Addendum: The Transition Period of Coin Use: the Eastern Zhou (771-221 BC)
Bureaucracy, markets, and armies all emerged prior to the rise of spade money in the Eastern Zhou. What was its true purpose? Identity?
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Dear Reader,
Thunderstorms over here. Crazy. It is definitely a wet fall weather. Best time to snuggle with a book. I’m concluding Washington Poe and Tilly, a partnership that reminds me of Stephen King’s Holly. Can’t get enough of it.
I had hoped to find a more direct connection with money and the army. It appears that there is less use for coins at this juncture in the Eastern Zhou period.
Stay dry,
Melanie
A professional army?
I argued in my last post that the Western Zhou 周 (1046 BC up to 771 BC) kingdom operated a royal bureaucratic structure that indicated the permanent employment of a professional army. This structure was showcased in the ceremonies carved on Zhou bronze vessels. Just like the Shang, the size of the armies relied on local allies raising additional men for a price. In exchange, the king granted its allies status by ceremonially conferring on them titles, such as ‘captain’ or granting dominion over a locality.
Li was one such man appointed by the King to command all of the Zhou military forces, the Li fangyi.
It was the eighth month, first auspiciousness; the king entered into the Zhou Temple; Duke Mu to the right of Li stood in the center of the court, facing north. The king in writing commanded Yin to award Li red kneepads, a black girdle pendant, and bridle, saying: "Herewith supervise the six armies and the royally empowered Three Supervisors: the Supervisor of Lands, Supervisor of the Horse and Supervisor of Work."
The king commanded Li, saying: "Concurrently supervise the six armies and the eight armies' registers." Li bowed and touched his head to the ground, daring in response to extol the king's beneficence, herewith making [for] my cultured grandfather Yi Gong [this] treasured offertory vessel.
Li said: "The Son of Heaven is unspoiled and unlimited; for ten-thousand years [may] he protect our 10,000 states." Li dares to bow and touch his head to the ground, saying: "Valorous is my person; [may I] continue my predecessors' treasured service.”
Shaughnessy, p. 3251
There is a distinction between a king’s dedicated army, his professional soldiers, and the local allies’ armies. The difference is also reflected in the level of control of metals during this period which was initially monopolised by the king but later controlled by his local allies later on.2 Other local kingdoms may suddenly switch allegiances and overturn the dominant elite. This was the constant threat of any ruling kingdom. Eventually, the former allies of the Western Zhou crushed the ruling family and drove them to their Eastern city, the Eastern Zhou (771-221 BC) powerless.
Soldier salary?
Given the strong evidence for a dedicated army, how were they paid?
Records are indirect or non-existent for now. Again, though we are looking at coins, we should be cautious about the corollary activities that we assume are associated with them, such as:
being the sole exchange medium
presume that these coins are used for commodity purchases (perhaps limited to certain types of goods)
cross-border acceptance across different places or markets
presume that the market necessitated coin use
All of these activities preceded coin minting.
The earliest mint foundry was dated 640-550 BC in the ancient city of Guanzhuang in present-day Henan Province. At that time it was an important city in the Eastern Zhou period. Guanzhuang (800 BC - 450 BC) was the seat of the Zheng kingdom/family one of the allies of the Eastern Zhou. The family seat was the channel by which the Zhou kingdom communicated with the other families in the Central East Plain.
The foundry provided a context for a solid date for the spade coins. The findings though do not tell us its use or why these were produced. What does the study tell us?
the foundry was used to produce intricate ritual vessels, decorations for chariots, musical instruments — elite goods
the foundry shifted its production towards these coins after — was it a shift towards commodity goods or were elite goods not in high demand anymore
the study cannot ascertain how long the foundry operated
Though the term coin was used, it does not appear to be a common object and is still reserved for selected burials.
What do we know
The circulation seems to be bounded or limited
There seems to be an absence of strict enforcement of standardised weights and measures for these coins; it was mostly composed of lead and not valuable metals
Some scholars believe that the coins were commissioned by the authorities rather than emerging from a commercial market. This is a plausible explanation but we have no direct evidence to back it up just yet. However, this is a stronger hypothesis than proposing that the coins support a commercial market. We also know:
The professional army preceded coin use
Bureaucracy preceded widespread coin use
Commercial exchange preceded coin use
The emergence of coin use in the Eastern Zhou period does not appear to be used to pay for an army full-time. This period is a transitory period towards widespread coin use for commodities by the general population.
If we go back to the Greek and Roman examples of renumerating soldiers with coins, coins allow portability at scale:
soldiers travelled to further areas for long periods without returning to their place of origin (the extent of the empire)
soldiers needed to purchase goods and services or their equivalent during that time frame with a symbol guaranteeing value
At this point, there was no deliberate impetus to create an empire or a single entity. I suspect that these coins are identity symbols of a specific family. These were partially used for ritual purposes but also came to be appropriated for other uses.
Though we have evidence for an army, they were not being paid in coins exclusively just yet. This might be the transition period for coinage use.
Round-Up
The Zhou kingdom is at the cusp of full-blown currency use. The discovery of a foundry with a spade coin dated 640 BC shows that the Eastern Zhou had one of the earliest coin use. This is in line with the emergence of coinage in India and Greece/Rome.
We do not see extensive use of this coin. The foundry manufactured bronze objects for ritual purposes then the spade coin. We do not have any records of what these coins were used for.
We do know that:
armies were probably not paid with these coins exclusively
the king’s armies might have been paid with these coins but there were no indications of any; you don’t need coins as much as seals to guarantee some value for your service
the local coins were useful for the local economy use but again it is not necessary
coins were probably as much as local identity as a storage of value
True coin use, aka money, will come much later. This is merely a transition period.
Re-read the previous post
Eduard L. Shaughnessy. Chapter 5 Western Zhou History in The Cambridge History of Ancient China.
This centralised control is also reflected in the king’s monopoly of mining resources. This monopoly eroded to its neighbouring allies in the late Zhou period.
See: Hsu, YK., O’Sullivan, R. & Li, H. Sources of Western Zhou lead: a new understanding of Chinese Bronze Age supply networks. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 13, 30 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-021-01279-3