Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen is not dissatisfied with the current silver standard system of the Ming Dynasty, for such a huge country as China! In fact, no economic system can be formed by a single aspect, this is caused by history!

The flow of silver into China is not only a trade route, but also an important channel for Europeans to carry out arbitrage business between China, Japan and Europe. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the price difference between gold and silver in China, Japan and Europe was 1:5.5-7, that of Japan was 1:12-13, and that of Europe was 1:10.6-15.5.

On the demand side, first of all, the rapid expansion of the export market has made the southern part of Nanzhili (now southern Jiangsu and Shanghai), Zhejiang, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangxi and other places with developed handicraft industries show a prosperous scene, becoming the fastest economic development region in the country, and the interlocking effect of guò has further driven the economic development of the north and the vast hinterland. Today's relatively poor Gannan was a trade route leading to Guangdong's foreign trade port at that time, and all industries were prosperous. The direct role of foreign trade in promoting the development of China's commodity economy in the next quarter can be seen from the comparison of the scale of China's commodity export and domestic sales. As we all know, the silk weaving industry in Suzhou and Hangzhou and the cotton weaving industry in Songjiang are the two industrial sectors with the highest commodity rate and the largest output value in the late Ming Dynasty, according to the information provided by Xu Dixin and Wu Chengming's book "The Sprout of Chinese Capitalism", at that time, the private machine households in Suzhou and Hangzhou produced about 200,000 pieces of silk per year, worth 160,000 taels of silver; The sales volume of Songjiang cotton cloth was 20 million horses, worth 3 million taels of silver, and the two totaled 3.16 million taels. And according to the calculations of the Chinese scholar Zhang Kai. Early 17th century. This does not include the Chinese goods that the Dutch exported to Japan and Southeast Asia via Taiwan, and the Chinese goods that Portuguese merchants shipped to Goa and Europe. The value of Chinese goods exported directly to the Philippines and to Japan by Portuguese merchants alone amounted to 4.27-4.87 million taels of silver every year.

Secondly, the development of the commodity economy objectively requires a stable currency, but the value of the treasure banknotes and copper coins issued by the Ming government is not stable. As far as treasure banknotes are concerned, the actual value of treasure banknotes issued in the eighth year of Hongwu (1375) fell to 5%-16% of the face value in the twenty-seventh year of Hongwu (1394), and the actual value of treasure banknotes issued in later generations was even lower. In the twenty-third year of Chenghua (1487), the usual treasure banknotes could only be exchanged for huàn copper coins. As far as copper coins are concerned, after the middle of the Ming Dynasty. The money law is becoming more and more disorderly, and the corrupt ruling clique will indiscriminately mint bad coins and large coins to obtain 'minting interest' as a way to loot the people and alleviate the financial crisis. From the point of view of the weight of the coin, according to Ye Dehui's "Shulin Qinghua", the weight of the coin at the end of the Ming Dynasty was changed from 1 to 2 cents to 1 cent, and then reduced to 8 cents. From the point of view of fineness, the fineness of copper coins during the Apocalypse period was reduced from seven leads to three coppers and halves of copper and lead, and even two or three coppers and seven or eight lead sands. By virtue of this means. During the Apocalypse, Nanjing's annual profit from coinage reached 120,000 taels of silver, and the 'minting interest' reached more than 60%. Before Wanli, the minting rate was usually 20%-30%. In addition, rampant private piracy and the fickleness of the government's monetary policy have resulted in the credibility of treasure banknotes and copper coins not being high. In the early years of Longqing, Gao Heng pointed out: "The money law is changed every day, but there is no success so far, and the small people are afraid that they will get money today, and they will not use it tomorrow, so that the more chaotic it is, the more suspicious it is." "The citizens of Suzhou once launched a campaign to refuse to use the Apocalypse Money that swept through the states and counties in southern Jiangsu, which lasted for 10 months. The influx of silver from overseas provided a steady supply of currency that grew steadily with economic development and freedom from government intervention.

