After Zhu Bo and Fang Mingqian's fleet set off, Yunxi began to implement another of his reforms, the first currency reform after stabilizing the currency value of Baobao.
"Qi Qing, I have decided to officially issue a decree tomorrow, the ninth day of March. This year's Spring and Autumn Fu will still have no limit on the amount of silver coins collected. Starting from next year's Spring Fu, people will be prohibited from using copper coins issued during the Mongolian Yuan Dynasty to pay taxes; and the styles of copper coins will be unified. , to cast Daming Tongbao, and only Hongwu Tongbao and Daming Tongbao are allowed to circulate among the people." After going to court on the eighth day of March, Yunxi called Qitai to Qianqing Palace and gave him instructions.
In the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu, Yunxi, who had just become the grandson of the emperor, used grain as collateral to stabilize the value of the banknotes and preserve the credibility of the Ming Dynasty banknotes, preventing them from becoming waste paper like in history.
Although Yunxi has carried out many reforms so far, maintaining the credibility of Baochao is still one of the most important reforms he considers.
Economically speaking, the invention of paper money, which began in the Song Dynasty, made the transaction of goods no longer dependent on precious metals such as gold, silver, and copper, allowing places lacking precious metals to avoid the inefficiency of barter, and promote the development of commerce and industry. : It is no accident that the earliest unofficial banknotes in China and even the world were born in Sichuan.
From the perspective of the ruler, even if the country carefully maintains the credibility of paper money and does not issue a large amount of it, it can still gain wealth by issuing paper money without paying any price.
However, there is one thing to note here. As long as the paper currency does not depreciate, although the country obtains a part of social wealth at almost no cost, the people actually do not lose. In this process, the country has created wealth, or awakened the sleeping wealth. Wealth, rather than plundering wealth. Only devaluation of paper currency is plundering wealth.
However, Yunxi's reforms to preserve the credibility of the banknotes did not fully achieve his goals. Since grain was used as collateral at that time, grain was not only difficult to carry but also had price changes throughout the year. This not only made some people reluctant to use At the same time, the value of treasure banknotes will change throughout the year and is not stable.
The best way is to use gold and silver as collateral, so that the value of the treasure banknotes can not only be stabilized, but the convenience of exchanging gold and silver will make most businessmen willing to use the treasure banknotes.
But Yunxi had no choice at that time. There were too many treasure banknotes issued at that time, and the value continued to decrease, which made people unwilling to hold them. Once gold and silver were used as collateral, the small gold and silver in the treasury would be exhausted immediately. In the end, the value of the treasure banknote still has only one way to completely collapse.
But now Yunxi already has a lot of gold in his hands. When Zhu Bai comes back from the American continent, he will definitely bring back countless gold and silver. California developed because of the gold rush, and Mexico also became the world's largest producer in later generations. Silver country.
Moreover, the credibility of the banknotes has been initially restored at this time, and even if it is changed to gold and silver, large-scale exchanges will not occur. Therefore, Yunxi feels that the time is ripe for currency reform.
However, Yunxi did not immediately change the collateral of the treasure banknotes to gold and silver. Instead, he decided to proceed in three steps. He would implement the first step now and wait until Zhu Bai returned from America with a large amount of gold and silver before implementing the last step.
"Yes, Your Majesty." After listening to Yunxi's words, Qitai agreed.
Qi Tai noticed very early that no Jianye Tongbao had been minted since Yunxi succeeded to the throne. Qi Tai had been thinking about why Yunxi was like this. Today, the mystery was finally solved. It turned out that His Majesty wanted to unify the copper coins of the Ming Dynasty. style.
'If it weren't for the outrageousness of banning Hongwu Tongbao, His Majesty would probably ban Hongwu Tongbao as well.' Qitai thought.
"In addition, gold and silver ingots are prohibited from being circulated among the people. But sometimes it is inconvenient to use copper coins, and the people of foreign countries may not be willing to accept treasure banknotes, so the people need a certain amount of gold and silver."
"So I asked the imperial eunuch in the palace to mint gold and silver coins," Yunxi took out two coin-like things from his sleeves, and Qitai continued: "They will be circulated among the people."
Gold and silver coins were born together with pencils. When Yunxi ordered the eunuch of the imperial eunuch to study pencils, he somehow thought of gold and silver coins, and asked the eunuch of the imperial eunuch to study the casting of gold and silver coins, and stated his own requirements. The eunuch of the imperial eunuch spent
For a period of time, gold and silver coins that met Yunxi's requirements were minted years ago.
Qi Tai took the two coins from Yunxi's hand, weighed them, and said to Yunxi: "Your Majesty, are these gold and silver coins one or two each?"
"No, it's eight coins divided into two, but it can be used as one or two." Yunxi said.
"If eight coins and two cents can be used as one tael, I'm afraid the people will not be willing and will still use it as eight coins and two cents." Qi Tai said.
"Haha, Qi Qing saw that you have never used silver to buy anything." Yunxi said with a smile: "I have learned about it in detail with many people before, and there is no problem in using this nine-dollar coin as one or two."
"Most folk silver is mixed with many other things and is not pure silver. Every time you use silver, you have to check the quality and weigh it, which is very complicated. Therefore, only large businesses use silver. Most people use copper coins and treasures.
Money."
"But the gold and silver coins I asked the imperial supervisor to cast are different. They are already minted, with patterns printed on both sides, so that even if the people want to mix something into them, it is impossible, and the people don't have to weigh them.
, you can accept it just by checking the quality, it’s much more convenient, and people will be willing to pay for it even if the weight is less.”
"And Qi Qing, have you noticed the patterned edges? This is also very important. These patterns are very shallow and will not be visible if they are slightly damaged. This makes people who use gold and silver coins want to grind off some of them.
Gold powder and silver powder are also not acceptable, because when using gold and silver coins, it is easy to find that the pattern edges are missing, and other people will know that this is not a complete gold and silver coin, so they will not use it as one or two."
‘It turns out that there are so many Taoisms in this small gold and silver coin.’ Qitai thought to himself.
In fact, there is more to it than that. There is nothing wrong with the gold coins minted by Yun Xi. They are indeed made of eight cents and two cents of pure gold. But the silver coins are actually the same alloy as Yuan Datou in history, nine cents of silver and one tin. In this way, in addition to one cent and eight cents
In addition to the difference, you can also get some additional benefits.
Yunxi said to him again: "Gold and silver coins, the main silver coins, gold coins are not used by the people for the time being. The circulation of silver coins among the people is left to the Ministry of Household Affairs, and it flows into the people just like the Tongbao in the past."
"Yes, Your Majesty." The previous unified style of copper coins was just that. Qi Tai actually felt that it was a bit unprofessional for the king of a country to ponder the style of gold and silver coins. In his opinion, what the emperor should do is to govern the country well. Whether there are gold and silver coins,
Their style didn't matter to the country. However, he didn't dare to go against Yunxi's words, so he had to agree.
Yunxi could actually guess what Qi Tai was thinking, but he had no choice. Not only China, but also people in Western countries at this time did not realize how important financial and monetary policy was to the country. The first to obtain large amounts of gold and silver from the Americas
Two Teeth had no idea of issuing banknotes at all. The earliest banknotes in the West were issued by England, where capitalism had already been established.
Even if Yunxi removes Qitai from the position of Minister of Household Affairs, he can't find someone he likes to take over, so he can only keep him in office.
Yunxi told him a few more things and asked him to step back.
After that, he was about to think about doing something else, but the reply from the Li family and his son came to the capital, forcing him to put an end to his thoughts.