There was a meeting between the two governments in the Zizheng Palace. Zhang Yue was among them and listened to the high speeches made by the officials of the two governments. In addition to him, there were also Zeng Bu, the envoy of the third minister, and Zhang Dun, a fellow practitioner.
After Wang Anshi resigned as prime minister, he strongly recommended Zhang Dun, and now he is appointed to the post of Zhizhigao. Later, during the meeting between Zeng Bu and Lu Huiqing, Zhang Dun made the decision to support Lu Huiqing, and was appointed by Lu Huiqing to judge the army.
The position of instrument supervisor.
Zhang Yue glanced at Zhang Dun who was standing next to the screen.
The reason why Lu Huiqing is remarkable is that he is not alone. He represents all the officials in the court who support the new party. The parties that Wang Anshi did not join, Lu Huiqing joined.
You can offend one person, but you cannot offend the entire party.
This is why Lu Huiqing could completely ignore Feng Jing, Zeng Bu, and even Han Jiang, the prime minister of Zhaowen, in front of the emperor.
At the same time, Wang Anshi and Lu Huiqing were so good at eloquence that few people in the temple could rival them.
Feng Jing first refuted the shortcomings of Lu Huiqing's construction of two coins: "In the Han Dynasty, Empress Lu first cast eight coins, and later changed it to five coins. The people all believed that the Han Dynasty was inferior to the Qin Dynasty. Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and cast a large spring. One large spring can be redeemed for fifty coins.
Five pieces of money were taken from the people, and eventually the world fell apart. Liu Bei went to Shu penniless, cast a hundred and five pieces of money, and ordered him to exchange a hundred pieces of Shu's five pieces... Later, the Shu Han minted a hundred pieces of Taiping money..."
What Zhang Yue heard from Feng Jing was that the government was stealing money from the people.
One of the standards of a prosperous age is that the official coins are very fine.
Take the Yongle Tongbao of the Ming Dynasty as an example. It was recognized as a good coin. It was the time when the Ming Dynasty's national power was at its strongest.
The currency of the Han Dynasty was five-tree coins, but Empress Lu initially wanted to mint eight-tree coins, which was also coined by the Qin Dynasty, but the national power did not allow it at the time, so the five-tree coins were used as eight-tree coins.
Wang Mang usurped the Han Dynasty and issued "Daquan Fifty", but Daquan only weighed two and a half of five baht coins, but it had to be used as fifty. Therefore, every time Wang Mang issued a large coin, it was equivalent to robbing the people of forty-seven and a half coins.
Five baht money.
In the end, when Liu Bei entered Shu, he cast one of his coins to be worth a hundred to the public. This profit was even greater than that of Wang Mang.
As for Wang Anshi, Lu Huiqing's idea of discounting two coins is quite good-looking. One newly minted copper coin is worth two of your coins.
In addition, there are also those who use iron coins as copper coins, and those who add lead into copper coins. This is a fine tradition of official coinage since the Han and Tang Dynasties.
All in all, the more troubled the times, the worse the quality of official coins. However, Wang Mang still wanted to be proud. The workmanship of Daquan Fifty Coins was very sophisticated. As for Liu Daer's Zhibai Wuqian, its appearance was recognized to be poor, and it was sold in the second-hand market in later generations.
It only costs a few bucks, so one coin is worth a hundred coins. Of course, it is said that there is also a Daquan Wuqian variety in Soochow.
Lu Huiqing said: "Does Mr. Feng think that I minted two coins just to compete with the people for profit? What to do with the money shortage? The imperial court repeatedly issued orders to ban copper, but it could not stop the people from melting copper to cast private money. Emperor Renzong once issued an edict
, if more than one copper coin is brought to a foreign country, the leader will be put to death. Logically speaking, copper coins should circulate within the country, but has Feng Gong seen what money the people use? They are all ordinary coins and iron coins, but there is no copper coin.
.”
"I heard that rich families in Hedong and Shaanxi hid copper coins and did not use them. Instead, they used iron coins among the people. This was caused by the shortage of money. In the past, Xining Yuanbao was broken into two coins, but there was no chaos. It seems to me that Xining's important treasure must be cast into three coins.
, how can we resolve today’s situation where money is valued over material rather than money at a discount of 50%?”
What Lu Huiqing means is that I am not competing for profits with the people, I am really trying to solve the money shortage problem for the country. A 20% discount is not enough, I have to give a 30% discount.
