In the afternoon, in the Zhongshu Provincial Council Hall, Guo Song and seven ministers were listening to a report from Wei Yingwu, the minister of household affairs.
"In the past two months, we have issued a total of 500,000 Guanjiaozi, which is basically used for officials' salaries and the purchase of daily items for the court, and part of it is for the purchase of grain. At present, each cabinet has withdrawn 46 Guanjiaozi.
Of the 8,000 guan, there are currently only 32,000 guan in the hands of the people, less than 10%. In other words, the jiaozi has not been circulated. After the shops and people get the jiaozi, they go to the counter to exchange it for
Copper coins, what’s actually circulating in the market are copper coins.”
"Did the issuance of Jiaozi cause price increases?" Guo Song asked.
"That's not true. With the support of the lowest prices of our coarse cloth and coarse flour, the food prices and cloth prices in the market are very stable and have not caused price increases."
Wei Yingwu paused and continued: "However, the people at the bottom generally do not accept Jiaozi. Our Ministry of Civil Affairs sent 20 officials to conduct a three-day investigation. The people at the bottom have a strong dislike for Jiaozi and the boycott is very resolute. In Ju'anfang
, no small shop accepts payment.
In fact, not only Ju'anfang, but all the small stalls and hawkers did not accept the jiaozi. Before issuing the jiaozi, we arranged for 300 stores to collect the jiaozi. Except for the government-run shops, other shops exchanged the jiaozi they received into copper coins.
And two months later, there are still only 300 stores collecting payment, and there has been no increase."
Du You said: "This shows that there is still a long way to go to promote Jiaozi."
Wei Yingwu shook his head, "I think Jiaozi actually failed!"
"Shilang Wei!"
Zhang Fengyi's face sank and he said: "You can't talk like this."
Wei Yingwu was very stubborn and said: "This is a fact. I think we should face up to the failure and stop issuing Jiaozi before it causes a big mess."
At this moment, there was a sound of running quickly outside, and an official said at the door: "Your Highness, the Commander-in-Chief of the Internal Guard has something urgent to see you."
Guo Song nodded, "Let him come in and talk!"
After a moment, Wang Yue hurriedly walked into the meeting hall, bowed and said: "Your Highness, there is a riot in Dongshi!"
The prime ministers looked at each other, and Pan Liao asked anxiously: "What happened?"
"I don't know the specific reasons. I just know that thousands of rural farmers attacked the Baoji Cabinet Shop outside the gate of Dongshi City. They smashed the Baoji Cabinet Shop to pieces and injured more than a dozen workers. It is not yet known whether there were any casualties.
Clearly, there is chaos now!"
Guo Song stood up and said: "Suspend the discussion, everyone, come with me to take a look!"
The ministers packed up their things and followed Guo Song outside...
There was a chaos in front of the gate of Dongshi City. Countless people were hiding around the square. The gate tower of Baoji Cabinet Shop in the east was pulled down and the door was smashed. All the cabinets inside were overturned and smashed. Baoji Cabinet
Someone lit a fire in a corner of the square, but it was extinguished in time. The charred wood and water stains all over the floor were a mess. You can imagine the chaos at that time.
But the chaos has been stopped, and 12,000 internal guards were dispatched. The soldiers wore armor and held knives and shields in their hands, surrounding more than a thousand villagers who participated in the beating and violence.
There were more than a thousand villagers, including old people and young people, but most of them were young and strong. They all squatted on the ground with their heads in their hands, huddled together.
At this time, Guo Song arrived on horseback with seven ministers and dozens of officials, escorted by a large group of soldiers.
Guo Song looked at the smashed cabinet shop on his horse, and then at the villagers sitting all over the square. There were actually more than a dozen gray-haired old people.
"What happened?" Guo Song asked dissatisfied.
Li Mengze, the deputy commander of the internal defense, stepped forward and knelt down on one knee and said: "I have inquired about the person involved in my humble position. The reason was that in the morning, an old farmer from Baqiao Township came to the counter to exchange money. He was rejected by the shopkeeper and the clerk. The old farmer was so angry that he died on the spot.
At the door of the cabinet house, the villagers were angry. Thousands of people came to denounce the cabinet shop. As a result, they lost control of their emotions and started smashing them."
Guo Song frowned, and he was actually related to Jiaozi again. He asked: "Why doesn't Jiaozi pay?"
Soon, Li Mengze led a man with filial piety forward.
"Your Highness, this is the son of the dead old farmer. He knows the situation very well."
The young man knelt down and cried loudly: "Your Highness, my father died unjustly!"
"If you died unjustly and you could sue the officials, why would you gather people to smash up the cabinet shop?"
The young man was so frightened that he quickly stopped crying, shook his head desperately and said: "The villain didn't gather people, everyone did it on their own."
"Let's put aside this matter. Is your father's friend still there?"
The young man took out a handful of jiaozi from his arms, and the guard took it and presented it to Guo Song. Guo Song was stunned. The ink on the jiaozi was mushy, the jiaozi was still wrinkled, and the paper felt wrong.
