Song Dynasty Jiaozi Paper Money

Timeline

1. c. 1000–1023Prefectural city of Yizhou · ChengduEarly Northern Song Sichuan used iron coins, inconvenient for large transactions. Sixteen wealthy merchants in Chengdu jointly issued 'jiaozi'—paper certificates backed by iron coins, transferable in circulation. Weak anti-counterfeiting and bank-run risks in private jiaozi prompted court intervention and regulation.
2. c. 1041–1050Yizhou Jiaozi Bureau · ChengduAfter the court took over during the Tiansheng era, the Jiaozi Bureau issued standardized paper money backed by iron coins, printed with official seals, denominations, and serial numbers, with capped issuance quotas and exchange ratios. By the 1040s jiaozi circulated widely in Sichuan commerce, becoming the world's first credit paper-money system systematically managed by a state institution.
3. c. 1051–1107Kaifeng and the various circuits and prefectures · ChinaIn the mid-to-late Northern Song the court trial-issued paper money in Huainan, Jinghu, and other regions; jiaozi's experience laid the foundation for later paper currencies such as huizi, qianyin, and baochao. Although paper money mainly circulated in iron-coin areas like Sichuan, its credit-issuance principle profoundly changed Chinese monetary history and predated European paper money by centuries.