How much is a tael of silver in the early Qing Dynasty?

How much is a tael of silver in Qing Dynasty? Judging from people's works and various online platforms, it is generally believed that one or two pieces of silver in the Qing Dynasty is roughly equivalent to the current 150 to 220 yuan. So is this really the case? The censor has something to say about it.

Now the price of silver trading is different every day, and the price of June 10 is 4.56 yuan per gram. The next couple is 228 yuan, and the Qing couple is 37.3 grams, so it is 186.5 yuan. If this algorithm is used to calculate the value of one or two pieces of silver in Qing dynasty, it is obviously meaningless and the conclusion will be a thousand miles away.

To understand the actual price of silver in Qing dynasty, we must start with income and purchasing power, so as to get a more objective answer. Imperial history combined with relevant historical materials to analyze this.

Different classes have different incomes. Scholars, farmers, workers and businessmen are the only people who can get accurate annual income. Take a county as an example, the annual salary is 45 Liang (plus 20 meters). The income of the other three classes is not fixed, especially businessmen. The income of farmers and workers is reflected in some historical materials and novels of the Qing Dynasty.

There were two kinds of temporary workers in Qing dynasty, namely, long-term workers and short-term workers. Short-term workers are paid by day or month, and their income is not fixed; Long-term workers get married once a year, but wages vary from province to province. The general principle is that wages are low in places with abundant labor and high in places with scarce labor.

Take the Northeast as an example. Because the Qing government banned mainland immigrants from entering the northeast, the population was small and the labor cost was the highest. During the Qianlong period, the annual income of a long-term worker was about 9 to 15 Liang, depending on the labor intensity and technical content, with an average of 12 Liang.

Jiangsu and Zhejiang are economically developed, but because of the abundant labor force, the annual income of long-term workers is not as good as that of the northeast, about 6 to 8 taels a year, with an average of 7 taels; Shaanxi, Shandong, Hubei and other regions followed, with an average of only 5 Liang, while Gansu, Guangxi, Yunnan and Guizhou were the lowest, with only about 3 Liang.

It is also recorded in the official historical materials of the Qing Dynasty that all kinds of skilled workers employed by royal construction projects during the Qianlong period earned the highest salary, with an annual income of about 20 taels.

Combined with the above situation, we can draw a relatively objective conclusion, that is, during the Qianlong period, the annual income of a long-term worker was about 12 Liang, and he could only earn one or two pieces of silver a month.

The situation of farmers is very complicated. According to their own means of production, they can be divided into three types: yeoman, semi-yeoman and tenant farmer. For a long time, land annexation was very serious, and half of the farmers became tenant farmers, but the same tenant farmers earned different incomes every year.

Some tenants can get 80% of the total harvest, while others can only get 15%, which mainly depends on the mastery of the means of production. If the farm tools, cattle and seeds of the tenant farmers are all owned by the landlord, then the share will be less.

Taking Huizhou, Anhui Province as an example, local county records show that tenants in this area owned some means of production during the Qianlong period, and the share with landlords was about 50%. In addition, the grain output in Huizhou area is 328 Jin per mu. According to the standard that "a farmer can only cure ten acres", the annual grain output is 3280 Jin, and you can get 1640 Jin. The remaining amount after tax payment is about 10 stone (each stone 120 Jin). During the drought, the grain price is relatively stable, ranging from one grain 1.2 to 1.2. In this way, the annual income of tenant farmers is about 10.2, which is similar to that of long-term workers.

In fact, the annual income of farmers and long-term workers may not reach the level of 12. According to the description in A Dream of Red Mansions, several older girls in the Jia family, such as Yuanyang, Amber, Emerald, Xiren, etc. The monthly salary is only 1 two. Obviously, in terms of income, they are definitely higher than ordinary farmers and long-term workers.

Besides Simin, there are other industries. Since there is no specific reference to historical data to get specific figures, it is roughly guessed that the annual income should also be maintained at this level.

According to the above reference data, combined with the per capita year

Of course, if you put it in economically developed provinces such as Guangdong, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. Then one or two pieces of silver in the Qing dynasty will be higher than 4388 yuan, and vice versa. So it is not very accurate to compare only the annual income.

The purchasing power of silver in Qing dynasty was also divided into different periods, so the price of the same stone particles in Kangxi dynasty and Qianlong dynasty was different. So, take the Qianlong dynasty as an example.

About the purchasing power of silver, readers who have read novels of the Qing Dynasty should have an impression. A dream of red mansions1030101kloc-01scholars and other novels have specific descriptions. The Story of Awakening Marriage is the most famous and should be read by the most people, so it is most appropriate to take the record of A Dream of Red Mansions as an example.

Back to the sixty-first novel, Yingchun's maid Siqi wanted to eat egg soup and sent my little daughter to the kitchen to ask for it, which caused the chef Liu Sao to complain and also revealed the kitchen expenses:

Even a girl with forty or fifty sisters only needs two chickens, two ducks, more than ten kilograms of meat and a basket of vegetables a day. Forget it, what can you do? I can't even survive these two meals, but I can still survive this, this and that.

1030 10 did not indicate the price of a catty of meat for a chicken and a duck. But according to the earlier book A Dream of Red Mansions, it is recorded in detail. At that time, two pieces of silver could buy a stone of rice, eight pieces of silver could buy a catty of meat and one and a half pieces of silver could buy a chicken.