"Has your jiaozi been soaked in water?"
The young man explained: "My father sold all last year's grain to the government the day before yesterday. The government gave Jiaozi 40 guan. He had never seen Jiaozi and was so worried that he didn't sleep all night. He wanted to go to the store at dawn.
I exchanged it for copper coins, but when I woke up, I found that the 40-guan jiaozi had been soaked in the water together with the clothes all night. It was left to dry in the sun for a whole day yesterday before being exchanged. As a result, all the counter shops refused to accept it. I
My father couldn't bear this blow and was so angry that he died on the spot."
Guo Song suddenly realized that Jiaozi's biggest weakness was his fear of water! This was printed with ink, and if it was not taken out in time after water entered, the ink would completely fade.
Without this incident, Guo Song might have wanted to persist for another month, but this incident was the last straw that broke the camel's back. At this moment, Guo Song finally made the decision to withdraw all Jiaozi and suspend the issuance of banknotes.
The law did not punish the public, so Guo Song ordered the dozen people who led the beatings to be arrested, each beaten with a hundred sticks, and imprisoned for half a month. The rest of the villagers were released and returned home.
The next day, Guo Song issued an order to supervise the country, suspending the issuance of Jiaozi. The remaining Jiaozi among the people were stopped from circulation and could be given to counters to be exchanged for copper coins. This was undoubtedly a failed reform. In the final analysis, Guo Song underestimated
The people at the bottom have strong resistance to Jiaozi. Just as the eldest sister Guo Ping said, Jiaozi has no sense of security, especially the people at the bottom.
But on the other side of Jiaozi, large money bills and banknotes were very successful, which made Guo Song feel a little relieved...
In the past two days, everyone found that His Highness Jin Wang was in a low mood and could not see him very much. Everyone could guess that the Jiaozi incident had dealt a heavy blow to His Highness Jin Wang. Zhang Qianyi felt quite guilty, although he
He always opposed Jiaozi, and finally King Jin stopped Jiaozi, but he himself was not happy. After all, he respected King Jin very much, and he did not want to base his victory on King Jin's failure.
"Let me go and talk to His Highness Prince Jin!"
Zhang Qianyi stood up and said to Du You: "Jiaozi's failure, the person who should bear the most responsibility is the Minister of Hubu."
Du You smiled and waved his hand, "Thankfully you are the first secretary of King Jin to join the army, and you don't know him at all. Will King Jin hold anyone responsible for this kind of thing? You can talk to him, but don't
Talk about responsibility.”
"I see!"
Zhang Qianyi nodded and walked out of the official room. He quickly came to King Jin's official room, but met King Jin at the door.
Guo Song smiled and said: "Is the Prime Minister looking for me?"
"I want to talk to His Highness!"
Guo Song pointed to the garden not far away, "Let's go for a walk in the garden!"
The two of them walked towards the garden together. The garden was surrounded by buildings on four sides, and there was a large garden in the middle, where officials rested at noon.
"I heard that the Prime Minister is happy to have a son again. Have you named him?" Guo Song asked with a smile.
Zhang Qianyi smiled and nodded, "In the name of Chao, I will show you to His Highness when I have time. The little guy looks like a tiger-like head."
Guo Song is very interested. I wonder if Zhang Yichao can make meritorious deeds for the country when he grows up?
"Is Your Highness still worried about Jiaozi?"
Guo Song shook his head, "It didn't cause much damage, and I won't be upset. I'm mainly thinking about why it failed? Does the Prime Minister have any ideas?"
Zhang Fengyi pondered for a while and said: "Weichen has also been thinking about why it failed? Then I thought about why the banknotes and money notes succeeded, and I roughly found the reason."
"Tell me!"
The two walked slowly. It was lunch break at this time, and many officials resting in the garden saluted when they saw them.
"The key reason why silver notes and money notes can be accepted by merchants is that Feiqian has laid a good foundation for them. When merchants accept Feiqian, they will naturally also accept bank notes and money notes guaranteed by the court's credit. More importantly,
, they complied with the needs of merchants and the development of trade, but Jiaozi did not comply with the needs of the people. Its appearance was very abrupt and had no basis. It reminded people of similar big money. We said that the imperial court would print Jiaozi appropriately.
Son, but who among the common people will believe it? It’s not like copper coins. A copper coin is valuable in itself, so it’s understandable that everyone is opposed to it.”
Guo Song nodded, "You are right. The key is that Jiaozi does not conform to the needs of the times. Things without demand are like goods without demand. No one is willing to pay the bill. The time to promote Jiaozi is still far away.
It has not matured yet, and it will take at least decades or even a hundred years.”
"Then does Your Highness have any ideas for the next step?" Zhang Qianyi asked again.
Guo Song smiled and said: "I have been thinking about how to solve the problem of insufficient copper coins in the market these days, and now I do have an idea."