One reason for Egypt’s prominence was its location. As part
of the Mediterranean littoral it linked the
trade routes between Europe and Cathay – as China was known from Roman times
well into the Age of Exploration (1400-1800). Babylonia too, following its
decline, evolved from a transit point on the Silk Road between China and Rome into
an integral part of Greater China. Suggesting that some innovations begun in
Sumeria (see my earlier posts) may have spread east.
As many are now aware, Chinese civilization is nearly as ancient
as that of the Sumerians. China’s oldest documented regime, the Xia Dynasty, dates to the
20th century BC. Unfortunately, due to wars and book burnings, few
financial Chinese records have survived from earlier than the 19th
century – 200 years ago. Those records that have come to light owe more to
happenstance or isolation than to any plan of preservation.
The earliest known Chinese records of financial transactions
were discovered accidentally. At the start of China’s Cultural Revolution
(1966-1976), 15 paper sheets used as packing for an ancient, paper coffin, were
unearthed. The 54 pawnshop transactions recorded on this graveyard material
date from the Tang Dynasty (618-907). As one might expect, these documents shed
light on the active and strong presence of Chinese women in financial
transactions.
Appropriately two women historians have studied this
phenomenon in detail. Their conclusions suggest an unanticipated connection
between God and Mammon. “The rise and spread of pawnshops coincides with the
introduction of Buddhism to China, and indeed the first pawnshops were located
in Chinese monasteries.”[i]
The pawnshop then, as now, operated as a quick source of
financing for working people. In need of cash, individuals could offer a
possession – sometimes literally the shirt off their back – in exchange for
ready cash. The pawned possession could be redeemed within a set period of time
for a sum that usually imputed a double digit return for the pawnshop.
 |
| Women from the Tang Dynasty circa 700 AD |
Professors Valerie Hansen and Ana Mata-Fink, who have
studied the documents, made this discovery: “of the twenty-nine borrowers whose
names are recorded, nineteen are distinctly male names and ten female
names….The women have surnames but no given names. Instead they are referred to
by their position within the family: ‘woman’ (niang), ‘old woman’ (po),
or ‘younger sister’ (mei).”[ii]
These transactions can be dated to the late 7th century, sometime
between the years 662 and 689 A.D.
Fortunately, and thanks to these documents, we know
something of these women and these, the earliest known financial transactions
involving women in China. Transactions on a single day – the 18th
day of the first lunar month of an indeterminate year
-
“Woman Yin”, in exchange for “one old yellow
cloth shirt”, received 100 coins on the 18th of the first month of
the lunar year. She redeemed her shirt five days later.
- - He Qiniang, who lived in the Alley behind
Guanyin Monastery, in exchange for an unknown pawned item received 120 coins –
which she redeemed on first day of the following month.
- - That same day, thirty-six year old Yang Erniang,
who lived in “North Alley”, deposited an old white silk scarf (patterned with
small, damasked diamonds) and received 20 coins. The seventh day of the
following month she redeemed her scarf.[iii]
All these transactions took place in Chang’an (長安), at
that time the capitol city of China (today known as Xi'an 西安).
As we shall see in other locales, there was a further connection
between worship and wealth in this development. “As in Europe, pawnshops were a
forerunner to banks, and borrowers could, through repeated transactions, obtain
large loans against relatively small amounts of collateral….The origins of
Chinese pawnshops lay in Buddhist monasteries, and they remind us that the
innovation of making a loan against a pledge was not unique to the Western
world.”[iv]
Endnotes
[i]
Valerie Hansen and Ana Mata-Fink, “How Business Was Conducted on the Chinese
Silk Road During the Tang Dynasty, 618-907,” p. 58, in Origins of Value: The
Financial Innovations That Created Modern Capital Markets, William N.
Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, Eds., (New York: Oxford University Press,
2005).
[ii]
Valerie Hansen and Ana Mata-Fink, “How Business Was Conducted on the Chinese
Silk Road During the Tang Dynasty, 618-907,” p. 56, in Origins of Value: The
Financial Innovations That Created Modern Capital Markets, William N.
Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, Eds., (New York: Oxford University Press,
2005).
[iii]
Valerie Hansen and Ana Mata-Fink, “How Business Was Conducted on the Chinese
Silk Road During the Tang Dynasty, 618-907,” p. 60, in Origins of Value: The
Financial Innovations That Created Modern Capital Markets, William N.
Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, Eds., (New York: Oxford University Press,
2005).
[iv]
Valerie Hansen and Ana Mata-Fink, “How Business Was Conducted on the Chinese
Silk Road During the Tang Dynasty, 618-907,” p. 59, in Origins of Value: The
Financial Innovations That Created Modern Capital Markets, William N.
Goetzmann and K. Geert Rouwenhorst, Eds., (New York: Oxford University Press,
2005).
Copyright 2013 by David Baeckelandt. All rights reserved. Please do not plagiarize. No reproduction in any form permitted without my express, written permission. Thank you!
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