In the early years, in order to implement the gold standard, the Tang Empire gradually gathered precious metals, especially gold, in the country. At the same time, it vigorously mined gold domestically and in overseas territories, and promoted gold settlement in overseas trade.
All this is to obtain enough gold reserves to promote the gold standard.
The effect of this was also very smooth. After more than ten years of accumulation, the Tang Empire has now fully implemented the gold standard.
The Tang Yuan was also called Tang Jin Yuan or Jin Yuan by various names. Everyone knows that a piece of paper money can be exchanged for the equivalent value of gold from the Central Bank of the Tang Empire.
This is recognized not only by domestic people and businesses, but also by overseas businessmen.
In the city of South Africa, Tang Yuan banknotes are the only currency in circulation. Other merchants go to South Africa to trade. No matter what country’s gold or silver coins you bring, they cannot be purchased or consumed directly from Tang merchants.
, you can only exchange Tang Yuan banknotes for consumption first. Of course, Tang Yuan gold coins or silver coins will also work.
It's just that very few precious metal currencies were issued in the Tang Dynasty, and most of them were issued domestically. The significance of collection is greater than the significance of circulation, and paper currency was mainly used.
Not only in South Africa, but also in Europe, West Asia, India and other regions, Datang currency has become the local currency of preservation. Many of the powerful people have Datang banknotes on hand, and some are simply Datang currency.
Royal Bank cashier's check.
The implementation of the gold standard gave the Tang and Yuan Dynasty of the Tang Empire extremely high liquidity and value preservation.
However, although the implementation of the gold standard requires a large amount of gold reserves, if most of the wealth earned from overseas trade is turned into gold, then this is putting the cart before the horse.
The Tang Empire's overseas trade has maintained a trade surplus almost from the beginning, and the number of this surplus is getting bigger and bigger. In the past, it might have been only hundreds of thousands of millions per year, but now, it is hundreds of thousands per year.
Ten thousand or more.
This also means that a large amount of wealth flows from all over the world to the Tang Empire.
And all this wealth flowed into the Tang Empire mainly in the form of precious metals.
Every year, large amounts of gold and silver from America, South Africa, India, West Asia and other places are shipped back to the empire in ships.
Most of the gold went into major banks, and eventually the gold from these banks was slowly collected by the central bank.
As time went by, the central bank's gold reserves increased, now totaling more than a thousand tons. This also meant that a large number of Tang Yuan banknotes were issued.
In addition, the official bank reserves of the empire are not only owned by the central bank. In fact, the Royal Bank, Imperial Development Bank, Zhili Textile Bank and other banks all have gold reserves.
The Royal Bank itself has hundreds of tons of gold reserves!
So much gold made Li Xuan feel a little speechless!
In terms of current gold reserves, there is no problem at all in implementing or even stabilizing the gold standard. In terms of stabilizing currency values, too many gold reserves are of little use.
In the later Victorian era, England, as the world's leader, and the British pound was the hard currency that circulated around the world, they only had a few hundred tons of gold on hand. But now in the Tang Dynasty, the total gold reserves of the central bank and various commercial banks are,
At least more than two thousand tons.
No matter how much it is, it actually means nothing.
Keeping gold at home will not produce small amounts of gold, and if there is too much gold, too many banknotes will be issued, which will cause inflation.
In the past two years, the Ministry of Finance has reported many times that prices in the empire are gradually rising, and the rate of increase exceeds the normal economic growth rate.
Although on the surface, although the prices of goods are higher, people's incomes are also higher.
However, people's quality of life has not been improved accordingly.
In the past, urban workers spent two yuan a month to maintain food, drink and food for a small family, but now, two yuan is not enough.
Most of the increase in income was offset by price increases, resulting in no fundamental improvement in people's living standards.
There is inflation in the country, and it is abnormal inflation, which has to make Li Xuan vigilant!
However, inflation is caused by many reasons, and it is not just caused by the large inflow of gold and silver.
To solve it requires efforts from many aspects.
The large trade surplus is more importantly because Datang exported too many industrial commodities, but imported too many agricultural products and industrial raw materials.
Li Xuan's ideal trade model should be for Datang to export industrial products and import industrial raw materials and agricultural products overseas.
But now, Datang still exports a large amount of industrial products. However, the amount of industrial raw materials and agricultural products imported to Datang from overseas is too small, causing the remaining part to be directly converted into gold and silver and flowed into the Datang Empire.
There is an imbalance here.
Datang should have obtained a large amount of agricultural products and industrial raw materials to improve the living standards of its people.
But now, in exchange, it is a pile of gold and silver that cannot be eaten or drunk!
