"Hello, generals. My name is Li Xin. Actually, I think we can afford it, because what His Highness just said has already pointed out why we can afford it, because this food stamp is circulated within us."
"For example, if a herdsman works for a month, I will give him food stamps for 100 kilograms of grain. But we not only provide food, but His Highness is also prepared to provide them with linen clothes, salt, ironware and other materials, and these materials only need Setting a reasonable price means that the food stamps in their hands will eventually return to our hands."
"Although it seems that we have paid for various materials, these people have been working during the process. For example, this person worked for a month and received 100 kilograms of food stamps, but he was in the blacksmith shop Or the product produced by the place where cement is made is worth 200 kilograms of grain."
"And this extra part is our profit, and with this part of the profit, we can hire more people to expand production and obtain more iron, cement, salt and other materials. In this process, although we need to obtain food from It is transported from outside, but the value of the goods we produce is enough to buy the food we transport, which is more than enough."
"Did we spend money after the whole process? No! Because the money given to these herdsmen is what they bought, and now these things can be exchanged directly from us, so of course they don't need money."
"But as time goes by, we will produce more and more steel, salt, and cement. We can even hire these herdsmen to transport them to the places where the generals are stationed, and to the Yellow River dock in Longyangxia, and even through commercial The team transported it to Longyou Road and other Datang areas. The funds in our hands are constantly increasing, but we have not spent any money." Li Xin said seriously.
What Li Xin said was very straightforward, and everyone naturally understood it.
But it was precisely because they understood it that they were even more confused and shocked. In fact, they cannot be blamed for this, but before their horizons were opened, all this was really magical.
In the eyes of Li Daozong and others, His Highness is like this, like this, and like this again, and then the entire Xizhou will become rich and powerful. It is so amazing.
Li Ke was a little surprised. To be honest, he didn't expect Li Xin to really figure this out. Although she was only thinking about very superficial things, she actually revealed the essence of currency circulation.
Regulation by the Department of National Resources is actually a very difficult matter. In this era, it cannot be said that there is no such regulation, it can only be said that it is almost non-existent.
Just like when various dynasties and generations want to build large-scale national projects, their first reaction is to play corvee, because in their view, the court has no money, so corvee does not need money. Isn't this perfect?
But in fact, it doesn't matter if the court has no money. You can create money out of thin air, change money, and owe debts.
Why did later generations issue national bonds? In fact, this is the truth!
When Yang Guang was playing with the Grand Canal, if he had the idea of Li Ke, oh no, or if Li Ke time traveled to Yang Guang, that would be the Great Sui Dynasty: cross Yang Guang, dig the Grand Canal and destroy the Tang Dynasty.
In fact, if Yang Guang's project had adopted a similar plan instead of doing corvee work, he could have revitalized the entire Sui Dynasty.
"Although what Li Xin said makes sense...but is this really feasible?" Li Daozong still felt a little unbelievable.
Li Ke smiled, patted Li Xin's head and said, "That's right. You go back first."
"Yes." Li Xin smiled, and then jumped back to his seat. Li Ke was a little funny, after all, she was still a girl of twelve or thirteen years old.
He sat down on his seat and said with a smile, "Isn't it amazing?"
"It is true that His Highness's methods are all-powerful. We still don't understand the reasoning behind this, but according to what Mrs. Li Xin said, it seems that it can be implemented." Xue Wanche nodded.
"I'll be more straightforward with you today." Li Ke said with a smile, "First of all, this food stamp looks like a food stamp, but if you replace it with something else and think about its function carefully, you Do you think it is similar to something else?"
Li Ke asked the question, and everyone frowned, and then started thinking. The people sitting in the main seat were thinking hard, and for a while they couldn't think of anything that looked like it.
To be honest, looking at their appearance, Li Ke could actually understand them. It seemed like they were stupid and couldn't think of any problems that would be thought of by future generations.
But this thing is also easy to understand. The times have limited their vision, because later generations are accustomed to paper money and take it for granted. But in fact, the ancients have never seen paper money. In their minds, money and this piece of paper have nothing to do with each other. equal sign.
Just like when television first appeared in later generations, the old people who saw the TV thought they were people locked in a box. They never imagined that these people were acting in another place and then sent through signals invisible to the naked eye. Came here.
"Money?" Pei Xingjian's eyes suddenly lit up and a word came out.
Li Ke glanced at him. He was indeed a famous person in history. In addition, Pei Xingjian was still young and had been with Li Ke for a while, so his mind was more flexible.
Pei Xingjian's words suddenly awakened everyone, yes, isn't this money? They had just entered a dead end, always thinking that this thing was similar to something, but they didn't think about the money, or they thought about it, but subconsciously ruled it out.
"Yes, it's money!" Li Ke nodded, "To a certain extent, I use this thing as money."
"Now think about it, if I have enough copper coins, then I will directly give them copper coins and let them buy food at the place where we sell food. Is this the case? But do I have money? I don't have that. There are so many copper coins, so I came up with the concept of food stamps." Li Ke said with a smile.
"But..." Li Daozong frowned.
"General Li, please speak." Li Ke said with a smile.
"It's like this. We all understand what His Highness said. We also understand what Li Xin just said. There is one thing I still don't understand, which is why this food stamp can be turned into money? Well, it's not valuable. Ah! It's just..." Li Daozong couldn't express what he meant, mainly because he couldn't find the right words.
"I understand what you mean." Li Ke said with a smile, because in ancient times, copper itself was valuable, and copper coins became currency because of the value of copper. Although paper is also valuable when made, the paper itself is easy to rot. It has no value in the eyes of many people.
It is difficult for them to understand why things without value can be turned into money. This is what Li Daozong is struggling with.
"What you want to know is why this piece of paper itself has no value, but it can buy things? Right?" Li Ke said with a smile.
"Yes." Li Daozong nodded.
"This is because in this process, there is one most important thing that you have ignored." Li Ke said with a smile, and when they all looked over, Li Ke continued: "This thing is, His Highness's credit! "
"In short, it is not this piece of paper that serves as currency, but my Highness's credit. This piece of paper is just the carrier of His Highness's credit." He pointed to the food stamps in their hands.
Li Daozong and the others suddenly realized in an instant. In fact, if they were given time, they could all figure it out, but it took time to change their minds. After Li Ke gave them some clues, they understood that if His Highness did not recognize this piece of paper, then it would really be wrong. of nothing.
"So the plan I told you before can actually be realized through this piece of paper. For example, we can purchase some of their specialties from Tibet, such as cattle and sheep fur, and then, taking this opportunity, we can sell our products. Some ironware, salt and other important supplies.”
"After the two parties have established initial trust, for example, my caravan will sell some unique products locally, but they are very useful to them, such as latte. However, my caravan can only exchange them with food stamps. What will happen when you come down?" Li Ke said with a smile.
"Some people who need iron will find ways to get food stamps and then buy iron tools." After Xue Wanche and others reacted, their minds opened up.
"Yes, when the scale of this currency becomes larger and larger, these currencies will be considered as money in the hearts of local ordinary people. Because some people are willing to recognize it, many local ordinary people will start to use it to buy things. Deal. And one day if Tubo goes to war with us, I suddenly don’t recognize this thing." Li Ke said holding a piece of paper in his hand.
Having said this, Li Daozong and the others immediately thought of countless bad consequences.
