Chinese Coin and Changes in Monetary Preferences in Maritime East Asia in the Fifteenth-Seventeenth Centuries.
This article is written by Richard von Glahn, Professor at the Department of History in UCLA. This article is published in Volume 57, Issue 5,
Professor Richard von Glahn’s primary field of research is the economic and social history of pre-modern China, with a particular focus on the period 1000-1700. His publications include three monographs in Chinese history, several edited books, and a co-authored textbook in world history. He continues to pursue research in Chinese monetary history, especially the interrelationship between China’s monetary system and wider spheres of monetary circulation within Asia and on a global scale.
Abstract of the article: In the twelfth-thirteenth centuries massive quantities of bronze coin issued by the Song dynasty in China were exported and became the de facto monetary standard throughout maritime East Asia. However, the cessation of minting by the Ming dynasty in the 1430s provoked a monetary crisis. Private coinage proliferated both in China and abroad, creating a profusion of heterogeneous transactional currencies and numerous regional monetary circuits. This paper examines monetary circulation in maritime East Asia—encompassing China, Japan, Ryūkyū, Vietnam, and Java—during the fifteenth-seventeenth centuries in order to re-assess the impact of Chinese coin in fostering monetary integration (and disintegration).
The online link of this article could be found: http://booksandjournals.brillonline.com/content/journals/10.1163/15685209-12341360;jsessionid=3kc3a5a1u0e9n.x-brill-live-03
OpenEdition suggests that you cite this post as follows:
gdri (February 28, 2015). Chinese Coin and Changes in Monetary Preferences in Maritime East Asia in the Fifteenth-Seventeenth Centuries. EurasiaTrajeco. Retrieved June 18, 2025 from https://doi.org/10.58079/oxth