宋代陜西・河東の鐵錢問題

Abstract

In the Northern Song, iron coins were issued in the peripheral circuits such as Shaanxi and Hedong both in order to meet the increasing military expenditures necessitated by the XiXia threat and in order to uphold the copper cash standard by limiting the outflow of copper coins. By reexamining the changes in monetary policy regarding iron coins in these two circuits and investigating the mechanisms through which private coinage of iron coins came into being, this paper sheds light on some unique aspects of the monetary economy of Song China. The coexistence of copper and iron coins necessitated a multiplex price system. The availability of different kinds of iron coins in different circuits prevented commodities from circulating on a nationwide scale. Both of these two factors, which partly contributed to private coinage of iron coins, seriously conditioned the development of the monetary economy of Song China. The value of iron coins was apparently fixed arbitrarily by the state; that is, it had nothing to do either with the market forces of demand and supply or with the intrinsic value of the metal. The issue of iron coins played an important part in favor of the government finance, but it undermined the unity of the copper cash standard.