Study On The Currency Control Policy In The Ming Dynasty

It was a period of dramatic changes in politics and economy in Europe and Asia from 14~thh to17~thh century.The Ming dynasty embraced a new era of reform due to the increasingly close world trade network.In the early Ming dynasty,political and military systems were established on the basis of a materilized fiscal system.As the materilized fiscal system unable to meet the expanding financial needs of the government,the government mobilized marerial resources through the monetary control policy in the market path frequently,and it led a transition from the materilized fiscal system to the monetary fiscal system.The monetary control policy in the Ming dynasty was a institutional adjustment of the government to maintain the monetary system,and a rebalancing strategy adopted by the government in the field of currency and finance,which laid the foundation of fical reform.In the early Ming dynasty,the government chosed a social oragnization mode which it could directly mobilized material resources under the fiscal system dominated in kind.The Ming notes standard monetary system enable the government to gather market resources forcefully,and guaranteed the market basis of the fiscal system under material domination.The government continuously increased the Ming notes supply and the scope of financial expenditure,which enable the government mobilized more and more material resources.However,the Ming notes continued to depreciate with overissue,and it brought little effect on the monetary control policy which was supposed to stabilize the value of the currency.The continuous expansion of financial scale made the Ming notes changed from stable currency to nominal currency.The dual differentiation of fiscal and market payment systems had seriously affected the ability of government to dominate material resources.In the middle and late Ming dynasty,the fiscal system gradually turned to monetization,and the monetary system shifted from the Ming notes standard to parallel of silver and copper coin.As the government gradually reduced the supply of Ming notes in the financial payment system,the trendency of price differentiation in the financial and market sectors was curbed.Finance monetization had greatly reduced the ability of government to directly mobilize material resources,and the path of mobilizing material resources through the market became increasingly important to the government.Through adjusting the currency circulation in the financial field,revising the currency laws,adjusting the currency supply,and suppressing the prices,the government maintained a relatively stable rate of exchange between the copper coin issued by the government and the silver supplied by the market,and thereby ensuring the domination ability of the government in mobilizing material resources.The foundamental purpose of monetary control policy in the Ming dynasty is to maintain the stability of currency value,and the direct purpose is to maintain the stability of prices.The government needed to increase monetary fiscal revenue on the basis of stabilizing prices in order to attain the expanding fiscal expenditure.This process can only be possible and significant to be realized under the monetary system with a stable currency value.From a short period perspective,the monetary control policy in the Ming dynasty basically achieved the relative stability of the currency value in the field of fiscal circulation,and increased the monetary fiscal revenue.However,in the field of market circulation,the trend of depreciation of the Ming notes made it difficult for the government to maintain price stability under the Ming notse standard system,which prompted the government to reform the monetary system.From a long period perspective,changes in the monetary system have show that the government was more concerned about stabilizing prices rather than currency value.It is not in conflict with the fundamental purpose of monetary control policy.Only in stable monetary system,can the currency maintain stable value in the fiscal and market payment systems,instead of leading to the binary opposition between the fiscal and market circulation sectors and weakening the fiscal ability of the government.The path of the monetary control policy in Ming Dynasty includes the monetary field,the financial field and the legal field.The direct way of currency control is to adjust the supply,value and rate of exchange of money,and the indirect way is to adjust the scope and proportion of currency in fiscal field.Revising the monetary laws is only an auxiliary means to ensure the normal operation of monetary market.From the perspective of the datas of the price of rice and millet in the Ming dynasty,the frequently used way of monetary control policy is to adjust the scope and proportion of currency in the fiscal fiels,followed by the control in the monetary field,and it is a relatively rare situation that control policy was recorded as laws or regulations finally.The currency control policy in the Ming dynasty is hierarchical,seasonal and regional,and it is more influenced by fiscal orientation than by market orientation.In terms of hierarchy,the currency control policy is more concerned with the high-level circulation areas,and the distribution frequency of control about silver is the highest.In terms of seasonality,the currency control policy is more concerned with the summer and autumn when grain tax was paid.In the early Ming dynasty,it is mainly concerned with with summer.Although the distribution frequency in each season is relatively average in the middle and late Ming dynasty,it is still the highest in summer and autumn.In terms of regionality,the currency control policy is more concerned withthe key areas to ensure the revenue of fiscal taxes.The distribution frequency is the highest in the tribute grain regions in the south and the area along the grand canal,especially in the south and north Zhili regions.