Daqian

Daqian (Traditional Chinese: 大錢, "big cash") are large-denomination cash coins produced in the Qing dynasty starting from 1853 until 1890. Large denomination cash coins were previously used in earlier Chinese dynasties and had faced similar issues as 19th-century Daqian. The term referred to cash coins with a denomination of 4 '' wén'' or higher.

Under the Xianfeng Emperor the government of the Qing dynasty faced large crises, most notably the Taiping Rebellion, which had heavily burdened the government's expenditures, as a response the government had introduced a large number of monetary reforms including the introduction of cash coins with high nominal values, while their intrinsic values were significantly lower. These cash coins were not well received by the Chinese public and their circulation was not long as the market would reject them rather quickly after their introduction. After 1855 all denominations of the Daqian other than the 10 ''wén'' ceased to be produced, while the 10 ''wén'' cash coins would continue to circulate at only 20% their nominal value.

Most Daqian were copper-alloy cash coins, but iron and lead Daqian were also produced during the Xianfeng era.

The Chinese Daqian happened concurrent with and may have inspired similar debasements of cash coinages in Tokugawa Japan, Joseon-era Korea, the Ryukyu islands, and Nguyễn-period Vietnam.

History

Limited resources and background

A large number of large-scale peasant uprisings, ethnic and religious minority revolts, as well as foreign invasions of China took place under the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor, including Nian, Miao, Panthay, Red Turban, Da Cheng, and Taiping rebellions, and the Second Opium War. These major events all had very devastating effects on the economy of the Qing dynasty as well as disabling the government of the Qing dynasty from collecting taxes. During the height of the Taiping Rebellion the government's access to its southern copper mines was cut off by rebel forces, this inability to access its copper reserves has a profound effect on the Qing dynasty coinage of this era. While initially like the preceding series of Qing era cash coins the Xianfeng Tongbao was only produced with the denomination of 1 '' wén'', the government was soon forced to produce higher denominations to continue financing its large military expenditures.

Monetary policy debates during the Xianfeng era

After the Taiping rebels took Nanjing in 1853, serious debates about the monetary policy of the government of the Qing dynasty as the occupation of Southern China by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom it cut off from several sources of revenue, including tax revenues, southern provincial grain tributes, the salt tax imposed on the Huai area, and the Yunnanese copper mines from which the copper supplies for the Beijing imperial mints came from. These circumstances led to both shortages in the imperial silver supply (from taxation) and the supply of copper-alloy cash coins. Various proposals were made to remedy the lowered government income and fiscal deficits, among these proposals the majority of them concerned monetary reforms. Among the suggestions were proposals for the indigenous production of silver so the Qing state would be less dependent on the influx of foreign silver dollars, but this proposal was met with much skepticism as it was quite difficult to set up silver mining and minting operations in China at the time, while other proposals called for the complete abolition of silver as a medium of exchange in China.

Other proposals sought to introduce gold and even jade to the Chinese monetary system and wanted to ban all non-religious usage of precious metals like gold and silver. The most influential proposals turned out to be the ones advocating for both the debasement of the copper coinage and the introduction of high denomination copper-alloy cash coins. Furthermore, some proposals recognised the difficulty of establishing multiple exchange rates between all the new monies and the high transaction costs that would burden low-value currencies such as the copper-alloy cash coins, these proposers advocated for the re-introduction of paper money, either convertible or inconvertible into metallic currencies.

While the government of the Qing dynasty was initially hesitant to adopt a new monetary policy, they settled on debasing the copper-alloy currency, issuing inconvertible banknotes, and establishing new government banks. In reality, the new monetarily policies were rushed and their implementation differed greatly from the actual proposals, furthermore the implementation would prove to be completely incoherent. Eventually the monetary policy of the Qing dynasty during the Xianfeng era had degenerated to forcing a debased copper-alloy currency on the Chinese people, while creating many obstacles that would prevent these new cash coins from ever returning to the government.

Introduction of new monies

The measures taken during the Taiping Rebellion made the Chinese monetary system even more complicated as it introduced a large number of different types of currency which all circulated concurrently as legal tender.“Silver, Copper, Rice, and Debt: Monetary Policy and Office Selling in China during the Taiping Rebellion,” in Money in Asia (1200–1900): Small Currencies in Social and Political Contexts, ed.
by Jane Kate Leonard and Ulrich Theobald, Leiden: Brill, 2015, 343–395. The hyperinflation during the Xianfeng era was caused by the government of the Qing dynasty, in its desperate scramble for revenue, continuously debasing the copper content of its coinage. Furthermore, the banknotes it had issued were all declared to be inconvertible shortly after their issuance. The debasement of the copper content was commenced on 24 April of the year 1853 with the introduction of the Daqian (大錢, "big money").

Starting in April of the year 1853 two metropolitan mints commenced the production of the Daqian, the first series had a nominal value of 10 ''wén'', these cash coins had a weight of 0.6 tael