The Rise of Imaginary Copper Coins During the Qing Dynasty

Imaginary money was a global phenomenon in traditional monetary systems, referring specifically to currency in which the units of value and quantity were separated. More generally, it describes the use of non-physical or notational money in daily instant transactions. This phenomenon in copper coinage has long been overlooked by academia. In fact, evidence of the use of imaginary copper coin units—commonly known as "duan mo" (短陌, or "short strings")—can be traced back to the Jin dynasty (266–420). During the Qing dynasty (1644-1912), after a long period of disappearance, imaginary copper coins reemerged and flourished from the Kangxi period (1662–1722) onward. Based on surviving historical account books, family records, private contracts, and paper money, such practices can be found in 438 counties across 127 prefectures.

This monetary phenomenon, which transcended territorial borders and dynastic changes, raises the question of why imaginary money appeared so frequently in traditional markets. The case of the Qing dynasty reveals these detailed mechanisms. Under three specific conditions—continuous depreciation of inferior coins, transitions in the standard copper coinage, and the relative devaluation of copper coins—a sustained supply of high-quality copper coins could drive out inferior coins by circulating the low-value strings. This, in turn, gave rise to various regional forms of imaginary copper currency.

This study is the first to uncover the widespread existence of imaginary copper coins during the Qing dynasty and to identify their enduring characteristics over a long historical period. It also challenges the view that regional currency represents market disorder or disintegration—particularly the argument that it increased transaction costs and hindered market expansion. Through the formation of imaginary copper coins, monetary markets without a nominally unified currency unit were still able to achieve a unified value consensus in their own way.