Someone walked in and saluted: "Inform the supervisor, His Royal Highness the Crown Prince and Mr. Cai are here."
Li Qi groaned and said hurriedly: "Bring the hot handkerchief I prepared quickly."
"yes."
After a while, Zhao Huan and Cai Sui walked in side by side.
"(Jiaguan) I have met His Royal Highness the Crown Prince, Second Master Cai, in my humble position."
Li Qi leaned on the chair, with a hot towel on his head, groaned twice, and then said: "Oh, the prince and the second master are here, help me up quickly."
"oh."
Yelu Guyu hurriedly stepped forward and helped Li Qi up.
Zhao Huan and Cai Sui looked at each other and shook their heads helplessly. Zhao Huan rolled his eyes and said, "Okay, okay, stop pretending, my father is not here."
No, I pretend to be so similar, you can see it. Li Qi gave full play to the professionalism of an actor and said weakly: "What does the prince mean by this? Please forgive me for being stupid, I don't understand very well."
Cai Suan said angrily: "Are you still stupid? You dare to say that you are not pretending to be sick and not going to the court meeting."
"Ah? Pretending to be sick? What are you pretending to be sick?"
When Zhao Huan saw Li Qi's expression that he was not afraid of being scalded by boiling water, he felt angry and amused, and said: "Whatever you want, whatever you want, you can keep pretending, it won't be a problem anyway."
I will continue to pretend. This is the crime of deceiving the emperor. Even if I am killed, I will not admit it. Li Qi smiled coquettishly, stretched out his hand and said: "Prince, Second Master, please sit down."
Zhao Huan naturally sat in the front seat without hesitation, Li Qi and Cai Sui sat on the left and right, and Yu Qi sat on the last seat.
"Li Qi, the Japanese envoy came to see you yesterday, and the news came out today. Don't tell me that this matter has nothing to do with you." Zhao Huan glanced at Li Qi quickly and put his hand on the stove in front of him.
, rubbing each other.
Li Qi nodded and said, "This is indeed what I asked Qin Hui to do."
"Why did you do this?"
Sweat! Your qualifications are really mediocre, and you can’t even see it. Li Qidao: "I am doing this for publicity. To give an example to other envoys, our Song Dynasty is really going to sell weapons to foreign countries."
"Propaganda?" Zhao Huan frowned slightly and said, "But when you ordered someone to report this matter to my father yesterday, you didn't mention it?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't you even know?"
"Oh, maybe I was confused because of my illness and forgot about it."
Zhao Huan had a headache and said: "You are undoubtedly beheading first and then showing off. At today's court meeting, the envoys are asking about this matter. It seems that they are willing to buy weapons from me, the Song Dynasty."
"This is a good thing."
"A good thing?" Zhao Huan frowned slightly and said, "But now the ministers in the court still have doubts about this matter. Of course, my father and the grand master still support you. You can rest assured about this."
"What concerns?"
Cai Sui said: "First of all, judging from the orders placed by Japan alone, their demand is quite large. If I, the Great Song Dynasty, sell all the weapons to them, even if I make a lot of money by then, what will our soldiers use?
?This move will undoubtedly lead to a decline in the situation.”
Li Qi rolled his eyes and said: "I have said this a long time ago. Now our weapons supervisor is researching new weapons, and we have already made some achievements. All the existing weapons have to be eliminated. Instead of becoming useless by then, we should
Why not take advantage of this opportunity to make a fortune, and I guarantee that no matter today or tomorrow, or even every day in the future, our soldiers of the Song Dynasty will never go into battle with dog-beating sticks to face the enemy."
Zhao Huan nodded and said: "In this aspect, my father is very confident in you, but there is another point. It is minerals. Although our Song Dynasty is far ahead of other countries in this aspect, our consumption is also very huge. So my father
I hope you can assess the situation."
The implication is that you have to do what you can, and sell as much as they want.
Li Qidao: "Your Highness, you can rest assured that this consumption is nothing. Our Song Dynasty has a vast land and rich resources. As long as we mine a large amount of copper and iron ore, we will definitely be able to replenish it. Besides, they must be aiming at our Song Dynasty."
Most of these crossbows are made of wood, so the consumption of copper and iron will be greatly reduced."
Cai Sui suddenly said: "Actually, dad is also a little worried about this aspect."
Li Qi was stunned and asked: "What worries?"
Cai Suan did not answer and asked instead: "Do you know why our Song Dynasty minted far more money than previous dynasties, but we frequently faced currency shortages?"
This is really a problem. Li Qi nodded and said: "I also know a little bit about this. There are three main reasons. One is that the trade of our Song Dynasty is unprecedentedly developed and growing too fast, and the currency of our Song Dynasty can be used casually in surrounding countries.
, even merchants from those countries in Persia use the currency of the Song Dynasty, which can be said to be an international currency, so that a large amount of currency flows to other countries every year; secondly, currencies are getting lighter and lighter, and there are many types, resulting in a ratio of
Chaos, the loss of the court's credit, and the people's confidence in currency; finally, and the most critical point, is the circulation of currency. The people are short of copper, and copper is a prohibited item, and the purchasing power of copper coins is far lower than that of copper.
The value of copper coins and copper utensils of the same weight is five or even ten times different, so the common people cast the copper coins into containers and sell them. Especially the big landowners, the collection of copper coins is even more serious, so that
Currency is rare in the market.”
