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The
printing industry expanded greatly in the Song
dynasty era with paper money following suit. The image at right is reported to
be the first known advertisement, a flyer from a Needle Shop. Although other types of non-metallic
currency appeared earlier in China starting in the
Tang dynasty
唐朝, paper money
use expanded in Chengdu, China.
In the Northern Song Dynasty 北宋 (960 -1126), merchants in Chengdu jointly
issued this earliest known type of paper money in the world, which was
called Jiaozi (exchange bills), not to be confused with the fried
dumplings of the same name. The local government set up an Office of
Jiao zi, which might be considered the earliest administrative and savings
bank.
Song dynasty paper money was first issued by a small group of rice
merchants in Szechuan. Some notes were said to have pictures of people,
houses, etc. as well as seals(chops). They also contained some type of
anti-counterfeiting marks and were sometimes printed alternately in red
and black inks. These notes were convertible into hard currency, were
readily accepted and circulated widely.
The earlier issues were withdrawn around 1022 and replaced by government
issued banknotes. Earlier currencies issued by rice farmers and
businessmen were demonetized and the new government issues were backed by
hard currency and were similarly denominated with coins. .
At that time, workshops for paper money
making were located in Jingchong Temple to the north of Chengdu city
(today known as Wan-fu Temple or Temple of Ten Thousand Buddha's.) The paper
money made there was the earliest circulating paper money ever used. It played a
significant role in promoting trade, facilitating financial transactions and economic
development.
Some examples of these currencies may have survived and if so they would be
considered extremely rare, although I know of no examples which have
surfaced in recent years. |
