During the Ming Dynasty, peppers were particularly precious, and the government also gave them to officials as money as their wages. During the Yongle period, 100 kg of pepper sold for one tael of silver, and 10-20 tael of silver could be exchanged for one catty of pepper. It can be seen that pepper was more expensive than silver.

In ancient times, not only in China, but also in Europe, pepper was regarded as currency, and one of the symbols of great wealth was pepper bag. If there are no peppers, then you are just the bottom people.

During the Tang Dynasty, pepper began to be introduced into the Central Plains on a large scale. Pepper can be used not only for soaking wine and medicine, but also as a condiment, so it is especially loved by China people. But because pepper was introduced from the western regions, pepper is a luxury, and gold is not as valuable as it. People like to make tea or wine with pepper, which has a unique taste and can cure bad breath.

By the Ming Dynasty, peppers had new functions and were used as condiments. The rich man lit pepper as incense. Pepper was regarded as currency in ancient times because of its multi-function, unique taste, convenient carrying and preservation, and rare things are precious.

During the Yongle period of the Ming Dynasty, although the country did a lot of important things to spend money, it was still rich, in fact, it also had the credit of pepper. Zheng He brought back a lot of peppers from his voyages to the West, and then sold a catty of peppers at the price of 10 to 20 taels of silver, which was a huge profit. Zheng He buys thousands of tons of peppers every year, so it is also a clever way for Daming to give peppers as a salary to civil and military officials.

It's just that things are rare. Later in the late Ming Dynasty, people in Yunnan and other places began to grow their own peppers. Pepper slowly entered the sight of ordinary people and began to become ordinary, so it was not so precious.