When it comes to war, economics matters. Ancient people were not stupid, but they were very good at playing.
War requires money, and ancient currencies were basically made of precious metals. Coins made of precious metals can also be counterfeited, or they may be short of a pound or two.
As long as there are people, there is economic activity. The poor exchange things for things; the nobles and merchants circulate a large amount of currency and use money for transactions.
Gold, silver, brass, and even iron can become currency.
The so-called golden age, silver age, brass age, and iron age are not just changes in currency.
However, it would be too stupid to use iron as currency, because iron production is high and it is easy to cast. It is easy for the private sector to carry out large-scale counterfeiting, and the currency market will be in chaos.
Brass is generally used as a low-grade currency and is widely circulated. Although it is not a precious metal, it is generally recognized as small money.
Finally, there is gold and silver, and that is the real big money.
What should a king do if he often has no money left, but wants to go to war and be extravagant? The first way is to borrow money from a big businessman or landowner.
In feudal society, retainers of nobles would only be loyal to the nobles and not to the king. The lord owned everything in the fief, so everything produced on the territory belonged to the lord and not to the king.
Some lords are lucky enough to open gold mines, and then there will be a phenomenon where the lord is richer than the king.
Some lords have fertile land and produce a variety of grains and livestock. As long as they manage their land, they can be richer than the king.
The king could only collect taxes from his own one-third of an acre. If they dared to reach out to the nobles, he would be in trouble.
If all the kings have no money, they can borrow money from rich lords. When paying back the money, interest will of course be added. What if the money cannot be paid back?
Then just go to war. The king will raise his arms and go to other countries to grab a sum of money and return it to the lord.
But if the king is a little bit thief, then he will do something with the currency. For example, if he has no money and borrows 1,000 gold coins, then he melts the gold coins and adds some other cheap metals, then he may get 1,200 gold coins.
Even 1500 gold.
This is the king making counterfeit coins, but this is drinking poison to quench his thirst.
After these low-quality currencies are put into the market, they will definitely arouse resistance from the people. They may not have any impact in a short period of time, but since the king has openly counterfeited the currency, many private forces will definitely follow suit.
When people use money, they must try their best to use the counterfeit coins that are short of a jin or a ounce first, and collect the gold coins that are substantial.
Over time, there will be more bad coins than good coins in the market, which is what is called bad coins driving out good coins.
More and more bad coins will lead to rising prices. Because everyone knows that a gold coin can only be used as two-thirds or half of a coin. Goods that used to cost 1 gold coin will soon be sold for 2 coins.
When prices rise, money becomes even less valuable, so we have to find ways to make more money.
If the king is more thief, he will have to manipulate the exchange rate. For example, today the currencies of neighboring countries are 1:1, and the king exchanges 1,000 domestic currencies for 1,000 foreign currencies.
The next day, the king began to devalue his domestic currency, changing the exchange rate to 2:1, and then exchanged the one thousand foreign gold coins exchanged yesterday for two thousand domestic gold coins.
In this way, the king has 1,000 more gold coins out of thin air, and can buy one thousand more gold coins of goods. However, this method cannot last long, because this extra thousand gold coins out of thin air is actually a disguised exploitation of the people of the country. And although the king has the power to do this
, but changing the exchange rate in this way will definitely affect international transactions. It is very unfriendly to foreign investors, because the money they make suddenly shrinks. Over time, everyone is unwilling to do business with foreign countries.
Of course, the third way is to abolish the old currency and issue new currency.
Aren't you out of money? Then abolish the private money and re-establish your own currency. In ancient times, because currencies were made of precious metals, they had value in themselves. The king issued new coins because he had no gold.
Currency, so the new currency will definitely not be precious metals, but usually iron money.
However, the disadvantages of iron money have been mentioned above. Although it can help the king solve the capital problem, the disadvantages of iron money are more terrible than bad currency, causing even more severe inflation.
In short, if the king has no money, he will find ways to solve the problem of no money. Whether it is borrowing money honestly or disrupting the currency market, there is always a way.
Generally, kings are more honest. If they don't have money, they can just borrow money and then go out to rob. This is because this method is the most effective. If bad money is used, it may cause greater riots.
The creditors also preferred the first method. Even because the king was going to war, they would rush into the battle and borrow more money to make risky investments in the king.
Anyway, as long as they complete the robbery, the money they invested will be recovered, and they can also make a lot of money.
The king and the big family are the real power. After completing the robbery, the money of the big family will be returned in full, and the profit from the robbery will be divided into 70% and 30%.
Only when the king's credit is completely bankrupt and he can't borrow money at all, will the king take risks and use bad currency. Of course, at this time, the king is usually already in debt, so he has to use the thieves' method.
Find money to spend.
However, because ancient money is different from modern paper money, precious metals themselves have value, so inflation in ancient times must be followed by deflation. Because the value of precious metals is still there, everyone will accumulate precious metals, just like food.
Just save it up just in case.
Without spending money, there will be less and less precious metals in circulation, which will naturally cause deflation. If 1,000 gold coins were originally in circulation, after deflation, only 200 gold coins would be in circulation, but there are still so many goods. If merchants want to take action, then
You can only sell goods worth 1,000 gold coins for 200 gold coins.
These 200 gold coins may not even be able to recover the cost, so the merchants can only fire their employees and close the business. With a large number of people and businesses, people are even more afraid to spend money, so all industries are depressed. In the end, the king has no money and can only go bankrupt, and the country is finished.
Already.
Inflation will make people miserable, and deflation will do the same.
The best way to solve economic troubles is actually to consume people.
Therefore, the kingdom and the empire fight every day, but both sides develop stably because they consume a certain amount of population and reduce expenditures. You must know that many city residents do not pay much tax, but they eat a lot every year, which is a waste of money.
There is a lot of public power, so after consuming the population, it is equivalent to reducing expenditure.
The Immortal King obviously doesn't understand the economy of another world, so he is thinking hard about making money. Dulan knows these economic activities very well, so he has arrived at the headquarters of a certain chamber of commerce. He has only one goal: to borrow money. Then
Hire a mercenary, take the lead in launching a war, and then let him complete the evil plan of the Immortal King.
He wants to start a war and then let the Saints end the war and become the savior.