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The history of Chinese currency spans more than 3000 years. Currency of some type has been used in China since the New Stone Age which can be traced back to between 3000 and 4500 years ago. Cowry shells are believed to have been the earliest form of currency used in Central China, and were used during the Neolithic period. Around 210 BC, the first emperor of China Qin Shi Huang (Chinese: 秦始皇; pinyin: Qín Shǐ Huáng, 260 BC – 210 BC) abolished all other forms of local currency and introduced a uniform copper coin. Paper money was invented in China in the 9th century, but the base unit of currency remained the copper coin. Copper coins were used as the chief denomination of currency in China until the introduction of the yuan in the late 19th century. Currently, the renminbi () is the official currency of the People's Republic of China (PRC). It is the legal tender in mainland China, but not in Hong Kong or Macau. The special administrative regions of Hong Kong and Macau use the Hong Kong dollar and the Macanese pataca, respectively. ==Ancient currencies== (詳細はshell money is attested to in the Chinese writing system. The traditional characters for 'goods' (貨), 'buy/sell' (買/賣), and 'monger' (販), in addition to various other words relating to 'exchange', all contain the radical '貝', which is the pictograph for shell (simplified in China to 贝.) However, the extent of the circulation of shell money is unknown, and barter trade may have been common. However, copies of cowry shells made out of bone, wood, stone, lead and copper were common enough to presume that they were used in trade. The Chinese may have invented the first metal coins, coins found in Anyang date to before 900 BC.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=河南省人民政府門戶網站 中國最早金屬鑄幣 商代晚期鑄造銅貝 )〕 At that time, the coin itself was a mock of more earlier used cowry shells, so it was called the Bronze shell.〔http://chinesechinese.net/HistoryofChina.html A snap shot view of THE HISTORY OF CHINA by YK Kwan〕〔http://www.travelchinaguide.com/intro/focus/currency.htm Shell Money before Qin Dynasty〕〔http://encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_681500371_2/shang_dynasty.html Shang Dynasty Economy Encarta. (Archived ) 2009-10-31.〕 Bronzed shells were found in the Ruins of Yin, the old capital of Shang Dynasty (BC 1500-BC 1046). Bronze became the universal currency during the succeeding Zhou Dynasty. During the Warring States period, from the 5th century BC to 221 BC, Chinese money was in the form of bronze objects that were of three main types. The Zhou, the Wei (魏), the Han (汉) and the Qin (秦) all used coins shaped like a spade (''bu''). The Qi (齊) used money in the shape of a knife (''dao''). The Zhao (趙) and the Yan (燕) used knife money before switching over to spade money roughly half way through the Warring States period. The Chu (楚) used money in the forms of "ant nose" coins (''yibi''). 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「History of Chinese currency」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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