清末天津化宝银危机与制度调整

Crisis of Huabao Silver and Institutional Adjustment in Tientsin in the Late Qing Dynasty

清末天津发生了由于化宝银银色降低而导致的货币危机,这场危机虽然受到庚子事变外力冲击的影响,但主要原因在于天津银两制度的内部缺陷,由于炉房阻碍等因素而未能有效和及时地建立起更为先进的公估局制度。为应对危机,中外各谈判力量进行了反复的博弈和制度设计,天津的关平银制度和银锭保证制度发生重大变化,公估局制度最终建立。化宝银危机的主要特点是引发了两场较大的次生危机,即由于关平银制度调整而导致的关税补色风波和公估局制度建立而导致的外国银行低色化宝补色风波,外国政治力量的介入使化宝银危机从一场货币危机演变为政治危机。两场风波都以天津地方政府的妥协退让而平息,前者以津海关退还多收税银而化解,而后者则最终以损害天津银钱业商人利益的解决方案而平息。

In the late Qing dynasty,a currency crisis happened in Tientsin due to the purity debasement of Huabao Silver.This crisis was influenced externally by Gengzi Incident,but the main reason lied in the internal defects of the tael system in Tientsin which were caused by the factors such as the opposition of the melting shops and the failure of building a more advanced assay office system effectively and timely.In order to cope with the crisis,the Chinese and foreign negotiating forces carried out repeated game and system design which resulted in the great changes of customs tael system and silver guarantee system,and the assay office system was established finally.The main characteristic of the Crisis of Huabao Silver was that it triggered two larger secondary crises:One was the turmoil of tariff increase which was caused by the adjustment of customs tale system,and the other was the turmoil of the compensation of the debased Huabao Silver in foreign banks.The involvement of foreign political forces made the crisis evolve into a political crisis from a currency one.Both incidences of turmoil were subsided by the concession of Tientsin local government.The former was resolved by refunding the extra tariffs by Tientsin customs and the latter one was settled by the solution of harming the interests of Tientsin bankers.