摘要
嘉道年间发生于中国的银贵钱贱,一般认为是鸦片输入引发白银外流所致。实际上,19世纪上半叶,美洲金银大幅减产对世界主要国家的白银购买力产生了重要影响,导致世界范围内白银购买力的上升。处于世界白银流动末端的中国,这一时期白银购买力上升更为显著,数据分析结果显示,其白银购买力变动趋势与国外白银购买力上升密切相关;同时,中国银钱比价与白银购买力变动一致,钱计物价相对稳定。因此,这一时期银钱比价上涨的长期变动原因是银贵,而非钱贱。
The high cost of silver and low cost of copper coin during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods has been generally regarded as the result of the outflow of silver to pay for opium imports. In fact,in the first half of the 19th century,the considerable reduction in North and South-American gold and silver production had a great effect on the purchasing power of silver in the principal nations in the world,leading to a the rise in the purchasing power of silver all over the world. Positioned at the endpoint of the international flow of silver,the rise in silver's purchasing power in China during this period was more remarkable than elsewhere. Analysis of the available data shows that the change in silver's purchasing power in China was closely related to the rise in silver's purchasing power in other countries. At the same time,the exchange rate between silver and copper coin behaved identically to the change in the purchasing power of silver: commodity prices stated in terms of copper coin were comparatively stable. Therefore,the long-term cause of the increase in the exchange rate between silver and cooper coin was that silver was expensive,not that copper coin was inexpensive.
出处
《近代史研究》
CSSCI
北大核心
2012年第6期105-118,161,共14页
Modern Chinese History Studies
