This article examines debates about monetary standards in the final years of the Qing dynasty. As silver depreciated on the world market, Qing statesmen discussed whether to adopt the gold-exchange standard or to stay on the silver standard. These debates took place on a conceptual and practical level: Should and could the Qing dynasty adopt the gold-exchange standard and what were the economic, political, and symbolic implications of doing so? The article contributes to the history of the late Qing dynasty by focusing on the monetary thought of figures more famous for their other roles: Zhang Zhidong, Liang Qichao, and Kang Youwei. It shows how the monetary standards debate had complex links to international finance, conceptions of sovereignty, central-provincial relations, and public finance. The article concludes by demonstrating how these debates continued in the next decades, becoming a central issue in modern Chinese history.
This article uses primary sources from China, Taiwan, and the United States to chronicle the history of the Shanghai Mint and u.s.–China monetary interactions during the 1920s and early 1930s. It focuses on the period immediately preceding the well-known Silver Purchase Act of 1934 and the Nationalist government’s decision to abandon the silver standard in favor of a managed currency, the fabi, in November 1935. The article highlights the importance of u.s. advisors, particularly mint technician Clifford Hewitt and Princeton University professor Edwin Kemmerer, in debates about whether China should adopt the gold-exchange standard or stay on the silver standard, as well as their role in the elimination of the silver tael (liang) as a unit of account. The article demonstrates the long-standing interest of the United States in Chinese currency reform and shows how, in the 1920s, this interest often manifested itself in the interactions between Chinese officials and conduits like Hewitt and Kemmerer, rather than monetary missions that the u.s. Congress approved as had been the case in the early 1900s. Finally, the article traces the goals of successive Chinese governments to exercise more control over the currency of modern China and the role of u.s. advisors in that process.
This chapter determines whether the Coinage Act of 1873 was a political or economic crime. It uses the creation and circulation of trade dollars to introduce the first important thread about why and how the silver era in world history came to an end from the 1870s to the 1930s. It also discusses the international competition for influence over the Chinese monetary system in the context of declining silver prices. The chapter recounts the mines of the Comstock Lode, monetary debates in the United States after the Civil War, and fallout from the Franco-Prussian War that undermined the system of worldwide bimetallism for much of the nineteenth century. It highlights the proponents of the trade dollar that lessened England's financial role in the China trade and established a broader U.S. financial architecture in Asia.
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