With this reference, we can also get a basic purchasing power, 1 Shimi 120 Jin. According to the current calculation of 3 yuan per kilogram, 1 silver is equal to 360 yuan; Ducks have no exact weight. If calculated by 3 kg, the unit price per kg is 25 yuan, which is equivalent to RMB 675.

During the drought, 1 two silvers can buy 1 two grains, which should be similar to the price level in A Dream of Red Mansions. So we can know that according to Mrs. Liu's description, the daily food and drink expenses of 45 people in Jia's family are about 3 taels of silver. If every two taels of silver mentioned in the article is converted into RMB 150 to 220 yuan, then five or six hundred dollars is definitely not enough.

If it is not convincing to measure the purchasing power of 1 silver by eating, then compare it from the aspect of housing.

Through the analysis of the deeds handed down from generation to generation in the Qing Dynasty, the housing prices in Beijing during the Qianlong period were generally not high. The average house price in the inner city at that time

Each room is 32.8 Liang, and the average price outside the city is 38.2 Liang. Note that buying a house in the Qing Dynasty was not calculated by the square, but by the "room", and the standard of each room was different. Every room in the Royal Palace Museum is very large, but the people are relatively unified, with a room of about 20 square meters.

In this way, the house prices in Beijing are 1.64 two per square meter and 1.9 1 two per square meter respectively. This price is really not high. The annual salary of a second-level official is 150 Liang, which means that you can buy a house of several hundred square meters with one year's income.

During the 74 years from the eighth year of Qianlong to the twenty-second year of Jiaqing, the housing price in Beijing was very stable, reaching 40 taels per room at the highest. Of course, there are also some periods when house prices have increased greatly. For example, in the twenty-five years of Jiaqing, the house price in the outer city rose to 10 Liang per square meter, so it would cost 200 Liang to buy a room of 20 square meters. After Daoguang, Beijing's housing prices remained at 40 Liang per room.

According to the calculation of 40 taels per room, it is equivalent to 2 taels of silver per square meter. Now the average price in Beijing is almost 62,000 taels per square meter. According to this standard, the Qing Dynasty 1 two silver costs 30,000 RMB, which is roughly equal to 5,000 RMB even in third-tier cities.

So, in terms of annual income and purchasing power, how much RMB is 1 silver in Qing Dynasty equal to now? This question is not rigorous, because the current market, consumption and concept are different from those of the Qing Dynasty, and there is no specific answer at all. Only when it comes to a specific item can we draw an accurate conclusion.

Related question and answer: How much is one tael of silver equal to RMB? The value of silver in different dynasties is different. In this case, it is necessary to convert the value of silver and silver by currency equivalence reference. For China, which has been a big agricultural country since ancient times, rice is an essential commodity for people's livelihood. Therefore, the author takes rice as a reference commodity, and thus obtains the price of silver in several representative times.

Tv drama silver

Before the Tang and Song Dynasties, because silver was not a currency in circulation, it was of little significance to calculate the value of silver before that. According to historical records, silver gradually entered the currency circulation stage in Zhenguan period of Tang Dynasty. At that time, one or two pieces of silver could buy 200 dou meters, because 10 dou meters is one stone, and now one stone is equal to 59 Jin, which means that one or two pieces of silver can buy 1 180 Jin rice now. In today's society, the average price of rice is basically maintained at around 1.75 yuan a catty, from which it can be inferred that one or two ounces of silver in the early years of the Tang Dynasty is equivalent to 4 130 yuan.

The strongest hard currency in ancient China-rice

Let's talk about the Song Dynasty. According to "History of Song Dynasty", "The rice stone is only 600-700" and "30 yuan a barrel", we can know that the price of rice in Song Dynasty is about 600-300 yuan a barrel, and one or two pieces of silver can buy 4-8 stone meters. Because the weight of a stone of rice in Song Dynasty was about 66 kilograms, the purchasing power of a silver was about 924 ~ 1848. I used to watch Jin Yong's Legend of the Condor Heroes. I still remember that Huang Rong invited Guo Jing to dinner and spent more than 19 at the checkout. Compared with the real purchasing power of silver in Song Dynasty, a meal cost 19, which would not happen in Song Dynasty.

Ancient silver

By the Ming dynasty, the value of one or two pieces of silver began to be greatly reduced. According to the data in the Wanli period of the Ming Dynasty, one or two ounces of silver could buy two ounces of rice at that time, and the weight of one or two ounces of rice was about 94.4 kilograms, which means one or two ounces of silver could buy 188.8 kilograms of rice. At that time, the average price of rice in China was still 1.75 yuan, which means that the purchasing power of one or two ounces of silver in the Ming Dynasty was equivalent to 660.8 yuan now.

The value of silver in Qing Dynasty was even lower than that in Ming Dynasty. Due to the massive influx of overseas silver into China in the late Qing Dynasty, the value of silver in China has greatly depreciated, and the purchasing power of silver is only one third of that of silver in the Ming Dynasty. It can be inferred that the value of silver in the late Qing Dynasty is only equivalent to more than 200 yuan now. To sum up, the value of silver in different periods is completely different and needs to be judged in combination with the actual situation.