Han Du took all the treasure money in the eunuch's hand and said, "Your Majesty, please see, assuming that the treasure money in my hand has not depreciated at all, if this father-in-law is a farmer and he needs to buy a piece of cloth now, he will use the money at home to
One sheep was sold for three guans of treasure money."
Han Du gave the eunuch Sanguan all the treasure coins in his hand.
The eunuch followed Han Du's instructions and took the three-string treasure banknote.
Han Du continued: "Father, you need to buy a piece of cloth. Each piece of cloth costs five hundred yuan. Please give me five hundred yuan."
The eunuch obeyed and gave Han Du 500 Wenbao notes.
Han Du nodded and continued: "Okay, the cloth that my father-in-law needs now has been bought. If my father-in-law has nothing else to buy, what will my father-in-law do with the remaining treasure money?"
"What, what should I do? Of course, save it. If you save it until you need something next time, can't you just use your treasure money to buy it?" The eunuch didn't know why, so he could only answer Han Du according to his true thoughts.
Han Du heard the eunuch's answer and nodded to him with satisfaction. Then he turned to Lao Zhu on the throne and spread his hands towards him to signal that he had finished speaking.
Lao Zhu looked at the scene in front of him and couldn't help but stretched out his hand to twist his beard.
Suddenly, a flash of inspiration flashed in Lao Zhu's mind, and huge surprise filled his face.
Han Du seemed to see Lao Zhu's dark eyes suddenly turn silvery white, and then turn golden yellow the next moment, which is the color of gold.
Lao Zhu was surrounded by a huge sense of happiness, and in his eyes he seemed to see treasure banknotes falling towards him like a rain of flowers. Every banknote was golden, gold, gold.
Zhu Biao was still thinking hard with his brows furrowed, and asked worriedly: "As a result, the people's hands are still filled with a large amount of treasure money? Isn't this still plundering people's wealth?"
"No, it's different." This time it was not Han Du's turn to speak, Lao Zhu directly interjected.
"If treasure banknotes depreciate, it is indeed plundering people's wealth. But as long as we establish the credit system that Han Du said, as long as treasure banknotes do not depreciate, the wealth in the hands of the people will remain the same.
Baoqian can buy what you need at any time, and can even be exchanged for the same amount of silver at any time. How can it be plundering people's wealth?"
"Even so, my father, please forgive me for being stupid and not understanding what benefits the court can gain from this." Zhu Biao said with a bitter smile.
"Haha, the prince is not stupid. On the contrary, you can understand the operation of treasure banknotes so quickly. You are quite smart." Zhu Yuanzhang was very happy, or excited. Ever since Han Du revealed the secret of treasure banknotes to him, he had been working non-stop.
He was very excited. He had not experienced this level of excitement for a long time, and he had never experienced it several times in his life.
"Although I have a clear understanding, I am afraid that I am not thoughtful enough, so I'll let Han Du explain it to you."
"Yes, Your Majesty." Han Du responded happily.
"Your Highness, the benefit that the court can gain is the treasure money in the hands of these common people." Han Du smiled and pointed at the eunuch's hand.
Seeing that Zhu Biao still didn't understand, Han Du stretched out his hand and started gesticulating, "Your Highness, the treasure banknotes are directional, so they have to be looked at from both ends. The imperial court prints the treasure banknotes and distributes them, and the treasure banknotes flow from the court to the people. As long as
Once a credit system is established and the treasure banknotes are kept from devaluing, then the treasure banknotes in the hands of the people are money, and the money is treasure banknotes. But for the court, regardless of whether there is this credit system, the treasure banknotes are still paper, because
It is paper itself, something printed by the imperial court."
"It was the imperial court that exchanged individual treasure banknotes for a large amount of materials. As long as the credit system still exists, the treasure banknotes retained by the people are the harvest of the imperial court. Let alone one household saving ten or eight treasure banknotes. Even one household
How much does it cost to deposit two guan of treasure? I remember that the court announced at the beginning of the year that the population of the Ming Dynasty was more than 10 million households. If one household deposits two guan, this means that more than 20 million guan of wealth has fallen into the court."
"And that's not all. After all, people don't have much wealth to save. The only ones who can really save a lot of treasure banknotes are the rich. If the wealth accumulated by those people for generations can be exchanged for treasure banknotes, it will be another huge waste.
Great wealth."
"No, that's not right." Zhu Biao stared at Han Du and shook his head, "Even if this wealth falls to the court, the court will not dare to use it indiscriminately. You must know that your credit system is established by exchanging equal amounts of silver. If someone takes the treasure banknotes,
I came to exchange money, but the court can’t get so much money, what should I do?”
When Lao Zhu heard the prince's question, his wonderful mood suddenly stopped. To be honest, just now Lao Zhu thought that a large amount of treasure money would be stranded among the people, and huge wealth would flow back to the court. For a moment, he was filled with excitement, and he
I really haven’t thought deeply about how to exchange treasure banknotes for silver.
I didn't expect that the prince could remain calm, thinking about this.
This made Lao Zhu extremely happy.
"The establishment of a credit system must not only rely on gold and silver, but also on the banknotes themselves." Han Du raised the banknotes in his hand, "Baby banknotes like this are shoddily made and worthless at first glance. This is not okay.
