Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

Silver monorail system!

Kidnap all countries and become the settlement currency of the world trading system!

Zhu Di and Xia Yuanji looked at each other in confusion as they had never heard of the concept before.

Zhu Di was stunned for a few seconds and then asked: "Xia Qing, what does the silver single-track system and settlement currency mean?"

Xia Yuanji replied: "Reporting to your Majesty, I don't know very well what the silver monorail system means. But I can get a rough idea from the name of settlement currency. It's not too complicated to say, so I can explain it to you. It is our Ming Dynasty that will go to the West to do business with neighboring countries in the future, right?"

Zhu Di nodded.

Xia Yuanji continued: "Settlement currency means that our Ming Dynasty uses Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes to buy things. People must not recognize it, right?"

"That's natural." Zhu Di smiled.

Xia Yuanji continued: "But if you exchange the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes for silver, people will definitely recognize it! After all, silver is still very valuable. And the currency used to pay and collect accounts in transactions here, as I expected, is the so-called Settlement Currency."

Zhu Di thought for a while and asked: "Then how can we make the banknotes printed by the Ming Dynasty become the 'settlement currency' of Western countries? It is probably impossible to rely on force."

"I don't know about this either." Xia Yuanji coughed awkwardly, "Perhaps the so-called 'silver single-track system' is its preparatory step. Although I don't understand the specific meaning, but looking at the literal meaning, the 'rail' here , it should be similar to the ‘rail’ in ‘cars on the same track, books on the same text’.”

Zhu Di nodded to express his understanding.

In his design, for the first time in the future, Ming Dynasty planned to sell silk, porcelain and other materials overseas. The prices of these goods should be sold uniformly after estimating local conditions. For example, silk worth thousands of dollars needs to be sold at least ten times or even dozens of times overseas, so that the Ming Dynasty's massive trip to the Western Seas can be justified.

But here, there is a hidden danger of an extreme lack of information.

The first question is: Will overseas countries buy it?

Secondly, who are the overseas countries now? The Kanyu maps and nautical maps inherited from the Yuan Dynasty and even the Song Dynasty may have become outdated after so many years.

Therefore, Zhu Di decided to make his first voyage to the West mainly to explore the way, and send his trusted aides to those distant places to see the specific situation, and then plan whether to focus on the ocean in the future, or within the scope of the traditional tribute system. Spin.

Not to mention the calculations between Zhu Di and Xia Yuanji in the secret room, inside the wall, Jiang Xinghuo also began to talk in depth about the construction of the 'Silver Treasure Banknote' system.

"...The core of the silver monorail system is to scrap gold and copper and keep silver. To put it bluntly, silver dominates!"

Li Jinglong looked at the wall and asked consciously.

"Jiang Lang, if silver is the core, then I know that gold and silver cannot coexist. But why can't they coexist with copper? Can't copper stay as a auxiliary currency?"

Jiang Xinghuo was not displeased at being interrupted, he explained very patiently.

"No. The reason is very simple. I will give you a more specific example and you will understand."

"Let's take the Yuan Dynasty as an example."

Well, it’s not that Jiang Xinghuo is so partial to the Yuan Dynasty, but that the Yuan Dynasty is indeed the dynasty with the most experience in currency reform and the most failure cases in ancient Chinese history.

"As mentioned before, you should know that the Yuan Dynasty experienced four banknote changes."

Li Jinglong's eyes flickered. He had 'personally experienced' the process of Zhongtong banknotes to Zhiyuan banknotes, Zhiyuan banknotes and then to Zhida banknotes.

As for the last Zhida banknote [change] to Zhizhengjiao banknote, although Li Jinglong did not experience it 'personally', according to the narration of his father, Li Wenzhong, the first generation Cao Guogong, when he was a child, he also knew what Zhizhengjiao banknote was. stuff.

As for orthogonal banknotes, in short, they are not as good as butt-wiping paper. They are too hard to use for wiping buttocks.

