After all, Yan Zhenqing was old and had traveled all the way. He was obviously a little tired. Guo Song asked Du Siye to send him to have a good rest. Guo Song changed into casual clothes and went to the market with two followers to inspect.
Guo Song was very grateful to Yan Zhenqing for reminding him that they had indeed neglected the issue of the influx of large amounts of low-quality money. The fundamental solution was to mint money themselves and isolate these low-quality money from the outside so that they could not plunder the physical goods in Hexi.
The idea is already very clear. The key is to understand the situation in the market. How much is this low-quality money?
At this time, Guo Song saw a cabinet shop, Lei's Cabinet Shop, which was opened by Zhang Lei in Hexi, filling the gap among Han people's cabinet shops in Hexi.
There are many Sogdian restaurants in Hexi, which are also shops for exchanging and depositing money, but there are no money shops opened by Han people. Zhang Lei discovered the business opportunity and opened the first one last year. Now almost every county in Hexi
There are all of them, and there are as many as three in Zhangye.
Guo Song walked into the cabinet shop. The shopkeeper was just hired from Zhongyuan this year and didn't know Guo Song yet. The shopkeeper was very polite, stood up and bowed and said, "What do you want us to do, sir?"
"I want to exchange five dollars!"
Guo Song put the five taels of silver on the counter. The shopkeeper hesitated and said: "If the five taels of silver are exchanged for money, then it can be exchanged for six guan. The price at the store's cash register is 1,200 taels of silver for one tael of silver."
, this is the market price, and it is the same price throughout Hexi. The black market price is a little more expensive, but it is not safe."
"Then what if you exchange silver externally? What is the price?"
"This... this small shop only accepts but does not redeem it." The shopkeeper smiled sheepishly.
Guo Song secretly cursed Zhang Lei and said: "Then let's do six passes!"
"Please wait a moment, sir, let's appraise the silver."
The shopkeeper did a little appraisal and found that the silver was genuine and of good quality. He accepted it with a note, took out six copper coins, put them in a basket and handed them out, "This is six coins. Please take a look at it."
Guo Song picked up six strings of money and took a closer look. The money was not bad. They were Huang Chengcheng's old money. At this time, the soldier picked up a string of money and said, "Please take a look at this string!"
The color of this coin is a bit mottled, some are yellow, some are black, about three to four hundred coins are black, which is a sign of insufficient copper content, although the appearance is exactly the same as copper coins.
Guo Song immediately realized that this was the new money Yan Zhenqing was talking about, the money minted by Zhu Si.
"Shopkeeper, there is something wrong with this money. The quality of the money inside is different."
The shopkeeper nodded, "The three hundred coins here are new money and were minted by the imperial court. They are not small coins. Please feel free to use them."
"The quality of this kind of money is questionable. Can it be used for every penny?"
"The guest officer doesn't know. Now the Zhangye market only doesn't recognize small money and no one accepts it. But after all, this kind of new money was minted by the imperial court, so it is basically still recognized."
"You said that small money is not recognized, but there is a lot of small money in the market?"
"There was a time when many people suffered heavy losses. The main reason was that the Sogdians did not recognize small money and said it was bad money. No one would accept it."
Guo Song nodded, "Okay then! I'll give it a try."
Guo Song walked out of the closet, took down the three hundred coins and handed them to two guards, "Go and spend it, eat, buy things, and see how everyone accepts it."
"Then where are you going?"
"I'm back home. After using up the money, come back and report to me."
"Follow the order!" the two soldiers hurried away.
Guo Song got on his horse, turned the horse's head, and ran towards his mansion.
........
After returning to the mansion, Guo Song sat down in the lobby and asked the maid to invite his wife.
Not long after, Xue Tao came over in a hurry, "Husband, I have something urgent to do?"
Guo Song took out a small coin and handed it to her, "Do we have this kind of money in our house?"
"How come there isn't?"
Xue Tao said angrily: "There are more than thirty pieces of this kind of money! If you don't use it, you just throw it in the warehouse."
"How come we have so little money?"
"It's a long story. This kind of small money appeared in February this year. Not long after you left for the war, someone exchanged this money for silver. One tael of silver was exchanged for one thousand five hundred wen. The general market price was one tael of silver for one thousand two hundred.
Wen, there are some stupid girls in our house who happily ran to get silver to exchange for money. Soon the shops stopped accepting such small money. They were all dumbfounded and came to me crying. I saw that they were pitiful, so I used it well.
