"Come here, come here!!!" Lao Zhu suddenly stopped and shouted loudly towards the door of the palace.
With a creak, the old eunuch hurried in with small steps. "What are your orders, Your Majesty?"
"Go, summon Han Du into the palace urgently." Lao Zhu waved his hand, his brows furrowed tightly, as if there was some major and difficult problem troubling him.
"Now?" The old eunuch was shocked when he heard this. It was midnight now, let alone whether it was appropriate to summon Han Du into the harem now. Even if you want Han Du to enter the palace, it is not easy because the palace doors are closed.
Lao Zhu obviously knew what the old eunuch was surprised about, so he waved his hand and said, "I'm telling you to open the city gate and go quickly."
"yes."
When Han Du was pulled up from the bed, his mentality exploded. If he hadn't seen the old eunuch at first sight, Han Du would have cursed him loudly. When are you still not letting people sleep?
"Father-in-law, what is this?"
"Hurry up, the emperor has urgently summoned you to the palace to see you."
When he heard that it was Lao Zhu who had summoned him, Han Du immediately lost his temper and stood up to find some clothes to wear, "Father-in-law, wait a moment, I will put on my clothes."
The old eunuch turned his face and motioned for the people behind him to come forward and help.
Han Du dressed neatly and followed the old eunuch into the palace without any delay. It's just that along the way, Han Du was thinking about why Lao Zhu summoned him so anxiously. Isn't there something that can't be discussed tomorrow?
Fortunately, Han Du was not far from the palace, so Lao Zhu didn't have to wait long to wait for Han Du.
Seeing that Han Du was about to salute, Lao Zhu waved his hand to stop it and asked quickly: "Han Du, let me ask you. If the world is in war for many years, will there be a decrease in food, cloth and other things?"
"Back to the emperor, if the world is in turmoil and the people cannot live and work in peace and contentment, then the supply of food and cloth will naturally decrease." Han Du didn't know why Lao Zhu suddenly asked such a simple question, but he still replied truthfully.
If people cannot live in peace, naturally there will be no way to produce, so the reduction of supplies is inevitable.
After hearing this, Lao Zhu said nothing and continued to ask: "What happens after the world is settled?"
"After the world is stable and the people can live and work in peace and contentment, the more people engaged in production, the more food and cloth will naturally increase."
Lao Zhu took a sip of the floating water vapor from the tea cup but did not drink it. Continued to ask: "What about the price?"
"Back to the emperor, there is a lot of money among the people. If there is less food and cloth, then the price will naturally be high. If there is more food and cloth, then the price will naturally come down."
After listening for a while, Lao Zhu immediately put down the tea cup and asked eagerly: "What if the price before and now has no change?"
no change? How can this be. Things are more valuable when they are scarce. When food is scarce, food will naturally become more valuable. How come there is no change from beginning to end?
Han Du lowered his head to think, then raised his head after a moment and said, "That is unless the imperial court comes forward to control the price. This is why I previously suggested that the emperor set a price for grain."
Hearing this, Lao Zhu shook his head, waved his hand, and said: "That's not it. I want to ask you, besides this, is there any other person who can do it?"
"Yes!" Han Du immediately replied, "The price of goods is actually closely related to the world's money. Although the world's money will change, it can be regarded as a fixed number in a short period of time. The money is fixed, if the goods If there are fewer goods, then the price will naturally rise. If there are more goods, then the price will naturally fall. This is like the world's money being equally distributed among the world's goods."
Lao Zhu has also read The Wealth of Nations, and he can understand what Han Du said.
"If you want to reduce the number of goods and keep the price the same, it's actually very simple." Han Du smiled slightly at Lao Zhu and said, "Just take away the extra money."
There is actually a balanced relationship between money and goods. If you want the price to remain unchanged, just take away the extra money. A certain amount of goods corresponds to a certain amount of money, so the price will naturally not change.
Take away the money?
After hearing these words, the clouds and fog in Lao Zhu's mind suddenly disappeared, as if the clouds had been lifted to reveal the sun. Just now, when Lao Zhu recalled the late Yuan Dynasty, he felt strange, why were the people living in such precarious conditions when there was no chaos in the world? Why did every city, regardless of size, have a lot of material reserves after the rebel uprising? Why is it that after the world became stable, we became poorer year by year, and Ming Dynasty began to live in poverty?
Lao Zhu couldn't figure out why after thinking about it just now, but Han Du reminded him with one sentence.
This is someone taking away the money.
This is like a tightening of money, causing prices to continue to fall. Although on the surface it seems that lowering prices is good for the people, in fact it is damaging the foundation of the entire Ming Dynasty's economy. As prices continue to fall, economic activity will become less and less dynamic. Businessmen cannot make money or even lose money, so naturally there will be fewer and fewer people engaged in business. The fewer merchants and lack of circulation of goods will in turn further accelerate the decline in prices. In this way, a vicious circle is formed.
What's even more serious is when people find that the little money they have is becoming more and more valuable. Then everyone will save money and further reduce consumer spending.
The entire social and economic activities began to slump, and the impact on the people was not very great. After all, without money, people could still trade through barter. But for the imperial court, it would be a waste of money.
It’s no wonder that the rich harvests he made during the Northern and Southern War only lasted for eight years, so he had to issue treasure notes and use paper in exchange for people’s wealth, otherwise he would have to pawn the palace.
A cold look appeared on Lao Zhu's face, and he waved his hand to ask Han Du to step back.
Han Du glanced at Lao Zhu and wondered what he was doing. He hurriedly pulled himself up from the bed, and now he just asked these few words and let himself go back? Isn't this just entertaining yourself?
But there is no way, who let Lao Zhu amuse himself? Not only was Han Du not angry, but he smiled and left, "If your Majesty has nothing else to ask, then I will leave..."
After Han Du retreated, Lao Zhu's face became even more ugly. Turning his head, facing Empress Ma, he said bitterly: "Liu Ji, Liu Ji. I didn't expect that you would lie to me all your life..."
Lao Zhu held back what he said and didn't say it out loud, but with his appearance, everyone knew that he was furious and thinking about how to get back.
