Banknotes of the Da Qing Bank
The banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank were intended to become the main form of paper money of the Qing dynasty following the bank's establishment in 1905. The Da-Qing Bank had branches throughout China and many of its branches outside of its headquarters in Beijing also issued banknotes.
These banknotes were stipulated to become the only legal tender paper money in China in 1910, but due to the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1911 the Chinese currency system reverted to its original chaotic state during the early Republican era and the Da-Qing Bank would be reorganized as the Bank of China in 1912, which would continue to produce banknotes in Mainland China until 1942 and its Hong Kong branch is still one of the official note-issuing banks for the banknotes of the Hong Kong dollar today.
History[edit]
The Da-Qing Bank was the first official financial institution in the history of China to fulfill the functions of a central bank.
Background and banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank[edit]
During the transition from Ming to Qing the Manchu government issued banknotes to finance its expensive military campaigns, but following their conquest of China they abolished these banknotes.[1][2][3][4] Under the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor the Great Qing Treasure Note (
Following the opening up of many treaty port cities of China after its defeat during the First Opium War during the 1840s, a large number of major foreign banks entered China and started issuing their own banknotes there for local circulation.[8] During this same era provincial governments started setting up their own official banks to enhance their financial resources. The boom of financial institutions during this era meant that various forms of paper money, private banknotes, foreign banknotes, and many different kinds of local coinages circulated concurrently creating a very chaotic Chinese currency system.[9] During the later part of the Qing dynasty era there was a discussion on whether or not the imperial Chinese government would have to establish a national bank which it finally did in 1905. Peng Shu (彭述) stated before the introduction of new banknotes that the national bank would have to keep sufficient reserves in "touchable" money (
The Da-Qing Bank issued two different types of banknotes, one series was denominated in "tael" (
Banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank[edit]
In 1908, the Great Qing Bank of the Ministry of Revenue changed its name to the Da-Qing Bank (
The banknotes produced by the Da-Qing Bank printed by the American Bank Note Company featured an image of Li Hongzhang on their obverse sides and were subsequently known as "Li Hongzhang notes" (
During this period, several employees of the Da-Qing Bank were sent to Japan to study modern printing technology and after these people returned to China, they would propose to the imperial court to adopt the Japanese method of copper engraving and some trial banknotes were made, but the proposition was ultimately not adopted by the government of the Qing dynasty.[16]
Following the Chinese tradition of issuing new money in a new reign, the Xuantong administration had the design of the official Da-Qing Bank paper notes somewhat changed to herald in the new emperor.[1] The new design was inspired by the designs of the banknotes of the United States dollar of this era.[1]
In the year 1910, the government of the Qing dynasty issued a new law to solve the chaotic currency situation of China at the time, this law made the banknotes issued by the Da-Qing Bank the only legal tender paper money in China. The law further stipulated that only the Da-Qing Bank can issue paper money and that its banknotes can be used for all payment activities and financial transactions across the country. The government of the Qing dynasty hired the American sculptor L. J. Hatch and several American technicians to train the banknote printing staff and they were set out to design a new version of Da-Qing Bank banknotes.[17] The obverse of these newly designed banknotes featured the face of Zaifeng, Prince Chun and were popularly known as "Da-Qing Dragon banknotes" (
At the eve of the Xinhai Revolution, there were 5,400,000 tael worth of Yinliang banknotes circulating in China, and 12,400,000 yuan in Yinyuan banknotes.[1]
Aftermath[edit]
In the year 1912, the Republic of China was established, and the Da-Qing Bank was reorganized into the Bank of China. In order to alleviate the financial crisis, a large number of "Li Hongzhang notes" were overstamped and changed to "Bank of China notes" (
The Bank of China would continue producing Chinese banknotes until 1942.[21][22] After the Chinese Civil War ended in 1949, the Bank of China effectively split into two operations. Part of the bank relocated to Taiwan with the Kuomintang (KMT) government, and was privatised in 1971 to become the International Commercial Bank of China (
List of banknotes[edit]
1906[edit]
1907[edit]
Banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank of the Ministry of Revenue (1907 issue) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | Value | Main Color | Description | Date of issue | ||
Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | |||
1 dollar | 1907 | |||||
5 dollars | 1907 | |||||
10 dollars | 1907 |
1908[edit]
Banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank (1908 issue) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | Value | Main Color | Description | Date of issue | ||
Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | |||
10 dollars | 1908 |
1909[edit]
Banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank (1909 issue) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | Value | Main Color | Description | Date of issue | ||
Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | |||
1 dollar | 1909 | |||||
5 dollars | 1909 | |||||
10 dollars | 1909 | |||||
100 dollars | 1909 |
1910[edit]
Banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank (1910 issue) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | Value | Main Color | Description | Date of issue | ||
Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | |||
1 dollar | 1910 | |||||
5 dollars | 1910 | |||||
10 dollars | 1910 | |||||
100 dollars | 1910 |
1911[edit]
Banknotes of the Da-Qing Bank (1911 issue) | ||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Image | Value | Main Color | Description | Date of issue | ||
Obverse | Reverse | Obverse | Reverse | |||
1 tael | 1911 | |||||
2 taels | 1911 |
References[edit]
- ^ a b c d e f g h Ulrich Theobald (13 April 2016). "Qing Period Paper Money". Chinaknowledge.de. Retrieved 27 March 2019.