Zhao Huan nodded frequently when he heard this and said: "Li Qi, you are indeed a businessman, and your analysis is clear and logical."
Li Qi said sarcastically: "No, no, Your Highness has given you the award. As a businessman, you naturally have to care about the value of money. No one wants to lose thousands or even ten thousand yuan by doing nothing for a day."
Cai Suan chuckled: "You are right. As for the three aspects you mentioned, the imperial court has done everything it should do, especially preventing the outflow of currency, and the private sale of copper coins and the manufacture of utensils. However, it has been banned repeatedly.
Not only that, the situation has become worse and worse. In fact, in the past two months, a money shortage crisis broke out in Jiangnan. Now there are no copper coins in Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and the people can only die with silk cloth.
The court also attaches great importance to the purchase of goods. Dad said that if you do business, you will definitely not be moral. The price of weapons will definitely be ridiculously expensive. So here is the problem. Weapons are inseparable from copper and iron. Once this arms transaction is completed,
Well, although there will be a large amount of currency flowing into our country, it will all be obtained by the imperial court. The value of private copper and iron will definitely increase, and the trend of private currency collection will definitely intensify. How much money will the imperial court issue by then?
Money is also in vain.”
Cai Jing has studied currency. At the beginning, he carried out reforms, minted big money, reduced the weight of currency, and even changed the quality of currency to meet the needs of the military and government and the luxurious consumption of the royal family and bureaucrats. Although the currency reform reform has caused rising prices,
It brought huge financial resources to the court, which met various expenses such as military supplies and salaries. It also met the needs of the luxurious and corrupt life of Huizong's monarchs and ministers. However, it caused currency chaos, private wealth flowed into the court, and the court's credibility was seriously lost.
, causing social dissatisfaction.
Although this has alleviated the currency crisis to a certain extent, this method of minting money that violates values is unworkable, and the harm caused has gradually been exposed.
Li Qi frowned when he heard this and said: "There is a money shortage in Jiangsu and Zhejiang? Why didn't I know?" Now he is working on restoring business in Jiangnan. The money shortage at this time will undoubtedly make things worse.
Cai Suandao: "The imperial court has just received the memorial from Jiangsu and Zhejiang."
"Then what does the Grand Master plan to do?"
Cai Suan said: "My father believes that currency is the foundation of commerce and is indispensable for a moment, so he wants to temporarily issue money again. To overcome this difficulty, he is trying to find other ways."
Li Qi hurriedly shook his head and said: "No. Nowadays, the value of Qian Yin is almost lower than that of Ming Zhi, and we must not give it out again."
This is a good idea, but the problem is that today's officialdom is corrupt. The credibility of the court is seriously lacking. In many places, money has lost its immediate exchange value, which is not equivalent to a piece of waste paper.
Zhao Huan said: "What can we do? In fact, today I and Academician Cai are here. The arms trade is secondary, this is the primary purpose. My father said that as an economic envoy, you should try to ease the currency issue."
I'm going. At this time, I thought of me. Why did I go there earlier? Having said that, even if Song Huizong didn't tell him to go, he would try to prevent the money shortage from continuing. After all, there is no currency, so why not do it?
p's economy.
Li Qi pondered for a moment and said: "I have also considered this matter. It is not possible to issue money, and it is even more impossible to issue currency."
Cai Suan said: "Why is this? There is a lack of currency in the market. If the court does not issue currency, what will happen?"
Li Qidao: "Actually, our fault lies in the continuous issuance of currency, which causes the currency to depreciate. There is also the 'money ban'."
"Money ban?"
In fact, the money ban means that merchants are prohibited from carrying copper coins out of the country for trade, and private citizens are prohibited from destroying money and making utensils without permission.
"That's right." Li Qi sighed softly: "Actually, our money shortage in the Song Dynasty is just an illusion, not a real lack of money. Our trade in the Song Dynasty is indeed developed, but it is far from reaching the point where we need so much currency.
.In other words, there are more currencies on the market than goods on the market, and supply exceeds demand. This will only cause one phenomenon, that is, spare money. In other words, part of the currency is unused and stagnant.
Currency began to accumulate. Once this situation occurs, the currency will inevitably depreciate. When the currency depreciates and the value of copper remains unchanged, it will become what it is now. The value of currency is far lower than the value of copper. People
It is natural to choose to melt copper coins and make utensils, but in fact this is of great benefit to us, and stopping it is a wrong choice."
"Bonus?" Cai Sui exclaimed.
Li Qi nodded and said: "This is a natural market regulation. When the people are constantly selling copper coins, the currency is constantly decreasing, and the value of the currency is slowly rising. Once a balance is reached, then the people will not
If you can collect copper coins again, the currency will naturally flow back to the market. In the same way, hindering the flow of currency will undoubtedly hinder the development of commerce. If commodities are decreasing and currency is not decreasing, then currency will always be redundant of commodities and the supply will always be high.
Without demand, currency will only continue to depreciate. On the contrary, when there are more commodities than currency, it will naturally prompt the production of currency. That is the real money shortage. A real money shortage will definitely cause the appreciation of currency, not depreciation.
, then the copper will slowly flow in the direction of currency, and then currency can be issued." (To be continued...)
ps: It’s finally back to normal... Please vote for me at the end of the month...