Chapter 19 Chapter 6 Development of Social Productive Forces 2. Universal Cotton Planting and Industry and Commerce

Cotton cloth was introduced to China very early. It was imported from countries in Southeast Asia during the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and it was called Jibei and Baidie.Cotton was produced in Gaochang (now Turpan, Xinjiang) in the northwest of China. Gaochang was destroyed in the Tang Dynasty, and Jiaohe County in Xizhou was established. The soil was tribute to the cloth, and the cloth was Baidie.During the Song and Yuan Dynasties, cotton had already been grown in several areas, but it was only in the early Ming Dynasty that the widespread planting and the improvement of textile technology on a national scale.

Before the Ming Dynasty, civilians wore commoner clothes, which refers to linen clothes.Winter clothes are mostly made of silk cotton in the south, while fur is mostly used in the north.Although cotton cloth is also used for clothing and bedding, it is not sufficient because it is not produced locally.A poem by Yuan Zhen from the Tang Dynasty: Cotton cotton is warm as a cotton coat.Yuan Taizu, Shizu's leftover clothes are all made of plain wood cotton, and they are patched and patched.Xie Fangde, a native of the Song Dynasty, wrote a poem: "It's as white as snow, as dense as brocade and pure, lambskins are not as expensive, and fox armpits are incomparable."Tailored into big fur, poor winter is better than three springs.It can be seen that cotton cloth was still a very precious item in the late Song Dynasty.

Some areas of Fujian and Guangdong in the Song Dynasty had grown cotton.Qiongzhou was a center of hand-woven textiles at that time, and local women weaved Jibei as quilts, which was the main sideline production of the Li people.In the Yuan Dynasty, cotton seeds were imported from the Western Regions, and they were planted in Shaanxi for trial use. Wool silk was woven, or cotton clothes were made, which was especially light and warm.After the Southern Song Dynasty was destroyed, the eastern Zhejiang, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, and Huguang areas also advocated the cultivation of cotton, and the production increased a little. Cotton cloth became a commodity, and more people used it.In April of the 26th year of Zhiyuan (AD 1289), the Mumian Tiju Division was set up in eastern Zhejiang, Jiangdong, Jiangxi, Huguang, and Fujian, and the local people were ordered to transport 100,000 pieces of cotton cloth every year. .In May of the twenty-eighth year, the six mentions in the south of the Yangtze River were dismissed to lose wood cotton at the age of six.In the second year of Chengzong Yuanzhen (AD 1296), it was decided that the Xia tax in the south of the Yangtze River should be transported with wood cotton, cloth, silk and other things.

Due to the increase in the area of ​​cotton planting, the techniques of planting and weaving needed to be summarized and exchanged. From the first year of Yuan Shizu to the 10th year of the Yuan Dynasty, the Secretary of Agriculture compiled and printed the book "Nong Sang Collection", which recorded cotton planting methods in a special space.The tools and techniques of spinning are improving day by day due to the creation and exchange of working people in various places.According to Xiang Xiang's records in the 1280s, after the ethnic minorities in Lei, Hua, Lianzhou, and Lidong in Nanhai collected cotton, they took the velvet flocs, rolled them off with iron rods, and then spun them with the velvet in their hands.Later records mentioned that after the son was removed, Xu used a small bow to shoot the order, and then spun it into cloth.By the middle of the thirteenth century, the poet described the situation of spinning and said: "The car turns lightly, thunder and autumn spins snow, and the bow bends and plays clouds at half-moon night."Weaving tools already include spinning wheels, slingshots and looms.The weavers in the south of the Yangtze River use iron collars to remove the core, and take those that are like cotton. They use bamboo as a small bow, about four or five inches long, and pull the string to play the cotton to make it even and thin. Roll it into a small tube and spin it by car. In other words, the natural threads are like reeling.But the cloth weaves is not as good as the Limi produced in Fujian and Guangxi.The cloth woven by the Li people in Qiongzhou is particularly skillful with fine characters and mixed flowers.The weaving tools and techniques in the main Shaanxi area in the Yellow River Basin are relatively simple. There are only iron rods and wooden boards for removing cotton seeds. The purpose of cotton is to weave thick cotton threads and make winter clothes.Until the end of the 13th century, farmers in Wunijing, Songjiang, engaged in sideline production because of the barren land and insufficient food, and imported cotton seeds from Fujian and Guangzhou. The cotton seeds are cut off and the bamboo arcs are used to flick them. The tools and technology are very backward, the product quality is not high, and the people's life is still very difficult.