After the establishment of the monetary system with silver as the standard currency and copper as the auxiliary currency, it went through a long period of time after the Ming and Ming dynasties, until 1934, when the U.S. government implemented the "Silver Purchase Act" to raise the price of silver, and a large amount of silver flowed out of China, and the Nationalist Government was forced to implement the fiat currency reform in November 1935.

After Emperor Chongzhen Zhu Youzhen told everyone about the history of the silver standard, everyone was a little dazed, even the most delicate Wang Chengen and Cao Huachun did not hear it very clearly and understood very clearly.

"Although it hasn't happened yet! But in the next two or three hundred years, the country's monetary policy will experience such a trend! You just have an idea in your head. "Chongzhen Emperor Zhu Youzhen has no intention of stopping! Begin to elaborate on the gold standard!

The gold standard is the gold standard, and the gold standard is a monetary system with gold as the standard currency. Under the gold standard, the value of each unit of money is equal to a certain weight of gold (i.e. the gold content of the currency); When different countries use the gold standard, the exchange rate between countries is determined by the ratio of the gold content of their respective currencies - gold parity. The gold standard began to prevail in the mid-19th century. Historically, there have been three forms of the gold standard: the coin standard, the bullion standard, and the gold exchange standard. The gold coin standard is the most typical form, and in a narrow sense, the gold standard refers to the monetary system.

Gold is used to define the value represented by the currency, and each currency unit has a legal gold content, and the currencies of various countries have a certain price comparison according to the weight of the gold they contain. Gold coins can be minted freely, and anyone can give the gold nugget to the National Mint to mint gold coins according to the gold content of the standard coin. Gold coins are the currency of unlimited legal compensation, with the right to unlimited means of payment. The currency reserves of various countries are gold, and gold is also used for international settlements, and gold can be freely exported and imported. Since gold can be freely transferred between countries, this ensures the relative stability of the foreign exchange market and the unification of the international financial market. The gold standard was created by Newton.

From these contents, it can be seen that the gold standard has three characteristics: free minting, free exchange, and free input and output: with the formation of the gold standard, gold assumed the general equivalent of commodity exchange and became the medium in the process of commodity exchange, and the gold standard was the peak of gold's monetary attributes.

This was the earliest form of the gold standard monetary system, also known as the classical or pure gold standard, which prevailed between 1880 and 1914.

A certain amount of gold is used as the monetary unit to mint gold coins as the standard currency; Gold coins can be freely minted and melted freely, with unlimited legal solvency, while limiting the minting and solvency of other coins; Coins and bank notes can be freely exchanged for huàn gold coins or the equivalent amount of gold; Gold is the only reserve.

The gold coin standard system eliminates the disadvantages of price confusion and unstable currency circulation under the double standard system, ensures that the currency in circulation does not depreciate against the standard currency metal gold, and ensures the unity of the world market and the relative stability of the foreign exchange market.

Under this system, governments regulate the gold content of currencies in the form of laws, and the comparison of the gold content of the currencies of the two countries is the seigniorage parity that determines the basis of the exchange rate. Gold can be freely exported or imported into the country's borders, and in the process of importing and exporting, a coinage-price flow mechanism is formed, which plays an automatic role in adjusting the exchange rate. The exchange rate under this system does not fluctuate much due to the effect of seigniorage parity and the limitation of the gold delivery point.

After the outbreak of World War I in 1914, countries issued uncashed paper money and banned the free export of gold, and the gold standard came to an end.

The bullion standard and the gold exchange standard were two unsound gold standards that emerged after the stability of the gold standard was destroyed. Under these two systems, although gold is used as the monetary standard, only the gold content of the monetary unit is stipulated, and no gold coins are minted, and bank bills are circulated.

The bullion standard is a disguised gold standard that uses gold bars for international settlement, also known as the gold bar standard. Under this system, gold bullion is stored by the state as a reserve; The exchange relationship between the various currencies in circulation and gold is restricted, and the free exchange of huàn is no longer practiced, but when necessary, the amount of paper money can be exchanged for gold bullion in the central bank of the country without restriction according to the prescribed limit. It can be seen that this monetary system is in fact a gold standard with restrictive conditions. (To be continued......)