Hubu Guanpiao

A Xianfeng era Great Qing Hubu Guanpiao (大清戶部官票, dà qīng hù bù guān piào) of 1 liǎng (壹兩).

The Hubu Guanpiao (Traditional Chinese: 戶部官票, "Ministry of Revenue Government notes") is the name of two series of banknotes produced by the Qing dynasty, the first series was known as the Chaoguan (鈔官) and was introduced under the Shunzhi Emperor during the Qing conquest of the Ming dynasty but was quickly abandoned after this war ended, it was introduced amid residual ethnic Han resistance to the Manchu invaders. It was produced on a small scale, amounting to 120,000 strings of cash coins annually, and only lasted between 1651 and 1661. After the death of the Shunzhi Emperor in the year 1661, calls for resumption of banknote issuance weakened, although they never completely disappeared.[1][2]

Over the course of its 268 years, the central government of the Qing dynasty (1644–1912) issued traditional Chinese paper money (vertically printed) only twice. The second time was included the second series of the Hubu Guanpiao which was introduced under the Xianfeng Emperor in response to the high military expenditures there government had to spend during the Taiping Rebellion, this second series was introduced alongside the copper-alloy cash coins-based Great Qing Treasure Note (大清寶鈔) banknotes.

However, the government did not keep adequate reserves of hard currency to back the new banknotes up and many provincial governments didn't allow for taxes to be paid using paper money, after a few years the government started refusing to convert the new paper money into hard currency and the Chinese people started to distrust it as a valid medium of exchange. In response to the ever more expensive military expenditures because of the Taiping Rebellion the government started producing more and more high denomination banknotes which were not convertible causing hyperinflation, in the year Xianfeng 8 (1858) the government completely depreciated the Hubu Guanpiao series in favour of the Great Qing Treasure Note.

By the year Xianfeng 9 (1859) the Great Qing Treasure Note had also become completely depreciated and was ultimately abolished.

  1. ^ Lin Man-houng (2006) China upside down: currency, society and ideologies. Harvard University Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, pp 1808–1856, p. 40.
  2. ^ Xiao Qing (萧清) (1984) Zhongguo gudai huobishi (中國古代貨幣史). Renmin chubanshe, Beijing, pp. 292–294. (in Mandarin Chinese).