During Yuanzheng reign of Emperor Chengzong of Yuan Dynasty (AD 12951296), Huang Daopo, a native of Wunijing, returned to her hometown from Fuhaibo, Qiongzhou. She lived in Qiongzhou since she was a child, and brought back the advanced textile tools of the Li people in Qiongzhou. And technology, teach the women in their hometown to make, defend, play, spin, weave tools, and the technology of wrong yarn, color matching, heddle, and interlocking to weave bedding belts with folded branches, group phoenixes, chess games, and words , as bright as writing.For a while, the textiles made by Wunijing became a best-selling commodity, and became famous far and wide. Thanks to such a popular rural sideline, the living standards of the local people have greatly improved, and more than a thousand people live on textiles.Poets sing about her: Yazhou (Qiongzhou) cloth is reeled in five colors, the fog and clouds are beautiful, the flowers and plants are beautiful, the sails and whales are blown back by the wind, and the thousands of pomelo and Wujing are made by the sky.The situation of local women participating in textile production, the poet described:

Women in Wujing tapped and spun, and the cotton cloth was three hundred feet long. One dominates the body with a low body nest, and the ten hardworking people have straight fingers. In the early years of the Ming Dynasty, not only rural women in the south of the Yangtze River generally participated in textile work, but even some women from landlord families also engaged in sideline production, spinning yarn and making cloth for one-year-old clothing.Since then, Songjiang has become the center of cotton cloth production in the Ming Dynasty, and its cloth is so beautiful and dense that no other place can match it.The products sell well all over the country, and the clothes are all over the world.Songjiang’s taxes and grains were only 180,000 shi in Shaoxing in the Song Dynasty, and increased to 970,000 shi in the Ming Dynasty. Other miscellaneous expenses were equivalent to regular taxes, and the burden was particularly heavy. It mainly relied on the income from the textile industry. Pitch.

Twenty years after Huang Daopo introduced the cotton-making tools and techniques in Qiongzhou, Wang Zhen's "Agricultural Book" listed cotton-making tools as follows: 1. Stirring carts, which are used to remove cotton seeds; 2. Slingshots, long Four feet or so, the bow body is made of bamboo, and the string is made of rope; the third is the feast, and the cotton is rolled into a tube with no-section bamboo strips; Sixth, the cart, used to separate the cotton thread; Seventh, the thread frame.At the end of the Yuan Dynasty, there were sandalwood vertebrae, which were used to strike strings.The production tools were more complete and improved, which prepared the tools and technical conditions for the development of the textile industry in the Ming Dynasty.

The area where Zhu Yuanzhang started the incident was one of the cotton-growing centers in the Yuan Dynasty.After the destruction of Soochow, Songjiang, the center of the cotton textile industry in the southeast, was acquired. The raw materials and technology had a foundation, which convinced him that the promotion of cotton planting was an effective measure to increase the sideline income of farmers and the fiscal revenue of the imperial dynasty.In the 11th year of Longfeng, it was ordered that every farmer must plant half an mu of kapok, and the number of fields should be doubled.In the first year of Hongwu, this decree was extended to all areas covered by the decree.Since this decree is mandatory and meets the requirements of farmers to develop production and improve living standards, cotton planting has since become a nationwide undertaking, and the level of textile technology has also been continuously improved due to the practice of millions of people. After the middle of the Ming Dynasty, Cotton cloth became a commodity circulated throughout the country and a raw material for clothing that was widely used by the people. No matter how high or low, people from north to south made clothes with cotton cloth to keep out the cold. Only one person in a hundred used cocoon cotton, and the rest used cotton cloth.The fringe gowns worn by people in the past and the winter clothes made of old wadding were replaced by fat jackets made of kapok.In the past, civilians who did not serve as officials were called commoners, and the commoners were linen, but now they refer to cotton.As far as the whole country is concerned, the climate in northern Henan and Hebei is suitable for cotton planting. With vast land and sparsely populated areas, the cotton planting area is the largest, and they are the supply centers of raw materials.In the south, especially in the Yangtze River Delta, farmers in Suzhou, Songjiang, Hangzhou and other places have relatively high spinning skills and are the centers of the cotton textile industry.In this way, the exchange of raw materials and finished products is formed. Raw cotton is from north to south, and cotton cloth is from south to north.Commercial markets also expanded, and the widespread cultivation of cotton economically linked the South and the North more closely.

