Browsing by Subject "Eastern Zhou period"

”The Warring States and Monetizing Economies: An Analogical Research on the Causal Relationships between Geopolitics, Economics, and the Emergence of the Round Coinage of China” is a master’s thesis of archaeology at the University of Helsinki in Finland, published in 2018. The thesis is written in English. In the thesis it is researched why the Chinese began to use round bronze coins alongside the other types of currencies during the Eastern Zhou period (770 - c. 256 B.C.). Back in those days China was still divided into multiple independent states that fought against one another on a frequent basis. The thesis shows that the primary function of the round was to facilitate the daily and local level commerce that the subjects of these states practiced. The daily and local level commerce, in its turn, had a major impact on the creation and maintenance of the economic affluence and self-sustainability of the local economies. The local economies’ economic affluence was necessary for the state, for that impacted how large amounts of tax revenues it could collect from its subjects. The tax revenues were necessary in terms of keeping up a proper army, upon which the state’s survival depended on. The importance of the adoption of the round coinage in the implementation of the above-mentioned economic and societal factors is approached from three different research aspects. The first aspect pertains to the differences between the various types of currencies that were in use during the Eastern Zhou period. It is shown that the round bronze coins were in general smaller and lighter than the other commonly used bronze currency types. Additionally, the round coins circulated only within the borders of the state where they had been manufactured. It is stated that the larger size and weight as well as the international area of circulation of the other typical types of bronze currencies refers to that the round coins were adopted especially in order to bolster the affluence as well as to facilitate the commercial functions within the local economies. The second aspect relates to the inception of the Chinese round coinage. That happened during the warlike latter half of the Eastern Zhou period, known as the Warring States period (475 - 221 B.C.). It is shown that the adoption of the round coinage is closely tied to the states’ growing urgencies to gather large tax revenues to be utilized for the upkeep of the large armies. This aspect is approached by studying historical texts and modern research literature, as well as by making use of archaeological methods. The third aspect is an analogical study between the Warring States period and the Ming dynasty (1368 - 1644). It is performed in order to find new information pertaining to the functions of the round coinage during the Warring States period. The analogy is conducted between the monetary economic factors that were present during the Warring States period and the drastic monetary and other economic reforms that took place during the Ming dynasty. Additionally, the above-mentioned eras are approached by finding analogies between their sociopolitical and geopolitical factors. Analogies are also found between the changes those factors went through alongside the monetary economic reforms. The method is utilized due to the scarcity of relevant information that most of the other commonly utilized research methods can provide about the research topic. The aforementioned research aspects are utilized to demonstrate that in China the round coinage was adopted to fulfill the function of an article of exchange that was adequate for the functions in the daily and local commerce. It is also shown that the existence of the round coins was necessary in term of increasing the affluence and self-sustainability of the local economies. That, in its turn, was a necessary process in terms of the states being able to gather sufficient amounts of tax funds to be used for the upkeep of their armies. As the state’s survival depended on the size, quality, and competence of its army, the above-mentioned economic factors played the most decisive role when it came to the monetary economic, geopolitical, and sociopolitical policy-making during the Eastern Zhou period, being especially pertinent to the Warring States period politics. All in all, the adoption of the round coinage was one of the most focal innovations that were made during the ancient monetization process of China.