A Debate in T'Ang China On the State Monopoly On Casting Coin

Abstract

In A.D. 734, the chief minister Chang Chiu-ling f gLO suggested to the Emperor Hsiian-tsung g that private persons should be allowed to manufacture coin. His proposal was a direct challenge to the T'ang state monopoly on casting coin and provoked vigorous arguments from a number of other leading officials, who defended the monopoly. The debate of 734 provides valuable evidence of the views on currency and trade in particular and economic problems in general held by Chinese statesmen of the mid T'ang period 1). It also broadens the picture of an inadequate official coinage, supplemented by unofficial coins, given by other sources of T'ang economic history. This article examines first the problems which formed the subject of the debate and then the arguments put forward by the protagonists. A full translation of the extant texts connected with the debate is given in the appendix. From the beginning of the T'ang Dynasty, government policy, defended by the majority of officials, demanded that the manufacture of coin be a state monopoly. In 62I, three years after the establishment of the dynasty, the K'ai-yiian t'ung-pao r f, weighing one tenth of a liang (P1 approximately 4.3 grams) and composed of a high proportion of copper, with some addition of lead and tin, was introduced. Apart from brief experiments with coins of a higher denomination, the K'ai-yiian t'ung-pao remained the only standard coin throughout the dynasty 2).