Nine hundred and eighty-eighth palm Gold and silver are good, but don't be greedy!
From the expression on Song Huizong's face, it is not difficult to see that he was very interested in Li Qi's new type of education and asked about every detail, especially about the Genius Academy.
In fact, the education method of the Genius Academy, to put it simply, shortens the ordinary education method by a few years, because for real geniuses, they do not need to waste too much time on some basic skills. Therefore, the students of the Genius Academy are
After primary school, people will be divided into majors directly, and they will mainly focus on science. After all, Taiyuan University is already insurmountable in terms of liberal arts. The literature of the ancients cannot be underestimated. Since Li Qi is not sure of surpassing Taiyuan University, he might as well
He gave up and concentrated on studying science. His tentative goal was to train a group of scientists. Later, Li Qi also came up with one or two genius test questions, which quelled Song Huizong's curiosity.
After talking about this matter, Song Huizong talked with them about the conclusion of this trade negotiation. After all, this was also one of the themes in the previous visit.
Speaking of this matter, Cai Jing suddenly remembered something and said seriously: "Let me tell you, Your Majesty, regarding this trade negotiation, the veteran has some ideas, which may be able to help us, the Song Dynasty, change the current situation of money shortage."
Li Qi was shocked and cheered up. Currency is a very sensitive thing nowadays. Once anything goes wrong, the Song Dynasty's economy will collapse and his new law will also perish, because currency can be said to be a support for his new law.
Point, if you control it well, you can make a lot of money. If you lose control, you may be penniless.
Song Huizong was stunned for a moment, then hurriedly said: "Ai Qing, please tell me."
Cai Jingdao: "Your Majesty, do you still remember Qin Hui's strategy to solve the money shortage in Jiangnan?"
Song Huizong thought for a while, not knowing why, and nodded: "Of course I remember. Qin Hui told a lie to make those wealthy businessmen rush to take out the copper coins, and thus alleviated the money shortage crisis in Jiangnan. Although it was suspected of being a trick,
But it doesn’t hurt.”
Cai Jing nodded and said: "That's right. Qin Hui originally said that the court would use silver instead of copper coins. When the old minister heard this, he felt that this lie was not unachievable. However, due to the lack of gold and silver mines in the Song Dynasty, the old minister did not say it.
However, this trade negotiation made my old minister feel that this method is really worth a try. The trade between China, Byzantium, Japan and other countries and the Song Dynasty used almost all gold and silver, with only a small amount of copper. As long as we maintain cooperation with
The stable business exchanges in these countries indicate that we will have stable gold and silver income. In this way, the imperial court can cast money and silver coins to make up for the shortage of copper coins, which can completely solve the money shortage and provide a great support to the imperial court.
, it will be of great benefit to the people, and it can also promote the promotion of new laws, which can achieve numerous benefits."
Song Huizong listened silently. But he was very excited and tempted. Minting coins was a huge profit for the court. Once money and silver coins were introduced, the court would definitely make another huge profit. But Li Qi was silent again.
, so he asked: "Li Qi, what do you think?"
Li Qi was slightly startled and thought to himself, Mr. Cai is Mr. Cai. He is indeed a master of currency. This can indeed alleviate the currency crisis, but doing so now is simply asking for his own destruction. He replied: "Go back to the emperor."
If so, what the Grand Master said is feasible, I think, but ---."
Seeing that Li Qi was hesitant to speak, Cai Jing knew that Li Qi was worried about his face. At his current age, he was not so irresponsible. Moreover, he always valued Li Qi's opinions. He smiled and said: "Li Qi Qi, just say whatever you want, I’m just making a suggestion."
"yes."
