過去檢視中國十九世紀前半葉的白銀危機時，都是從白銀供給減少和銀貴錢賤的觀點，認定中國發生了貨幣危機，還認為鴉片戰爭和太平天國之亂皆和白銀危機有很高的關聯。但在十九世紀前期，中國民間私票和私鑄銀元，應已廣泛流通，加上檢視一般民眾的實質所得，所以作者認為單從實體白銀存量/流量和銀貴錢賤的觀點，似乎不足以推論中國在十九世紀發生了白銀危機。職是之故，作者認為諸如人地壓力、政治敗壞、鴉片進口（貿易問題）或中英的不平等關係等的傳統看法，才是引起太平天國之亂的主要因素。

Based on the reduction of silver supply and the rising exchange rate of silver with respect to copper coins, many studies believe that silver crises/currency crises did occur in China in the first half of the nineteenth century. In addition, they argue that both the Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion were highly related to these crises. However, Chinese private bills and silver coins should have been in wide circulation in the early nineteenth century. It seems that there is inadequate evidence to support the thesis that silver crises had actually taken place in China judging from the stock/flow of the broadly-defined silver currency. The author therefore considers that shortage of land, political corruption, opium imports (trade disputes) or the unequal relationship between China and Britain were actually the primary causes for the Opium War and the Taiping Rebellion.