Title

Monetary Policy and the Fluctuation Between Deflation and Inflation in the Liang and Chen Dynasties

Author

Chen, Yen-liang  

Genre

Article  

Pages

657-697  

Download

PDF

Language

Chinese  

Key words

Liang梁 Dynasty, Chen 陳 Dynasty, middle ages, deflation, inflation, iron money, duanmo 短陌

Abstract

         Under the threat of overall deflation, the Liang Dynasty (502-557) continued the “no-mint policy” of the Qi Dynasty. Emperor Wu 武帝 (464-549) issued a wuzhu 五銖 coin and “official female money” 公式女錢, both of which became less and less valuable.

         Later on, Emperor Wu issued “iron money,” which caused a huge wave of inflation during the Six Dynasties 六朝 period and eventually led to socio-economic crisis. The duanmo 短陌, literally ‘short hundred’ (i.e., short of currency) phenomenon arose in the final stages of iron money, which resulted in serious deflation. In the late Liang Dynasty, the wuzhu coin, the “official female money,” and the iron money were all taken out of circulation. Instead, several low-quality coinswere cast.

        The Chen Dynasty (557-589) simply repeated the misguided currency policies of the Liang. Currency reforms in both Liang and Chen Dynasties caused socio-economic chaos. This paper explains why a sound monetary economy was not possible under the Liang-Chen currency systems.