Small-amount bills are mainly money bills, not silver bills, because small-value bills are not troublesome to carry, but even money bills involve too many aspects. One is to prevent counterfeiting. This is not like large-value bills, which must be handled by
If professional people make counterfeits, the audience will be small and the circulation will be small, so there will be very few counterfeiters.
The audience for small-dollar tickets is too large, and there will be many people who make counterfeit money. After the paper is worn out, ordinary people will not carefully distinguish the differences on the paper, which will make many people take risks and make counterfeit money. Therefore, the risk of promoting small-dollar tickets is very high.
big.
The second is whether the general public can accept it. For ordinary people, it is enough to bring a few hundred pennies with them when going shopping. It is not troublesome. If they want to buy large items, they have to go to the streets and hire an ox cart to pull money. This has been going on for more than a hundred years.
It's all happened like this. It's a big test to suddenly change copper coins into banknotes. Whether the general public accepts it and trusts it is really a big test.
Guo Song didn't know whether he could succeed, but he still wanted to give it a try, so he put the paper money pilot in Chang'an and named it Jiaozi to distinguish it from large-value money bills and banknotes. Even if Jiaozi failed
, nor can it affect the issuance of money notes and banknotes.
In early July, the political hall held another vote. This time there were no objections. With four votes in favor and three abstentions, the resolution to issue Jiaozi was passed.
There are only three kinds of Jiaozi, five hundred Wen, one Guanqian and five Guanqian. In order to make all kinds of preparations carefully and steadily, Du Lingqiu prepared for one and a half months and carried out pre-publicity in newspapers every day.
From July 20th to August 4th, every day's "Chang'an Express" will have an attached page, which lists various drinkers, inns, shops, etc. who are willing to accept handovers. There are more than 300 of them, including Chang'an.
All counters promise to unconditionally exchange or transfer them to copper coins.
The fifth day of every month is the day when officials pay their salaries. On the fourth day of August, the seven prime ministers gathered in the official room of the King of Jin. There were two stacks of jiaozi on Guo Song's table.
"Your Highness, the situation is not optimistic!"
Du You said calmly: "We commissioned a newspaper to conduct a public opinion survey, and 80% of people did not accept Jiaozi. Although we will try our best to promote it, we must be prepared for failure."
Zhang Qianyi also said: "As the Minister of the Ministry of Revenue, Wei Chen has implemented the resolutions of the Political Hall and the order of His Highness to supervise the country to the letter. However, Wei Chen still has reservations. Now the implementation of Jiaozi is not like silver notes and money notes.
It will happen naturally, but it is a kind of forced implementation. Just as Du Xiangguo is worried, Weichen also hopes that His Highness can be prepared for failure!"
Guo Song sighed and said to everyone: "Issuing Jiaozi is not a hothead of mine. Everyone knows that the copper coins in the market are far from enough. In Bashu and Hebei, I saw with my own eyes that there are still many places where barter is used.
The output of gold and silver is too low, we have not discovered large-scale gold and silver mines, and the western regions are still unknown.
So I thought over and over again and wanted to issue Jiaozi with the credit of the imperial court as a guarantee, in parallel with copper coins. But everyone is right. We can't let the people use Jiaozi wishfully. I don't want the people to think that we promote Jiaozi to exploit them.
, thus affecting the credibility of the imperial court, so I was mentally prepared to take back Jiaozi."
These prime ministers are not so easy to fool. Du You asked again: "What is the bottom line for Your Highness to take back Jiaozi?"
"Limited to three months!"
Guo Song slowly said to everyone: "If the people of Chang'an still cannot accept Jiaozi in March, then I will take back Jiaozi and no longer consider issuing paper money."
Everyone accepted King Jin's statement. Zhang Qianyi said: "Your Highness is right. If you don't give it a try, you don't know if it will work. If it doesn't work, we will correct it in time to prevent the people from suffering losses.
Damage the credibility of the imperial court."
.........
The next morning, the officials finally received their salaries paid in Jiaozi. Major counter shops also put up big signs for exchanging Jiaozi.
In order to promote Jiaozi, official prices of goods were also reduced. Using Jiaozi, one could buy salt at 120 cents per bucket. The price of coarse noodles and coarse cloth also gave discounts to users of Jiaozi.
At noon, Jiaozi appeared in the shops in the West Market, East Market and Xi'anmenwai Street one after another.
In order to understand the market's reaction to Jiaozi, all the ministers from the Political Affairs Hall were dispatched to various places in Chang'an to understand Jiaozi's situation on the spot. Even the internal guards were dispatched. They pretended to be ordinary people and went to restaurants and teahouses to listen to the people's opinions.
Opinion.
In the morning, Guo Song took a carriage to Xi'anmenwai Street. He was wearing ordinary clothes, a gauze hat, a white linen gown, a leather belt around his waist, and a piece of jade around his waist.
Zhang Lei and Li An are not in Chang'an. They went to Mingzhou to collect the ships. Otherwise, you can ask them.
However, with Guo Ping here, he could still get some information from his eldest sister Guo Ping. In fact, Guo Song had asked Guo Ping before, and she did not express any objection. She just didn't understand and had never been exposed to this kind of situation.
