Chinese Central Monetary Policy, 1644-1800

Vogel, Hans Ulrich

doi:10.1353/late.1987.0013

Cited by 61 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…16 16 Vogel, ‘Chinese central monetary policy’, contains the most comprehensive collection of market exchange rates for various provinces in China for the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries, but these exchange rates do not apply to the case of the co‐circulation of multiple versions of silver and copper cash within the same locality, an issue pointed out in Kuroda's recent study, ‘Copper coins’. For a case of neglecting these complicated currency problems in the study of nominal and grain wages, see Chao, Man and land , pp.…”

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Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India

Allen

Bassino

et al. 2011

The Economic History Review

332

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This article develops data on the history of wages and prices in Beijing, Canton, and Suzhou/Shanghai in China from the eighteenth century to the twentieth, and compares them with leading cities in Europe, Japan, and India in terms of nominal wages, the cost of living, and the standard of living. In the eighteenth century, the real income of building workers in Asia was similar to that of workers in the backward parts of Europe but far behind that in the leading economies in north‐western Europe. Real wages stagnated in China in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries and rose slowly in the late nineteenth and early twentieth, with little cumulative change for 200 years. The income disparities of the early twentieth century were due to long‐run stagnation in China combined with industrialization in Japan and Europe.

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Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India

Allen

Bassino

et al. 2011

The Economic History Review

332

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“…After 1736, the use and fabrication of brass utensils still was monitored, especially in Peking. 91 In theory, all copper was bought up by the state, and only after the mid-Qianlong reign was a small amount of so-called 'commercial' copper legally available on the market. 92 Mining policies were often erratic and could thus cause shortages of other raw materials.…”

Section: Government Restrictions Of Craft Activitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

2. The Qing Central Government Institutions in Control of the Handicrafts

2018

State and Crafts in the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911)

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This chapter explores the institutional structure of those agencies of the Qing central government that controlled craft production and construction, together with one of their most important bureaucratic instruments, the handicraft regulations. Temporally it covers the entire range of the dynasty from the Ming-Qing transition through to the demise of the monarchy and the rise of the Republic of China. It does so by concentrating on the craft branches in the capital or in its close vicinity. For the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, during the transition to 'modernity' in the sense of mechanized production, innovations in the government vocational schools are discussed, and the industrial policies of the Qing administration are outlined. By the nineteenth century, a divergence between the court and the central government in terms of government policy towards the craft institutions can be analyzed on the basis of official documentation: while the government and provinces had their artisan staff reduced to practically nothing, the court institutions were strengthened rather than weakened. Government Institutions in Control of the Crafts: Ministries of the Central Government and Court Administration From the beginning, the number of government workshops and manufactories in the Qing period was more modest than during the preceding dynasties, but their product range was still broad. The main branches of activity were the construction of public, religious, and court buildings; silk weaving; the production of weapons and armour; ceramics and other arts and crafts objects; shipbuilding; cash casting; and printing. In the central government in Peking, these tasks were mainly organized into three institutions: the Ministry of Public Works (gongbu), the Imperial Household Department (neiwufu), and the Ministry of Revenue (hubu). Provincial administrations organized, in cooperation with the lower-level prefectural or district authorities, the construction and maintenance of official civilian, religious, and military buildings; traffic arteries; cash production; armaments and ammunition; and shipbuilding. To this was added, depending on the local situation, river or sea dike conservancy, mining, and salt production, although in the latter two cases, the actual work and technical organization was in the hands of monopoly merchants rather than officials. The total numbers of artisans in the direct service of the government around 1800 may have been more than 40,000, of which about 14,000 were engaged in Peking and 26,000 outside the capital in various state manufactories and construction sites (see tables 14 and 15).

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“…In the lexicon of Qing political administration, silver could be expensive and copper cheap 銀貴錢賤, meaning that it took more copper coins to buy one ounce of silver; or silver could be cheap and copper expensive 銀賤錢貴. The former situation could have resulted from a scarcity of silver or a high demand for it; the latter from “either a scarcity of cash coins in circulation or a high demand of copper in the private market, an oversupply of silver bullion or a combination of all these factors” (Vogel, 1987: 5). These factors of supply and demand created what economic historian Akinobu Kuroda calls currency circuits.…”

Section: The Background Of Qing Currency Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Maintenance of the market exchange rate at close to the official rate of 1,000 copper coins to one liang of silver “was one of the main objectives of the government,” but market conditions often outpaced the ability of Qing officials to do so (Vogel, 1987: 5). The Qing government had several channels to influence the ratio between silver and copper: in times of cash oversupply, it could stop production; in periods of high demand it could mint more cash if copper supplies were adequate.…”

Section: The Background Of Qing Currency Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Qing government had several channels to influence the ratio between silver and copper: in times of cash oversupply, it could stop production; in periods of high demand it could mint more cash if copper supplies were adequate. Moreover, the government could change the weight of copper coins, decreasing it when cash was valued highly in terms of silver and increasing it when cash depreciated in terms of silver (Vogel, 1987: 10).…”

Section: The Background Of Qing Currency Policymentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Coin for China? The Monetary Standards Debate at the End of the Qing Dynasty, 1900–1912

Dean

2018

Modern China

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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.

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Chinese Central Monetary Policy, 1644-1800

Cited by 61 publications

References 19 publications

Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India

Wages, prices, and living standards in China, 1738–1925: in comparison with Europe, Japan, and India

2. The Qing Central Government Institutions in Control of the Handicrafts

A Coin for China? The Monetary Standards Debate at the End of the Qing Dynasty, 1900–1912

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