Who Defended Monetary Stability in a Specie Regime? Evidence from the Chinese History

Sheng Qian () and Lemin Wu ()
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Sheng Qian: School of Humanities and Social Science, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China

Frontiers of Economics in China-Selected Publications from Chinese Universities, 2018, vol. 13, issue 3, 397-435

Abstract: Despite the lack of political accountability, ancient autocracies maintained a level of monetary stability that rivals modern democracies. This paper hypothesizes that it is the threat of counterfeiting that has constrained currency debasement. Unwilling to share seigniorage with counterfeiters, who are active only if currency is debased, the government refrains from debasement unless in extreme fiscal situations. To document the facts, we build a database of historical Chinese copper coins that covers the period from the Qin dynasty (221BC¨C207BC) to the Republic of China. We also use the introduction of the steam press in late Qing China as a natural experiment to test the theory. The steam press produced coins of fine patterns that counterfeiters were unable to mimic. As the theory predicts, the removal of the threat of counterfeiting triggered the most serious debasement in the history of the Qing dynasty (1644¨C1912).

Keywords: debasement; counterfeiting; monetary; stability; copper coin; steam press (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E42 N10 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2018
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:fec:journl:v:13:y:2018:i:3:p:397-435

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