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "After the issuance of Zhengjiao banknotes, the currency credit of the Yuan Dynasty completely collapsed. The people who were deceived three times in a row in a hundred years completely lost trust in the currency issued by the Yuan Dynasty government, so the fourth banknote change was actually It didn’t work out.”

"The banknote change failed, and the Yuan Dynasty government had no choice but to issue copper coins as auxiliary coins. It seems normal, right? No one recognizes the banknotes, so it can only issue auxiliary coins."

Zhu Gaoxu nodded and said: "That's true, otherwise there would be no other way, I think."

Li Jinglong answered: "Yes, this seems quite reasonable. After all, the Yuan Dynasty government also needs something if it wants to stabilize people's hearts. Copper coins have been used for thousands of years, so they should be the most suitable choice."

"So what is the result of this seemingly reasonable decision?"

After hearing Jiang Xinghuo's words, Li Jinglong's face darkened.

Not long ago, he made a very 'reasonable' decision not to build the Yellow River based on his rational judgment.

The final result, ahem, I won’t talk about it.

"The consequence was that the paper money system that the Yuan Dynasty had worked so hard to build since the founding of the country collapsed directly, and copper coins once again became the dominant currency."

"Following this, people began to say, 'You will have a good harvest next year, but prices are very low, so it will be difficult to get money.' A wife's situation."

"A year later, the Red Turban Uprising broke out, and Emperor Taizu Gao emerged in troubled times."

After Jiang Xinghuo finished explaining the results, he asked, "You smart guys, please use your brains and think about it, why didn't the copper coins work?"

"Why is it that prices are so cheap during the harvest, but it's so hard to get paper money? Logically speaking, shouldn't paper money be everywhere, and shouldn't it be easy to get copper coins, which have become the new major currency?"

Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu were stunned by this question.

yes?

why?

Why have banknotes that were originally not trusted by the people become extremely rare, and copper coins are even less common?

"Perhaps because this was the fourth banknote change in the history of the Yuan Dynasty, not many banknotes were issued, and since the world was in chaos, transportation and order in various places were even more chaotic. The printed banknotes could not be transported out, so there were very few banknotes circulating in various places. few?"

Zhu Gaoxu next to him suddenly spoke and gave his answer.

"Even if this is the case, how come there are no copper coins?" Li Jinglong frowned and said: "Besides, this possibility is very low. Since the Yuan Dynasty was ready to change banknotes, it must have printed enough new banknotes in advance. This will never happen It was an accidental event, and there must have been some reason why there was a problem with the Yuan Dynasty banknotes and also with the copper coins."

Li Jinglong paused and said, "The weirdest thing is the question of 'where did the copper coins disappear?'"

"Xia Shangshu, where have all the copper coins from the late Yuan Dynasty gone?"

In the secret room, Zhu Di also asked the same question.

"I do know something about this matter." Xia Yuan Jiyan, who was sitting next to him, said, "As far as I know, in the past sixty years, copper coins have not disappeared and are still circulating across the country. . But for some unknown reason, a large part of it suddenly disappeared at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and then reappeared a few years later as the situation of separatism among the heroes at the end of the Yuan Dynasty took shape."

Xia Yuanji paused for a moment and continued: "Such a phenomenon caused a serious money shortage at that time. The number of copper coins in the Yuan Dynasty continued to decrease sharply, as if all the copper coins were inexplicably lost overnight."

"The specific reason is unknown, but the number of copper coins that disappeared at that time was huge, probably hundreds of millions."

"So many!" Zhu Di was shocked for a moment, and then showed a thoughtful expression.

Zhu Di was silent for a moment, then asked again: "So, these copper coins came back on their own within a few years?"

Xia Yuanji hesitated and said: "This...this sounds a bit unbelievable, but according to the records related to the late Yuan Dynasty, it is indeed the case."

"Did the nobles of the Yuan Dynasty or the powerful Han people hide? Or did the common people hide spontaneously?"

Xia Yuanji was slightly startled, then smiled bitterly and said: "Your Majesty, I am stupid. I am afraid that only Master Jiang next door can answer this question."

