Peng Xinwei: China’s Misesian Monetary Historian

Peng Xinwei (1907–67) was a Chinese monetary historian and numismatist whose nine-hundred-page magnum opus, Zhongguo huobi shi (A Monetary History of China), first published in 1954, pioneered a comprehensive study of numismatics, monetary history, and the history of economic thought in China. In reconstructing the history of Chinese money and Chinese monetary thought in the book, Peng relies on theories which are highly consistent with the economic thought of the Austrian school—especially the monetary theories of Carl Menger and Ludwig von Mises. This article aims to rediscover Peng’s contributions, which deserve recognition by contemporary Austrian economists, and to provide evidence of the affinities between Peng and Austrian monetary theory.