Li Qi nodded and continued: "But Weichen thinks that it is not the time yet. Weichen has said more than once that the strongest point of our economy in the Song Dynasty is the currency advantage. What the Taishi said is right. Now we rely on buying and selling. We have obtained a stable supply of gold and silver, but currency is a commodity. In other words, we bought this gold and silver from others. If we use gold and silver as currency now, it will be equivalent to losing our advantage in the Song Dynasty. Given to others. Today, we rely on currency to control the economy of other countries. When the time comes, they can also use gold and silver to control the economy of our Song Dynasty. We will also lose the initiative because of this. This is extremely harmful to our economy of the Song Dynasty. Disadvantageously, once there is a lack of supply, the economy will suffer huge harm."
If Li Qi hadn't been here, given the urinary temperament of Cai Jing and Song Huizong, it is estimated that this matter would have really happened, because they only had the interests of the imperial court in their eyes.
Cai Jing was not a domineering person. He humbly accepted Li Qi's suggestion and nodded: "What you said makes sense, but I didn't think it through."
Song Huizong wondered: "You said it's not yet time, so when can gold and silver coins be minted?"
Li Qi smiled and said: "We will not be able to issue gold and silver coins until our Song Dynasty controls the gold and silver mines that are enough to support the economic development of our Song Dynasty. However, this is indeed a good way to solve the money shortage. We can prepare for a rainy day. "
Cai Jing hurriedly asked: "How to prepare for a rainy day?"
Li Qi replied: "So far, the circulation of gold and silver in our Song Dynasty is very small. Not only that, even Japan, which has abundant gold and silver mines, is also using the currency of our Song Dynasty, and often even exchanges for gold and silver. Our currency of the Song Dynasty, this is a good opportunity. We can first devalue the value of gold and silver. When the value of gold and silver falls to underestimation, we will take advantage of the low price to absorb it and slowly accumulate it. When the time comes, we will launch gold and silver again. Once money, gold and silver become mainstream currencies, their value will definitely be several times higher, or even more. I will not make much profit out of the gold I recovered at extreme prices, converted into valuable currency, and then pushed to surrounding countries. Said."
Song Huizong was excited and cheered repeatedly.
Cai Jing was also very excited, but then asked: "But how can we devalue gold and silver?"
Li Qi smiled and said: "We who control currency really have too many ways. Copper itself has many uses. It can be used to make bronze mirrors, weapons, etc. Now the prices are based on copper, but gold and silver It's different. At most, it's just gold and silver jewelry. These are not necessities for people's lives, but just a symbol of luxury. The reason why gold and silver are expensive is that they are rare. Unlike copper, which can directly affect the price of goods. Even Since the entire economic system is not a necessity of life, there is a lot of room for maneuver. For now, the value of gold and silver is constantly decreasing because the value of our Song Dynasty currency has increased. The same goes for the value of copper. If it increases, relatively speaking, the value of gold and silver will definitely decrease. Not only that, the court can also use policies to resist gold and silver. For example, in the past, customs duties could be paid in gold and silver. If the court issued a policy to refuse gold and silver, This indicates that the usefulness of gold and silver is further reduced. Money is about convenience. Since gold and silver cannot provide convenience, its value will naturally decrease. Similar to this method, there are more than a dozen of them. At this time, we can belittle gold and silver while secretly absorbing it and slowly hoarding it for later use."
Song Huizong nodded and said: "I understand." After a pause, he added: "But even so, are gold and silver still under the control of others?"
Li Qi smiled and said: "Your Majesty, we are short of gold and silver mines in the Song Dynasty. Wei Chen thought that the shortage was not really to this extent. There must be more that have not been discovered, but the technology is not enough to dig them out. So, first of all, we can send more manpower.
.Develop mining technology and develop more gold and silver mines. Secondly, even if we don’t have it, Japan has it. Dali has it!”
"Japan? Dali?"
Song Huizong looked at Li Qi in surprise.
Cai Jing frowned and said, "Li Qi, you don't want to invade Dali and Japan, do you?"
