After reading a memorial article, Song Lian was already sweating profusely and panting.
This is not an ordinary memorial article, but a complete program, which is the entire Zhu Jiajun Group's view of history and its outlook for the future.
Starting from the beginning of Pangu, it was to differentiate between Huayi and Yi, to praise virtuous ministers, and even included Chen Sheng and Wu Guang in order to praise resistance.
In the final analysis, it falls above saving the people. Public opinion is God's will, and God's heart is the people's heart... When it comes to this aspect, it is tantamount to being completely different from Yuan Ting and the rest of the Red Turban Army.
Zhu Jiajun has become a completely unique force.
What are the disputes over status, how to order the government, how to declare to the outside world... there is no doubt about it. The chronology is based on the Huaxia Wu Kingdom, starting from the year after Lao Zhu entered Jinling, that is, the 16th year of Zhizheng is the first year of the Huaxia Wu Kingdom.
The name of the country is Wu, but the title of the country's leader is Wu Guogong, and he does not call himself the king. When he enters the country of Wu in China, he can be abbreviated as Wu or Huaxia.
As for the Red Scarf Army, Zhu Jiajun is often called Huaxia in official documents.
All in all, Lao Zhu's power is completely independent and shows a unique temperament.
After Zhu Yuanzhang took office as Duke of Wu, he appointed subordinate officials and announced new policies. The first of all major policies was the issuance of Chinese treasure banknotes.
And this task fell on Zhang Ximeng.
"Can you all discuss it and see what we should do?"
Zhang Ximeng also had his own room, and he sat in the middle. Liu Bowen, Song Lian, even Jia Lu, Gong Bosui and others came.
It is particularly worth mentioning that even Tamerlane was called here.
This man had just had several cow hooves trimmed, and he still smelled like manure. He simply didn't care. People who work seriously are always worthy of respect.
"First of all, Dayuan's treasure money seems to be pretty good for a while. Can you share your experience so that we can all listen carefully?"
They were also startled for a moment, Bao Chao, this crap thing was simply a pain in the hearts of their brothers. One of the main reasons for the rise of the Red Scarf Army was the change of banknotes.
It is because of the pain that it is painful to talk about that it becomes more profound... Some books praise the Yuan Dynasty's treasure banknotes, thinking that this treasure banknote has sufficient reserves, stable currency value, is very advanced, and is much better than the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. It can even be concluded that the Yuan Dynasty
The ruler understood economics better than Zhu Yuanzhang, who was born as a peasant.
As for which book, there is no need to say more.
In fact, in terms of the stability of currency value and convenience for businessmen and people, the Yuan Dynasty's banknotes did not last as long as the Ming Dynasty's banknotes... It's just that under the conditions of ancient times, the consequences of making banknotes were probably predictable.
When the Yuan Dynasty first issued treasure banknotes, they did not even use silver as a reserve fund, but used raw silk. One thousand taels of raw silk were priced at fifty taels of silver, and then one tael of silver was used to make two banknotes. In other words, one thousand taels of raw silk were exchanged for one hundred taels.
Guanbao banknote.
Later, the Yuan Dynasty simply used silver as a reserve, set up official treasury along the road, traded gold and silver, and standardized the banknote method. For every tael of silver spent, the price would be two yuan notes when entering the treasury, and five cents for two yuan notes when leaving the treasury. One tael of red gold,
Twenty guans were put into the treasury, and twenty guans were taken out of the treasury, five hundred wen.
According to Yuan Ting's design, if you take one tael of silver from outside, you can exchange it for two treasure banknotes. For every additional one tael of silver in reserve, you can issue two more five-cent treasure banknotes. Red gold is calculated at ten times the price of silver.
In fact, judging from this ratio, Yuan Ting is even conservative. The gap between banknotes and reserves can be larger. For example, if there are 30% reserves, 10% banknotes can be issued.
But there is nothing to worry about, because Yuan Ting will soon be unable to hold on any longer.
Issuing a large amount of banknotes far exceeded the reserve fund and was unable to maintain it. The Yuan Dynasty simply used the traditional skills of the American emperor and announced that treasure banknotes were no longer linked to gold and silver.
The Bretton Woods system of the Great Yuan Dynasty collapsed.
From then on, Yuan Ting let himself go. Starting around 1276, Yuan Ting began to issue treasure banknotes like crazy. In some places, even hundreds of coins could not buy a bushel of millet.
In order to meet their extravagant needs, the rulers of the Yuan Dynasty issued an additional 3 million ingots of treasure banknotes every year. They even issued new large-denomination banknotes to replace the old ones, and also learned the trick of gold yuan coupons.
These things happened during the reign of Kublai Khan.
Speaking of irony, the founder of the Yuan Dynasty, under his rule, the Yuan Dynasty had already shown its state of subjugation, and was comparable to the Western Jin Dynasty.
Needless to say what happened next. The Yuan Dynasty issued treasure banknotes in various ways. When the people resisted, they switched to gold, silver and copper for trading. The Yuan Dynasty did not allow metal trading. Anyone who dared not use treasure banknotes would be beheaded.
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But the value of the treasure keeps depreciating. Just like this, if there is too much water, add flour, if there is too much flour, add water, until the Yellow River bursts... If you want to control the Yellow River, you must spend money, but the treasury is empty.
Tuotuo advocated changing banknotes and re-issuing new banknotes. The currency value of the new banknotes is twice that of the old banknotes.
But in the middle of the operation, the new banknotes and the old banknotes are the same. The only difference is that there is a stamp on the back of the new banknotes... Such a nonsense method is naturally impossible to maintain.