In addition to Songjiang in the early Ming Dynasty, another cotton textile industry center was Hangzhou.The cotton textile industry in Songjiang is only a sideline for farmers, and the main laborers are rural housewives, who do not separate themselves from agricultural production or individual households, and carry out production in a scattered manner.This situation can be generalized to other regions and is of a general nature.However, in Hangzhou, a new production organization emerged. Due to the development of a simple commodity economy, large workshop owners who purchased production tools and raw materials appeared in Hangzhou, as well as handicraft workers who had nothing but their hands to sell their labor power.Large workshop owners employ handicraft workers, who work until midnight every day, and are paid by the day.The emergence of this new system of exploitation means the birth of a new class within society. In this way, in addition to the exploitation of peasants by feudal landlords, there has also been an exploitative relationship between big workshop owners and industrial workers.In the early Ming Dynasty, Xu Yikui, who was a professor of Hangzhou Fuxue, wrote a typical article about this new phenomenon:

In Xianganli of Qiantang (Hangzhou), there are those who are rich in money, and they lead their workers to weave, and they go to Ergu every night.The old house is about to be crushed, and there are four or five locomotives facing north and south. There are more than a dozen workers, all of whom are pale and expressionless.The daily servant pays two hundred mins, food and clothing for the master.With the income of the day, to support parents and wives, although the food is not sweet, it is not very hungry or cold.Yu Fan's weaving is extremely delicate and fashionable.Therefore, the gathering of masters is easy to sell, and the directness of servants is also easy to buy.

There are colleagues in the same industry who work in his family, and the experience is slightly similar.For a long time, he said: "My art is superior to others, but I have to be straight and other workers, so I should look for someone who is twice as straight as my servant."That's all, his family's fruit is twice as straight.The owner of the servant saw that his weaving fruit was different from others, and other workers also recommended it when they saw his exquisite craftsmanship.The master retreated from joy and said: "If one job is better than ten jobs, it will be twice as straight as it is." This shows the general situation of large handicraft workshops in the late Yuan Dynasty and early Ming Dynasty.It is worth noting that in the same alley, there are several large workshops of the same industry, and the owner of the large workshops is also a businessman; from individual production to collective production of large workshops, with simple cooperation, the products are exquisite and best-selling, and it is profitable to operate such a large workshop , the big workshop owners are very profitable; if there are more large workshops, although the wages paid to highly skilled workers are twice that of ordinary workers, the big workshop owners can still get five times the surplus value.Although handicraft workers work long hours and work hard, they are willing to sell their labor power because they have no other way out and can work in this industry without much hunger or poverty.What's more important is that these handicraft workers are free personally and can transfer from one workshop to another workshop with higher wages, which is fundamentally different from the feudal workers in the past who had no personal freedom.Judging from the fact that the daily servant pays 200 min, the wages are paid in banknotes, and the amount of 200 min is very large. In the early Ming Dynasty, the real value of Daming treasure banknotes was very high. This must refer to yuan banknotes, which are large in number and real in value. Very small, although the situation described in the article is the last year of the Yuan Dynasty, it should be the same situation in the early Ming Dynasty. The production of cotton cotton cloth increased greatly, and the tax revenue of the dynasty also increased.The cotton cotton cloth paid to the treasury in the form of taxes has become the main material for the army and a currency substitute for exchanging other military supplies when necessary.In July of the fourth year of Hongwu, an imperial edict was issued to Zhongshuxing: From now on, all sergeants will be rewarded, those who have no wives will be given a jacket; those who have wives will be given two bolts of cotton cloth.There is a regular reward every year. For example, in June of the second year of Hongwu, 110,000 kapok war jackets were awarded to the soldiers of the Northern Expedition.In July of the fourth year, two horses of cotton cloth were given to the soldiers of the Changhuai Guard, and