I learned significantly from reading classmates’ posts, commenting on those posts, and reading other comments this week. When a change is implemented that concerns money, the entire society is affected, regardless of who or what–individuals, families, companies, governments. I have thought about the following idea constantly during the week: learning about the functions of and different stages of currency (coins, grains, textiles, and paper) allows me to learn about the various time periods from the same economic standpoint. Looking at something small consistently offers a fresh understanding to the values, ideals, and “main ideas” of each dynasty. By tracking the changes that occur over time, it automatically creates a timeline of history with money, or more generally, currency, as the variable in question.
In addition, I was able to learn so much from my classmates because I discussed the gods of wealth in my blog post, while my classmates focused on currency itself and provided an excellent overview of the history of currency in early China.
Three Things I Learned this Week
- An expiration date was placed on money to encourage its use to maintain the economy.
- Paper money was not successful.
- Values of currency varied because the means of measurement varied.
Bibliographic References
Horesh, Niv. Chinese Money in Global Context : Historic Junctures between 600 BCE and 2012. Stanford, California: Stanford University Press, 2014.
Von Glahn, Richard. The Sinister Way: The Divine and the Demonic in Chinese Religious Culture. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2004.
