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人民币
Chinese Currency: Then and Now
By: Derek Brady
Cowry Shells
-Believed to be the oldest
currency in Central China
-Used 3000 to 4500 years ago.
-Carved bone, wood ,stone,
lead and copper also used in a
barter-type economy of the
day.
-Bronze shells were found in
the ancient capital of Yin,
capital of the Shang Dynasty
(1500 BC-1046 BC)
The Warring States and
advances in currency
-During the Warring States period
(5th century BC- 221 BC) 3 main
shapes of bronze currency were
used
-The Zhou, Wei, Han and Qin
areas used spade-shaped coins
-The Qi used knife shaped coins
-The Zhao and the Yan used
knife shaped coins until half
roughly half way through at which
time they switched to the spade
coins.
-Finally the Chu used “ant-nose”
coins.
Unified Chinese Currency
-Between 260BC and 210 BC, Qin Shi
Huang 秦始皇 Qín Shǐ Huáng unified
China and got rid of all previous forms
of currency.
-He instituted a new coin based
currency. Round coins with a square
hole in the middle.
-Due to the low value of the individual
coin, Chinese people were known to
string 1,000 coins together.
Pre Song Dynasty Currency
•
-In the era before the Song Dynasty, at least 10 states in China had developed
their own currencies.
•
-Northern states made their coins out of copper. The south preferred lead or
iron. Sichuan preferred their own heavy iron for their coins.
•
-By 1000 AD China had unified it’s currency system.
Money of the Song
Dynasty
-The Song Dynasty saw the
introduction of the first paperbased money called “flying
money”飞钱.
-Some other names for the paper
money were Jiaozi, Qianyin, Kuaizi
and Guanzi.
Introduction of the Yuan
元
-In 1889, the Yuan was
introduced. At the time it was
pegged evenly with the
Mexican peso.
-Each yuan is divided into 10
jiao (角), 100 fen (分) and
1000 wen (文).
Transition to Renminbi
人民币
-In 1949, 12 denominations of
Renminbi were introduced. They were
1,5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200, 500, 1000,
5000, 10000 and 50000.
-In 1999, China re-issued the RMB with
portraits of Chairman Mao Zedong.
Renminbi Inflation
-For most of it’s history, the RMB
was pegged at 2.46 yuan/ US
Dollar.
-In the 1970’s the yuan
appreciated in value. The high
came in 1980 at a value of 1.50
yuan/ US Dollar.
-During the Economic Expansion
period, the yuan lost value to
promote Chinese exports and
commerce.
-By 1994, the yuan had fallen to
8.62 yuan/ US Dollar.
The Future of the Yuan?