This situation progressed to the point where Liu Bei took control of Bingzhou and Youzhou. General Qian also followed the footsteps of the salt interest groups and entered Bingzhou and Youzhou, and then got involved in Jizhou.
Liangzhou fine salt is no longer a table salt produced locally in Liangzhou, but has become a production technology. Once you master this production technology, you can produce fine salt of the same quality as long as you have raw materials, and then the fine salt produced will be called What it is - Liangzhou fine salt.
In areas where salt production technology has made large-scale advances, local salt cannot compete with Liangzhou fine salt, and local salt households cannot compete with the salt interest groups backed by Liu Bei. With the victory of salt, local people increasingly need to use the original salt. Copper coins or other valuable items can be exchanged for general money.
Without the general's money, you can't buy the salt you need. If you don't eat salt, you will die.
From this, the general's money circulated quickly in the local area, and Liu Bei collected the various five-baht coins exchanged, recast them, and cast them into new generals' money, which continued to be put into circulation.
Therefore, in the area west of Luoyang, Bingzhou, and Youzhou, in the fourth year of Jian'an, general money had become the dominant currency in circulation, and the action of good money driving out bad money was successfully achieved.
Moreover, due to Liu Bei's absolute power, these areas essentially banned local government and private coinage. The coinage power was returned to Liu Bei, and all coinage tools and coinage talents were under Liu Bei's control.
Although the imperial court still did not have a clear decree stipulating that all coins should be returned to the central government, the established fact has been established. Except for the mints controlled by Liu Bei, no other place has the ability to mint general coins.
On this basis, it is just a matter of a decree to completely end the chaotic history of coinage rights in these areas in the future.
Three years before Jian'an, the only exception in the entire area west of Luoyang was Yizhou.
Because Yizhou itself is a major salt-producing state with huge transportation costs, and the raw materials required for salt production are basically controlled by powerful local families, Liu Bei has not allowed Liangzhou salt to enter the Yizhou market. General money was not allowed to enter Yizhou for circulation.
Dealing with the salt clan requires not only political means, but also military means. However, considering the complicated interests, Liu Bei did not rush to announce his attack on Yizhou Salt.
But it doesn't matter. After taking control of Yizhou at the political level, he has many methods, and overtaking in corners is also a good trick.
So Liu Bei began to take action on the Shu brocade industry.
In itself, the production of Shu brocade was under the control of the Luoyang court, and the Eastern Han government was still clear about this.
However, with some changes in the situation later, the production of Shu Brocade gradually became chaotic.
When Liang Hu became the governor of Yizhou, he was apparently a member of the eunuch group, but in fact, Liang Hu secretly defected to Liu Bei, and under Liu Bei's instructions, he continued to consolidate the authority of the Shu brocade industry.
When Xun You became the governor of Yizhou, the Shu brocade industry and production of Shu brocade in Yizhou were completely controlled by the government, directly benefiting from the management of the governor's office.
According to Liu Bei's instructions, Xun You expanded the Brocade Bureau originally set up by the Han government into the Shu Brocade Bureau, which comprehensively managed a series of processes from planting mulberry trees to selling finished products. The entire industry chain was under the control of the Shu Brocade Bureau, and private intervention was prohibited. .
The Yizhou governor's office thus controlled all aspects of Sichuan brocade production.
According to Liu Bei's request, Xun You introduced the management methods of Liangzhou factory in every aspect of Shu brocade production, integrating the Shu brocade industry in a short period of time.
Then, in the second half of the third year of Jian'an, Xun You, who took full control of Shu brocade production, announced that in the future, only generals' money could be used to purchase Shu brocade.
Except for general money, you cannot buy Shu brocade in any other way. If you don't have general money, you can go to the money exchange set up by the government to exchange general money, and then go to the Shu Brocade Bureau to buy Shu brocade.
Even gold and silver will not be used directly. They must be exchanged for general money at a money exchange. Otherwise, they will not be sold and it will be difficult for anyone to buy them.
What?
Do you have a background or connections?
Do you know who is behind me?
General Liu Xuande!
Compete with me backstage? !
