Coinage
Despite issuing paper money in the early part of the dynasty, the Ming ended up using silver as a means of exchange in their economy; this is due to the massive inflow of silver into the Ming economy throughout the dynasty. The amount of silver used by the Ming economy was extraordinary; the Zheng clan, which was a major clan of merchants in the late Ming, regularly engaged in transactions of several million taels, at a time in which English traders considered tens of thousands of pounds an extraordinary fortune. However, both coin and paper money were used throughout the Ming dynasty. Ming demand for silver was such that at one point most of the output of the mines of Peru went straight to Ming China.
Read more about this topic: Economy Of The Ming Dynasty
Famous quotes containing the word coinage:
“Designs in connection with postage stamps and coinage may be described, I think, as the silent ambassadors on national taste.”
—William Butler Yeats (1865–1939)