"Jiang Xinghuo." Zhu Di frowned and murmured, "Is this the so-called destiny that belongs to me? I want to be King Wen of Zhou? Then who will be my son King Wu of Zhou?"

Xia Yuanji couldn't help being stunned when he heard this, and asked curiously: "Why does the emperor think so?"

Zhu Di shook his head and said calmly: "I'm just talking casually, please continue to listen."

When it came to the matter of fighting for the heirloom, Xia Yuanji did not dare to say anything, and he and Zhu Di continued to listen patiently.

Under the old crooked neck tree.

Li Jinglong, the erudite paper warrior sage, rolled his eyes as if he remembered something again.

Li Jinglong twirled his delicately groomed beard and suggested another possibility.

"Since the Yuan Dynasty banned the possession of iron tools by the people and destroyed all the traditional famous cities in the north on a large scale in the war to destroy the gold, was it because Kublai Khan did the same thing as Qin Shihuang that led to the shortage of copper coins?"

Li Jinglong chanted in an ups and downs with his magnetic baritone.

"Famous for the city, kill the heroes, collect the soldiers of the world, gather in Xianyang, sell Feng Dy, and cast them into twelve golden figures to weaken the people of the world."

Zhu Gaoxu interrupted him impatiently: "Didn't I just want to say that the Mongols confiscated all the copper coins?"

"Ahem." Li Jinglong nodded in agreement.

"No." Jiang Xinghuo answered very simply.

"Instead of confiscating the copper coins of the Jin and Song dynasties, the Mongols allowed them to circulate. Although they did not recognize copper coins in name, in the nearly hundred years that the Mongols ruled China, copper coins had been de facto used for small-scale private transactions. The Mongols even exported a large amount of captured copper coins to Japan."

"What?"

Zhu Gaoxu was stunned. Is there such an operation? I really haven't seen it.

Aren’t the Mongolians and the Japanese completely out of their wits?

Perhaps seeing Zhu Gaoxu's doubts, Jiang Xinghuo added: "Don't be surprised, you can make money while standing, don't be rude."

"Then why?"

Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu were completely confused.

"This is actually a very classic concept of managing the country and benefiting the people - bad money drives out good money."

"This is also the main reason why the silver monorail system should be implemented."

“Bad money drives out good money?”

Zhu Di twisted the jade in his hand unconsciously.

"Xia Qing, Jiang Xinghuo said that this is a very classic concept of managing the country and benefiting the people. Do you understand what it means?"

Xia Yuanji's face turned green and red, as if he was performing a face change.

How to answer the emperor?

Could it be said that the Minister of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty had never heard of this so-called concept of "economicalizing the country and benefiting the people"? Will that make the emperor think I'm stupid?

But in Xia Yuanji's rapidly turning head, no matter how much he searched through his memories, he could not find what Jiang Xinghuo said was "bad money drives out good money".

"Reply to His Majesty."

Xia Yuanji took a deep breath and tried to calm his voice, but he could still feel the slight tremor in his tone, and he was obviously very panicked: "I am ignorant and have not heard such a statement."

Zhu Di nodded, seemingly not surprised by the answer.

"Xia Qing has never heard of this, so how should I judge whether what Jiang Xinghuo said is true?"

Xia Yuanji hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, although I have never heard of it, I have been running the country and benefiting the people for many years. As long as I can understand the principle, I can still judge whether it is true or not."

Zhu Di's smile remained the same: "Well, I naturally believe that Xia Qing has real knowledge. If Xia Qing thinks there is something wrong with what Jiang Xinghuo said, then Xia Qing should talk to me in time."

Xia Yuanji reluctantly nodded, but his heart became a little complicated.

This trip to prison to attend lectures completely shattered his view of financial cognition.

At first, he thought Jiang Xinghuo was just a daring maniac.

Later, he felt that what the other party said made sense.

Later, well, this person did have something, but not much.

Later, I was shocked! There is a new solution to this problem!

And later, what are you talking about? Why can’t I understand?

All in all, Xia Yuanji's initial contempt and ridicule slowly transformed into his current admiration and worship, and then he was filled with shock, and his whole heart became numb.