two horses of cotton cloth were given to more than 194,000 soldiers in Beijing.In 12 years, he commanded and guarded more than 196,700 people in Shaanxi, with more than 540,000 pieces of cotton cloth and more than 103,300 catties of cotton.The capital of Beiping commanded more than 105,600 soldiers in the Department of Guards to cloth more than 278,000 bolts and more than 54,600 catties of cotton.In the thirteenth year, 102,128 guards died in Liaodong, more than 434,000 pieces of cotton cloth, and 170,000 catties of cotton were given.In 16 years, more than 524,000 soldiers under Sichuan and other capitals were given more than 961,400 bolts of cotton cloth and more than 367,000 catties of cotton.In 18 years, 250,000 pieces of cotton cloth were given to Liaodong soldiers, 443,000 pieces of cotton cloth to Beiping, Yanshan and other guards, 480,000 pieces of cotton cloth to the guards in Taiyuan, etc.On average, only one item of cotton cloth for military uniforms is rewarded each year, which is about one million pieces.For example, in July of the fourth year of Hongwu, in Beiping, it was difficult to transport grain in Shanxi, so 300,000 taels of silver and 100,000 pieces of cotton cloth were used to exchange materials, and Yimi was given to the soldiers in the nearby prefectures and counties.In addition, because the Liaodong Army and Guards lacked horses, they sent Shandong cotton cloth horses to them.In October of the thirteenth year, he exchanged salt from Baidu and Naxi in Sichuan for cotton cloth, and sent envoys to Xiqiang to buy horses.In July of the seventeenth year, the household department was ordered to exchange cotton cloth for horses in Guizhou, and got 1,300 horses.In thirty years, 99,000 cotton cloths were exchanged for 1,560 horses in Xifan.The royal family supplies every year. In the ninth year of Hongwu, it was stipulated that each prince had 1,000 pieces of winter and summer cloth, and the prince of the county had 100 pieces of winter and summer cloth.In special cases, a temporary order was issued to replace cotton cloth with autumn grain. For example, in September of the sixth year, an order was issued to Zhili Fuzhou and Zhejiang and Jiangxi Provinces to supply autumn grain this year with cotton cloth instead.From these specific historical facts, we can see the general situation of the development of the cotton textile industry in the Hongwu era. Zhu Yuanzhang strongly advocated and promoted cotton planting, but he adopted the policy of allowing the people to mine freely for the mining and metallurgy industry.Iron is produced in Linshui Town, Cizhou. The Yuan Dynasty once set up an iron smelter here, with 15,000 furnace households and more than one million catties of iron collected every year.In the 15th year of Hongwu, someone proposed to mine again. Yuanzhang thought that if the benefits are not for the officials, they are for the people.Moreover, there are still a lot of iron smelting in various places, and there is no shortage of military supplies. If they are mined again, they will definitely disturb the people.The proposer was beaten up and exiled overseas.The three prefectures of Jinan, Qingzhou, and Laizhou serve 2,660 households every year and collect more than 323,000 catties of lead. Because they dig deep into the mountains to get less lead, they are ordered to stop mining.In the eighteenth year, the chief ministers were dismissed by the laborers to fry and smelt iron.In the 25th year, the iron smelters were re-established in various places. In the 28th year, the iron smelters in the storehouse were 37.43 million catties, and the military reserve materials were already very sufficient.And allow the people to pick and refine freely, lose courses every year, and choose two every thirty minutes.Within thirty-one years, the iron storage in the depot was limited, and the construction cost was very high, so it was ordered to restart the iron smelting.In total, the iron smelting institutes set up in the Hongwu era, Jinxian, Xinyu, Fenyi in Jiangxi, Xingguo and Huangmei in Huguang, Laiwu in Shandong, Yangshan in Guangdong, Gongchang in Shaanxi, Jiaocheng in Shanxi, Jizhou, Taiyuan, Ze and Lu, a total of ten three.In addition, there are smelters in Junzhou, Xin'an, Henan, Pujiang, Sichuan, and Chaling, Huguang, etc., which transport more than 18.4 million catties of iron every year.Since the people were allowed to mine and smelt freely, the private mining and smelting industry in the Ming Dynasty flourished, and the quantity of iron, copper, lead, tin and other minerals increased, which played a role in promoting other industries. Everything needed by the court and the army was made by artisans.Craftsman households were a special system in the Yuan and Ming dynasties. In the Yuan Dynasty, skilled craftsmen were captured, recruited and organized into craftsmen households, which were hereditary from descendants. They were divided