Was silver really used for trading in ancient times, and did most stores not accept cash?

In the TV series, ** as a currency. It's tens of millions of taels at every turn. But in fact, this is just an exaggerated statement to attract attention, in real life, the ancient times rarely used ** as a trading item.

Even if you get ** to trade, maybe the store will not dare to accept it, mainly because ** is a rare item in ancient times. Not only is it not easy to make a move, but it can also bring trouble to yourself. <>

Although China's land area is vast and rich in resources, silver ore has always been in a state of demand, and there are almost no in China, and only in Inner Mongolia and Northwest China can be mined a little. Therefore, most of the silver ore was controlled in the hands of ethnic minorities, and most of the wars between the two countries were fought because of this. In fact, before that, it was popular in China to use copper coins and ** as currency.

It was not until the time of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty that they reformed each other, and later because of the different comprehensive rules, the currency used at that time was also very different, resulting in confusion in the style of money. <>

Therefore, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty uniformly used 5 baht coins. Later, the five-baht coin was used for a long time, until the Wei, Jin, Southern and Northern Dynasties, many large families secretly minted coins in private. This is what we call counterfeit banknotes, and they mix some inferior metals into them, and then the quality of the copper coins becomes very poor.

Later, in order to avoid being oppressed by the big family, the people used grain as currency in exchange. This continued until the Sui dynasty, which began using copper coins in 581. However, this does not change the people's insistence on using food as currency.

Later, after the sea route was opened, some areas rich in ** began to communicate with China, so with the inflow of ** into the Ming Dynasty, ** began to change the monetary policy and used ** as the main circulating currency. <>

But the big families took advantage of this to squeeze from the people. The price of silver was secretly raised, and the people have always been the one who suffered, and the reason why there was a serious peasant uprising in the late Ming Dynasty was because of this unreasonable tax policy. In addition, in the late Qing Dynasty, a large number of foreign countries were compensated, resulting in a high shortage of people.

Every time people pay taxes, they have to sell most of their family property in exchange for **. Therefore, in ancient times, it was rare to use ** as currency to trade, and generally speaking, grain or cloth was used.

Most of the ancient transactions used copper plates, although silver is also one of the currencies, but most of them are used for imperial taxes, so many shops refuse to accept **!

In ancient times, silver was indeed used in transactions, and ordinary shops would also accept silver, but it was just some broken silver.

In ancient times, people generally used copper coins for trading, and most of the people in ancient times were relatively poor, and there were very few people who could have silver, and the shops generally did not accept silver, because the value of silver was too great, and it was generally impossible to spend it.

Because of convenience, human beings used "physical money" at the beginning, but the times are progressing, right, some things are inconvenient to exchange for them, and a unified value scale will be used to stipulate them, and gold and silver are such a "value scale".

01.The state stipulates that only money is collected when taxes are paid.

In the beginning, people directly took food and cloth in exchange for what they wanted, which was the first stage of "bartering".

But if this stage is too long, you will find that when buying and selling things, the trouble is big! Grain and this kind of thing are all bags and bags, in the morning I went to the market, and in the afternoon I came back with a bunch of things, whether I could buy it or not, anyway, I exercised.

Moreover, at that time, the state also collected taxes and grain, such as the Yuan Dynasty, the taxation was mainly based on grain, and many people began to cheat and play tricks.

Over time, the imperial court also knew, in order to prevent similar things from happening, Emperor Longqing decided not to collect grain in the future, and directly collected **, to see how they cut corners.

As soon as this policy came out, the people couldn't do anything, they couldn't pay taxes without silver, so in the Ming and Qing dynasties, the people's transactions were mainly based on **.

02.Although the silver is small, it is convenient.

We all know that the texture of silver is very soft, it is easy to make a transaction currency, and a piece of silver can be divided according to the size you want, no matter what you buy, you don't have to worry about not being able to find it.

It is much more convenient to decorate silver in a money bag when you go out every day than to carry a pile of grain cloth or something!

When using grain, you have to see if the other party is adulterated, and you won't use silver at all, and you will know if it's true or false when you bite it.

Judging the value of silver by its weight is much more convenient than bartering.

