論唐代的除陌錢

On Tang’s Tzu Moo-qian

中國自兩晉之際以來，史料中出現了陌錢的講法，葛洪在《抱朴子》中有「取人長錢，還人短陌」之語。這是指向人家借的是大錢，還的卻是小錢，縱使錢數一樣，因為購買力不同，債不算還清，在道教看來是一種罪，顯然這是一種被當時人極不喜歡的欺騙行徑。從宗教中的不道德批判來看，應當是社會中常見的行為，這個成熟使用的記錄，不應該被視為陌錢的濫觴，陌錢的概念，應該出現在更古老的中國。此後歷經東晉南朝，史料中都有行陌錢的記載，蕭梁時甚至還因為陌錢而劃分行錢的區域，成為唐代政府正式收取除陌錢的歷史經驗。中國傳統帝國各級政府，要從唐德宗計臣趙贊立除陌法、收除陌錢，開啟以陌錢為政府專利的濫觴以後，歷代政府才開始刻意以陌錢為專利。歷經中晚唐、五代的流變，到了北宋確定中央官定陌錢為七七陌，形成中國到近代發行機鑄貨幣之前，各地或各類貨幣兌換的計算標準。它既不是學界常態認定的交易稅，更不是農業稅，它是面對交易時貨幣大小差價的計算標準，也是政府發行減重貨幣又不影響交易市場的巧門，本文企圖釐清唐代除陌錢的本質和演變，來討論唐室處理經濟環境通貨緊縮所付出的努力和成果。

Moo-qian appeared in lots of historical documents since the Jin Dynasty. For example, Ge Hon (葛洪) recorded in his book ”Bao Po Zi”: ……took ”Long money but returned Short Moo”. It means someone borrowed big money from the others however returned small money. Even the amounts were the same the purchasing power was different between big money and the small ones. Therefore the debt was not returned completely. In Tao religion as Ge Hon's belief, it was a sin, a very dislikable cheating behavior at that time. From the view point of religious immoral idea, it should have been a common behavior in the society. Nevertheless, this record should not be taken as the beginning of usage of Moo-qian. Afterwards, there were many records about people using Moo-qian, In the South Dynasty period, the governor even divided districts for currency which became the historical experience for the government of Tang Dynasty to include Moo-qian as one of the formal currency.Moo-qian was not a government patent until the Emperor Tang De Zong (唐德宗). His calculating minister Zhao Zan (趙贊) established Computing Moo Exchange Law and Accepting Moo Law. Zhao Zan's idea was accepted by the following dynasties till Song. Song government set up a legislation that made Moo-qian as Seven-seven Moo (七七陌), which formed a universal currency exchange formula before the issue of machine coined currency in contemporary China. However, the Seven-seven Moo is neither what academic known trade tax nor the agriculture tax. It is a currency exchange calculating formula to make up the discrepancy between big money and the small one. It is also a skill to issue the less weight coins without disturbing the exchange market. This article is trying to clarify the quality and change of Moo-quian in Tang Dynasty in order to discuss its efforts and result in management of the currency deflation.