(This article refers to many related articles, which are basically original. )
How much is a silver or two worth? Many people have discussed it. Nowadays, many people actually have no concept. Especially some modern TV plays are misleading. It seems that in ancient times, ordinary people took money to the streets at any time. They just bought a steamed bread and asked for a silver or two. Simply eating a meal costs several hundred taels, and the reward is twenty taels less. It seems that one or two taels of silver is a dollar with us now, which shows that the film and television creators in China are ignorant and not serious. You know, the annual revenue of the state treasury only reached 2 million taels during the Wanli period, and the state treasury was rich after the reform. In fact, most people in ancient times have never seen silver in their lives. They all use "money", which is copper coins. We often say that "no money" means no copper coins.
Silver and gold are forbidden by the imperial court to circulate among the people, so most people use money or paper money. Paper money: Money made of cloth. It is inconvenient to use a lot of copper coins, so "it is inconvenient for businessmen to use money along the old habits of the Yuan Dynasty." "Ming Shi" records the 57th food. Therefore, traders who trade in bulk commodities use paper money instead of boxes of gold and silver.
What we are going to discuss here is the conversion relationship between silver in the late Ming Dynasty and RMB now.
First of all, we must understand the conversion ratio between copper coins, silver and gold. Just like the current foreign exchange price, it is constantly changing. The exchange ratio of different dynasties is different, and the exchange ratio of the same dynasty in different periods is also different. It's not as clear as 1 yuan equals 100. In addition, in the Ming Dynasty, one Jin was equivalent to 596.8 grams now, one Jin 16 Liang, and one or two Liang was equivalent to 37.3 grams now.
According to the following description:
"Every banknote is the same, there are thousands of them, and there are also one or two pieces of silver; Four penetration quasi gold one or two, "Ming history", the 57th food five.
"So the Ministry decided: one ingot of banknotes and one stone of rice; One or two gold, ten stones; One silver and two stones. "Ming history" records, the fifty-fourth food goods two.
"The price of gold and silver rose from 1600 to 1: 8 in the middle and late 20th century, and doubled to 1: 20 by the end of 18."
It can be known that the ratio of gold and silver in the early and middle Ming Dynasty was 1: 4 or 1: 5, while a large amount of overseas silver flowed in around 1644, and 1 gold could be exchanged for about 8 taels of silver.
Draw the first conclusion: 1 two gold =8 two silver =8000 copper coins.
There are generally two ways to discuss the purchasing power of money. One is to calculate the value of today's silver and copper coins with the international gold price based on the gold price. Another method is to calculate the price of rice and silver at the same time.
1) international gold benchmark price, the price of gold basically fluctuates around $600 per ounce. Let's take $600 (September 26th, 2006) as an ounce. An ounce is 31.1g. 1 in Ming dynasty is 37.3g today. In this way, one or two ounces of gold in the Ming Dynasty is equivalent to 7 19.6 dollars. According to today's foreign exchange benchmark price (September 26th, 2006), US$ 65,438+000 is equivalent to RMB 7,965,438+0.5 yuan, or RMB 5,695.75. According to the calculation of 1 gold for 8 taels of silver, 1000 yuan, one tael of silver in the late Ming Dynasty is equivalent to 71.97 yuan, and 7 12 yuan is taken; A penny equals 0.7 yuan.
2) Based on the international quotation of silver, the price of silver basically fluctuates around 1 1 USD (September 26th, 2006) an ounce. Similar to the conversion of gold price, one or two pieces of silver are 1000 copper coins, which is equivalent to 104.4 yuan, taking 105 yuan.
3) rice price benchmark. According to historical records, the price of rice is as follows:
Ming Shenzong Wanli (16,17th century) rice (stone) 0.7- 1 2.
In the 14th and 5th years of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty (164 1, 1642), the rice (stone) was 3.6 liang (the price in Nanjing was unprecedented during the disaster period); Rice (stone) 5 Liang (Shanghai rice price)
Rice (Stone) at the End of Chongzhen in Ming Dynasty and the Beginning of Shunzhi in Qing Dynasty 2-3
In the late Chongzhen period, famine and war led to a sharp rise in food prices. Similarly, 1 silver may not buy much grain, but it may be valuable to buy other things, so the current data cannot be used as a reference for general purchasing power. Here, the highest price in Wanli period is taken as the general price level, and it is calculated by taking 1 silver per stone. In the Ming Dynasty, 1 stone was 94.4 Jin. According to the current rice price of 3 yuan/Jin, one stone of rice is equivalent to RMB 283, that is, 1 silver is equivalent to RMB 283.