In this way, the policy on overseas trade also needs to be adjusted.
As to how to make specific adjustments, Li Xuan still needs to discuss with officials from the Customs Department, Ministry of Commerce and other agencies before making a decision, which cannot be solved in a short while.
Anyway, trade surplus can be considered a good thing in a certain sense. Although the number of trade surplus is a bit larger, it is still better than trade deficit.
When Li Xuan summoned relevant officials to discuss overseas trade policies, the merchant ships of the Tang Dynasty were still departing from various ports in the mainland, loaded with various goods and heading to various parts of the world.
Travel to America, India, West Asia, Africa and even Europe.
Some of these merchant ships transporting ordnance went to Europe and were bought by Spain, France and other countries, and some of them were directly equipped with their local armies. A considerable number of them did not stay at all, but were transported directly to Central Europe.
It was a European coalition led by the armed Holy Roman Empire, with other European countries sending reinforcements to participate.
The European coalition forces built a dense eastern defense line based on a large number of bastion buildings. More than 100,000 troops guarded against the Tatar attack day and night.
As for the Tatars, after a well-received but unpopular offensive in the 28th year of Xuanping, the Tatars are also preparing to invest more power this year, preparing to completely crush the resistance mainly dominated by the Holy Roman Empire and advance into Austria.
Wait for Central Europe.
It would be best to fight all the way to France.
The movements of the Tatars made European countries quite nervous.
The attitude of the Ottoman Empire is very ambiguous, because the Tatars have already sent people to the Ottoman Empire to conduct relevant negotiations.
The Tatars directly said that we have no interest in your ruined land. We only want the European plains. If you have nothing to do, just go away, or I will beat you too.
The Tatars who said this obviously ignored the fact that it was they who attacked the Ottoman Empire first, and not just once, but many times. The Ottoman Empire was also quite pitiful, and they stayed well, Tatars. They just came to kill you.
But no matter how they say it, the Tatars have shown goodwill to the Ottoman Empire. As long as the Ottoman Empire agrees and appropriately gives up some of its benefits, the two sides can cease the war.
However, as soon as Xu Zhenchuan, the imperial ambassador in Europe, learned about the contact between the Tatars and the Ottoman Empire, he immediately sent a letter. There was a lot in it, but in the final analysis, it only came down to four words: Death with cold lips and teeth. !
If all the European countries are defeated by the Tatars, who will the Tatars fight next? It must be your Ottoman Empire!
Even the native barbarians of the Ottoman Empire knew this truth, so they were hesitant about it. On the one hand, they really did not want to fight the Tatars.
Those damn Tatars seem to be born to fight, and they fight with their lives at the risk of losing their lives. There is not even half a cent to gain from fighting with them, and there are many casualties and huge costs.
But on the other hand, they also know that the Tatars are aggressive and want to fight with everyone. The truce and peace agreement with them now is just to avoid multi-front fighting. When the Tatars calm down, they will definitely attack them. The empire took action.
The Ottoman Empire was hesitant, and European countries were also terrified.
But their enemies, the Tatars, are not having a hard time now, and are even terrified.
Those European barbarians were afraid of the Tatars, but the Tatars were even more afraid of the Tang Dynasty!
Antar Khan and other senior Tatar officials who were now in Eastern Europe naturally knew about the fall of Hami.
Although it seemed that only one Hami was lost, judging from the process of the Hami battle, our own army was powerless against the Tang army's step-by-step, layer-by-layer approach.
A railway has brought about huge changes in the strategic situation of both sides.
Hami City, which had held firm for more than ten years in the past, was instantly destroyed.
The subsequent Turpan City is not likely to be much better. Once these two cities are lost, it means that the entire Western Region will be lost.
Further west, you’ll find Central Asia with vast plains!
In that place, the Tatar cavalry could come and go freely, but the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty could not come and go as freely.
You know, the cavalry of the Tang Dynasty was actually no less than that of the Tatars!
Datang, which has large areas rich in water and grass such as Hefeng Province and Liaohetao, has no shortage of horses at all.
The Tatars could recruit hundreds of thousands of cavalry to fight all the way to Eastern Europe, and the Tang Dynasty could do the same!
Of course, this is just what the Tatars are worried about. They don't know that if the Tang Dynasty wanted to do this, it would have done so long ago, but the Tang Dynasty simply didn't bother to occupy the land that it couldn't actually control.
The Tang Dynasty's external expansion was different from the Tatars' purely military attack and occupation.
The Tang Dynasty's expansion strategy was to occupy and not leave. Not only would the army not leave, but a large number of immigrants would follow, turning these places into the territory of the Tang Dynasty.