套汇对近代早期东西方贸易的影响

The Impact of Arbitrage on East-West Trade in the Early Modern Times

步入大航海时代,美洲白银涌入西欧,导致西欧金银比价明显高于同时期的中国、印度等地。西欧商人利用东西方金银比价差进行套汇,将白银运往东方国家的同时却将东方国家的黄金运往西方,金银的反方向流动对东西方经济产生了截然不同的深远影响。对西方而言,套汇加速了西欧信用制度和金融体系的建立,为工业革命奠定了基础;对东方而言,则损害了中国银本位货币制度的稳定性,使其经济长期受制于人。而且近代早期东西方的贸易逆差也更多的是由套汇导致的西方战略性逆差。

In the Age of Discovery,the flow of American silver into Western Europe led to a significantly higher gold-silver ratio of Western Europe than those of other regions including China and India.By delivering silver from western countries to eastern ones while transporting gold in the opposite direction,merchants in western countries arbitraged with the help of the price gap of gold-silver ratio.And the flow of gold and silver in the opposite direction exerted an entirely different and profound impact on eastern and western economies.For the west,arbitrage accelerated the establishment of credit system and financial system in Western Europe,laying the foundation for the Industrial Revolution,while for the east,it undermined the stability of China’s silver-based monetary system,making its economy for a long time over a barrel.Moreover,the trade deficit between the east and the west in the early modern times was mainly the western strategic deficit caused by arbitrage.