Zhang Yue listened and laughed in his heart. In the history of another time and space, Cai Jing was dismissed from the prime minister for the first time because of the issuance of "ten coins". It seems that you, Lu Huiqing, are not far behind.
He once preached: "Your Majesty, money is useless, but things are used for it; money is of no importance, but things are used for it..."
Zhang Yue heard that Zeng Bu was worthy of being the Third Secretary, and indeed he had something to say. This sentence is somewhat similar to the fact that gold and silver are naturally not currency, but currency is naturally gold and silver.
"I thought that if the official coin was broken by 20%, 30%, or even 50%, it would be necessary to dig up three feet of ground. How can such an act of plundering money from the people really solve the money shortage? I think it will make the people's livelihood difficult..."
Lu Huiqing retorted: "Your Majesty, what Zeng Bu said about the people's livelihood is poor, but I think it's worse. He doesn't allow the ministers to mint coins 20% off and 30% off. He would rather the rich and powerful make money privately than allow the court to mint money and let the people cut it.
Copper coins are not allowed to be used as two coins?"
There is a saying that a penny should be broken into two halves and spent. This saying is not a joke. People are so short of money that they just spend it by cutting copper coins in half.
Zeng Bu was so aroused by Lu Huiqing's words that he couldn't help but said: "What if we let the people mint private money? In ancient times, people used shells as coins, and later they used copper coins, gold and silver. These are all decided by the people, so why ask for them?
For the country?”
"Your Majesty, I thought that letting private people make money would solve the money shortage. At that time, Zhang Jiuling wrote a letter to the prime minister titled "Edict Proposal to Allow Private Money Making", but he was blocked by the treacherous prime minister Li Linfu."
Zeng Bu meant that he was Zhang Jiuling, and Lu Huiqing, who advocated the official minting of coins, was Li Linfu.
But after Zhang Yue heard Zeng Bu's words, he thought to himself, are you really mad at Lu Huiqing? Is it okay to let people mint their own private coins to solve the problem of money shortage?
Where does the authority of the imperial court lie?
Yes, the history books all criticize Li Linfu and support Zhang Jiuling, but the question is who did the emperor support in the end and whose opinions did he adopt? Who was the prime minister of the Tang Dynasty for nineteen years?
Nowadays, in front of the officials, one advocates official coinage and the other advocates letting go of private coinage. Which one do you think the officials will trust more?
Sure enough, after listening to Zeng Bu's words, the official's face turned ugly.
Before, he thought Zeng Bu was okay, but after Wang Anshi resigned as prime minister, he was really inferior to Lu Huiqing in every aspect.
And Lu Huiqing showed great pride. When it came to governing the world, Zeng Bu and Feng Jing combined were no match for him. There was really no one in this palace who could beat him.
Lu Huiqing said: "Your Majesty, I think that in order to resolve the money shortage among the people, we can cast 20% off, 30% off 50% of coins, or even iron coins, depending on the convenience of the people."
"Your Majesty, I think you can use it at a discount of two coins, but you can't use it at a discount of three or five cents or iron coins."
After the words fell, Lu Huiqing's face became condensed, and Han Jiang and Wu Chong all turned their heads to the end of the hall in unison.
But I saw someone walking out of the class, it was Zhang Yue who never said anything.
Wang Gui and Cai Ting had some thoughts when they met Zhang Yue.
The official nodded approvingly and said, you are really taking action, otherwise I would have thought you were dozing off every time the two governments gathered for discussion.
Zhang Yue had no choice. He didn't want to fight with Lu Huiqing, but he couldn't fight this time.
Behind the war are political problems, behind the politics are often economic problems, and economic problems are mostly manifested in the monetary system.
Why do you say that?
Whether it is a shortage of money or an emphasis on money over things, in later generations it will be called deflation.
Deflation means that there is not enough money. Why?
One possibility is that the economy is developing too fast and there is overproduction, resulting in the currency issuance not being able to keep up.
Another problem is that the gap between the rich and the poor is too wide, and money is concentrated in the hands of the rich, leaving ordinary people with no money for consumption.
When there is less money in society, it is natural to increase the amount of money invested. Therefore, Lu Huiqing prescribed a prescription for official coinage to be divided into two coins, while Zeng Bu allowed private coinage to be minted among the people.
