Early in the morning, Right Chancellor Pan Liao, Left Chancellor Du You, and Secretary of the Ministry of Household Affairs Zhang Qianyi hurriedly came to the Jinwang's official room. Recently, news came from refugees from all over the Central Plains that the new money in their hands had become waste money, and they hoped that the government would exchange it so that they could have money.
Buy urgently needed daily necessities.
"Your Highness, the Zhengshitang's opinion is to agree to the replacement, but there are two issues involved. One is the exchange amount, and the second is the exchange price comparison. The Zhengshitang also produced a first draft and asked Your Highness to review it!"
Pan Liao submitted a preliminary draft of the discussion to Guo Song. This was the consensus of the political hall, but it could not become a formal resolution until it was approved by Jin Wang Guo Song.
Guo Song took the bill, looked at it, and asked: "Each household is limited to exchanging three Guan coins. What is the basis for this?"
Zhang Qianyi bowed and said: "Your Highness, the current market price of new money in Luoyang for old money has reached one to ten. The old money can be exchanged for ten new money. It is impossible for us to use this price to exchange the new money in the hands of the people. We still
A one-to-two price ratio is used for exchange, which is actually the ratio of copper content in the coins of both parties.
But if there is an unlimited amount of exchange, it will lead to unscrupulous businessmen taking advantage of the disparity in price to speculate and make huge profits. Therefore, each household is restricted to exchange three guan of old money, and then exchange it again after two months. The quota is two guan of old money. We also conduct
According to the survey, the vast majority of people bring less than ten guan of new money, so the limit we set basically covers more than 90% of people's needs."
"What should the rich households or businessmen do? They have a lot of new money." Guo Song asked again.
Du You smiled slightly and said: "Your Highness, don't worry. The new money they have is actually not much. They have already exchanged it for real estate, land or gold, silver and jewelry. Even if they have more money, they can apply separately, and then the court will strictly control it."
After review, if it is not a speculative exchange, it can be approved. As for dozens or hundreds of new coins, they will find a way to disperse them themselves, so we don't have to worry."
Guo Song nodded and said to the three of them: "According to the information from Luoyang, the price of gold and silver in Luoyang has dropped. In the past, one tael of gold could be exchanged for two hundred guan of new money, and one tael of silver could be exchanged for 20 guan of new money. Now it has dropped.
The price was reduced to 30%, and it was reduced to one tael of gold to exchange for 150 guan of new money. I guess Zhu Si took out the gold and exchanged it for new money."
Pan Liao frowned and said in confusion: "I really don't understand that there are still people who are willing to exchange gold, silver and old money for the new money minted by Zhu Si. It's not circulated here, and the government and the public won't exchange it with them easily, so they just
Aren't you afraid of getting hit on your hands?"
Zhang Qianyi explained on the side: "I asked Shaofu Temple specifically about this question. Shaofu Temple officials said that they heard that some people buy new money and then melt it to extract copper. Compared with the exchange price, they can get four times the profit. Even if
One to five, that’s double the profit.”
"I see!"
Pan Liao nodded, "Even making this kind of money is extremely risky. They disrupted Zhu Si's way of making money. How could Zhu Si spare them? Confiscating gold, silver, and copper coins is a trivial matter. If not, his life will be lost in Luoyang."
"
Guo Song waved his hands and said with a smile: "You are all wrong. No one bought new money to melt. The one who bought a large amount of new money in the market was none other than Liu Feng's Prime Minister's Office. Of course, it was also Zhu Si's order. Liu Feng had already invested
500,000 Guan of old money was used to acquire 5 million Guan of new money from powerful people through the black market.”
Everyone looked at each other, Zhang Qianyi frowned, "Wei Chen thought Zhu Si was exchanging gold for new money!"
Guo Song shook his head, "The gold is not used. Zhu Si's gold is to buy grain and salt from us. He will not use it unless it is absolutely necessary."
Pan Liao couldn't help but ask: "But where did Liu Feng's old money come from?"
Guo Song pointed at himself and said, "I lent Liu Feng through four counters in Luoyang. I lent Liu Feng a million guan of old money in total, which was enough to exchange for 10 million guan of new money. Liu Feng's military salary issue was solved.
solved."
"Your Highness, what does this mean?" Everyone was stunned.
"It's very simple. I want to turn the new money issued by Zhu Si into a complete waste. It will take a sack of new money to buy a cake. When the soldiers can't even afford a cake with a month's military salary, they will still
How much morale do you have to fight against us?"
"Your Highness is brilliant!" Du You reacted first and gave a thumbs up.
Pan Liao and Zhang Qianyi also reacted. They both took a breath of air. This move was too vicious.
Guo Song saw the unbearable look in their eyes and said calmly: "To defeat the enemy without fighting is my consistent principle in waging war. I don't want to hurt ordinary people, so from now on, we will increase the number of troops.
Increase efforts to accept refugees.
The epidemic panic in Luoyang City is becoming more and more serious, prices are getting higher and higher, and more and more people are fleeing. I have put pressure on the Baotao Army and strictly prohibit them from blocking the people of Luoyang from escaping westward. The climax of the escape is expected soon.
Upon arrival, the imperial court will send additional personnel, including doctors, and everyone who comes to Guanzhong must have a double-printed permission letter from the isolation camp doctor and the refugee camp official. This will prevent anyone from sneaking into Guanzhong without inspection."
The three of them bowed together, "I obey your order!"
Guo Song approved the first draft of the discussion at the Zhengshi Hall, and the three of them hurried away. Guo Song immediately called for Wang Yue, the commander of the inner guard.
The deputy commander Zhou Min led his team to the south of the Yangtze River. The Wei Tang Hui used the method of spreading Nestorianism to develop seven points in the south of the Yangtze River, involving thousands of followers.