She also said that she could give it a try.
Guo Song's carriage stopped in front of the Meishou Liquor Shop. Guo Song got out of the carriage and saw a big sign hanging in front of the liquor shop, which read, 'Our shop accepts Jiaozi'.
But in fact, among the people queuing up to buy wine, not one of them used Jiaozi. They still mainly used copper coins. Basically, they were carrying copper coins to buy a small bottle of Meishou wine.
Guo Song walked into the shop. The shopkeeper recognized him and said quickly: "The proprietor is inside, and proprietor Li is also there!"
Guo Song was stunned for a moment, who was Mr. Li? He walked into the back room and saw his eldest sister Guo Pingzheng and Li Wenyu chatting. The two were married and had a very close relationship.
It turned out to be Dongzhu Li. Guo Song smiled and said, "I didn't disturb your chat, did I?"
Guo Ping hadn't seen her brother for a long time, so she quickly stood up and said with a smile: "Come in and sit down, we are talking about you?"
Guo Song walked into the room and smiled: "Let me guess, are you talking about Jiaozi?"
In fact, there is no need to guess, there is a Jiaozi placed on the small table in front of them!
Guo Ping brought a chair and asked him to sit down. Guo Song sat down, picked up Jiaozi and asked, "Where did this come from?"
Guo Ping pointed at Li Wenyu and said, "Your senior sister brought it, but it hasn't appeared in my store yet?"
Since Guo Ping took over Meishou Wine, Zhang Lei and Li Wenyu have switched to wine wholesale business. They are the largest wine wholesalers in Chang'an. Almost all restaurants have to buy goods from them. Guo Ping also sells high-end Meishou wine.
But she works in retail, so there is no conflict with Zhang Lei and his wife.
In addition, the two couples each have other businesses. For example, Zhang Lei opened a restaurant and a counter shop, and is now engaged in overseas trade. Li Wenyu used to do cotton business, but after the Guanlong nobles intervened in the cotton business, she gave up the cotton business.
Now he has switched to tea business. In the past two years, the imperial court has spared no effort to promote tea. More and more people drink tea in the north. Li Wenyu's century-old tea shop is now the largest tea shop in Chang'an.
Li Wenyu pursed her lips and smiled and said: "Just an hour ago, someone paid ten thousand dollars to buy tea. This is the first time I have seen this kind of paper money, so I came to discuss it with my eldest sister."
"What do you think?"
Guo Songxiao asked: "Do you think Jiaozi can be promoted?"
Guo Ping pondered for a while and said: "Brother, I'm not trying to dampen your enthusiasm. I'm just telling the truth. From my personal experience and feelings, I don't think the prospects are very good."
"Why do you say that? Can you tell me in detail?"
Guo Ping nodded, "Actually, it's just one sentence, this Jiaozi has no sense of security!"
"sense of security?"
Guo Song remembered that he taught his eldest sister this word, but he didn't expect that she would say it smoothly.
"Yes! There is no sense of security. It may not matter how many friends a wealthy family has, but ordinary people will not accept it easily. But I think the people at the bottom will not accept it easily. A dozen dollars may be their entire savings. They will
Should they be replaced with a dozen pieces of paper? Absolutely impossible. Even if the copper coins are gone and everyone uses this kind of exchange, they will not accept it. They will exchange it for cloth, grain, etc. and store it. To put it bluntly, this kind of exchange
It's better to treat it as ten pieces of money. At any rate, it's still a large piece of copper money. This is just a piece of paper."
"But the eldest sister didn't object like this before?" Guo Song asked again.
"I didn't object at the time because I had never seen what money made of paper looked like and couldn't imagine it at all, so I couldn't give a definite answer. Now that this piece of paper money appears before my eyes, I know what it is.
Brother, when I used to sell tofu in Yong County, I stored the money in a jar and buried it under the bed. I felt at ease because it was money. Even if it was melted, it could be made into jewelry. Just imagine, the jar
There are no coins in it and there are only a few pieces of paper. I really won’t be able to sleep.”
Guo Song was really helpless. He turned his eyes to Li Wenyu and asked, "What do you think, senior sister?"
Li Wenyu smiled and said: "Actually, I agree with what your eldest sister said, but what she said is not comprehensive. The real problem in promoting Jiaozi is not in Chang'an, but in the prefectures and counties below. How can the people of Chang'an still trust the credibility of their junior brothers and the court?"
After the new year, everyone will be able to exchange copper coins smoothly, and over time, everyone will gradually accept it.
But states and counties may not necessarily accept it, and there will definitely be trouble. Even fake copper coins can be made, but no one can make fake paper money? No matter how fake it is, as long as fake money appears on the streets and the government fails to eliminate the fake money in time,
No one will believe Jiaozi anymore."
"How could the government allow fake money to spread?"
Li Wenyu shook his head and said: "If it was a gangster who made counterfeit money, I also believe that the government would stop it in time. But if it was the county magistrate's brother-in-law or a relative of the governor, do you think the state officials and magistrates would still do that?
Active hit?
Even if they are afraid that the court will investigate, the government will eventually stop it, but a long time has passed during this period, the counterfeiters have made enough profits, and Jiaozi's credibility has long been gone."