- ^ Yang Lien-sheng (1954) Money and credit in China: a short history. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, p. 68.
- ^ Shi Yufu (
石 毓符) (1984) Zhongguo huobi jinrong shilüe (中國 貨幣 金融 史 略 ). Tianjin renmin chubanshe, Tianjin, pp. 109–11. (in Mandarin Chinese). - ^ Rajeev Prasad (23 November 2012). "Did you know Series (14): Shanghai Museum :A treasure trove of ancient Chinese , Indian and Islamic coinage". Exclusivecoins.Blogspot.com. Retrieved 14 May 2019.
- ^ Jerome Ch'ên (October 1958). "The Hsien-Fêng Inflation (Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 December 2009)". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 21 (3). SOAS University of London: 578–586. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00060183. S2CID 153789484. Retrieved 4 January 2020.
- ^ John E. Sandrock (1997). "IMPERIAL CHINESE CURRENCY OF THE TAI'PING REBELLION - Part II - CH'ING DYNASTY COPPER CASH NOTES by John E. Sandrock" (PDF). The Currency Collector. Retrieved 20 April 2019.
- ^ John E. Sandrock (1997). "THE FOREIGN BANKS IN CHINA, PART I - EARLY IMPERIAL ISSUES (1850-1900) by John E. Sandrock - The Opening of China to the Outside World" (PDF). The Currency Collector. Retrieved 1 April 2019.
- ^ Niv Horesh (2019). The Monetary System of China under the Qing Dynasty. Springer Link. pp. 1–22. doi:10.1007/978-981-10-0622-7_54-1. ISBN 978-981-10-0622-7. S2CID 158146530.
- ^ 鹤龄.
大 清 银行第 一 套钞票 [J].会 计之友 , 2004(2):72-72. (in Mandarin Chinese). - ^ Hou Houji (
侯 厚吉 ), Wu Qijing (吴其敬 ) (1982) Zhongguo jindai jingji sixiang shigao (中國 近代 經濟 思想 史 稿 ). Heilongjiang renminchubanshe, Harbin, vol. 3, pp. 322–339. (in Mandarin Chinese). - ^ Unlisted (17 April 2008). "A Brief History of the Bank of China". China-Briefing. Retrieved 6 January 2020.
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清末 民 初 的 大 清 银行兑换券 " (in Chinese (China)).新 浪 . 2016-12-05. Retrieved 2017-03-15. - ^ Bruce, Colin - Standard Catalog of World Paper Money, Volume 1, Iola, Wisconsin 2005, Krause Publications.
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- ^ Chang, H.: The Silver Dollars and Taels of China. Hong Kong, 1981 (158 pp. illus.). Including Subsidiary Notes on “The Silver Dollars and Taels of China” Hong Kong, 1982 (40 pp. illus.). OCLC 863439444.
- ^ "Commemorative Banknote in Celebration of the Centenary of Bank of China". Archived from the original on 9 February 2012. Retrieved 2012-02-10.
- ^ Enoch Yiuenoch.yiu@scmp.com (2 September 2019). "Cantonese opera features on new HK$100 banknotes launched by HSBC, Standard Chartered and Bank of China (Hong Kong) on Tuesday". Yahoo! Finance (Verizon). Retrieved 5 January 2020.