Li Qi shook his head and said: "Of course not. Our Song Dynasty is currently in the stage of recuperation and has no qualifications to send troops at all. But the Grand Master must not forget that some people in these two countries must rely on our Song Dynasty. Our Song Dynasty
Although it is a country of gentlemen, gentlemen are not equal to good people. If you want to do good, you will only do good things to the people of the Song Dynasty. As for these countries, I think it is better to be clear. Naturally, our help cannot be in vain. When the time comes, once
The political situation in their country has changed, and we have the opportunity to take advantage of it - well, it should be said that we seek reasonable returns, such as helping them mine gold and silver mines."
Although China is not a big producer of gold and silver, it is not as small as what people know now, because many of them are underground and the current technology is still difficult to develop. However, Japan was a big producer of gold and silver during this period.
, before the discovery of America, it could even be said to be the first gold and silver producing country. Due to volcanic reasons, Japan's gold and silver minerals are very rich, and most of them are on the surface of the earth. However, it is precisely because of this that it has led to premature mining.
, was overused. Later, Europeans entered Japan and directly used trade methods to take away all of them. A large amount of gold and silver from Japan flowed out, and the gold and silver mines were exhausted. However, China, as a neighboring country, did not get it at all.
However, Li Qi will never allow this situation to happen again. He can no longer take advantage of Westerners, he must take advantage of his neighbors, and he must try his best to plunder Japan's gold and silver mines. One of the important reasons is that at present
So far, gold and silver are really the best way to solve the currency crisis of the Song Dynasty.
Although Li Qi's economic construction alleviated the currency shortage crisis to a certain extent, you must know that this only prompted merchants to put copper coins into the market and did not increase the currency. In short, the Song Dynasty was still in a currency crisis.
Just because the economy of the Song Dynasty is currently in recession and the economic system is not yet fully operational. It seems that the currency crisis has been resolved. In fact, it is not the case. Once the new law is successful, the economy of the Song Dynasty will make a qualitative leap. By then, this amount of currency will definitely be insufficient.
In order to support the economy of the Song Dynasty, because the quantity of goods will be far higher than the currency.
The only way to solve the problem is to increase currency, but the coinage of the Song Dynasty has reached its limit, and it is difficult to have more room for improvement. Think about it, this iron, tin, and even banknotes have been used indiscriminately. It can be imagined that
, this currency is so scarce.
However, copper as a currency has a big drawback, that is, copper will corrode. After a few years, a copper coin will become half a coin. This is an invisible loss to the Song Dynasty and is inevitable.
, you let Japan and Xixia earn money, and you can still find a way to earn it back later, but you let the air "earn" it, who do you want to go to? Compared with copper, gold and silver will not have this kind of profit.
This is why gold and silver coins are more suitable as currency than copper.
However, just because it is suitable does not mean that it is applicable. Li Qi originally thought about making gold and silver through trade and then using gold and silver as currency, but he could not do this. This is just like how he lifted the money ban and enforced it despite knowing that there was little currency.
Just like the currency circulation of the Song Dynasty, his purpose was to establish a strategy for the currency of the Song Dynasty to dominate Asia, using currency to control the economies of other countries. No matter what, he must not lose his currency advantage. To put it bluntly, he will die.
He also needs to bring in a few backers. Therefore, if he does not have enough support from gold and silver mines, he will never use this idea. As an economic power, if you still need to rely on others for currency, then what qualifications do you have?
When called an economic power, the status, circulation and popularity of currency are the performance of a country's economy.
This is one of the reasons why Li Qi became friends with Japanese samurai. He really wanted Japanese gold and silver, and he almost went crazy. If the Song Dynasty had not faced the disaster this year, he would have wanted to do it now.
Seeking Japanese gold and silver.
Song Huizong stroked his beard and said: "Help them mine?"
Li Qi nodded and said: "Yes, we can cooperate to win the mining rights and options for their country's gold and silver mines. In other words, we help them dig, and the gold and silver dug out theoretically still belong to them.
Yes, but it must be sold to us. As for the price? Of course it must be a friendly price, otherwise it will not be justified. I think they will not refuse such a good thing."