into civilian craftsmen and military craftsmen, and there were a large number of them.The household registration of artisan households in the early Ming Dynasty was based on the old registration of the Yuan Dynasty and was not allowed to be changed.In May of the 11th year of Hongwu, the Ministry of Industry ordered all craftsmen in Beijing who went to work to be paid monthly salaries, salt and vegetables, and those who were on leave from work were not given, and they were allowed to make a living without being restricted.The artisan households during the rest period are allowed to operate production freely, which liberates part of the labor force and plays a beneficial role in the development of folk handicrafts.In the 19th year, the decree on the shift of craftsmen was formulated.It turns out that the Ministry of Industry has agreed that craftsmen from all over the country will test their strength and set a three-year shift, and they will go to Beijing to work in rotation for three months.It was discussed, but not implemented.At this time, Qin Kui, the servant of the Ministry of Industry, once again proposed to measure the distance of the land, think of the shift, compile the book, and give the survey and cooperation (contract documents). Corvée, as compensation.In this way, out-of-town craftsmen only had to go to Beijing to serve for three months every three years, and they could also be exempted from the corvee at home. The burden of craftsmen on the imperial court was greatly reduced, and everyone was happy.In the 26th year, it was stipulated that the number of craftsmen who came to the capital to work in shifts every three or two years was 232,890.Under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry.Those who work regularly are called living craftsmen, and they are under the supervision and jurisdiction of the inner government officials.Most of the military craftsmen belonged to the guards in various places, and some belonged to the Armor Bureau of the Neifu, the Armor Bureau and the armor factory of the Ministry of Industry.The total number of military craftsmen belonging to the guards in various places is 26,000.The craftsmen in each household are exempted from miscellaneous errands, and they are still exempted from the family to help them with the service.Yu Ding spends (pays) three qian dollars of labor and food silver every year, in order to prepare for the employment of various yamen for official duties.Zuzao Zhengjiang works ten days a month, and the monthly food is paid by the public.Zhengjiang has 20 days a month to produce for himself, which is two-thirds less than the burden of the Yuan Dynasty.Under this system, both shift craftsmen and resident craftsmen only have part of the time to serve, and most of the time can participate in social production. More than 200,000 craftsmen with specialized skills spend most of their time in social production. The development of handicraft industry undoubtedly played a huge role. Shift craftsmen include sixty-two lines of craftsmen.Later, it was subdivided into 188 kinds of industries, ranging from paper, mounting, printing, publishing, blacksmithing, gold selling, wood, tile, oil, lacquer, ivory, spinning cotton, to magic arrows, gunpowder, etc. The number of each type ranges from one to eight hundred and seventy-five people.The inner court had the Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, the Shenbofang, and the Houhu (now Nanjing Xuanwu Lake) Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, Sichuan, Shanxi Provinces and Zhejiang Shaoxing Weaving and Dyeing Bureau, all of which were large in scale.In addition to serving in the local weaving and dyeing bureau, the craftsmen who stayed in the local area, such as Yongping Prefecture, had twenty-two lines of silver, iron, cast iron, tin, nail hinges, and armor piercing. The number of artisan households is large, and the division of labor is fine. All the handicraft products required by the court and the army are manufactured and supplied by the various bureaus of the official handicraft factories run by the artisan households.The production of this backward slave system allows the palace and the army, which spend the most, to be satisfied without relying on the market. At the same time, the finished products it produces are not circulated in the market. The expansion of production in private handicraft workshops has played a role in restraint and hindrance, delaying the progress of society.In addition, the production of official handicraft factories does not need to consider the cost, because all labor and raw materials can be collected from the people at no cost or supplied as tribute from all over the country without any restrictions. Even if some of the products of official handicraft factories As commodities flow into the market, the products of private handicraft workshops cannot compete with it.On the other