乾隆朝铜钱管理的政策讨论及实践——兼与18世纪英国小额货币管理的比较  

The Debate and Practice of the Copper Coin Supply Policy During the Reign of Qianlong: In Comparison with the Management of Small Cash in 18th-century England

作　　者：和文凯[1] 

机构地区：[1]香港科技大学社会科学部

出　　处：《中国经济史研究》2016年第1期125-141,共17页Researches in Chinese Economic History

基　　金：香港Research Grant Council(RGC)的资助(项目编号:No.42011)

摘　　要：本文从小额货币的视角来考察乾隆时期清政府在制钱供给方面的政策讨论与实践。为了克服这一时期制钱短缺给公共财政与市场交易带来的诸多不便,清政府在尊重市场供求平衡关系的前提下,试图通过增加市场上铜的供应来满足民间的对铜需求,从根本上消除私销政府制钱以谋利的利润动机。在此基础上,清政府通过大量鼓铸制钱来满足民间交易对小额货币的需求,进而确保小额货币的铜钱与作为本位货币的银两之间法定比价的稳定。在因地制宜的政策导向下,中央与地方督抚在铜钱的铸造和供给问题上存在良性互动。与18世纪英国政府在小额货币供给方面的混乱和无效相比较,乾隆朝后期银钱比价的稳定是前现代经济中政府为市场提供小额货币相对成功的一个例子。This paper examines the policy debates and policy implementation in regard to the supply of copper coins during the reign of Qianlong emperor in Qing dynasty. Facing the inconvenience to both public finance and market transactions due to the severe shortage of copper coins, the Qing government recognized the importance of meeting the demand for copper in the markets to the circulation of government minted copper coins. It attempted to cancel the profit incentives of melting copper coins by increasing both copper supply and government mintage. Compared with the inefficiency of the British government in supplying small cash in the eighteenth century, the maintenance of the official exchange rates between silver and copper coins in the late eighteenth-century China was one successful example of government supply of small cash in the pre-modern world.

关 键 词：乾隆朝 制钱短缺 小额货币 银钱比价 钱法政策 

分 类 号：F822.9[经济管理—财政学] F825.61