The development of currency is based on the development of commodity exchange. In the history of our country, there should be no currency before the Xia Dynasty. At that time, people's transactions were in the primitive exchange stage of barter. Starting from the Xia Dynasty, "shells were used as currency". Natural shellfish was the earliest currency in ancient my country. In the Western Zhou Dynasty, shell coins were still the main currency, but in addition to natural shells, artificial copper shells began to appear. In the Spring and Autumn Period, weighing currency and minting currency began to dominate currency. Although shell coins still exist, they are not used in many places. By the Warring States Period, gold began to enter the currency ranks. What people used to call "gold" was copper, not gold. During the Warring States Period, the circulation of gold as currency in the market was a great progress in the history of currency. It marks a change in people's concept of wealth and the means of gathering wealth. People no longer use physical objects as the standard to measure wealth. The means of gathering wealth also begin to develop from traditional jewelry, jade, carriages, horses, cloth, grain, etc. to money.
At this time, although currency casting has developed to a new stage, due to the separation of princes and political decentralization at that time, the currency was very inconsistent and it was very inconvenient for people to trade. Later, although governments of various countries successively took control of the right to mint coins, they still could not unify between countries, and there was no specific currency conversion standard, so the circulation of items between countries was still very inconvenient. At this time, the shapes, units, and weights of currencies in various countries were very different. In terms of shapes, there were shovel-shaped coins, knife-shaped coins, shell-shaped coins, ring coins, etc.
Shovel-shaped coins, also known as cloth coins, are a currency circulating in the Sanjin area. Because their appearance resembles a shovel, they are called shovel-shaped coins. It itself has many different shapes, including pointed feet, square feet, round feet, etc., but it is basically still spade-shaped. The shovel-shaped coin developed from an ancient shovel-shaped agricultural tool called "Lei". The reason for the emergence of shovel coins may be that in some areas, shovels are a primitive currency, and people initially produced tool shovels as a medium of exchange in the barter process. Later, with the development of trade, in order to facilitate the exchange process, shovels gradually became smaller from real objects, and formed a circulating currency - shovel-shaped coins. There is a saying in "The Book of Songs": "The rogue's Chichi holds cloth and silk." This sentence well explains the reason why shovel-shaped coins are called cloth coins. This may be related to the fact that some places in ancient times used cloth coins. Relevant as a medium of exchange in the circulation of goods. Both shovel and cloth were currencies in circulation in ancient times. Later, after the emergence of metal coins, people combined these two previously circulating currencies when minting coins. The shape of the new currency was taken from the shovel and its name was taken from cloth. In addition to the shovel-shaped coin being nicknamed "cloth coin", the knife coin is also nicknamed "knife cloth".
Shovel-shaped coins were mainly circulated within the seven heroes of the Warring States Period: Han, Zhao, and Wei. In recent years, a large number of shovel coins and the molds used to mint them have been discovered. Shovel coins generally have inscriptions, and the content of the inscriptions is mainly based on the place names at that time. Among the shovel-shaped coins discovered so far, the ones with "Anyang" as the inscription are the most numerous. This kind of currency may have been minted and mainly circulated in the Sanjin area, but its circulation range is very wide, and this kind of currency has been unearthed in many places outside Sanjin.
During this period, knife-shaped coins were also widely circulated. Knife-shaped coins are the currency of Qi State. Because their shape resembles a scabbard, they are called knife-shaped coins. During the Warring States Period, Qi State's commerce was very developed, so it took the lead in currency casting. The origin of knife-shaped coins should be similar to that of shovel-shaped coins. Initially, knife scabbards may have been used as a medium of exchange in this area. After metallographic analysis of the unearthed knife-shaped coins, experts found that the knife-shaped coins not only looked like a scabbard, but the metal composition was also consistent with the composition of the scabbard at that time. During the Warring States Period, there were many places where coins were minted in Qi State, but the coins minted in these different minting places all had a unified inscription - "Qifahua". Among them, "fa" means standard in ancient Chinese, and "hua" may be the abbreviation of goods. "Qifahua" means Qi's standard currency. We all know that there is a saying that the scabbards of swords can be "combined into a standard". What is interesting is that these sword coins of Qi can also be "combined into a standard". During the Warring States Period, knife coins were already very mature. Due to their suitability for storage and circulation, knife coins quickly became an indispensable item in people's lives during that period. There is a sentence in "Guan Zi: Light and Heavy Chapter" that expresses the important role that sword coins play in people's lives - "Golden sword coins are the currency of the people."
Although the knife coin is the standard currency of Qi State, its scope of influence is not limited to Qi State. According to the unearthed cultural relics, it is speculated that the Yan State, located in the northwest of Qi State, also used sword coins, but the sword coins of Yan State used "Ming Dao" as the inscription, and the shape was not as exquisite as the sword coins of Qi State.
Shell-shaped coins are the currency in circulation in the Chu State. They are named because their shape resembles a shell. As we said before, the history of shell coins is very long. There have been shell coins since the Xia Dynasty. However, the shell coins at this time are very different from the original ones. The shell coins at this time no longer use natural shell coins. , but cast copper into the shape of a shell. Shell-shaped coins are called "ant-nosed money" or "ghost-faced money". There are two holes of different sizes on the top, the back is slightly convex, and the abdomen is oval. The shell coins of Chu State, like the currencies of other countries at the same time, were engraved with inscriptions, which were not found on previous shell coins. Among all inscriptions, the word "贝" is the most common.
In addition to shell coins, another popular currency in Chu State is gold. The gold plate is made up of small pieces connected together with square or circular marks. The largest version has 54 small squares. When this kind of currency is used, appropriate small pieces are cut from a large block according to the amount to be paid, and the money is paid after being weighed on a scale.
In addition to the currencies mentioned above, there is another currency that also has a place in the currency of the Warring States Period, which is round money. Round money is a ring coin, the predecessor of square hole money. It is mainly circulated in the Qin State and the Eastern and Western Zhou areas. The shape of this currency may come from the jade rings or jade bis worn by the ancients. The round coins in the Eastern and Western Zhou areas are very beautifully cast and have the words "Eastern Zhou" and "Western Zhou" on them. Qin's round coins were also cast with inscriptions, but the inscriptions were mainly "weight one tael", "twelve baht", "thirteen baht", etc. Square hole money was the currency in circulation later in the Qin Dynasty. Square-hole coins also have some inscriptions that are very similar to round coins. Common ones are "banliang", "liangster", etc. It is speculated that square hole coins may have been created by local officials in the process of unifying the six kingdoms. It was the most widely circulated currency in Qin's process of unifying the six kingdoms. Because of Qin's external expansion, the areas within the reach of Qin's influence were affected by square hole money.
The history of currency and the history of commercial development are inseparable. The level of commercial development determines the level of currency development, and at the same time, the development of currency can promote the development of business. During the Warring States Period, all countries made great progress in currency casting, which was of course inseparable from the rapid development of commerce at that time.