hand, since the beginning of the Yuan Dynasty, the workers with the best skills have been issued as artisan households, hereditary from descendants, and even the technology has been monopolized by the court. Private handicraft workshops can only employ ordinary workers, and the improvement of technology has been limited. .In the early Ming Dynasty, craftsmen were divided into two types: live-in and shift-shift households. Except for regular shifts, the rest of the time was at their own disposal, and two-thirds of the time for residential-seated households was at their own disposal. The finished products It can be sold in the market, which has a certain stimulating effect on the expansion of market commodities and the exchange and improvement of technology.Therefore, although the emancipation of craftsmen's productive forces in the early Ming Dynasty was not complete, it was a great progress compared with the slavery production in the Yuan Dynasty, which has its positive significance.On the other hand, because the emancipation is not complete, and part of the disguised slave labor remains, this kind of unpaid compulsory labor cannot but arouse the resistance of the craftsmen, and the only way other than fleeing is sabotage. And deliberately reduce the quality of the finished product.In this way, the artisan household system constrains and hinders the continuous improvement of production technology; hinders the development of private handicraft workshops: cuts off the circulation of commodities, and plays a negative role in restraining and stagnating the development of social productive forces and the accumulation of primitive capital. The society has stagnated for a long time and has not moved forward. It seems that the artisan household system has to bear some responsibility. Zhu Yuanzhang also attached great importance to business. As far back as the confrontation with Zhang Shicheng, he sent special personnel to the enemy's territory to do business: the Lianghuai and Zhejiang salt fields were all on Zhang Shicheng's ground. The family of the generals sailed to Gaoduosha Jieshou, where they traded goods for salt, and sold the goods to the soldiers and civilians in Beijing for food.After acquiring Zhuji, a branch office was set up in Tangkouguan, and a branch office was established in Wudu in Chuzhou, allowing foreign merchants to trade in the two worlds.So Shaoxing and Wenzhou guests used ships to carry salt to Tangkou and Wudu for trading, and they took salt goods, turned them into silver taels, and bought white vines, yellow yellows and other things for the country's use.After Ping Chen Youliang, government-run taxation (tax) was set up in Jiangxi and Huguang, and more than one million stones of grain were obtained every year.After defeating Zhang Shicheng and Fang Guozhen, he set up official shops in Zhejiang and Zhili prefectures, and set up official classes.Set up a tea transportation department in Jiangzhou to collect tea tax.It is stipulated that every 30% of the commercial tax shall be taken as one, and those who exceed this shall be regarded as violating the order.The tax agency in Beijing is the Department of Propaganda, and the prefectures and counties are the Department of General Courses.In the first year of Hongwu's imperial edict to Zhongshu Province, he ordered the commanding department of soldiers and horses in Beijing to be in charge of the city department, to collate the scales and scales of dendrobium and buckets in the market once every three days, to check the names of toothmen, and to stipulate prices.The soldiers and horses at the city gates in the outer prefectures are also in charge of the city division.In the thirteenth year, the Ministry of Household Affairs was ordered to state that from now on, military and civilian wedding and funeral objects, boats, carts, silk cloth, etc. will not be taxed.And a large number of 364 tax bureaus were cut.Nanjing is densely populated, with military and civilian residences lined with corridors, and there is no open space. Merchants have nowhere to store their goods when they arrive in Beijing.After Yuanzhang learned about this situation, he asked people to build dozens of houses outside the Sanshan Gate and other gates, called Dafang, to store merchant goods, and let them trade with each other after paying taxes.And prohibit the taxation of the poor.In order to prosper the market, in the 27th year, the Ministry of Industry was ordered to build fifteen buildings outside Jiangdong's various gates, and ordered the people to set up wine shops among them to receive guests from all over the world. .After it was repaired, a sum of money was given to let all civil and military officials have a banquet in Zuixianlou to celebrate the peace of the world. The widespread cultivation of cotton, the continuous improvement of the quality of cotton cloth, the emergence of wage-based handicraft workshops, the