The only thing Xia Yuanji wants to do now is to leave the prison as soon as possible after listening to the class, and then write a 10,000-character essay about what he saw and heard today.

Otherwise, he is afraid of forgetting those things that he learned in lectures and combined with his experience in chairing the household department.

These things belong to a flash of inspiration and are not at all what the clerk recorded with pen and paper.

And these things will make him the most successful famous official in reforming the banknote method since the Southern Song Dynasty, leaving his name in the way of running the country and benefiting the people!

Thinking of this, Xia Yuanji's breathing became rapid and his heartbeat gradually accelerated.

"Xia Qing, what's wrong with you? What's wrong with you?"

Zhu Di's concerned eyes fell on his face.

Xia Yuanji shook his head, holding back the roar that was about to break through his throat, showing a gentle smile, and said in a deep and deep voice: "Your Majesty, Xia is fine."

"If I tell you directly, I guess you won't be able to understand."

Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said, "Okay, let's change the idea and talk about it in a way that you can definitely understand."

"Now that you have mentioned it, the Yuan Dynasty lost the support of the people because of several banknote changes, so it picked up copper coins again. Well, let me ask you, if the current emperor saw the depreciation of the Ming Dynasty's banknotes. Do you think he would Is it possible that we will be forced to cancel banknotes without any compensation, and then restore copper coins, which are currently running alongside banknotes, as the main currency?"

Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu shook their heads after hearing this.

This is obviously impossible. How could Emperor Yongle make such a low-level mistake?

If you directly cancel the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes without taking any measures, the people's hearts will be unstable.

Li Jinglong said: "Although I don't know why Jiang Lang proposed this hypothesis, it is impossible."

"I don't think it's possible, it's a bit ridiculous." Zhu Gaoxu also expressed denial, "Officials are not fools."

"Haha." Jiang Xinghuo smiled and said, "This is not speculation, just a hypothesis."

"So since Yuan Dynasty did this, suppose, suppose it is done now, what kind of change do you think will happen to the price of copper coins?"

"Of course it's more valuable." Li Jinglong said matter-of-factly.

Jiang Xinghuo said.

"What a coincidence, the majority of powerful Han people and scholar-bureaucrats in the late Yuan Dynasty also thought the same way!"

Li Jinglong was stunned.

"Then what will everyone do? Since the law stipulates the exchange of Zhizhong banknotes, then hide the copper coins that have become valuable and will continue to appreciate in the visible future, and only use Zhizhong banknotes for transactions, right? Is that reasonable?"

"This is how bad money drives out good money, do you understand?"

The two of them fell into silence together. This assumption itself was not reasonable, but if it was considered to be true, the deduced result seemed very reliable.

So, what is going on?

Zhu Gaoxu scratched his beard, he was already starting to feel dizzy.

After a while, Zhu Gaoxu couldn't help but ask Li Jinglong: "If you were a powerful Han in the Yuan Dynasty, would you do this?"

Li Jinglong smiled and said, "What do you think?"

After hearing their conversation, Jiang Xinghuo sighed: "If I were the one, I would do the same, because there is another logic here - that is, when everyone is doing it, it may not be profitable, but Anyone who doesn’t do this will definitely suffer.”

"Mr. Jiang, I'm still a little confused." Li Jinglong asked again: "Since everyone has hidden the copper coins and traded the Zhizhengjiao banknotes in their hands, the Zhizhengjiao banknotes themselves are worthless and no one believes it. Why did even the orthogonal banknotes become extremely scarce in the end?”

Zhu Gaoxu was stunned when he heard this. Yes, why didn't he think of this question?

My scalp is so itchy that my brain is growing.

In the secret room, Zhu Di looked at his minister of household affairs again.

Xia Yuanji's heart trembled. He didn't want the emperor to feel that he didn't know anything.

That makes him look too incompetent.

Xia Yuanji said quickly: "Your Majesty, I know what's going on with this problem."

"tell me the story."

"It's easy to say, there is one difference between banknotes and copper coins, gold and silver, that is, copper coins, gold and silver can be buried for later use, but banknotes are just a piece of waste paper if they are not circulated."

