The Characteristics Of Ancient Chinese Monetary Thought

The economic theories are the reflection of the economic structure and economic relations in the social life. The monetary theories are important part of the economic theories, which are derived from the process of commodity trading and exchange and continuously influenced by such process. In different historic periods, the social economic activities had different patterns and the economic structure and relations continuously evolved and developed along with them. Therefore, as reflection of economic relations, the monetary theories showed certain development series and evolving roadmap. From the slavery economy in Chun Qiu Zhan Guo period to feudal economy in Qing Dynasty, ancient Chinese monetary theories reflected those people's thoughts on social politics and economy, which were closely related to social conditions, economic structure, cultural patterns and development level of productivity. Playing as an important role in Chinese economic theories and international monetary theories, ancient Chinese monetary theories had special monetary concepts and unique development roadmap with multilayer cultural, economic and historic backgrounds.Current researches on ancient Chinese monetary theories are mainly concentrated in basic monetary theories and analysis of monetary policies, while study on characteristics of ancient Chinese monetary theories is relatively rare. Therefore, this paper attempts to generate an overall understanding on ancient Chinese monetary theories and summarize the basic characteristics of ancient Chinese monetary theories based on previous researches and tools of modern monetary theories. It goes from these aspects: (1) study on unique concepts of ancient Chinese monetary theories that underlies the research on ancient Chinese monetary theories; (2) study on the reasons and impacts of absence of monetary value theories, which is the foundation of overall understanding on ancient Chinese monetary theories; (3) based on those studies, this paper attempts to outline the spiral development series of ancient Chinese monetary theories, which reveals the characteristics of ancient Chinese monetary theories' evolving roadmap. Nowadays, generally reviewing and understanding the key characteristics and soul of ancient Chinese monetary theories in the view of modern monetary economics is very helpful to inherit and develop traditional Chinese monetary theories as well as to provide positive references for understanding patterns of Chinese monetary policies and the policy making process.