A Comparison Of The Formation And Operation Mechanism Of Currency Partition Circulation In Song And Ming Dynasties

Compared with the current normal impression of "one country,one currency",currency circulation in different regions was the normal situation in ancient China.According to whether it is within the unified political framework,the currency circulation in China’s history can be roughly divided into two categories: first,under the background of regime fragmentation,each regime formed a independent monetary system;The other is to form distinctive currency circulation areas within the territory under the condition of the unification of the regime.However,political unity is not the decisive factor affecting the currency circulation in different regions.Therefore,exploring the issue of currency circulation in the context of unified dynasty can reduce the influence of political unification on currency circulation and better understand and grasp the economic motivations of currency circulation in ancient China.Among the numerous dynasties in ancient China,the Song and Ming dynasties are great objects of study,that is,although the two dynasties achieved political unity and high centralization,internally,there was a situation of currency circulation in different regions.The academic circle also had paid attention to the currency circulation problems in the two dynasties,and formed a series of profound research results.However,the current research is still mostly focused on the formation and changes of currency circulation in the two dynasties,and the comparative study and theoretical analysis of currency circulation in the two dynasties are still insufficient.Therefore,this thesis makes use of the historical documents and currently research of the Song and Ming dynasties,introduces the theory of optimal currency area,currency hierarchy theory and other theories to specifically discuss and compare the currency circulation of the two dynasties.Under the unified political framework,the Song Dynasty and the Ming Dynasty formed the pattern of multi-currency division.Under the guidance and policy shaping of the central government in the Song Dynasty,special currency areas such as Sichuan,Northwest and Huaihe River were formed successively.Different from the copper coin circulation area of the ruling center,iron coins were used as the main currency in these areas,and a credit currency(credit bill)system with regional characteristics was formed based on iron coins.The central government of Ming Dynasty successively provided two kinds of official monetary system.However,due to the design defects of the monetary system and the decline of the national capacity,the Ming government lacked the monetary system supply for a long time,and the dominant power in the monetary field gradually shifted to the private market.In addition to the northern currency zone,in the long absence of the official monetary system in the Ming Dynasty,the "land of money","land of money" and "land of money" were mainly derived by the market.There are important differences in the formation and operation mechanism of currency areas in the Song and Ming Dynasties,which can be well illustrated by taking Sichuan and northern China as examples.Sichuan area is the concentrated embodiment of the difference between the formation mechanism of currency circulation in two dynasties.Iron Coins Area of Sichuan in Song Dynasty was mainly formed under the guidance of government policies.In order to establish a currency buffer zone and plunder the copper coins and wealth of Sichuan,the Song Dynasty took copper coins out of Sichuan by means of such policies as tribute and taxation,which destroyed the circulation basis of local copper and iron coins.Although the government took measures to restore the circulation of local copper coins during the period,it could not stop the process of transforming Sichuan from copper and iron coins to a single iron coins area.In the Ming Dynasty,a multi-currency area featuring "fennel silver" was formed in Sichuan,which was more caused by the spontaneous market forces rather than forced promotion by the government.After the collapse of the official monetary system supplied by the Ming government,the demand for a new monetary system emerged among the people.For the purpose of reducing transaction costs,businessmen and local silversmiths formed a collusion group and made use of their influence in the monetary field to provide and maintain a set of currency circulation norms with "fennel silver" as the core,making up for the shortage of supply in the official monetary system.In the northern border areas,both the Song and Ming Dynasties invested a large amount of money and resources in order to maintain the border military confrontation and pay for the huge military demands of the war.Around the money and resources supplied by the government,the two places have formed a special currency area which is different from the mainstream currency area,and the two currency areas have certain similarities in the formation mechanism.However,there are important differences in the maintenance and operation mechanism of the two.The Song Dynasty actively introduced market mechanism and credit system in northwest China to maintain the credit of local iron money,and embedded iron money into the monetary credit system inside and outside the region,forming a relatively stable circulation mechanism.In the Ming Dynasty,there was no internal stable monetary circulation mechanism and credit mechanism in the northern military area,but the pattern of layered use of silver and multiple physical currencies was maintained through one-way and continuous external silver injection.The difference of currency zone operation mechanism in Song and Ming dynasties further reflects the difference of social and economic operation idea and operation mode in Song and Ming dynasties.The Song government had a strong ability to intervene in currency and economy.It could accomplish some specific goals by changing monetary policies,and paid attention to the use of market and credit mechanisms to improve efficiency and reduce costs.On the contrary,the Ming government’s ability to intervene in currency and economy declined dynamically,not only the dominant power of currency gradually moved to the private market,but also the lack of awareness and ability to use the market and credit mechanism.This thesis further introduces the analytical framework of the Neoinstitutional Economics in the appendix to analyze the activities of the Song and Ming dynasties in the change of monetary systems in both places and related issues.The thesis finds that the monetary system changes in both places during the Song and Ming Dynasties were compulsory changes led by the government,which was the main demand and supply side of the monetary system;while the monetary system changes in both places during the Ming Dynasty were led by the private forces represented by merchants,which had the characteristics of induced institutional changes,and the private forces became the main demand and supply side of the monetary system.The reason why the change of monetary system in both places could be sustained or completed successfully was that the benefits of the change of monetary system for the government or the private forces exceeded the costs of the change.