03.The smaller the quantity, the more the value of the silver is revealed.

Although the amount of silver is very small, and the metal deposits are limited, this thing will not be wasted, and it can be used regardless of size.

Since we are buying things, the things we give to others must naturally have some value, otherwise what is the difference between them and bad checks?

The small amount of silver is also a good thing, which proves that it is very valuable, and no one will object to the value of "everyone knows what it is worth as soon as it is taken out"!

So, this highlights the value of silver and its ability to be used as a currency in circulation. Although gold is also very valuable, ordinary people can't have it at all, and although copper is also valuable, it is easy to counterfeit, and only silver is the most suitable.

Because whether it is ancient or modern, silver and gold are hard currency, they are the essence of money, and no matter how a dynasty replaces these two things, they are indispensable.

Because it's convenient

In fact, in ancient times, silver was not so scarce, but it was almost deposited in the caves (treasure houses) of every household, resulting in little silver circulation. Compared with iron money, copper money and gold, silver has the role of connecting the previous and the next. It doesn't have iron coins, copper coins are as heavy, and gold is too far away.

Because of the low productivity at that time, there were no particularly valuable things, so the daily life of the silver could still be satisfied.

Silver is not easy to divide, so ordinary people can't use silver for normal transactions. Copper coins are mostly used.

Because one ingot of silver was more than enough to pay for a meal, and in most cases it would be redundant, and because the price of goods at that time was not particularly high, one ingot of silver was quite a lot. <>

There is always a scene in TV series and **, many martial arts people go to a small restaurant to eat a big meal, and after a few catties of meat and a few catties of wine, after eating, they can just put a silver ingot and leave, and many times the store can go directly to clean up the table and take away the silver. In fact, such a plot is like this in the TV series, and it is also consistent with the records in history, in ancient times, almost all the people who went to the restaurant were relatively rich, and the poor had no opportunity and conditions to go to the restaurant, and there was this kind of situation where the money was put and left, it was generally a martial arts hero, or a local tyrant, for these people, they all belonged to the rich, and they were all bold people, so they didn't care about this money, of course, now there may be for the effect of the TV series. <>

In addition, in ancient times, people may not have their prices are particularly high, at that time a silver ingot has been very much, in ancient times the most common is silver, but also the most important currency in circulation, of course, at that time there may be a few Wen, a few, ** and other currency units, that is to say, at that time there were other currency denominations for trading. The most expensive may be**, of course, there are some ** products and antique calligraphy and paintings that are more valuable. The second place should be to **, it is said that one or two ** can be exchanged for ten taels**, and one or two ** can be exchanged for a hundred yuan, and consistent money can be exchanged for a thousand yuan.

is such a conversion method, from which it can be seen that there are still more than one or two **. <>

In addition, judging from the market situation at that time, one or two ** could buy fifty catties of meat, and they were all weighing by catties at that time, and the restaurant was the same as asking for a few catties of meat, so even if four people ate at that time, they couldn't eat fifty catties of meat, so giving the store a piece of silver was completely enough to pay for the meal, and there was a balance.

Because this is all played out on TV, of course the real antiquity needs to be checked, what if the silver is put there, it is taken away by passers-by or the store does not see it, so the real antiquity will not put down the silver and leave.

Because the amount of silver produced in ancient times was low, silver was very valuable, so valuable, it was too late for the store to be happy, how could they ask for their own hardship.

There are two reasons: one is because there are too few waiters and there is not much time to check in time; Second, because of the inconvenient transportation in ancient times, most people only moved near their birthplaces, which led to most people knowing each other, and if they gave less money, they would be approached.

In ancient times, the amount of silver was calculated by weight, and they usually cut the silver with steel shears to further reduce the weight of a single piece of silver, so that it could be exchanged for copper coins.

In ancient times, copper coins were used to buy things, and silver was rarely used, and copper coins were the legal tender in ancient times, and ordinary people also traded with copper coins.

In ancient times, there was a special scale for measuring silver, and by cutting a certain amount of weight with special scissors, it was used to get on the scale, and after the two parties negotiated and agreed, it was confirmed that the transaction was successful, and the same was true for finding money.