Chinese cash () was a currency denomination used in China in imperial times. It was the chief denomination until the introduction of the yuan in the late 19th century.
Etymology
The English word "", meaning "tangible currency", is an older word from Portuguese
or Middle French ("box", or "case").
The term was first used on coins issued in
Guangdong Province in 1900. It did not appear on paper money until later. The
plural forms "cash" and "cashes" were both used. The Chinese character
wen () has several other meanings in modern Chinese.
History
The
wen was one of the chief units of currency in China and was used to denominate both coins and paper money. Other denominations were used, including various weights, based on the
tael system, for
sycee silver and gold ingots.
Chinese currency started 3000-4500 years ago but no one is quite sure.
Until the 19th century, coins denominated in wen were cast, the most common formation being the round-shaped copper coin with a square or circular hole in the centre.[Fredrik Schöth. Chinese Currency. Revised and edited by Virgil Hancock. Iola, WI, USA: Krause, 1965.] Each string of cash was divided in ten sections of 100. The person who strung the cash into a string took one, two, or three cash per hundred, depending on local custom, as payment for his effort. So, in fact, an ounce of silver could vary in exchange from 970 to 990 cash (or more) between two places fairly close together.
In the 19th century, foreign coins began to circulate widely in China, particularly silver coins such as the Mexican peso. In 1889, Chinese currency began to be denominated in the yuan and its subdivisions. The cash or wén was retained in this system as yuan. Traditional style, cast 1 wén coins continued to be produced until the end of the Chinese Empire in 1911. The last coins denominated in cash were struck in the early years of the Republic of China in 1924.
The term is still used today in colloquial Cantonese ( mān), but written as 蚊 to represent Hong Kong dollars.
Coins
Numerous authorities issued coins denominated in wén in the nineteenth century, including departments of the Imperial government (The Board of Revenue and Board of Public Works) together with provincial authorities. Most coins were 1 wén denominations, but denominations of 4, 5, 10, 50, 100, 200, 500 and 1000 wén were also issued.
[Art-Hanoi CURRENCY TYPES AND THEIR FACE VALUES DURING THE TỰ ĐỨC ERA. This is a translation of the article “Monnaies et circulation monetairé au Vietnam dans l’ère Tự Đức (1848-1883) by François Thierry de Crussol (蒂埃里). Published in Revue Numismatique 1999 (volume # 154). Pgs 267-313. This translation is from pages 274-297. Translator: Craig Greenbaum. Retrieved: 25 August 2019.][XIV International Economic History Congress, Helsinki 2006 Session 106 Too Commercialised To Synchronize Currencies: Monetary Peasant Economy in Late Imperial China in Comparison with Contemporary Japan by Akinobu Kuroda (University of Tokyo) Retrieved: 11 June 2017] After the introduction of the yuan, coins were struck in denominations of 1, 2, 5, 10 and 20 cash or wén.
Paper money
The world's first
paper money, issued in China between the 7th and 15th centuries, was denominated in wén. The notes carried depictions of coins, sometimes in strings of ten. The notes of the
Yuan dynasty suffered from
hyperinflation due to over production without sufficient coins to back them and were withdrawn.
Chinese paper money reappeared in the 19th century during the
Qing dynasty. In 1853, Great Qing Treasure Note banknotes were introduced in denominations of 500, 1000 and 2000 wén. 5000 wén notes followed in 1856, with 10,000, 50,000 and 100,000 wén notes added in 1857. The last of these notes were issued in 1859.
External influence
Early
,
, Ryukyuan, and
currencies, the
Korean mun, Japanese mon,
Ryukyuan mon, and
Vietnamese cash (where it was both used for cash coins and as a currency unit), were derived from the Chinese
wén and written with the same character. In 1695, the Shogunate placed the
kanji gen () on the obverse of copper coins.
[Isaac Titsingh. (1834). Siyun-sai. Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon.] Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. ( Digitized text copy ) p. 415.] Vietnam gained independence from
China in 938 and merely carried on the tradition of using cash. The first
Vietnamese cash was issued in 968.
Hong Kong
The smallest unit of the Hong Kong dollar during the 1860s was the
mil, which like the Chinese cash was of a dollar. The Chinese character for this currency unit was "文", though these coins were not translated into English as "cash".
See also
- Notes
- Bibliography
-
Isaac Titsingh. (1834). Siyun-sai. Nipon o daï itsi ran; ou, Annales des empereurs du Japon.] Paris: Oriental Translation Fund of Great Britain and Ireland. ( Digitized text copy )
External links