opening of new silk textile industrial zones, the introduction of products and technologies of shift craftsmen and craftsmen into the market, etc., plus the reduction and lightening of taxation agencies Taxes, commercial protection policies stimulated, the commercial market was greatly active, not only connecting the south and the north, but also connecting cities, villages and remote areas, prospering the economy, improving people's lives to a certain extent, and further strengthening the the unity of the country. The center of commodity production and delivery, the location of handicraft workshops and wholesale shops, concentrated a considerable number of reserve handicraft workers and small vendors, and the urban population increased dramatically.The industrial and commercial cities in the early Ming Dynasty included Nanjing, Beiping, Suzhou, Songjiang, Zhenjiang, Huai’an, Changzhou, Yangzhou, Yizhen, Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Huzhou, Fuzhou, Jianning, Wuchang, Jingzhou, Nanchang, Ji’an, Linjiang, Qingjiang, Guangzhou, Kaifeng, Jinan, Jining, Dezhou, Linqing, Guilin, Taiyuan, Pingyang, Puzhou, Chengdu, Chongqing, Luzhou and other places. With the recovery and development of agricultural production and the vitality of industry and commerce, the need for a national unified currency as a trade medium is becoming more and more urgent. Before Zhu Yuanzhang became king, due to the excessive issuance of banknotes in the Yuan Dynasty, the supply of military reserves, rewards and rewards, daily printing, uncountable, shipment by boat and car, and the connection of boats and boats, a serious crisis of inflation occurred. At that time, the capital used ten ingots of banknotes (one ingot was fifty guan, and the legal price of a consistent banknote was originally 1,000 copper coins) for less than a bucket of rice.In the middle of the sixteenth year, the banknotes handed over by the government have been rejected by the people, and banknotes are not used in transactions, and the prefectures and counties where they are located are all traded with goods.In the seventeenth year, the Zhizheng treasure, big money and five grades are called Quanmo. Coins are used instead of banknotes. Because firstly, they cannot be cashed, and secondly, there is no reserve of equivalent materials for exchange.The people laughed at Quan Chao, and said in the ballad: People cannibalize people, money buys money, have you ever seen it? After Zhu Yuanzhang occupied Jiqing, he first cast Dazhong Tongbao coins, with four hundred coins as consistent, forty coins as one tael, and four coins as one coin.After flattening Chen Youliang, he ordered Jiangxi Province to buy goods and springs bureau.After ascending the throne, Hongwu Tongbao coins were issued, divided into five grades: ten, five, three, two, and one.When ten coins are worth one tael, when one coin is worth one coin.In Yingtian Zhibaoyuan Bureau, all provinces have set up Baoquan Bureau, which is in charge of minting money, and private casting is strictly prohibited.In the four years of Hongwu, Dazhong and Hongwu Tongbao big coins were cast into small coins. Although there was a unified currency, the copper coins were heavy in weight and low in value, which was not convenient for large-scale trade or long-distance transshipment. With a long history, it has become a habit, and it feels inconvenient to spend money, which is very opinionated. Because copper coins are not convenient for large quantities of trade, it was decided to issue paper money.In the 7th year of Hongwu, the Banknote Lifting Department was set up, with two bureaus for paper copying and banknote printing, and two warehouses for banknotes and banknotes.In the eighth year, Zhong Shuxing was ordered to make Daming treasure banknotes, using mulberry as the paper material, the paper is blue, one foot high and six inches wide, the outside is a dragon pattern flower fence, and the upper banner is inscribed with Daming Tongxing treasure banknotes. Four characters, the seal script on the right side is the treasure of Ming Dynasty, and the script script on the left side is common in the world.Among them, the shape of money Guan is drawn, with ten strings as the string, indicating that the currency value is consistent. The lower column is that Zhongshu Province (renamed to the Ministry of Households after Hongwu thirteen years) was authorized to print Daming Treasure Banknotes, which are used with copper coins. , the arrester was rewarded with twenty-five taels of silver (thirteen years later it was changed to two hundred and fifty taels of silver), and property was still given to the prisoner, Hongwu Year, Month, Day.Both the back and the face are stamped with red seals.There are always ten strings of money drawn, five strings of five-hundred-wen paintings, and the following are four-hundred-ween, three-hundred-ween, two-hundred-ween, and