Of course, most of them are just ordinary believers, and there are only more than a hundred real members of the Wei Tang Society.
Today, Guo Song did not talk about the Wei Tang Hui. He received news from Luoyang intelligence chief Jiang Min that a batch of fine salt appeared on the market in Luoyang, which made Guo Song immediately alert.
The salt in Luoyang is supplied by the Chang'an official through trade, with a price of 500 coins per pound of salt, and only coarse salt is supplied, and there is no possibility of fine salt. Therefore, a batch of fine salt suddenly appeared on the Luoyang market. Guo Song immediately realized that someone was there.
Smuggled materials are supplied to Luoyang.
Guo Song was worried not only about salt, but also about the smuggling of grain, cloth, livestock, etc. This kind of smuggling would greatly compromise his own inflation strategy, and Guo Song would never tolerate it.
Moreover, according to the current price comparison between new money and old money, transporting supplies to Luoyang is a loss-making business. For example, a bucket of fine salt costs 140 wen, but can be sold for 1,400 wen when transported to Luoyang.
But this is not a tenfold profit, because the money received is new money, and the new money has to be exchanged for old money on the black market. According to the latest price comparison, 1,400 new money can only be exchanged for 140 old money.
money.
Not only did not make a penny, but there were also freight charges and third-party profits. It was a completely loss-making business. This was the salt of huge profits. No one wanted to do other goods with low profits.
No one would do business at a loss, so Guo Song was not worried about merchants operating illegally. What he was worried about was that Zhu Si sent people to secretly transport private salt from the coast, or that Zhu Si's trading house in Chang'an was transporting various supplies for him.
Guo Song pondered for a moment and said to Wang Yue: "The trade between the imperial court and Luoyang has not stopped, but this trade is carried out under the careful arrangement of the imperial court. It has a strong strategic nature, but I don't want all kinds of smuggling to interfere with my strategy. I have already let
The imperial court made arrangements, but the internal guards also had to keep up.
Starting today, the internal guards will conduct a private inspection around Luoyang and will not allow the transportation of grain and salt. Once discovered, the goods will be immediately seized and arrested. Anyone who dares to resist will be executed on the spot without mercy!"
"Your Highness, all supplies are simply prohibited from being imported into Henan Prefecture. This will completely eliminate it."
Guo Song shook his head, "That's the next plan. My ban this time is to lure the snake out of its hole. I want to know how many people in Chang'an are delivering supplies to Zhu Si?"
"I humbly obey orders!"
........
There are more than two dozen small and medium-sized businesses on Xisan Road, Xi'anmenwai Street. These businesses do not have stores. They are a bit like trading companies in later generations. They specialize in purchasing various goods for the stores. They have information and connections, and can buy the best-selling goods.
, earn the difference.
In fact, the number of merchants in Chang'an has decreased a lot in the past two years. A dozen years ago, there were hundreds of merchants in Chang'an. In addition to normal trade, they also bought and sold various prohibited items, and each of them was divided into vassal towns.
The demand for them is huge, and these firms are making a lot of money.
In the past two years, with the annihilation of various feudal towns, the smuggling of contraband has become unpalatable, and the size of the trading firms has shrunk rapidly, from more than a hundred to more than 20. Most of these 20 or so are regular trading firms.
, such as Yulei Trading Company of the Zhang Lei family, Feihu Trading Company of the Dugu family, Dou Family Trading Company, Guo Family Trading Company, etc.
However, there are still seven or eight companies that are playing dirty tricks, such as illegally buying and selling jaggery and distiller's yeast cakes, illegally transporting supplies to Luoyang, etc.
However, there are two things that these trading houses dare not do. One is selling copper and iron products to Uighurs or Tibetans, and the other is selling illegal salt. Once found, they will be executed.
Selling illicit salt here means buying illicit salt directly from the beach and selling it, bypassing the Salt and Iron Department's monopoly. If caught smuggling this kind of salt, they will be executed on the spot.
The nature of what Guo Song said about transporting salt to Luoyang is completely different. Transporting salt refers to the official salt that merchants bought for 140 Wen, and then transported it to Luoyang to sell it at a high price. It used to be legal in Chang'an.
But for Luoyang, it was considered as illegal salt trafficking, because Zhu Si could not get the salt tax.
Now Guo Song strictly prohibits the transportation of grain and salt to Luoyang, so the internal guards must greet all merchants.
The imperial court has never allowed the delivery of weapons and pig iron to Zhu Si. Salt and grain were allowed before, but now salt and grain are also on the list of contraband.
However, since the second half of last year, fewer and fewer businessmen are willing to do business with Luoyang. The reason is very simple. They have made two or three times profit from selling goods, but what they have received is new money. These new money
The money can only be purchased in Luoyang and then shipped back. Otherwise, if it is exchanged for old money at ten times the price on the black market, it will make your parents not recognize each other.
But not every businessman can buy things in Luoyang. Now Zhu Si's territory only has Henan Prefecture, Luoyang and a dozen surrounding counties. The only valuable things are medicinal materials and lime.
But these two things were controlled by the Luoyang court and not everyone could buy them, so only a handful of businessmen were willing to do business with Luoyang.
Qiao Silang, the proprietor of Qiao's Trading Company, returned to his shop worriedly. Just now, the city department summoned all the shopkeepers and proprietors to announce the King of Jin's order, adding two more items to the contraband traded with Luoyang, grain and salt.
Qiao Silang was a native of Henan Province, and his true identity was an official merchant from Luoyang. He first transported lime from Songshan County to Chang'an for sale, and the profits he earned purchased grain and salt for the Zhu Si court.
The fine salt that appeared in the Luoyang market not long ago was his masterpiece. Now the Chang'an government is not allowed to transport grain and salt to Luoyang, which really makes him upset.