Why is it that there is so much silver in ancient China, but now it is so rare?

In ancient times, there were no banknotes and coins, and we know from costume dramas that the ancients traded gold, silver, or copper coins as money. Moreover, those royal nobles are tens of millions of taels of **** at every turn, if you say so, there is still a lot of silver in ancient times.

Now, in addition to gold and silver jewelry in our lives, we rarely see these silvers in other places, so what about the ancient silver? In fact, there are several reasons for this, and some experts have given explanations.

At the beginning, there was not a lot of silver in ancient times, and later, after the opening of the Silk Road, foreigners were very interested in Chinese porcelain, tea, silk and other special products, so they came to China to buy, but the demand for foreign goods by Chinese was very small, which led to a large number of foreign ** flowing into China, so at this time there was more silver in China.

In ancient times, silver was circulated in the market as a form of money, but the value of silver was also very valuable. In ancient times, one ingot of silver was equivalent to 1,000 yuan, and most ordinary people could not earn a single ingot of silver in their lifetime. So silver is only something that only rich and aristocratic families can have.

And the money that poor families often spend is copper coins, and silver is rarely seen.

In ancient times, there was a funeral system, and in ancient times, silver was not only used as currency by people, but also became people's funeral goods. After the death of some particularly wealthy businessmen or nobles, many of their funeral goods are specially made of ** and silver, and silver is not a renewable resource, so the silver in the market will become less and less.

Another important reason is that in the last years of the Qing Dynasty, the great powers opened the door to China in a cruel way. Due to the corruption of the Qing Dynasty and the backwardness of the feudal system, it eventually led to the invasion of foreign invaders. The invasion of the Eight-Nation Coalition and Japan, the Qing Dynasty was unable to resist, which eventually led to the cession of land and huge indemnities.

In these unequal treaties, China has lost not a little bit, but tens of thousands. In this way, the ** that flowed into China from overseas ** was once again lost from China. As a result, a large amount of gold and silver treasures in the country were looted!

It's really heartbreaking.

In modern times, silver is used in many industrial products. In addition, China's silver mines have been mined almost in ancient times, only the consumption has not increased, so the silver is becoming less and less.

So we can only see silver in some gold and silver jewelry, and very little in other places.

Now silver is also very common, the city is full of silver jewelry stores, the general unit price of silver is only a few dozen, a pair of silver earrings may be less than a hundred yuan.

Because many of them were buried in the ground, the ancients had to bring some silver to accompany the burial after they died, and they were almost taken away after such a long time.

Because the ** of ancient silver is much lower than that of silver now. And in ancient times, not everyone could afford to use silver, and many ordinary people used copper plates in their homes.

Why has so much silver disappeared from ancient times?

First of all, copper coins were the main currency used in ancient China for most of the time. It was not until the Ming and Qing dynasties that the use of ** was gradually popularized. In addition, the total amount of gold and silver in ancient times was actually limited and could not be compared with the modern circulation.

In addition, the loss of gold and silver in modern times is serious, and after losing some of the gold and silver, the rest is naturally insignificant.

Due to the frequent depictions of silver ingots in classical ** and TV dramas, many people believe that silver has been a common currency in ancient times. But in fact, after the Qin Dynasty unified the Six Kingdoms, the square hole round copper coin was the currency with the largest circulation. For a long time in ancient times, gold and silver were only valuable ***.

It is only used for transactions or payments of ** value. As a result, gold and silver coins from all dynasties were scarce and were usually calculated directly by weight.

Most of the gold or silver ingots of the various dynasties of the <> were kept in the treasury of the time. In fact, there are only a small number of appraisals in the private sector, or most of them are in the hands of the authorities. In the event of natural disasters such as floods and yellow plagues, funds are allocated from the national treasury to local governments for disaster relief.

This was the case during the normal functioning of the dynasties. In times of war, the circulation of gold or silver ingots can be very chaotic. There is an old saying, when the cannon goes off, **10,000 taels.

At this point, you're going to spend money, and these gold or silver ingots are gone? Of course, only the victor remains.

For example, Zhang Xianzhong in the last years of the Ming Dynasty grabbed a large amount of silver in various places. But in the end, he still failed, so what should he do if he robbed so much money? I can't take it away, I can't spend it, I can only throw it into the river.

It is also the largest discovery in the history of archaeology in recent years. Zhang Xianzhong Shen Yin, which contains all kinds of gold and silver treasures, has become a very important material for studying the history of the late Ming Dynasty. The smelting of bronze began in the Spring and Autumn Period in China, and after a thousand years of development, the smelting technology has been greatly improved, but the loss of smelting is inevitable, and the further the time goes, the greater the loss.

We all know that until the Qing Dynasty, there was also a loss in the smelting process of silver nuggets, which is the "famous" "fire consumption" tax.

Where does all this money go now? Why did the ancients sell silver? The first silver coin is cheaper than **, and the accidental loss is not small, and the second silver coin is more expensive than the copper coin, and you can buy something dozens of yuan more than today, and it is enough to buy general change, and there was no extra choice at that time, so when silver is not ashamed to become the main currency in circulation, their pockets are big enough, hehe.

<> except for the primitive period of commodity exchange, real gold and silver were almost the currency that passed between dynasties. Their value does not change drastically with dynastic changes or currency reforms, not even the amount of real gold** measured in ancient times. Therefore, this matter has always been highly valued.

In our country, there is a long tradition of mining gold and silver, and for thousands of years, where will these huge sums go? Much of the gold and silver was collected privately. The change of dynasties in ancient times was also accompanied by turmoil.

In addition, there is the invasion of foreign enemies, which may be nearby at this time, namely gold and silver. The life of a small farmer gave our ancestors a sense of saving, and this savings tended to be converted into gold and silver. In "The Last Emperor", one manifestation of this is that the princess's commander-in-chief adds the princess to the eunuch.

A lot of silverware and silverware were buried on the ground by private individuals and later remained in place due to hostilities, etc., but it was not known that it could be found in **. Therefore, the place where the gold and silver were hidden is also unknown.

It should be noted that the currency used directly in the gold bars was very small, and the average person could hardly obtain copper, silver and silver ingots, and it was only later that the salaries of the ** began to pay gold and silver, and before that, they also gave out grain and copper. As for gold bars, they are usually used to reward merit. Perhaps many friends have seen in the history books that bounties such as thousands of catties are recorded, so it can be considered that there was a lot of gold and silver in ancient times, but there was some moisture between them, which was one of the reasons for the disappearance of gold and silver in ancient times.

Listen to what Yuan's son says.

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There was a lot of silver buried with the master, and our country was invaded by other countries before, so unequal treaties were signed, and a lot of silver was paid to other countries.

Because a lot of silver has been made into gestures, and secondly, because a lot of silver has been buried, so this situation will occur.

Because in modern times in our country, these ** were handed over to foreign colonies and traded out, so the number of ** is very scarce now.