Great Qing Treasure Note

The Great Qing Treasure Note^[1] (simplified Chinese: 大清宝钞; traditional Chinese: 大清寶鈔; pinyin: Dà Qīng Bǎo Chāo) or Da-Qing Baochao refers to a series of Qing dynasty banknotes issued under the reign of the Xianfeng Emperor issued between the years 1853 (Xianfeng 3) and 1859 (Xianfeng 9). These banknotes were all denominated in wén and were usually introduced to the general market through the salaries of soldiers and government officials.

After the Taiping Rebellion had depleted the imperial treasury of the Qing dynasty the government reformed the cash coin system to include higher denominations with low intrinsic values essentially creating a fiat currency; this was a radical departure from China's past where the value of cash coins was dependent on their weight rather than any denominations. The same developments which lead to the creation of the new Xianfeng coinage had also necessitated the reintroduction of paper money in China after it was absent for two centuries. The new paper currency came in two forms, one was the copper-alloy cash coins-based Great Qing Treasure Note and the other was the silver sycee-based Hubu Guanpiao (戶部官票) which were both introduced simultaneously with the new debased cash coinage.^[2]

However, the government did not keep adequate reserves of hard currency to back the new banknotes up. Many provincial governments didn't allow for taxes to be paid using paper money, and after a few years the government started refusing to convert the new paper money into hard currency; consequently, the Chinese people started to distrust it as a valid medium of exchange. In response to the ever more expensive military expenditures caused by the Taiping Rebellion, the government produced more and more high denomination banknotes, which were not convertible. This caused hyperinflation; by the year Xianfeng 9 (1859) the currency had become completely depreciated and was abolished.