Silver was first used as currency and appeared in the Spring and Autumn Period. Among the unearthed cultural relics, the silver coins of Chu State were found. However, in the Qin Dynasty, Qin Shihuang did not use silver as the currency, but used gold and copper coins as the main currency at that time.
The period when it was really used as a large-scale currency was the Han Dynasty. At that time, a dragon-shaped round silver coin with no hole in the middle could buy 1500 Jin of grain. This shows that the silver coins at that time were very valuable and belonged to high-end currency.
From the Han Dynasty to the Sui Dynasty, silver did not continue to be the main currency in circulation in the Han Dynasty, but gave way to gold coins and copper coins. Until the Tang Dynasty, silver finally came back. At that time, the main monetary form of silver was silver ingots. In the Song Dynasty, there were various forms of money, including gold, copper coins and even paper money, and silver eventually became the mainstream currency.
In the Yuan Dynasty after the Song Dynasty, the main currency in circulation was paper money, with little silver. In the Ming dynasty, silver and copper coins became the main currencies in folk circulation, and silver in the Ming dynasty was commonly known as ingot. But with the change of the emperor, the silver in the Ming Dynasty has been depreciating. In the last years of Chongzhen, one or two pieces of silver could only buy more than 6 kilograms of grain, which was far from the Han Dynasty.
The Qing Dynasty was the heyday of silver, which became the main currency and hard currency in circulation, so silver was very valuable. During the Qianlong period, one or two ounces of silver could buy more than 80 kilograms of grain. Even in the late Qing Dynasty, one or two ounces of silver could buy more than 70 kilograms of grain.
Besides the monetary property, the biggest property of silver is precious metal. Therefore, since ancient times, silver has been loved by the majority of Chinese people. Silver, together with gold, pearls, agate and various precious stones, has become the goal pursued by dignitaries. Even ordinary people are so eager for silver that silver in society is consumed in large quantities.
In ancient dynasties, bureaucratic families and extended families liked to use silver as funerary objects, and it was also a popular way for ancient nobles to bury them with silver, gold and various jewels. After all, the ancients thought that these gold and silver jewelry can still be used underground and still retain the wealth of the world, so everyone likes to be buried with them, which makes the society lose a lot of money. For example, the amount of gold, silver and jewelry used for funeral in Han Dynasty reached about 30% of the total social output value at that time.
Secondly, the use of jewelry also consumes a lot of silver. As the second precious metal after gold, silver is widely used. All kinds of silver ornaments, even silver spoons and plates, were widely used by nobles and large families and became a popular custom at that time, so silver was consumed by so many silver products. Even today, people are still obsessed with silver and silver jewelry is still widely used.
Since the Qing Dynasty, the identity of silver has become hard currency and has been widely used. Where has so much silver in circulation gone? The consumption patterns of silver in the dynasties mentioned above also existed in the Qing Dynasty, but the biggest consumption pattern in the Qing Dynasty was not above, but compensation. In a series of unequal treaties in the Qing dynasty, the Qing dynasty paid huge reparations, and these glittering silver became reparations and flowed abroad.
The largest amount of compensation was the Xin Chou Treaty signed between the Qing Dynasty and Eight-Nation Alliance, with compensation of 980 million taels of silver. Silver itself is a precious metal with limited reserves. Such a huge amount, let a lot of silver loss. However, this is only a treaty compensation amount. The Sino-Japanese treaty of shimonoseki signed by the Qing Dynasty and Japan lost another 200 million taels of silver, as well as the Sino-British treaty of nanking, the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the Opium War and so on. So how much money did you lose?
Some people have done statistics, and it is estimated that all foreign reparations in the Qing Dynasty amounted to 654.38+300 million taels of silver. The total revenue of the national treasury in the Qing Dynasty was only a few thousand taels of silver a year, so the loss of 654.38+300 million taels of silver caused a huge consumption of silver, which was also the main reason for the disappearance of silver in the Qing Dynasty.
In the early days of the founding of New China, the National Government hastily withdrew provinces and merged with Taiwan, and also took away a lot of silver. Originally, the Qing Dynasty consumed a huge amount of silver, but there was still a large amount of silver outflow during the Republic of China, and the national government brought a large amount of silver to Taiwan Province Province, which made the amount of silver left in the mainland drop sharply. Therefore, this has led to ancient silver that is rarely seen today.
Nowadays, silver has lost its status as a currency in circulation, but it is still active in various fields, which makes silver still be consumed in different fields. First of all, it is widely used in industry. As a metal, silver has good electrothermal conductivity and photosensitivity, and it needs a lot of silver as a material when it is used in electronic components, chemical industry and photosensitive materials.
In today's society, silver is still one of the main precious metal materials for jewelry and decorations, which also requires a lot of silver as a material. Besides, it is also used in medicine. Silver can prevent infection and purify water. Therefore, using silver as a container can effectively prevent the growth of bacteria and prolong the shelf life of food, which is also a major use of silver.
Silver is a precious metal second only to gold, and it is still favored by investors today. These uses also allow silver to be used in many fields and industries, thus consuming a lot. So we can't often see traces of silver in our daily life now. But silver has not disappeared, but has been used in many places that we can't see.
As a precious metal, silver has been endowed with many practical uses by society since ancient times, especially as a circulating currency, which has been widely used by society and has become the object of people's pursuit. After experiencing various forms of consumption in society, especially after the decadent Qing Dynasty paid a large amount of reparations abroad, silver gradually faded out of people's sight. However, silver is still an indispensable substance for people today and continues to realize its value in another way.