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Chinese Empire, Qing Dynasty, Mu Zong or his Successors, Tally Stick from Bamboo

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Chinese Empire, Qing Dynasty, Mu Zong or his Successors, Tally Stick from Bamboo (obverse) Chinese Empire, Qing Dynasty, Mu Zong or his Successors, Tally Stick from Bamboo (reverse)

Through the rebellion of the Taiping rebels (1851-1864), hundreds of towns and villages were destroyed, rice fields burnt, millions of people killed. Taxes were declining rapidly. Many copper mines had fallen into the hands of the rebels – at a time, in which the Chinese government urgently needed money to pay its soldiers to put down the rebellion. Hence, during the reign of Emperor Mu Zong (1862-1874), such bamboo sticks were issued. Their face values were completely fictive, but after all, so are those of paper money. Mu Zong's predecessor Wen Zong had already encountered a lack of money and therefore issued paper money and coins with big denominations: Wen Zong had cast coins worth 100 and even 1000 cash. The first modern bamboo money appeared at that time.

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