China has a history of 5,000 years, and such a long time span also gives people unlimited imagination. For example, in TV series, we often see the scene of guests putting down a few pieces of silver after eating, and the bartender never stops them. He just looks at the money on the table happily after the guests leave and puts it in his pocket. Sometimes he even says that the guest is walking slowly. Do they really trust these guests by doing so, and are they not afraid that they will not give enough money and let themselves do business at a loss?

One ingot of silver

Ancient silver is equivalent to our current RMB, which bears the function of circulation in commodity exchange, but even so, not everyone can carry silver with him. The ancient technology was not as good as it is now, and the mining and smelting technology at that time was not perfect. Those who can bring money are generally well-off people.

Ordinary people can only exchange copper coins when shopping in the streets. Guests who can really take out money and even leave directly with a silver ingot on the table are absolutely very rich. When you meet such a rich and powerful boss, the shopkeeper will definitely not count again, let alone stop it.

Copper coins that ordinary people usually use.

It was not until the Ming Dynasty that European and American colonists discovered many silver mines in the Philippines and America, and silver flowed into China bit by bit along the Silk Road. It was then that people used silver as money tickets. The government really began to use the silver standard system in the second year of Puyi Xuantong, that is, 19 10.

Generally, children from rich families will take a wallet with them when they go out, and the wallet will contain some broken silver or gold. At that time, one or two ounces of gold was generally worth twelve ounces of silver, equivalent to 2000 copper coins. There is also a certain exchange rate gap between dynasties, but it is generally maintained at this level. Seeing this, everyone should understand more or less why the shopkeeper doesn't care how much money the guests leave.

For another example, rice is a necessity in our life. It costs about three yuan to buy a catty of rice at present. During the period of Emperor Taizong, it was also the most prosperous period of China's ancient economy. Five pence was used to buy a barrel of rice. A bucket is equal to a stone, and a stone is almost 120 Jin when converted into the "Jin" we commonly use now.

In this way, one or two pieces of silver can buy almost 20 stones of rice, which is equivalent to 7200 yuan. From this point of view, it seems that we can also know that those guests who leave a piece of silver at will after dinner must be very rich. Until the reign of Emperor Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, the price of rice began to rise, and ten pence was used to buy a barrel. Naturally, silver also suffered a devaluation, falling to 3600 yuan.

Broken silver

According to the Official History of Song Dynasty, "each bucket (meter) is worth 30 yuan". However, compared with the Tang Dynasty, the monetary system in the Song Dynasty was quite chaotic, and there were many kinds of currencies on the market, even each state and county could privately cast its own currency. In this way, the money market is even more chaotic. At that time, one or two pieces of silver could be exchanged for 2000 pence, and almost more than six stones could be bought.

In this regard, there is also a related record in Meng Qian Bitan: "Whoever makes stones, 92.5 Jin is the law." In the Song Dynasty, a catty was almost equal to 640 grams, 10 stone rice, which was 59.2 kilograms, which was not much different from that in the Tang Dynasty, but silver had already depreciated, and one or two pieces of silver could only buy about 2 100 yuan of rice.

Shen Kuo, the author of Meng Qian Bi Tan.

As time goes on, silver is slowly depreciating. Until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, the value of silver had dropped to around 600 to 800 yuan. At the end of the Qing dynasty, it fell directly to more than 200 yuan, but this price has become normal. But even if one or two pieces of silver eventually leave 200 pieces, it is absolutely no problem to eat a meal. It is precisely because of this that Xiao Ercai is not afraid of the lack of money for his guests.

In the Ming dynasty, the salary of Qipin county magistrate was only 60 taels of silver a year. In A Dream of Red Mansions, there are also descriptions of their respective salaries. A maid with a house can only get two taels of silver a month, and Qingwen can only get one tael. Everyone knows how precious silver was at that time.

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In film and television dramas, it's not that we see the guests leaving so lavishly with a silver ingot, but that this is the demeanor of the rich. This silver dollar may be worth a year's salary of a bartender. After receiving these, they will naturally be very happy and will not stop them.