My life skills in Daming Liver

Su Ze picked up the pen and began to write back to Fang Ruolan.

"At the beginning of this dynasty, the banknote law was adopted, and precious banknotes were used as currency, and copper coins were mostly banned. Later, the treasure banknotes collapsed, and the court had to use the money law as a last resort. However, the money law in many places has become unreasonable. For example, we in Fujian still use Song coins."

Su Ze also wrote: "Although the imperial court does not have a silver law, the Taicang warehouse has collected silver as a tribute, and merchants also use silver for settlement, so the current Ming Dynasty is a situation where money and money are parallel."

What Su Ze said in these two sentences is the current state of currency use in Fujian.

Ordinary people use copper coins for their daily expenses, and they are copper coins from the Song Dynasty.

Rich people and businessmen generally use silver, and tea tributes also use silver. Although the official does not recognize the status of silver as a currency, the folks and the government basically acquiesce in the status of silver as a currency.

As for gold, in Ming Dynasty, it was regarded as a luxury item, just like gems and jewelry, and it would not be regarded as currency at all in normal transactions.

As for the precious banknotes, a lot of them were distributed indiscriminately during the reign of Lord Hongwu, and they were used as military pay for military households and as salary for the court.

In the early Ming Dynasty, the world had just settled down, the population was still growing, and economic circulation was infrequent, so at least the slow depreciation of precious currency was maintained.

It's a pity that when Yongle Lord came, he had to build the Forbidden City in Beijing, edit the Yongle Grand Ceremony, and go to Nanyang to fight grasslands. Anyway, the imperial court has more places to spend money, and the financial magic of treasure notes is not easy to use.

From the Yongle Year onwards, the precious banknotes depreciated like waste paper. Although there were repeated changes later, even the imperial court no longer used them in the Jiajing Year.

In the financial statements submitted by the local governments, some of the previously handed-in treasure banknotes are also converted into money, that is, converted into copper coins and handed over.

Money and silver are in parallel, which means that the Ming Dynasty now has two currencies, copper coins and silver, which is the current currency structure of the Ming Dynasty.

Su Ze went on to write: "Private minting is common in various places. The imperial court mints good money, and the people collect the good money and mint bad coins. Every coin minting will lead to more bad coins on the market, and the price of money will drop sharply."

"Since ascending the throne today, the imperial court has minted money three times. After each coin minting, the price of money has dropped sharply. If the price of money falls, the tax money collected by the imperial court will be less. Therefore, starting from the 16th year of this dynasty, the reform Tribute stopped discounting money and began to discount silver."

"After the government made money, in order not to lose money because of the money, it began to make big money and exchange the big money for silver on the market. This led to more money but less silver, and the higher the price of silver, the lower the price of money."

Su Ze put down his pen. This was the main reason why the money laws were blocked during the Jiajing period.

In the parallel system of two currencies, maintaining a stable exchange rate is the biggest problem.

In order not to lose money, the government began to mint money with large denominations, and then used the money to forcibly exchange for silver on the market according to the official ratio.

Officials minted large amounts of money, and folks naturally began to mint large amounts of fake money. As a result, the copper content of copper coins became lower and lower.

Copper coins are depreciating more and more, and silver is more and more valuable.

The imperial court minted more copper coins, but the copper coins depreciated even more.

The common people are not fools either. Your copper coins depreciate year by year, and your silver appreciates year by year.

Then your government also asked us to use copper coins, but refused us to use silver, and you were collecting silver yourself.

As a result, fewer and fewer people are willing to trade with copper coins, and the money law is even more unreasonable.

There are many reasons for the money law problem in the Ming Dynasty. Private coining is naturally a problem. However, the imperial court did not crack down on private coining. wealth.

To put it bluntly, the original intention of dredging the money law is naturally good, and it is to solve the problem of insufficient currency in circulation.

This is a currency issue, but when the court was solving this problem, it only thought of making money from it, and this snowball could only get bigger and bigger.

In the hands of Chongzhen, all his blessings were enjoyed by his ancestors, and Qian Fa could only collapse completely.

