Already the first Han emperor after the fall of the Qin Dynasty had legalized this custom in 206 B. In those areas that were short on coins, private individuals used circulated specimens to produce cash coins in exactly the same way, and these coins were accepted on the market like any officially sanctioned piece. 40.Īfter that, they were slung together on slings with which bigger sums would be paid much easier.īy the way, cash wasn’t produced in the official mints exclusively. Schroeder-Annam, Études numismatiques, Paris (1905), pl. The cash coins are counted and strung together on slings by which they became easy to handle. Once the model was approved of officially, it was carved in wood, bone or ivory. Even the emperor is said to have designed coins from time to time. First, an important calligrapher created the layout of the new coin that wasn’t decorated with figural representations but with characters only. The cash weren’t minted like the western coins but were cast in an expandable mould. Contrary to expectations, it didn’t originate in China, but in India where the word ‘karsha’ meant ‘bronze coin’. One ‘pen’ equaled a clay vessel containing exactly 1,000 coins – in 1962, a clay container was found in Zhangpu (Shaanxi Province) actually filled with 1,000 coins which, additionally, still possessed the seal of the market administration of a small community.Īt last, a word about the term ‘cash’. Its value was defined with 11 unsorted coins.įor large sums, in addition, the unit ‘pen’ was used. ‘Bu’ was only accepted as currency when it came in precisely this size. It informs about the ‘bu’ being used as currency as well, simultaneously with the cash, fabric measuring exactly 188 x 58 centimeters. Let’s get back to the above mentioned law. –Īs a matter of fact, other materials than bronze were used for manufacturing money in China, too, – we know specimens made of the inferior metals lead and iron, even made of fabric and paper, in some cases of bamboo or wood. That means that this first cash already was a currency that was designed solely as a means of barter, regardless of its intrinsic value, and this was a development that Europe ultimately completed as late as 1968. In addition, it was prohibited to sort these coins according to weight when doing business. And here we read that the ‘round-shaped coins’ were to be used without any distinction, regardless if they were ‘beautiful’ or ‘ugly’ (in plain terms, if they were heavy or light). The regulation, written on bamboo, contains some provisions on economic and currency affairs. The way in which these coins were used is explained in a legal document that was found in a tomb in 1975. Just like our present money, these coins were a ‘fiat currency’, hence a means of exchange whose value wasn’t backed by any noble metal but was valuable only thanks to a joint convention. The Chinese belief system, therefore, is reflected in the cash which constituted the most important of Chinese money until the 19th century. The central sanctuary of China, the Temple of Heaven, was a circular building in a square-shaped court – and this symbolism is clearly mirrored in the imperial coins: they are round-shaped with a square hole. The Chinese say that he had a virtual regulation mania that resulted not only in the unification of the Chinese script and the standardization of all measures and weights but likewise in a a rigid ordinance regarding the hairdo of his soldiers and the regulation that the square official caps of his civil servants had to be exactly six fingers high, the carriages exactly 1.82 m long. He introduced a hierarchy for the civil servants where the individual could work his way up to the top. He divided the empire into equal units that were subordinated to him and controlled by his officials. He is credited with having built a major part of the Great Wall of China. They consider him a tyrant, on the one hand, and the initiator of a great unification, on the other hand. This ruler we today in the west primarily know thanks to his terracotta warriors, the Chinese revered as founder of their state. Group of soldiers of the terracotta army of Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi in his tomb of Xi’an.
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