财政导向下洪武至永乐时期大明宝钞及其通胀

Paper Money and its Inflation under the Fiscal Guidance from Hongwu to Yongle Period in Ming Dynasty

洪武八年,朱元璋建立起以宝钞为核心的货币体系,在这一体系中,宝钞获得了法定货币的地位,明朝由此进入了钱钞兼用的时期。但由于其完全为国家财政所服务,宝钞从设立之初便存在违背价值规律以及法偿矛盾的致命缺陷,逐渐从具有现代信用色彩的纸币沦为了失去国家信用的“国家纸币”。其发行量完全取决于国家财政需要,而不是市场需求。在明初扩张性财政支出的情况下,宝钞不可避免地产生了恶性通货膨胀,尽管洪武永乐二朝试图通过紧缩性政策预防与缓解其通胀问题,但单向性的政策不仅注定失败,也增加了民众的赋税负担。极端贬值的现实促使市场放弃了宝钞,最终倒逼明政府对这一财政主导型货币制度作出调整,明朝也逐渐从钱钞时代过渡到银钱时代。

In the eighth year of Hongwu,Zhu Yuanzhang established a monetary system with banknotes named Baochao as the core.In this system,Baochao obtained the status of legal tender,and the Ming Dynasty entered the period of simultaneous use of banknotes and copper cash.However,due to it served solely for national finances,Baochao had two fatal defects,the violation of the law of values and the contradiction of legal compensation from the beginning of its establishment,and it changed from paper currency with modern credit to"national paper money"without national credit.National finance determined its money supply rather than market demand.Under the circumstance that the government implemented the expansionary fiscal expenditure policy in the early Ming Dynasty,the currency inevitably produced hyperinflation.Although Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Di tried to prevent and alleviate the inflation problem through tightening policies,the unidirectional policies were doomed to failure and increased the tax burden on the people.The reality of extreme depreciation prompted the market to give up the banknotes,and finally forced the Ming government to adjust the financial oriented monetary system.The Ming Dynasty gradually translated from the era of paper money and copper cash to the era of silver and copper cash.