In this way, we finally got three data, 1 silver can be converted into RMB 7 12, 105 and 283 respectively. Among them, the value of gold has been relatively stable in history; Although today's grain output is much larger than that in ancient times, considering that China's current population is 65.438+0.4 billion, and the population in the middle and late Ming Dynasty is conservatively estimated at 70 million to 80 million, the grain price can be used as an important benchmark; Considering that the price of silver has changed greatly in different historical periods, the reference is weak.
So we take 7 12 of the gold benchmark and 283 of the grain benchmark as the average, that is, 497.5 yuan. In order to round the whole number, which is convenient for conversion and people to have a perceptual understanding, here we take 1 silver and convert it into RMB 500 yuan. Therefore, according to the conclusion of the previous price comparison, we get the currency exchange data in the middle and late Ming Dynasty:
This is our second conclusion:
1 two gold = 4000 yuan =8 two silver
1 two silver = RMB 500 yuan = 1000 yuan.
1 money = RMB 0.5 yuan.
In fact, 1 silver can be exchanged at least for 1500 yuan, so 1 penny =0.33 yuan, which can also be roughly considered as 30 cents.
In addition, I have a little knowledge, 1 two = 10 money = 100 cents, so one silver =50 yuan RMB and one silver =5 yuan RMB, which is probably 10- 15 copper coins.
In this way, we have a more specific concept of prices from the middle and late Ming Dynasty to the early Qing Dynasty.
In the Ming Dynasty, the monthly salary of Jiupin officials was five stones, that is, 2,500 yuan; Officials who have never been to China earn three stones a month, 1500 yuan, which is the salary of the most basic civil servants in the government. Zhengyiping official's monthly salary is 87 stone, that is, 43,500 yuan/month, and the annual salary is 522,000, which is the salary of the prime minister at that time. It is not too much to think about it.
In the Ming dynasty, it was said that one and a half pieces of silver were enough for a civilian to live for one year. If the food is self-sufficient, the money is only used to buy rice, oil and salt, and the life of more than 750 yuan a year is quite bitter, but it is not impossible. You can ask the older generation, they have lived like this, and even some remote and poor areas still live like this.
Yuan Chonghuan killed Mao and got 28,000 soldiers. He wrote to the emperor and asked, "The annual salary is 420,000,136,000 meters". Although this is the old army that Mao fought for to raise wages, we can also see a rough idea. In other words, an army that feeds 10,000 people needs a salary of10.5 million taels and 48,600 stones of grain every year, that is, 9 million Jin. In today's words, the annual maintenance cost of an army of 28,000 people is 75 million yuan, right?
Qi Jiguang is recruiting in the southeast coast, and the annual salary of each person is set at 10. After arriving in Yuji Town in the north, the annual salary of recruiting soldiers to guard the side wall increased to 18 Liang. These are the recruitment prices of strategic locations. If you don't take part in important battles or important areas, the recruitment price will be even lower: Ming Xiu's "Wujin County Records" said that the local "recipients have one point in Japan" and the annual salary is less than 4 Liang. During the Chongzhen period, wars were frequent, and a large number of people were displaced and hungry, so it was easy to recruit. Coupled with the tight government finances, the military pay is much lower than the same period.
Therefore, the third conclusion is drawn: to maintain the normal consumption of an army of 10,000 troops should be 82,000 silver and 40,000 stone grain per year.
In the third year of Chongzhen, Yu Shihao said: "At the end of Wanli, the salary of Jiubian stopped at 2.8 million. Today, the salary will increase to 9 million. The salary suppression of 3.3 million has stopped, and the training of more than 7.3 million has increased. Since ancient times, a year has included 20 million lost capitals and 20 million lost borders. " Let's calculate the tax revenue of Chongzhen for three years: Liao Xiang, 9 million; Training, more than 7.3 million, plus the normal tax payment of 2 million, the total * * * is 18.3 million. Suppose the country does nothing but raise the army, and can support a team of 6.5438+0.8 million people.
To sum up, we * * * got three conclusions:
The first conclusion: 1 two gold =8 two silver =8000 copper coins,
The second conclusion: 1 liangyin = RMB 500 yuan, 1 liangyin = 10 liangyin = 100 liangyin,
The third conclusion: the annual normal consumption of an army of 10,000 troops should be: 82,000 taels of silver+40,000 grains of grain.