Revisiting the Song Monetary Revolution: A Review Essay
Author(s)
Von Glahn, Richard
Abstract
In the now classic formulations of the Tang-Song transition espoused by scholars like Katom Shigeshi , Miyazaki Ichisada , Robert M. Hartwell, and Mark Elvin, the monetary and fiscal innovations of the Song dynasty (960-1276) complemented advances in agricultural and industrial productivity in creating a vibrant market economy. In Elvin’s words, the Tang-Song transition witnessed “a financial revolution” in which “the volume of money in circulation vastly exceeded that of earlier times, and the monetary economy reached right down into the villages.” The achievements of the Song state in the arena of monetary policy are indeed impressive: in the late eleventh century, Song mints generated some six billion bronze coins per year, a level of output never again matched by a Chinese imperial government, and the Song also issued the world’s first viable paper money. Yet fiscal exigencies, driven by the formidable costs of national defense, ultimately overwhelmed the managerial capacities of Song officialdom. As Elvin observes, “paper money gradually turned into a bureaucratic monstrosity that hampered the productive forces whose growth it had originally done much to foster.” The problems besetting the bronze coin and paper money currencies of the Song became even more intractable in the Yuan and Ming dynasties, resulting in the eventual shift to uncoined silver as the monetary standard in both private commerce and public finance.