Xia Yuanji breathed a sigh of relief. He must have answered this question correctly.

Zhu Di wanted to continue asking, but Jiang Xinghuo, who was next door, had already given a more detailed explanation.

Jiang Xinghuo said: "Actually, we have discussed this issue before."

Talked about it?

Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu looked at each other, wondering why they had no impression at all.

"The reason is simple. Social order has collapsed and currency has lost its basis for exchange."

Jiang Xinghuo explained: "We have said before that general equivalents are based on the division of labor and exchange in society, and are produced to facilitate the exchange process. During the war in the late Yuan Dynasty, powerful Han people and private villages often built forts to defend themselves. , almost all the division of labor is completed within the Wubao internal cycle, how can there be any external exchange at all?"

Li Jinglong asked inexplicably: "Since there is no external exchange, Zhizhengjiao banknotes should have become worthless! Why are they scarce instead?"

"It's not finished yet."

Jiang Xinghuo continued.

"But the world is so big, there are always people who live in the cities ruled by the Yuan Dynasty or in the countryside without Wubao. When the division of labor in the entire society declines and the demand for exchange is drying up, Zhengjiao Chao will The circulation has also come to a standstill.”

"The result of currency stagnating in the circulation chain is that it remains in the hands of the last person and cannot be passed on to the next person, even if the next person is in the area ruled by the Yuan Dynasty and is in urgent need of selling grain. It’s time to hand over the money to pay taxes.”

Hearing this, not only Li Jinglong was a little enlightened, but Zhu Gaoxu also understood what was going on.

Jiang Xinghuo had already told them in detail the entire process of "bad money driving out good money" with extremely vivid examples.

"So." Li Jinglong replied quickly: "That's why when Zhizhengjiao banknotes are extremely worthless, there is a money shortage!"

Jiang Xinghuo nodded in affirmation.

"You are very smart and worthy of being my student."

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "The essence is that currency is used to exchange items of value. When there is no exchange and no items of value are produced, currency loses its due meaning."

"And this is also the reason for establishing a silver single-track system and abandoning gold and copper - that is, in the system, completely eliminating the possibility of bad money driving out good money."

At this point, the reasons and necessity of the silver monorail system have been completely explained.

Not only did Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu understand it, but Zhu Di and Xia Yuanji next door, and even the two clerks, also completely understood.

There was no way, Jiang Xinghuo had already broken up the knowledge about economics of the country and the people and fed it into their mouths.

If you still don't understand this, you will be worse than Zhu Gaoxu, a warrior who doesn't like to use his brain.

“So after establishing the silver monorail system, will the next step be to make ‘silver banknotes’ the sole settlement currency of the entire world trade system?”

Li Jinglong said with some enthusiasm, because he knew very well that Zhu Di next door should have pricked up his ears at this time, waiting for the answer to this question.

As Zhu Di's less spontaneous "mouth", Li Jinglong must ask as many topics as possible that he thinks Zhu Di will be interested in.

But under Li Jinglong's expectant gaze, Jiang Xinghuo shook his head.

"How can such a complex system as Silver Banknote directly achieve the ultimate goal?"

"There are three more things to do in the third step."

"First, restore part of the currency value of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes to a relatively acceptable level for currency exchange."

"Secondly, after the Ming Dynasty Baobao banknotes were converted into silver Baobao banknotes, strict currency controls were implemented, and physical silver was used as 'offshore silver banknotes'. Silver Baobao and 'offshore silver banknotes' did not interfere with each other and circulated in parallel. "

"Third, after Ming Dynasty controls the pricing power of physical silver and becomes the settlement currency of the international trade system, it will sign an agreement to officially replace the 'offshore silver banknote' of physical silver with silver banknotes, opening up the domestic and foreign currency systems. "

"In this way, as long as the Ming Dynasty's warships roam the world and their anchorages are all over the mountains and rivers, silver banknotes will become the real world currency."

"You must know that money conquers people's hearts far better than swords and guns."