Cai Jing's cloudy eyes flashed with a glimmer of light. Although Li Qi's words were very ambiguous, he knew that with Li Qi's character, this transaction must earn several times the profit, otherwise he would definitely not move.
This brain laughed and said: "Okay! This is a good idea! No wonder you are so friendly to the Japanese and Dali envoys. It turns out that you have a plan for a long time. It seems that you are very sure."
Song Huizong nodded and said: "When it comes to doing business, who is Li Qi's opponent? This is absolutely feasible. In the past, whenever there was a shortage of money, I always thought of mining more copper. In the past, to make up for the lack of copper, it seems now
, which is wrong. Don’t they like to use my Song Dynasty currency? Since they are unkind, don’t blame us for being unjust. I will get raw materials from them, cast them into coins, and sell them to them.”
Having said this, he was in a good mood and burst into laughter.
Several people discussed this matter again for a while. If you want this strategy to succeed, you must have the self-control of the army. The Southeast Army against Japan has already begun to reorganize, so Li Qi suggested to Song Huizong that he should wait until
Jiangnan calmed down and immediately reorganized the Southwest Army, which was specially designed to target Dali and Jiaozhi. Since there was gold and silver as bait in front, Song Huizong quickly approved it, but his approval could not be counted yet. This matter had to be
After discussing with the Privy Council and the Third Division, Li Qi felt confident with the emperor's support.
After a while, Cai Jing had official business to deal with, so he resigned first. Li Qi originally wanted to go with him, but Song Huizong kept him.
As soon as Cai Jing left, Song Huizong's expression suddenly changed, and he said in a low voice: "How did you do what I asked you to do? Those people are so abominable! My all kinds of tolerance, but in exchange for their
Take advantage of it!"
Li Qi asked in surprise: "Your Majesty, what happened?"
Song Huizong had a gloomy face and hummed: "It's not just my ministers. They are getting more and more unruly and lawless. They even dare to interfere with my harem and impeach my love without any evidence."
The concubine spends extravagantly and takes money from ministers, which is really hateful."
Since the last time the imperial court began to promote integrity and fight against corruption, Song Huizong was undoubtedly the biggest victim. He could see as much as he could with his eyes, but all the civil and military officials in the dynasty were looking at him. Speaking of which, it was really unfair.
In fact, the Song Dynasty was quite open-minded. Even the emperor dared to point his nose at those officials, let alone the concubines. Moreover, Song Huizong was a passionate emperor. Once a concubine was favored by him, her status in the court would be certain.
Soaring, so the power of the harem is very strong. Otherwise, Tong Guan and Liang Shicheng would not regard those concubines as their parents. During the holidays, they don't know how much money to give to the harem. It can be seen from this that,
In fact, the harem is also part of the crony struggle. In fact, it is thanks to Empress Zheng's pressure from behind. Otherwise, when meeting an emperor like Song Huizong, the harem will be turned upside down. In this case, they will also be hostile.
Attack object.
No! Who is so short-sighted? This is the emperor of the brothel. If you impeach his beloved concubine, aren't you seeking death? Li Qi did not dare to comment too much on this matter and only said: "I don't know the emperor."
What does it mean?"
Song Huizong snorted angrily: "Of course I have to fight back, otherwise if this continues, they will have to ride on my head. By the way, how much evidence have you collected?"
Li Qidao: "This is quite a lot. But I don't know how the emperor will use this evidence to fight back."
Song Huizong glanced at him angrily and said, "You don't have to ask, just bring it to me. I'll go to the morning court tomorrow and I'll roll your names one by one."
So fierce? It seems that he really went crazy this time! Li Qiwei pondered and said: "Your Majesty, I think it is inappropriate to do this. If the Emperor directly reads out the evidence in front of the civil and military officials of the court, it will make people think
, the emperor is declaring war on the ministers of the DPRK, and when the time comes, another big disturbance will inevitably arise."
