晚清中央银行体制的形塑

The Shaping of the Central Bank System in the Late Qing Dynasty

19世纪末20世纪初,为缓解财政危机和推进币制改革,清政府开始兴办新式银行,组建了户部银行,后改组为大清银行,尝试构建中央银行体系。就制度而言,户部(大清)银行以章则明定拥有发行货币、监管市场、经理国库等职能,已初见央行模型。从实践来看,户部(大清)银行在巩固纸币信用、缓解金融危机、调和全国汇兑等方面,亦扮演着重要角色。这一过程糅杂中西,既有对当时欧美央行制度的借鉴与深化,更是对中国传统经验的利用和改进。若从现代中央银行的理论去审视,这些举措多有不成熟之处。但若对比同时期其他主要国家中央银行制度的探索历程,不难发现,这些举措仍在一定程度上形塑了中国早期中央银行体制,而且基于中国社会的主动实践,参与了世界央行体系的构建。

In the late 19 th century and early 20 th century,in order to alleviate the financial crisis and promote the reform of the currency system,the Qing government began to set up new banks and the Bank of the Ministry of Revenue,which was later reorganized and transformed into Daqing Bank,to try to build up a central banking system.According to its rules and regulations,the Bank of the Ministry of Revenue(later Daqing Bank)had the functions of issuing currency,supervising the market,managing the treasury and so on.In practice,the Bank of the Ministry of Revenue(Daqing Bank)also played an important role in consolidating the credit of paper money,alleviating the financial crisis and reconciling the national exchange rate.This process combined Chinese and Western experiences,not only taking the international central banking systems as references,but also using and improving traditional Chinese experiences.If viewing from the theory of modern central bank,these measures were immature,and the Bank of the Ministry of Revenue(Daqing Bank)could not be regarded as the central bank in the real sense.However,comparing the exploration process of the central banking system of other major countries during the same period,it is not difficult to find that these measures had to some extent shaped China’s early central banking system,and participated in the construction of world central banking system based on the active practice of Chinese society.