On the afternoon of May 22nd, the "Millennium Commemoration of the Birth of Paper Currency" series salon (Phase 2), organized by the School of Finance and Finance of Renmin University of China and hosted by the Institute of International Monetary Studies of Renmin University of China, was held at Renmin University of China. Professor He Ping from the School of Finance and Finance of Renmin University of China delivered a keynote speech titled "The Trust Mechanism of the 'Jiaozi' Currency Produced in Yizhou (Chengdu) in the Northern Song Dynasty and the Significance of the Issuance of 'Official Jiaozi'". The lecture was moderated by Associate Professor Li Lili from the School of Economics of Renmin University of China, with the participation of undergraduate and graduate students from the School of Finance and Finance of Renmin University of China.

Professor He Ping pointed out that Chinese characteristic finance has its inherent ideological origins. According to the thinking of Professor Huang Da, the pioneer of finance in New China, no matter what kind of theory is introduced from the West to China, it is the Chinese people who accept and put this theory into practice, so it will definitely bear the imprint of the Chinese. On the occasion of the millennium commemoration of the birth of paper currency, we should take a long-term perspective and use the history and ideological resources of Chinese monetary finance to promote the thinking on current monetary and financial issues and provide nourishment for the reconstruction of monetary and financial theory. Professor He Ping provided a comprehensive interpretation of questions such as the driving force behind the emergence of "Jiaozi," why "folk Jiaozi" inevitably transformed into "official Jiaozi," and the path traditional Chinese paper currency took. The lecture mainly included the following four parts:

First, "Jiaozi" as a revolutionary invention in the history of human monetary civilization, breaking away from the value entity of commodity money and metal money, first appeared in Yizhou.

Second, the birth of "Jiaozi" cannot be convincingly explained from the perspective of the development of credit relationships, but it can be approached from the perspective of sociological trust networks to reach a more accurate conclusion.

Third, the loss of public credibility of folk Jiaozi had an impact on order, leading to the inevitable emergence of official Jiaozi. The necessity of the transition from "folk Jiaozi" to "official Jiaozi" stems from the functional boundary differences between folk order and official order, as well as the inevitable requirement of "one country, one currency."

Fourth, the long-term experiment of official paper currency from the Northern Song Dynasty to the Xianfeng period of the late Qing Dynasty shows that traditional Chinese paper currency primarily served as a means of circulation, acting as a "state-mandated paper currency." In contrast, Western European paper currency that emerged in the 1660s mainly functioned as "bank credit currency" for payment. Although both are "paper currencies," the divergent choices and directions of paper currency usage between China and the West reveal the division between national paper currency and credit currency, constituting the financial conditions of significant divergence between China and the West and having profound influences.

Translated by He Sijia