Song Huizong's eyebrows gradually moved closer to the middle, and his determined eyes became a little hesitant. He knew that what he just said was indeed a little thoughtless, and asked: "What do you think should be done?"
Li Qidao: "Reporting to the Emperor, in fact, the ministers have also thought about this issue seriously and feel that it is better to let them fight among themselves. The best policy is for the Emperor to reap the benefits of the fishermen."
Song Huizong said: "How to make them fight in a nest?"
Li Qizhe said with a smile: "It's very simple. As long as these evidences are released, someone will naturally complain in front of the emperor. Which minister in the court does not have an enemy? Then the emperor only needs to be a favor and deal with it impartially."
Song Huizong was very happy when he heard this. He said: "Your idea is really bad, but I like it. Haha! But how did you release this evidence? Yes, yes, it can be published in the Song Dynasty Times Weekly.
!”
"this---!"
Li Qi looked embarrassed.
Song Huizong glanced sideways and said, "Is it possible that you have some difficulty?"
Li Qi smiled and said: "For the humble minister, how can there be any difficulty in what the emperor ordered? It's just that this Song Dynasty Times magazine belongs to the imperial master. If those news are put on it, it is inevitable that some people will say that it is the imperial master.
When excluding dissenters, the Grand Master will definitely complain about the minor ministers."
"You are right." Song Huizong said a little depressed: "But this doesn't work, that doesn't work either, what should I do?"
Li Qi pretended to think for a while and said: "Your Majesty, the ministers have an idea, but I don't know what your Majesty means?"
Song Huizong clicked his tongue and said, "As long as you can help me get rid of this bad temper, I can say anything."
Li Qidao: "Wei Chen is thinking, Your Majesty, why don't you start a newspaper yourself, so that you can publish whatever content you want in it!"
When Song Huizong heard this, he raised his eyebrows and said, "That's right! Why didn't I think of this?" After saying that, he shook his head and said, "No, no, what's the difference between this and me reading it in public."
Li Qi smiled and said: "What a big difference. Your Majesty, you don't need to come forward. You only need to support me from behind. As long as the Kaifeng Mansion doesn't arrest anyone and doesn't stop the circulation of this newspaper, that's fine."
Song Huizong pondered for a moment, then hehehe said: "Okay, okay! Just do it like this. You do it quietly without worrying too much. I will help you secretly, and no one will dare to embarrass you."
Li Qi sang: "The humble minister takes orders."
Song Huizong said excitedly: "You have evidence about someone, who should be the first to be operated on?"
Li Qi smiled and said: "Weichen has already thought about this first person."
"Oh? Tell me quickly."
"It's Wei Chen."
"What?"
Song Huizong exclaimed and looked at Li Qi in disbelief.
Li Qi explained: "This minister is just to avoid suspicion, otherwise others will definitely think that this is what the minister did. When the time comes, your Majesty, as long as you don't punish him corporally, you can just fine him a few years' salary. For the sake of the emperor, these few
A year's salary is nothing. At worst, you just have to tighten your belt a little, or you will starve to death."
Song Huizong glared at him and said: "Don't fool me here, a few years of salary is nothing to you." He smiled evilly and said: "But to others, it is nothing.
It’s not a small amount, but it’s unfair to you.”
Li Qidao: "It is a blessing for me to be able to serve the emperor. How can I be wronged?"
"You boy!"
Song Huizong pointed at Li Qi and smiled. The underlying meaning was that you are too sensible! Then he asked: "Then what is the name of this newspaper?"
Li Qi thought for a while and said, "How about calling it Banana Daily?"
"Banana Daily? Why is it called this?"
"Because it's obscene enough---no, because it's popular enough, so they don't want to get in trouble with the emperor!"
"Yeah --- it makes sense." Song Huizong rubbed his chin and said: "The name is a bit popular, but after reading it twice, it sounds easy to me. Okay, let's call it Banana Daily. The more I read it, the easier it sounds.
,Ha ha!"
PS: This 6,000-word chapter will not be available tonight...