Do you have an army of tens of thousands of people?
Compared with table salt, Shu brocade is indeed not a necessity, and you will not die without it.
However, Shu brocade is a facade, a symbol of status in the upper class, and a strong need for people to show off. It can also be used directly as money when trading large quantities of goods, and it is even related to things like sacrifices.
To put it simply, Sichuan brocade is worth more than money.
Shu brocade is a luxury product for ordinary people. If you don't have it, you don't have it. It doesn't matter.
However, Shu Brocade was not originally produced for ordinary people. Ordinary people have never been its target customer group. It does not care about the opinions of ordinary people at all.
It only targets and serves wealthy bureaucrats.
It is precisely because the long-term consumption consensus in the Han Empire has built up the "brand premium" of Shu brocade that Zhuge Liang stipulated that Shu brocade can only be purchased with Shu Han's big money, so that Shu Han's financial system can be built with Shu Han's big money, and the Shu Han's big money can be stabilized. currency value, thereby achieving the purpose of exporting inflation and cutting off Cao Wei and Sun Wu's leeks.
The knowledgeable people of Cao Wei and Sun Wu also knew that Zhuge Liang was using Shu brocade to cut everyone's leeks. After Cao Pi became emperor, he personally wrote an article asking everyone not to buy Shu brocade and not to make enemies. But is it useful?
No.
If you don't let us buy Shu brocade and use Shu brocade, it means you don't let us eat salt.
Cao Pi would never be able to prevent the country's upper class and ruling class from eating salt.
Therefore, it is logical that no matter what the wealthy people in Shu think, they have to accept the entry of the general's money, accept the various currencies and materials used to exchange money for the general's money, and then use the general's money to buy Shu brocade and use it back.
As the saying goes, after general money circulated in the upper class, and after officials and people from powerful families began to use it, it soon entered the grassroots circulation in Yizhou. Because of its strong currency value and exquisite production, it soon became popular Was welcomed.
I have to say that there are indeed many people who started collecting after getting the general's money and doing the same things as before.
However, the consumption power of the people at the bottom is inherently limited, so if they collect a little bit of general money, they will just keep it. To buy Sichuan brocade, you must use general money, or a large amount of general money, so basic maintenance of circulation can still be achieved.
Once in and out, the balance is maintained.
Even through the control of the money exchange and some detailed operations, the existence of the money exchange allowed Liu Bei to make a small profit and made some small contributions to his pocket.
After the two flagship products of Liangzhou Fine Salt and Shu Brocade were linked by Liu Bei and General Qian, it was basically a matter of time before General Qian was fully accepted by the upper class and ordinary people.
In Jizhou, because Hejian, Zhongshan and Changshan all consumed Liangzhou fine salt, general money was also used, and Liu Bei ordered the right to mint coins to be taken back.
Although the remaining local counties in Jizhou did not lose their minting rights and still maintained local minting and private minting, due to Liu Bei's political cooperation with the ancient literature school and the eunuch group, Liangzhou fine salt also fully entered the market in these areas.
Facing the mature Liangzhou fine salt interest group with rich fighting experience, as well as the cooperation of some local family forces, the local salt group in Jizhou was vulnerable. Soon, Liangzhou fine salt became the only table salt sold in Jizhou.
With the victory of Liangzhou fine salt, supplemented by the continuous victory of Shu brocade, general money also entered the circulation field of the entire Jizhou, and soon formed a comprehensive advantage over the local currency.
Based on this premise, although Liu Bei did not explicitly ban private coinage in Jizhou, the Jizhou area quickly formed rules for exchanging general money for other types of money. The rules for exchanging one general's money for several local coins soon became Then the other counties in Jizhou were established.
During this process, Liu Bei continued to collect local privately minted coins, melt them, turn them into brand-new general coins, and put them into the local market again.
Supplemented by more efficient and high-quality coinage technology, the commodity market in Jizhou quickly formed a situation in which good coins drove out bad coins. It has become the consensus throughout Jizhou that general money is the highest level of "first-class money", and people generally trust it more. , are more willing to use generals' money with a strong currency value to conduct trade.
(End of chapter)
