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THE  CHINESE  EMPIRE

Hienfeng  (a.d.  1851-1861),  pieces  of  iron  having  then  been
issued  during  the  time  when  the  mints  were  cut  off  fr orn
their  supplies  of  copper  from  Yunnan.  These,  however,
are  all  intermittent  and  eccentric  currencies  which  have
not  endured  ;  and  for  present-day  discussion  we  need  only
consider  three  kinds—copper,  paper  and  silver.

COPPER  CURRENCY

Early  Coins
It  is  only  in  copper  (or  bronze)  that  currency  and  coinage
are  synonymous  terms  in  China.  Disregarding  the  archaic
uninscribed  tokens  of  rulers  before  the  true  historic  period,
we  find  the  earliest  recorded  legislation  on  coinage  about  a
century  after  the  beginning  of  the  Chow  Dynasty
B.c.  1122),  the  sovereign  having  established  in  b.c.  io3 2
certain  rules  for  currency,  and  enacted  that  metallic  pieces
should  henceforth  be  exchangeable  according  to  their  weightinscribed
  coins  then  came  in,  but  for  over  three  centuries
the  inscriptions  contained  no  reference  to  weight  or  value-Then,
  in  the  first  half  of  the  seventh  century  b.c.,  the  enactment ­
  of  certain  rules  led  gradually  to  the  habit  (coinage  not
being  yet,  not  until  b.c.  135,  a  government  prerogative)  oí
casting  coins  of  regular  shapes  and  sizes  and  of  constant
weights  ;  but  even  then  the  earliest  known  specimen  described ­
  with  weight  or  value  is  assigned  doubtfully  to  cifM
b.c.  375.  The  coins  circulating  from  this  time  were  of  the
shapes  called  knife  and  spade  or  f&gt;u,  both  being  token 5
representing  for  purposes  of  barter  the  implements  which
constituted  .the  wealth  of  the  people.  Of  these  the  kn#
coins  represent  a  more  highly  developed  civilisation,  in  that
the  inscriptions  are  more  precise  in  giving  the  place  of  issue
and  in  indicating  that  they  are  token  currency  ;  the  issue 5
of  the  latest  type,  ascribed  to  the  beginning  of  the  fi fS *
century  of  our  era,  are  highly  conventionalised,  the  blade
being  shortened  and  the  ring  having  become  a  thickened
copy  of  the  round  coin  with  square  hole  which  had  by  that
time  become  the  common  coinage.