The imperial court wanted to mint money in Fujian, and Su Ze began to think about whether he could get any benefits from this coin minting.

Private casting? Su Ze naturally disdains this kind of thing. A big devaluation plunders the wealth of ordinary people, and the real upper class will not suffer from the devaluation of copper coins, but will benefit from it.

For example, Fang's family heard the news early, and then exchanged copper coins for silver in advance. When the imperial court started to mint coins and the price of copper coins dropped, the silver in their hands became more valuable.

The same as the Fang family is considered good, and some big families will simply end up collecting good money with high copper content and recasting it into bad coins with low copper content, disrupting the order of the money market, and the Ming government is just about it. Open one eye and close one eye.

Su Ze couldn't help feeling that the moths of the Ming court really came out one after another.

Su Ze picked up the pen, and added a sentence to the letter to Lin Mojun, try to use up the copper coins in his hand and exchange them for silver.

Just as Su Ze finished writing his reply, Wang Daokun was also writing a letter to his friend Zhang Juzheng from the same department.

Zhang Juzheng was admitted as a Jinshi in the 26th year of Jiajing. He was 23 years old at the time, and he won the ninth place in the second class of the middle school.

Wang Daokun was also a Jinshi in the same year, and also entered the Imperial Academy. They were in the same hall as Kejia, which is a very close relationship.

Wang Daokun is a Jinshi at the age of 27, and both Zhang Juzheng and Zhang Juzheng are wunderkinds. They have a good relationship and often exchange letters.

Last year Zhang Juzheng left the capital due to illness and came to his hometown Jiangling, but he often wrote letters with his friends to discuss the situation in the court.

Wang Daokun bought another copy of "Guwen Guanzhi" and sent this book together with his private letter to Zhang Juzheng.

In the letters between Zhang Juzheng and Wang Daokun, Wang Anshi's reform was highly praised. Wang Daokun, like him, originally supported the imperial court's reform.

But after reading Su Ze's commentary, Wang Daokun had a different idea.

As long as the current situation in the court remains unchanged, even if the new law is implemented, it will only exploit the people even more.

Wang Daokun wrote in the letter: "If the new law is implemented, the administration of officials will be the first priority. If the administration of officials is not clear, and the people used have selfish intentions but no public intentions, the new law will benefit for a while and harm for a long time."

After closing the letter, Wang Daokun sighed again, it's easy to say, but it's too difficult to clear up.

Thinking of the situation in the capital, Wang Daokun was even more desperate for the future of the Ming Dynasty.

He looked at the letters on the table again. Since he became the school inspector in Fujian, these are letters of request.

Randomly opened a letter from Zhang Sijing, the official of the Yanping Mansion?

Wang Daokun did have some contacts with Zhang Sijing. I heard that he was expelled from the court because he persuaded the emperor to establish a crown prince to strengthen the country. Wang Daokun still has a good impression of him.

So he opened Zhang Sijing's letter and threw it on the table just after reading a few sentences.

Zhang Sijing is nothing but a clown, someone who sells his name and straightness!

In addition to recommending a Yanping Academy scholar named Huang Shixing, Zhang Sijing spent most of the letter attacking Su Ze and Fang Zhifu, saying that it was Fang Wanghai's relationship that made Su Ze win the trio.

But the whole letter was full of Zhang Sijing's conjectures and so-called rumors, without any evidence at all.

Wang Daokun had read Su Ze's exam papers for boys. The stereotyped essays in the three exams could be said to be very exciting, and the theory was even more outstanding.

Even if Fang Wanghai is in operation, how can Fujian Xuezheng also point to Su Ze's case?

Moreover, Fang Wanghai only got married to Su Ze after the boy's test, so that Fang Wanghai could disregard the reputation, Su Ze is indeed too talented!

Wang Daokun just lamented Fang Wanghai's good luck. With such a son-in-law, the future of the three generations of the Fang family will be safe.

Wang Daokun thought for a while, and then wrote the banknote customs method written by Su Ze in the boy's trial strategy theory, and wrote it in the letter to Zhang Juzheng. After sealing the envelope, he asked the book boy to send it to the express delivery shop and send it to Jiangling.

