北宋钱荒的内在成因新探  

A New Inquiry into the Inherent Causes of Money Shortage in the Northern Song Dynasty

作　　者：周生春[1] 李华[1] Zhou Shengchun Li Hua(College of Economics, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China)

机构地区：[1]浙江大学经济学院,浙江杭州310027

出　　处：《浙江大学学报（人文社会科学版）》2017年第2期55-65,共11页Journal of Zhejiang University:Humanities and Social Sciences

基　　金：国家社会科学基金项目(15BYY012)

摘　　要：学界对北宋钱荒的研究往往认为,钱价低于铜价所造成的铜钱的熔化、外流和窖藏等是导致钱荒的主要原因。但若从北宋时宏观货币供求和微观经济运行来探讨北宋铜钱体系下的物价变动及货币供给问题,会发现单一铜铸币制度是北宋钱荒的根本原因。而技术落后导致铜钱铸造成本高,使得北宋政府自身货币供给能力有限,不能满足北宋社会日渐增长的货币需求,则是这一根本原因的具体表现。决策者们试图通过打破单一铜铸币制度,铸造铁钱、发行纸币和使用贵金属等方式解决货币供给不足问题,但效果有限。The efficient monetary system requires that the money supply is flexible enough,in order to face the change of the money demand.If the money supply can not be changed while there is a sustained increase in the money demand,it will produce a shortage of money.This paper,based on a simple cash-in-advance model,studies the monetary system of the Song Dynasty,and expects to analyze the intrinsic reason of the money shortage prevailing in the Song Dynasty.Chinese ancient copper coins system does have its particularity,because every dynasty only issued one kind of copper coin officially.Due to the need to avoid the price of its generally accepted coin below par value,it is impossible to issue the debased coin successfully.The weight of the coin each dynasty repeatedly cast was 30 kilogram without much deviation,fineness also remained in roughly 60% to 80%,and this standard was kept all the time.The official debasement would face many difficulties.Even the newly established Dynasty cannot ignore the habit of the people.At the same time,because of the huge stock of the copper coin in folk,casting debased coins was almost impossible.Even if the government made the law that thedebased coins would be valued one wen,in response,the folk would appreciate the old coins to the maximum.The coin system of Song Dynasty is the representative of ancient Chinese coin system.According to Cipolla and Sargent＇s researches,before the establishment of the modern monetary system the only way to increase the supply of small denomination coins was to reduce the cost of production.And before the first industrial revolution,the only way to reduce the production cost of the coins was to increase the proportion of base metals in the coin.In the single metal copper coinage,copper coin is in fact the only official issued currency.And it is in fact the only generally accepted currency.The yield of the copper coin is maximum increment of the money supply every year,and copper coins stock can also be regarded as the stock of money.So given technica

关 键 词：钱荒 小额货币 铸币成本 铜钱购买力 

分 类 号：F822.9[经济管理—财政学] K244[历史地理—历史学]