Money in the Southern Taklamakan. Helen Wang The British Museum

Transcription

1 Money in the Southern Taklamakan Helen Wang The British Museum

2 Money on the Silk Road (2004)

3 Three broad groups of coins: (1) Coins of the Chinese tradition Han dynasty Tang dynasty

4 Three broad groups of coins: (2) of the Western tradition Byzantine Sasanian

5 Three broad groups of coins: (3) of local creation in Xinjiang Sino-Kharoshthi coins of Khotan

6 Sino-Kuchan Dali yuanbao Gaochang jili

7 But the coin evidence tells us only part of the story about money on the Silk Road b b

8 Authors / 作者 Zhao Feng, China National Silk Museum 赵丰 : 中国丝绸博物馆 Wang Le, Donghua University 王乐 : 东华大学 Xu Zheng, China National Silk Museum 徐铮 : 中国丝绸博物馆 Frances Wood, British Library 吴芳思 : 英国图书馆 Helen Persson, V&A Museum 白海伦 : 维多利亚博物馆 Helen Wang, British Museum 汪海岚 : 大英博物馆 Donghua University Press, 2007 东华大学出版社,2007 年

9 敦煌的彩幡 Banners from Dunhuang

10 敦煌绢幡 : 组织结构 Dunhuang textiles weave structures

11 The question of textiles as money Coins are man-made objects. Their primary function is as money. Textiles are man-made objects. Money is just one of their functions. A coin out of context is probably still a coin, and represents money. A textile out of context probably does not represent money.

12 Q: How can we know if excavated textiles functioned as money? A: Study the inscriptions on the textiles!

13 Han dynasty silk fragments found by Aurel Stein at Dunhuang 汉代丝绸残品 : 被斯坦因发现, 敦煌 (T.XV.a.i.3)

14 What does the inscription on the fragment say? The inscription describes the original roll of silk: Width: 2 chi 2 cun (approx. 50 cm) Length: 40 chi (approx. 880 cm) Weight: 25 liang Value: 618 qian (coins) Place of origin: Kangfu, Rencheng The Rencheng kingdom: established in AD 84 in modern-day Shandong.

15 A little bit of easy maths Standard rate: 600 coins per roll of silk (PLUS adjustment) In this way, 618 = 600 x 103% (standard rate + 3% adjustment) 40 chi (4 zhang) of silk = 600 coins 1 zhang of silk = 150 coins 25 liang (weight) of silk = 600 coins 1 liang of silk = 24 coins

16 Han dynasty roll of silk found by Aurel Stein at Loulan Loulan (L.A.I.002)

17 This roll of silk has the same dimensions given in the inscription on T.XV.a.i.3 Standard rate of exchange : 600 coins per roll of silk (plus adjustment) Loulan (L.A.I.002) Dunhuang T.XV.a.i.3

18 The evidence for textiles as money in the Tang dynasty? EVIDENCE? EXPERTISE REQUIRED? A. Textiles unearthed at sites archaeology/textiles B. Documents unearthed at site archaeology/philology/history C. Chinese historical texts history

19 Too much work for one person Too much work

20 The Textiles as Money on the Silk Road project ARAKAWA Masaharu Osaka University History DUAN Qing Peking University Khotanese HANSEN Valerie Yale University History RONG Xinjiang Peking University History SHENG Angela McMaster University Textiles TROMBERT Eric College de France Sinology WANG Binghua [Xinjiang Inst. of Archaeology] Archaeology WANG Helen British Museum Coins/money WANG Le Donghua University Textiles XU Chang Peking University History ZHAO Feng China National Silk Museum Textiles

21 Tang dynasty tax-cloths (20+ pieces) Wang Binghua, Tang dynasty tax- cloths unearthed in Turfan, Wenwu

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23 婺州 信安縣 顯德鄉梅山里祝伯亮祖布一端光宅元年十一月日 Ast.ix.2b.011 (male) Name: Fan Yanshi 氾延仕 Important dates: Tax-cloth dated AD 684/5 Date of death AD 689

24 Tax cloth dated 684 used as burial shroud in 689 Tax cloth dated 684

25 The idea of textiles as money Helen Wang How to determine the value of textiles? Angela Sheng Do the textiles in a tomb match the burial list? Zhao Feng and Wang Le How to manage a multicurrency system? Xu Chang How did the textiles get to the northwest? - Arakawa Masaharu What else do the tax textiles tell us? - Wang Binghua How were the textiles used? - Valerie Hansen and Rong Xinjiang Did textiles as money reach as far as Khotan? - Duan Qing When did the Silk Road end? - Eric Trombert Glossary of Textile Terminology- Zhao Feng and Wang Le

26 Satellite image of Xinjiang (and beyond)

27 Lal Singh, surveyor in action

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29 Stein, Lal Singh and others

30 Aurel Stein and Money on the Silk Road [Yarkand, late September 1900] The last days in Yarkand were busily spent in completing the winter outfit of my men and in sorting and packing my purchases. Accounts too had to be settled, and in this respect I was glad to avail myself of the skilled assistance of Lala Gauri Mall, the Ak-sakal (headman, literally white-beard ) of the Hindu traders. Apart from the question of price no small matter in a country where it would apparently be against all business principles to ask less than double the right amount even from local customers there is enough trouble in the mere payment. The Chinese currency with its Sers or Tels, Miskals and Fens, arranged on a plain decimal system, would be as convenient as can be desired. But its simplicity is of little avail in this outlying province of the empire, which stubbornly clings to its time-honoured reckoning in Tangas and Puls. Each of the little square Chinese coppers known in Turkestan as Dachins is reckoned in Kashgar and Yarkand as equal to two Puls, and twenty-five of them make up a Tanga. The Khotan Tanga is worth twice as much as the Kashgar Tanga. Coins representing this local unit of value there are none; so all sums have to be converted into Miskals, the smallest available silver coins, at the ratio of eight Tangas to five Miskals, unless one is prepared to handle the dirty rolls of Chinese coppers which the local trader keeps strung up like sausages. But the exchange rate between silver and copper is not stable, and the silver Miskal was just then considerably above the value of forty copper pieces which the ration just mentioned would indicate. So after successfully converting Tangas into the legal coin, a varying discount has to be calculated before payment can be effected. It only adds to these monetary complications that prices of articles imported from Russia are reckoned in Soms (Roubles), which in the form of gold pieces of five or ten Roubles widely circulate through the markets of Turkestan, while the heavier Chinese silver Yambus, of horse-shoe shape and varying weight, have a discount of their own. (from Sand-buried ruins of ancient Khotan, 1904, pp )

31 the heavier Chinese silver Yambus, of horse-shoe shape and varying weight, have a discount of their own. Yambu = yuanbao 元寶 (silver ingot)

32 50-tael local tax ingot Chinese inscription: Daoyan 道騐 (Circuit Inspector) He was responsible for tax collection Uighur language, Turki script: Padshalik Ahmad Zerger Smith Ahmad at the Pasha s Office

33 5-mace coin - Kashgar

34 Guang- wu xu Ka- qian yin shi yuan

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37 the Chinese coppers which the local trader keeps strung up like sausages

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40 Ram Singh surveyor

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42 Hassan Akhun camelman

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45 Islam Akhun forger

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