. We need to make the treasure banknotes so exquisite and magical that they will be worth one or two silver coins at a glance, or even more. In this way, almost no one will exchange the treasure banknotes for silver."
"What if someone still wants to exchange the treasure banknotes?" Zhu Biao continued to ask without giving up.
"Then exchange it for them. Thousands of people have thousands of faces, and thousands of people also have thousands of hearts. The situation mentioned by His Highness does exist, but it is extremely rare. Originally, the treasure banknotes have reserves, which are used for exchange
of silver. If someone insists on exchanging it, it doesn’t matter, just exchange it for them." Han Du explained.
"Of course there is no problem in converting the reserves into treasure banknotes, but it is impossible for the court to prepare such a large amount of reserves. How many treasure banknotes do you think the court can issue? How much reserves do you need to prepare?" Zhu Biao said.
"I haven't calculated the details in detail, but if 20 million taels of silver are issued, a reserve of 4 million taels of silver should be enough." Han Du never thought that Zhu Biao would ask him this, so he could only say one thing.
A more conservative number.
Zhu Biao was shocked, "Four million taels? How is this enough?"
According to his estimation, there should be at least half of the reserve fund, and preferably 70% or even 80% of the amount of treasure money issued.
He never expected that the number Han Du gave him was 20%.
"Are you crazy? You only prepared 20%? What would you do if someone exchanges a large amount of silver?" Zhu Biao asked Han Du.
Han Du smiled and said to Zhu Biao: "Don't worry, Your Highness, just make the treasure banknotes as exquisite as I said, and no one will exchange them for silver. Even if they do, it will be a very small amount."
"What if..." Zhu Biao asked word for word, "What if someone happens to exchange treasure notes for a large amount of cash?"
Han Du was pressed by the prince and looked up at Lao Zhu, seeing that he was agitated and worried.
Of course Lao Zhu was moved. Four million taels of reserve funds could be used to issue 20 million guan of treasure notes, which meant that 16 million guan of wealth fell into his pocket. How could he not be moved?
But the prince's problem is also extremely serious. If someone really holds a large amount of treasure money to exchange it, it will be difficult to end. The bad thing is, as Han Du's blood book mentioned, the people's hearts are boiling and the people are resentful.
Facing the prince's questioning, Han Du smiled casually and said quietly: "Then this person must have evil intentions and is suspected of causing harm to the Ming Dynasty. Everyone will find him and punish him."
"Haha, good, everyone can kill him!" Lao Zhu laughed excitedly. Lao Zhu can naturally be excited. If he has to face the entire world of senior soldiers and civilians, then Lao Zhu will also be frightened, but only
Just a little prodding. Lao Zhu said that although I am old, I am still willing to go under the knife.
Zhu Biao was stunned for a while. Was his problem solved? In such an unexpected way.
Han Du smiled in his heart and said, "Of course it's solved. To solve a problem, you don't have to focus on the problem itself. Sometimes, solving the problem is also a way to solve the problem."
It's just that this method is not very beautiful and cannot be used easily.
"However, I don't recommend that your Majesty do this." Han Du said after bowing to Lao Zhu.
After hearing this, Lao Zhu looked at Han Du with a smile on his face. Haha? If you don't do this? If you don't do this, where will the money come from to go to the north to conquer the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty?
Han Du felt cold when he saw Lao Zhu and had goosebumps all over his body.
Good guy, Lao Zhu now regards this part of wealth as forbidden? If he doesn't give him a satisfactory explanation, it's hard to say whether he can walk out of this hall.
Han Du quickly explained: "Your Majesty, it is best for private wealth to come from the private sector and be used for the private sector. If private wealth is taken away rashly, the things that His Highness the Prince is worried about might happen."
"In fact, compared to private wealth, there is another type of wealth that is better than private wealth, and it has almost no consequences."
Zhu Biao had always been worried that using treasure money to extract a large amount of people's wealth would bring instability to the Ming Dynasty. After all, in his opinion, killing people could not solve the problem. Now that he heard that Han Du had a way, he looked at him with joy.
After hearing Han Du's explanation, Lao Zhu's face calmed down slightly, and he tapped the imperial case with his fingers, "Tell me."
"Yes." Han Du continued, "I was talking about the credit system just now, and now I am talking about the monetary system."
Monetary system?
Another new word.
Neither Lao Zhu nor Zhu Biao had heard of it, so they listened quietly and carefully.
"May I ask His Highness the Crown Prince if he knows why the Ming Dynasty has always been short of copper coins? As a result, His Majesty had to issue treasure banknotes to satisfy private transactions."
"This," Zhu Biao pondered for a moment, shook his head and said, "Not only is the Ming Dynasty short of copper, but the Ming Dynasty, the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty, the Northern and Southern Song Dynasties, and even the Sui and Tang Dynasties are all short of copper. Because the Central Plains itself lacks copper mines, and then
Coupled with the thousands of years of adoption, by the time of the Ming Dynasty, many copper mines had been mined. As a result, there was naturally a shortage of copper. In fact, not only copper, but also gold and silver were lacking in the Ming Dynasty."