The fifth day of May, the Dragon Boat Festival.

Su Ze asked his classmates to climb Jiufeng Mountain outside the city together, only to see the entire Jiufeng Mountain surrounded by incense, and Su Ze was also taken aback by the prosperous incense.

Chen Chaoyuan also climbed up with his wife and children. He said to Su Ze: "There are many Buddhist temples on Jiufeng Mountain, and there are five Lanruo temples. They are all places where incense is flourishing. Among them, the one with the most incense is Leiguang Pavilion on the top of Jiufeng Mountain."

As long as it is a small-scale temple, it can be called Lanruo. In fact, Jiufeng Mountain is not high, so many temples are crowded.

"What is the origin of this Leiguang Pavilion?"

Chen Chaoyuan said: "This is a story from the Song Dynasty. It is said that a ray of lightning once struck a bamboo in the Leiguang Pavilion. The bamboo was split in half, but survived as two bamboos. At that time, people thought it was different, so they built the Leiguang Pavilion. Worship the god of thunder."

Su Ze also found it interesting, so he climbed to the summit with everyone.

Just seeing the two bamboos growing together in the Leiguang Pavilion, Su Ze pointed and said, "How can there be any reason why the bamboos in the Song Dynasty have survived and not withered? It seems that the legend of the Leiguang Pavilion is just a rumor."

"It's normal for this bamboo to have twin pedicles, as long as the bamboo shoots on the bamboo veins are moved together."

After Su Ze said this, the Taoist priests in the Leiguang Pavilion glared at them, but they didn't dare to offend Su Ze, a group of scholars, so they could only glare at them as they went down the mountain.

Su Ze had just returned to his residence when he met the eunuch Xiaoyou from the mine again.

"Little Eunuch You, what's the matter with the mine supervisor?"

Eunuch Hu and Eunuch Xiaoyou, the two house eunuchs, do not enter Nanping City on a daily basis.

Now their laboratory has been greatly supported by Su Ze. Su Ze hired a cook for them in Nanping City, and they only need to order for daily purchases, and they don't leave the door without leaving the door.

Little Eunuch You said in a dusty manner: "Godfather asked me to invite Mr. Su over. There are people from the palace, and there are important matters to discuss."

Someone from the palace?

"But it's about the mine?"

Su Ze's first thought was that the emperor was going to abolish the mines?

The silver mine in Nanping has been producing underground, and the investment can barely maintain the output, and the officials of the court will take out Eunuch Hu to flog the corpse every now and then.

Su Ze was naturally worried that if the court withdrew the mine supervisor, Eunuch Hu would return to the palace.

Little Eunuch You shook his head and said, "It's not about the mine, Mr. Su, let's leave first."

Su Ze asked Hai Rui for leave and followed Eunuch You out of the city, only then did he know what was going on.

It turned out to be a matter of minting coins.

Su Ze never expected that the imperial court's minting of coins would also be related to him.

Little Eunuch You said: "This time, Tao Dadang, who was sent by the imperial court to mint coins in Fujian, is an old friend of Godfather in the palace. He came to visit Godfather in the mine and talked about the difficulty of minting coins. Godfather mentioned that Mr. Su always has a way. Pang just wants to see Mr. Su."

It turned out to be such a thing.

The emperor naturally did not trust officials in matters such as minting coins, so he sent eunuchs from the palace to handle them.

And this eunuch Tao was sent by the palace to preside over the minting of coins, and anyone who could take on this job was naturally a powerful eunuch in the palace.

Da Dang is the name for a powerful eunuch.

"What kind of person is this Tao Dang?" Su Ze asked while riding a horse.

"I once heard from my godfather that Tao Dadang is experienced in doing things. It's a pity that he didn't study. He joined Li Gonggong's command a few years ago, so he made a great success."

"Eunuch Li? Is it Li Fang?"

Eunuch Xiaoyou looked at Su Ze suspiciously. He, a scholar who had never been to the capital, knew so much about Da Dang in the palace?