Some experts simply forge a stamp and collect old banknotes to stamp them themselves, doubling their profits, and within a few days, they can be listed on the market and skyrocket.
Counterfeit currency was everywhere, the currency system collapsed, and in just a few years, prices soared 70,000 times. Then the Red Scarf Army rebelled, and the Yuan Dynasty was at its wits end...
A brief review of the history of Yuan Dynasty treasure banknotes will reveal that there are countless familiar passages in it, such as the Bretton Woods system, the super issuance of Marks, the gold yuan bond reform, the hyperinflation in Zimbabwe, and even the collapse of the Portuguese Escudo...
There are a hundred ways a banknote can collapse.
Sure enough, there is nothing new in history, it's just people wearing different clothes playing out the same story over and over again.
I heard Tamerlane finish talking about these things first, especially the part about Tuo Tuo changing money. He tried his best to smooth things over for his brother, but at the end, he had to sigh.
"The power of the people is withered, the money is being changed too quickly, the officials are too evil, and the money making method is too bad... As a result, the people are at the end of their rope, and An Neng will not fight back!"
After hearing Ye Xian's complaints, people like Song Lian and others shook their heads. Otherwise, we should stop tossing money. This thing is simply harmful!
However, Gong Bosuibi also had the foresight. He said: "The purpose of treasure banknotes is to circulate goods, connect the world, and benefit the country and the people... Just don't issue them indiscriminately. Nowadays, the superiors occupy the rich land in the south of the Yangtze River, and merchants are prosperous. This has been the case since ancient times.
In other words, if we don’t issue treasure banknotes and don’t encourage commerce, I’m afraid it will be detrimental to the Zhu Jiajun.”
At this time, Jia Lu suddenly spoke, "I also got the news. Zhang Shicheng issued copper coins. If we can't come up with a way to deal with it, he will send people to our territory to purchase supplies on a large scale. I'm afraid it will cause a lot of trouble!"
The copper coin made by Zhang Shicheng was called Tianyou Tongbao. It was still a famous coin in later generations and was sold at an auction house for a sky-high price of 4.1 million yuan.
Going back to the present, Zhang Shicheng, a private salt dealer, has been doing business and playing with money all year round. He is very reliable in issuing copper coins and is quite popular with the people.
Song Lian hesitated and said: "Since Zhang Shicheng can issue copper coins, why can't we follow suit?"
Jia Lu smiled, "Zhang Shicheng occupies the land of Huaidong, where there are many salt merchants. He already has a lot of gold, silver and copper coins. In addition, he has a large amount of salt. As long as he stipulates how to collect gold and silver, he can have a lot of silver coins left every year.
, issuance of copper coins is not a problem.”
At this time, Liu Bowen suddenly whispered: "So, Zhang Shicheng actually relies on Huaiyan?"
Jia Lu nodded, "Yes, he does rely on Huaiyan, but we don't have it!"
Everyone discussed for a while, and everyone basically reached a consensus that the currency thing cannot be ignored. If not, Zhang Shicheng and others will take advantage of it, which will also be detrimental to economic and trade development.
But if one mistake is made, the treasure banknote will collapse, and the consequences will be disastrous.
Moreover, under Zhu Yuanzhang's rule, there was a lack of sufficient gold and silver reserves, which always made people uneasy.
"Masters, we have said so much... I would like to ask you guys why gold and silver are used as reserves when issuing treasure banknotes. Why is it okay for the Yuan Dynasty to use raw silk at first?"
Liu Bowen immediately said: "The treasure banknote is just a piece of colorful paper. To exchange paper for something is a waste of money. It must be endorsed by gold and silver! Only in this way can the people accept it. As for raw silk, the same is true!"
"
"No!"
Zhang Ximeng said with a smile: "It seems right to say that a treasure banknote is just a piece of paper and is not valuable, so it must have gold and silver as a reserve. But the land deed and the house deed are not just a piece of paper? Why are they valuable?"
"This..." Liu Bowen, no matter how smart he was, had never learned the finance of later generations. When asked by Zhang Ximeng, he could only say reluctantly: "The land deed represents the acres, and the house deed represents the house. After all, they are different treasures."
"No! In fact, the treasure note can be regarded as a contract, but this contract is very special. It is not signed with a specific person, but with everyone. According to the agreement, take this contract,
You can go to the market to exchange for goods of corresponding value...so this contract does not require gold or silver, it just needs to be able to buy things."
The guys couldn't help but take a breath and think carefully about Zhang Ximeng's words. At this time, Sun Yan suddenly said, "What does Prime Minister Zhang mean, gold and silver cannot be eaten or drunk, and holding gold and silver has no practical use?"
Zhang Ximeng smiled, "Half of it is right, but there is another half...that is, we don't know how many things are on the market, and we don't know how many banknotes we need. If we issue them randomly, it certainly won't work. We can only anchor the banknotes in
Above gold and silver, at least there is a basis to prevent chaos."
Currency is the weak point of these traditional scholars, and it is not easy for them to figure out the key points.
Zhang Ximeng simply said directly: "In fact, we can put aside gold and silver... As long as we figure out how much food is in the country, how many commodities are there, how much is traded every day, and how much money is needed, we can issue Huaxia treasure banknotes internally to facilitate the people. As long as we figure out how much food there is in the country, how many commodities are traded every day, and how much money is needed.
With this piece of paper, you can buy food and pay taxes. In fact, there is no difference between paper and gold and silver."
"And gold and silver are only needed when settling transactions with outside parties, just to make up for the price difference."
"In the final analysis, issuing treasure banknotes is not a test of how much gold and silver we have, but a test of our understanding of the people we govern and our ability to govern!"