I exchanged their small coins for the copper coins. A total of thirty-three small coins were thrown into the warehouse, which was considered my loss."
"What about this new money?" Guo Song took out another new coin and showed it to his wife.
"There is also this kind of new money, but it's not much. It's scattered here and there. It adds up to about a dozen dollars."
Xue Tao asked in confusion: "Is there any problem with this new money?"
Guo Song nodded, "The government is going to issue an order that this new money is no longer allowed to circulate. The government will take back the new money in the hands of the people."
"Then our government has to mint its own coins, otherwise there won't be enough copper coins."
Guo Song nodded, "We are ready to start casting, and we are going to make some silver beans to replenish the copper coins."
Xue Tao smiled and said: "Actually, I'm not interested in this. If my husband has nothing else to do, I will go back to take care of the children."
Guo Song hesitated and said, "Yan Xiangguo is here."
Xue Tao was startled, but immediately realized, "Is he here to be a matchmaker?"
Guo Song nodded, "He came here at the request of the Dugu family and asked for my opinion, and I agreed."
"The Dugu family is actually looking for a matchmaker?"
Xue Tao's tone was a little jealous, "Do they still want to reveal that the matchmaker is marrying him?"
Guo Song quickly shook his head and said: "There may be a matchmaker, but it is impossible to get married. I think Yan Zhenqing came here more to ask for my opinion. If it is a matchmaker, there should be a marriage certificate, but there is no one. Furthermore, the Dugu family
People cannot come to Hexi, and all kinds of rituals are meaningless."
Xue Tao felt a little more comfortable. Although she agreed to the Dugu family's marriage request out of consideration for her husband's career, it did not mean that she had no dignity. On the contrary, she valued emotional single-mindedness more than ordinary women in the Tang Dynasty. Although her husband was in a high position and powerful,
But she never messes around outside, which she likes very much, so she can generously agree to marry into the Dugu family. She believes that her husband is not a person who likes the new and hates the old.
"I hope the Dugu family will come soon! Don't delay it any longer." Xue Tao also made his position clear.
At this time, the two soldiers came back, and Xue Tao returned to the inner house.
Guo Song asked: "Used it so quickly?"
The two soldiers nodded, "Basically, they all accept it and are not against new money. Only three stores offered to let us exchange it for old money."
Guo Song understood that this was mainly because there were not enough copper coins in the market, so he reluctantly accepted the new coins. It seemed that the introduction of Hexi coins was imminent.
........
Early the next morning, Guo Song summoned Zhang Xu, a member of the Cangcao army, and Li Yangui, a member of the Hucao army. Not long after, Pan Liao also came in a hurry.
"What do you know about the copper coins on the market?"
Pan Liaodao: "We understand the situation is roughly the same. Small money only appeared for a month, and then stopped circulating. All merchants did not accept small money, but the losses were still considerable. Now new money is still circulating, but the amount is not as widespread as small money.
After all, casting only started last year, so the quantity itself is not large."
"Has the matter about the horse-buying merchant that Yan Xiangguo mentioned been investigated?"
"It has been investigated. They are indeed businessmen from Weizhou, Hebei Province. They bought a total of 350 horses with silver and paid 3,500 taels of silver to the liquidation office. They did not pay taxes in Zhangye.
Instead, they went to the Xiedan tax card to pay taxes. They probably thought that it was a remote place and they didn’t understand the market. They could pay taxes with a small amount of money, but they were refused by the tax collector. The humble official had ordered to commend this tax collector.”
The Pingcang Department is a government trading agency, under the jurisdiction of the Cangcao Division. Some important strategic materials are sold by the Pingcang Department, such as horses, sheepskins, pig iron, wine, grain, salt tea, etc.
The Hexi Corridor is rich in horses, sheepskins, and wine. In principle, external sales are allowed. However, pig iron is strictly controlled and is not sold to the outside world. It is only sold to designated blacksmith shops. They make farm tools and sell them to farmers. Grain and salt tea are also set by the government.
It is sold exclusively and is not allowed to be exported, so that the price can be stabilized.
Guo Song nodded and said: "Today we are mainly discussing with you the issue of casting Hexi coins. There are too few copper coins in the market now, which leads to the loophole of small coins and new coins. We must plug this loophole. Li joined the army and cast coins.