the first phase of the project shows the Qing state remarkably capable of ensuring the procurement of monetary metals for the minting of brass coins through a period of over a century. It, however, also provides evidence that point to the fact that governmental measures to control the quantity and quality of the circulating brass coins were neglected which e.g. contributed to the depreciation of brass cash during the early nineteenth century. For this reason we argue that not only the drain of silver from the Chinese markets and governmental non-action to stabilize the silver price, but also this negligent attitude concerning the control of the quality and quantity of cash in the Lower Yangzi region led to a deteriorating exchange rate in terms of cash between 1740-1840. We concede to the view that a fairly large number of responsible Chinese officials well understood the reasons underlying the fluctuations in the monetary system and recognized that quantity and quality of circulating cash would affect the silver-cash exchange rate. These officials also were aware of the circumstance that too great divergences between the official and the market exchange rates could cause hardships to soldiers and peasants and could lead to social frictions or even mutinies. In view of this circumstance it is all the more puzzling that Jiangsu and Zhejiang officials did not to pay more attention to measures to stabilize the depreciating brass currency in the Lower Yangzi region.
Publications
- “Regularien für Transportbeamte von Kupfertransporten im Qing-zeitlichen China.” In Martina Eglauer and Clemes Treter (eds.), Reisen: Tagungsband der Deutschen Vereinigung für Chinastudien. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz, 2008
Hirzel, Thomas
- Metals, Monies, and Markets in Early Modern Societies: East Asian and Global Perspectives. Berlin: LIT (Monies, Markets and Finance in China and East Asia 1), 2009
Hirzel, Thomas and Nanny Kim (eds.)
- “Mint Metal Procurement for Jiangsu and Zhejiang during the Qianlong Period (1736–1795): An Inquiry into the Central Government’s Expectations and the Provinces’ Strategies of Implementation”. In: Thomas Hirzel and Nanny Kim (eds.): Metals, Monies, and Markets in Early Modern Societies: East Asian and Global Perspectives. Berlin: LIT (Monies, Markets and Finance in China and East Asia 1), 2009
Hirzel, Thomas
- Mint Metal Procurement for Jiangsu and Zhejiang in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries: An Inquiry into the Organisational Capability of the Qing State. Ph.D. Diss., Tübingen University
Hirzel, Thomas
