1 Cash – Empire of China

In 1841, the currency system of the Qing Empire (often referred to as the "Empire of China") was a complex and fragmented bimetallic system under severe strain. The state officially recognized both silver, measured in weight-based units like the tael (liang), and copper-alloy cash coins (wen) as legal tender. These currencies operated in separate but linked spheres: silver was used for large-scale transactions, long-distance trade, and tax payments, while strings of cast copper cash coins were the everyday currency for the common people. The exchange rate between silver and copper was theoretically set by the government but fluctuated based on local supply and demand, creating a dual monetary environment that was difficult for the central government to control uniformly.

This system was thrown into crisis by two major forces. Internally, a chronic shortage of silver, exacerbated by rampant corruption and inefficiencies in the minting and distribution of coinage, led to severe deflation. More catastrophically, the external drain of silver from the empire to pay for opium imports—primarily from British traders—created a massive monetary imbalance. As silver grew scarcer, its value rose sharply relative to copper cash, meaning peasants and laborers who earned in copper found it increasingly difficult to pay their taxes, which were demanded in silver. This "Silver Crisis" caused widespread social hardship, increased tax burdens, and significantly weakened the Qing fiscal state.

The year 1841 itself fell in the midst of the First Opium War (1839-1842), a conflict fundamentally rooted in these trade and monetary tensions. The war expenses further drained imperial coffers, while disruption to trade and the impending large indemnity demanded by the British (ultimately set at 21 million silver dollars in the 1842 Treaty of Nanjing) foreshadowed a complete collapse of Qing monetary stability. Thus, the currency situation in 1841 was not merely a financial issue but a central symptom of the empire's deepening internal vulnerabilities and its escalating confrontation with foreign imperial powers, marking the beginning of a century of monetary chaos.