从18世纪中西文学作品看全球贸易与货币历史的关系

Studying the Relationship between Global Trade and Monetary History through the Chinese and Western Literary Works in the 18th Century

18世纪,西属拉美殖民地生产的白银通过大型帆船从阿卡普尔科运到马尼拉,中国船员和欧洲贸易商再将白银从马尼拉输运到中国东南沿海。从此,中国形成了双金属货币制度,铜钱和银圆可以互换,并且对进口白银很依赖。而在英国,黄金、汇票和政府规制扮演着重要角色,从这个角度来说,中西货币制度的差异很大。当时的英国以及欧洲大陆,信用经济兴起,纸币被广泛使用,这些都有助于我们理解为何中国与欧洲在19世纪走上了截然不同的发展道路。

By studying the literary works in the 18th century,this paper discusses the influence of global seaborne trade upon the monetary and credit system of Chinese and Great Britain.Since then China formed a dual bimetallic monetary system and relied much on imported silver;in the meantime the credit economy rose and paper money was widely used in Great Britain and the Europe in the 18th century.All these help us to understand why China and Europe followed different roads of development in the 19th century.