No wonder godfather said that Su Ze is a great scholar.

"It's Mrs. Li Fang."

Li Fang's reputation among eunuchs is still good, and he is also a figure in the biographies of Ming History.

But now the most powerful eunuch in the palace is Huang Jin, and Li Fang is the chief eunuch who succeeded the chief eunuch after Huang Jin retired.

Although Li Fang was an eunuch, he also impeached many corrupt officials and treacherous ministers, and advised Emperor Longqing to be frugal and healthy, so he offended the emperor and was demoted, and was finally sent to Nanjing to serve as the Jingjun (eunuch guarding the mausoleum).

Although Li Fang hadn't gained power yet, he was still a famous eunuch in the palace, and soon Young Eunuch You didn't find it strange.

He continued: "Tao Dadang came to mint coins this time, but searched the copper mountains in Fujian, and there was not enough copper in the warehouse, so he couldn't complete the coins according to the requirements of the palace. I am afraid that he will offend His Majesty."

Su Ze understood now that Tao Dang was probably cheated by the palace just like Eunuch Hu.

I thought it would be a good job to come to Fujian to mint coins, but I didn't expect that Fujian's copper mine reserves were not enough for minting coins.

"If that's the case, why don't you give the palace an inscription? The father-in-law who goes out of Beijing to do business is qualified to submit a secret report, right?"

Little Eunuch You said bitterly: "Tao Dang asked for this errand with great difficulty, and His Majesty is the most holy and wise, how could he pay attention to such trivial matters? It’s unfavorable, it’s just a reprimand.”

Su Ze immediately understood that this was Emperor Jiajing's "manipulation of subordinates". The emperor proposed a goal, and he left it to the subordinates to do it anyway.

As for whether this goal can be achieved, Emperor Jiajing naturally would not "worry" about these details.

If it is done well, it is natural that Emperor Jiajing has made meritorious leadership.

If it is not done well, it means that the people below are not doing well.

If it arouses public anger, then kill the people who work below.

Emperor Jiajing was the shopkeeper, and he would not help his subordinates solve any problems.

As long as you don't participate in specific things, you will always be the most holy and bright, and you will never make mistakes.

It's no wonder that Tao Dadang begged Hu Gonggong's door, this clever woman can't cook without rice!

ps1: Regarding the evaluation of Zhuge Liang and Wang Anshi in Chapter 186, it comes from "Du Tong Jian Lun" written by Wang Fuzhi in the late Ming Dynasty. Wang Fuzhi also sharply commented on another political reformer, so I will post it.

"Du Tong Jian Lun": "Shen and merchants are the art of long-term work, and those who use the art without any intention are Kong Ming; those who use the truth but hide their names are Jiefu (Wang Anshi); Zhang Ju The upright ones who hold power!"

Mr. Zhang's reputation was notorious in the late Ming Dynasty. Naturally, there were some personal attacks from Wang Fuzhi, and his words could not be fully accepted.

This one has two stories.

First, this question is the last imperial examination question in the late Qing Dynasty. Let's see how many points we can get.

Second, Liu Heping, the author of Daming Dynasty 1566, originally created the Ming Dynasty to prepare for a sequel, and the sequel had Zhang Juzheng as the main character, so Zhang Juzheng played a lot of roles in the Ming Dynasty.

However, during the creation process, Liu Heping read this paragraph, combined with other historical materials, changed his views on Zhang Juzheng's reform, and decided not to write a sequel to the Ming Dynasty.

There is a video interview, everyone who is interested can watch it.

Zhang Juzheng's reform, this is also a forbidden area that Internet articles cannot touch, let's analyze it for ourselves.

PS2:

The most powerful eunuch in the Jiajing Dynasty was Huang Jin, and Lu Fang in the TV series of the Ming Dynasty was edited by Liu Heping. The original shape should be this Li Fang. However, Li Fang gained power in the Longqing Dynasty.

ps3: I apologize to a reader, Guangxi wolf soldiers have sacrificed a lot in modern struggles, which is recorded in Ming history, and Fat Bird is definitely not a narrow nationalist.