With a financial history spanning millennia, China developed the world’s earliest monetary and financial concepts. These ideas, transmitted through successive dynasties, constitute an essential component of both Chinese and global financial thought. The modern “Eastward Spread of Western Learning,” however, precipitated a rupture in this intellectual tradition, as Chinese elites dismissed indigenous theories as antiquated relative to Western doctrines supported by developed monetary institutions. Systematic reexamination of traditional Chinese monetary thought only emerged after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, pioneered by scholars such as Xinwei Peng, Jichuang Hu, Richard von Glahn, and Man-houng Lin.

Ping He’s An Introduction to Thoughts of Elites on Currency and Finance in Imperial China advances this scholarly lineage with its ambitious goal to “reconstruct monetary and financial theory based on traditional Chinese monetary and financial thought” (p. 1). Organized chronologically and thematically across eight chapters—covering the eras of metal coinage, bronze coinage, paper currency, silver, and modern transformation—the work reinterprets and reassesses the representative thought of Chinese elites on currency and finance, demonstrating the profound and enduring vitality of traditional Chinese monetary and financial ideas.

The opening two chapters, addressing the eras of metal coinage and bronze coinage, focus on currency casting, use, and circulation. In chronological order, they examine: The Theory of Balance between Mother and Child coins (zimu xiangquan lun) by Shan Qi concerning the hierarchical structure of currency and the Theory of Light and Heavy from the Qingzhong chapter of Guanzi regarding state governance principles, both in the pre-Qin period; Jia Yi’s early formulation of Gresham’s Law (jianqian lun), Chao Cuo’s State Theory of Money versus Sima Qian’s Barter Theory of Money, and Sang Hongyang’s arguments for a minting monopoly (all in the Western Han dynasty); and the concept of money fetishism reflected in the Discourse on the Spirit of Money (qianshen lun). Crucially, the author observes that a clear dualism between Metallism and Nominalism had already emerged in this period’s discourses on the origin and function of money.

Chapter 3 addresses the era of paper currency from the Tang to the Yuan dynasties, shifting focus to copper cash shortages as well as the issuance and circulation of state paper currency. After reviewing the Tang and Song elites’ perspectives on cash shortages, the author delves into the core ideas and policy practices of the “Chengti Theory”—the world’s earliest paper money theory—and provides an in-depth investigation of paper currency thought from Lyu Zuqian, Yang Guanqing, Xin Qiji, and Ma Duanlin. In the author’s view, the Southern Song government’s “Chengti” monetary policy pioneered and tested four policy tools analogous to those used in modern central banking systems. Finally, through the world’s earliest paper money regulations, “Fourteen Regulations of Zhiyuan Baochao” by Ye Li (Ye Li shisi tiaohua), the author illustrates the principles of paper money management, its operational mechanism, and its inherent nature in imperial China.

Subsequent chapters, with reference to contemporaneous monetary and financial developments and thought in Western Europe, analyze Chinese monetary thinkers’ ideas and policy proposals concerning the choice among copper cash, state-issued paper currency (baochao), and silver during silver’s rise to dominance in the Ming and Qing dynasties. Amid monetary disorder in the Ming, a series of currency proposals emerged: Qiu Jun’s multi-currency system scheme, Chen Zilong’s proposal to promote paper currency and abolish silver (xingchao feiyin), Qian Bingdeng’s “mutual regulation among the three currencies” (sanzhe xiangquan) scheme, and the silver demonetization thesis (feiyin lun) proposed by the late-Ming Enlightenment thinkers. The author argues that these schemes for the parallel, multi-track, complementary use of silver, paper notes, and copper cash were distinct from the Western monometallic standards based on a single measure of value. For the Qing dynasty, confronted with silver shortages, there emerged Lu Shiyi’s Silver-Note theory (yinquan lun), Lan Dingyuan’s argument for opening maritime trade (kaihai lun), and the monetary debates between Wang Liu’s Chartalism and Xu Mei’s Metallism.

The final three chapters are devoted to monetary and financial thought during the era of modern transformation, covering: Su Ling’e’s Silver Outflow Theory (baiyin wailiu lun); Wang Maoyin’s paper currency theory (cited by Karl Marx); Ma Jianzhong’s mercantilist view of precious metals; Kang Youwei’s Gold Standard for National Salvation (jinbenwei jiuguo lun); Liang Qichao’s Gold Exchange Standard Theory; Zheng Guanying’s theory on banking; Sun Yat-sen’s Currency Revolution Theory; and Li Hongling’s analysis of the rise and fall of draft banks (piaohao).

The main contribution of this work lies in its broadened interpretive horizon, which moves beyond the confines of conventional Marxist political economy. Drawing on more pluralistic and newly developed Western monetary and financial theories, it succeeds admirably in re-examining and reinterpreting the monetary and financial thought of traditional Chinese intellectual elites. While exploring their modern relevance and contemporary significance—for instance, the link between ancient Chinese Chartalism and today’s prevalent Modern Money Theory—the author also endeavors to clarify the divergences between Chinese and Western thought (including theories of monetary standards, credit money, and banking).

As Ping He contends in the preface, revisiting traditional Chinese monetary and financial thought indeed offers valuable insights and inspiration for reconstructing monetary theory, addressing contemporary practical issues, and formulating financial policies. For example, it prompts us to reflect on Bitcoin from the perspective of monetary sovereignty, the credit nature of money as evidenced through copper cash circulation, and the essence of international trade through the historical evolution of the logic of divergence and interaction between China and the West. An English translation would significantly enrich global academic discourse on these themes.