Great Ming Treasure Notes (Paper Money)

Timeline

1. 1375–1398Nanjing Treasure Note Bureau · JiangsuMing founder Zhu Yuanzhang established the Treasure Note Superintendent Office in the eighth year of Hongwu (1375), printing Great Ming treasure notes on mulberry-bark paper and forcing their circulation alongside copper cash. Initially there were six denominations from 100 wen to one guan (1,000 wen), with no reserve for redemption and private gold and silver transactions banned. The notes initially enjoyed some credibility, but the seeds of over-issuance were sown.
2. 1403–1435Beijing (after the Chengzu emperor's move of the capital) · BeijingAfter the Yongle emperor moved the capital to Beijing, treasure notes continued to be issued as official currency, but persistent over-issuance steadily eroded purchasing power. Xuande-era sources record that one guan of notes was worth only twenty to thirty cash, an extremely significant depreciation. The court repeatedly banned silver use, but with little effect, as silver increasingly replaced paper money in private trade.
3. 1451–1460The entire Ming Empire · ChinaBy 1451–1460, in the Jingtai and Tianshun reigns, Great Ming treasure notes had lost nearly all real purchasing power and were treated by the people as waste paper. Government taxes and official salaries were still partly reckoned in notes, but at extremely unfavorable conversion rates. This decade was the key stage in which the Ming paper currency system moved from nominal survival to complete marginalization; silver monetization accelerated, laying the monetary foundation for the Longqing opening and the Single Whip Reform.
4. c. 1460–1581Ming Empire · ChinaThe failure of Great Ming treasure notes pushed the Ming fiscal system gradually toward a silver standard, culminating in the monetization of taxes when Zhang Juzheng implemented the Single Whip Reform in 1581. This shift profoundly shaped China's links to the global silver market, promoting the expansion of mid-to-late Ming foreign trade and the large-scale inflow of American silver.