one-hundred-wen, a total of six types.It is stipulated that each banknote is always allowed to be worth one thousand Wen and one tael of silver.Four consecutive quasi-gold one or two.In 21 years, small banknotes ranging from ten to fifty coins were added. In order to ensure the circulation of Daming Banknotes, the law prohibits private transactions of gold and silver goods at the time of issuance.The people were only allowed to exchange gold and silver with the imperial court for precious banknotes, and it was stipulated that both banknotes and commercial taxes would be collected. The ratio was three tenths of the money, seven tenths of the banknotes, and only copper coins for less than one hundred cash.The sergeant in the outer guard station will pay the salt money every month, and the salt farms will give the worker the banknote.In the eighteenth year, he ordered all the officials of the Ministry of Households to pay Lumi with banknotes, and two pennies and five hundred coins per meter and one stone. The issuance of Daming Banknotes was adapted to the needs of the people at that time and played a role in the prosperity of commerce.However, Zhu Yuanzhang copied the banknote law of the Yuan Dynasty. He only learned the method of the collapse of the central banknote in the late Yuan Dynasty.It turns out that when banknotes were issued in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, firstly, there were gold, silver and silk as banknotes (reserves), and new banknotes were not issued if there were no banknotes; secondly, there was a quota for printing, and the amount of gold, silver and bad banknotes exchanged for the national commercial tax revenue was calculated as The amount of issuance; the third imperial court collects and releases, and Ding Fu and Shang tax both collect banknotes; fourth, banknote holders can exchange gold and silver of equivalent value at the banknote bank at any time.On the contrary, the collapse of the banknote law in the late Yuan Dynasty was due to the exhaustion of banknotes; hyperinflation caused by unrestricted excessive issuance; only issuance but no withdrawal; gold and silver could not be exchanged; rotten banknotes could not be exchanged for new banknotes.The Hongwu banknote method is based on the banknote method in the late Yuan Dynasty. Therefore, although in the first few years, due to the small number of issuances, convenience and habits, it can still maintain a certain ratio with the price, but later due to restrictions on recycling, the amount of issuance If there is no limit, if there are too many issuances and too few withdrawals, the market will be flooded with dishonored banknotes, and the value of the currency will not be maintained. For the issuance of Hongwu treasure banknotes, taking the period from February 25th to December of the eighteenth year of Hongwu as an example, 580 banknote makers were promoted to make a total of 9,946,500 banknotes. One hundred and ninety-nine ingots.In the Ming Dynasty, five guan banknotes were used as one ingot, and the circulation this year was about 50 million guan, which was 50 million taels of silver.In the early Ming Dynasty, the treasury's silver income was only tens of thousands of taels per year, and the amount of treasure banknotes issued in a year was equivalent to about a thousand times the income of silver.Moreover, due to the rudimentary printing and easy to be faked, a large number of counterfeit banknotes were put into the market, and the value of the currency decreased even more.In the past 23 years, the citizens of Liangzhe and Zhejiang have always discounted 250 cash with banknotes, but in the 27th year, the discount has been reduced to 160 cash.In the thirty years to 30 years, the merchants of the various prefectures in Hangzhou, regardless of the value of the goods, were all priced in gold and silver, and they simply did not use precious banknotes.Zhu Yuanzhang was very anxious, and repeatedly issued orders to declare that banknotes should always be exchanged for 1,000 Wen; old banknotes can be exchanged for new banknotes; copper coins are banned;By the time of Chenghua (AD 1465｜1487), Hongwu coins were not in circulation among the people, and Hongwu banknotes were only circulated among the government. two thousandths of the price. Hongwubao banknotes became the formal currency of the Ming Dynasty, and only gold and silver were used in private transactions.About a hundred years later, due to the development of foreign trade, the inflow of silver into China increased day by day.In this way, two kinds of currencies are used in the government and the market at the same time. The salaries given by the dynasty to officials are partly precious banknotes, most of which are rice, and the rewards to the army are silver. Change the money to collect money, and use silver for market entry and exit.Silver finally replaced banknotes as the national currency.