Transport the copper coins to Japan! ?
Our Song Dynasty was suffering from a money shortage. We issued repeated orders to strictly prohibit the outflow of copper coins. King Yan actually wanted to take the initiative to send them out?
After crossing south, the money the imperial court could mint each year was even less than one-twentieth of what it was before, usually ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.
One million guans may not be made even in ten years, so giving it away just once is a complete waste!
As the Crown Prince of the Song Dynasty, how could His Highness do such things that harm the interests of our dynasty?
But His Highness has so much faith in me, it seems that I shouldn’t question him.
Zhao Heyun hesitated to speak, looking like he was constipated.
Zhao Mengqi glanced at him and couldn't help but laugh, "Do you think you shouldn't give copper coins to foreign countries?"
Zhao Heyun saw that King Yan had already exposed it, so he no longer hid it, "This is indeed what my subordinates think. Your Highness should also know that I am in dire straits of money. Why do I still do this?"
"Haha, it seems you are still too young." Zhao Mengqi was not annoyed.
Mom, you are one year younger than me!
Zhao Heyun rolled his eyes secretly. Others present also felt that King Yan's behavior of relying on a small business to sell his old age was somewhat funny.
But I heard Zhao Mengqi say, "First, let's talk about the essence of money."
Money is money, what else is there in it?
Upright Wu Qiong and others looked confused, but Zhao Heyun, Jiang Wanli and others were aroused and looked at King Yan curiously.
"When people are alive, they have various needs. When they are unable to provide for themselves, they will meet their needs by exchanging with others. At first, it was simple bartering, but this has great limitations and requires each other to be just right. Only complementarity can lead to trade, so people began to use goods that could meet common needs as a medium for trade, such as food, cloth, etc. that everyone could use."
"When this kind of goods is used as a medium, its primary function is to circulate, so it can be called currency. In order to facilitate circulation, currency must not only have a recognized value, but also be easy to carry and durable, so metal has become the best choice. , by molding metal into a specific weight shape, money was born.”
"Some people say that money is omnipotent, because money can be exchanged for any goods, and this is based on the value of the metal itself, so it was initially calculated by weight."
"But people gradually discovered that apart from being used for circulation, money is not actually practical, nor does it need to be practical. It is said that you can't eat when you are hungry and you can't drink when thirsty. But as long as everyone recognizes its value, the weight and quality will not affect it. Its circulation effect.”
"Achieving this recognized value can be achieved by everyone consciously recognizing it, or by the rule makers forcing everyone to recognize it, that is, the government can use items with lower actual value to make money, because whether it contains 100% copper or 30% copper , or iron, or even a piece of paper, when the government makes one penny, their purchasing power is the same."
"Of course, the government must ensure the stability of this recognized value, otherwise everyone will dislike it and even refuse to use such money."
Next, Zhao Mengqi continued to explain to everyone the crude and even counterfeit version of currency theory with many flaws and biases.
In fact, it's not that people in this era are unaware of these, they just don't have systematic and conceptual expressions.
After hearing what Zhao Mengqi said, everyone gradually gained a clearer understanding, especially veteran officials like Jiang Wanli, who were often exposed to the economy, felt suddenly enlightened.
"Your Highness means that when the value or cost of money is lower than its face value, it is more liquid. If it is equal to or higher, it will be withdrawn from circulation. In other words, the current price of copper is much higher than the value of money. So no matter how many copper coins the imperial court minted, they would never be able to meet the circulation needs."
Zhao Mengqi nodded, "Yes, if a common man has money in his hands, including Jiaozi, iron coins, and copper coins, then he will spend Jiaozi first and copper coins last. This is the phenomenon of bad coins chasing good coins."
This is easy to understand, because everyone makes this choice in daily life. Even in later generations, people like to take out the worn out ones first and use the same banknotes.
As the first bank president, Zhao Heyun also did a lot of work on money.
The class teacher was also inspired at this time, "Before the Southern Crossing, the coins cast by the imperial court contained nearly 70% copper, so they were strong and resistant to wear and tear. They were regular in shape, clear in writing, and the copper was dense, with few blisters, pores, and shrinkage. Holes and other defects are shared by all barbarians precisely because of their excellent quality.”
"At the beginning of the southern journey, Emperor Gaozong set a rule that the copper coins should contain 65% copper, but by the end of Shaoxing, the copper coins made contained less than 50% copper. Later, the quality of the coins became increasingly poor, and even the weight of the coins became lighter. , and now the regulations on the weight and alloy ratio of coins have been shelved and become ineffective, and they are often divided into different denominations such as two, three, five, ten, one hundred, five hundred and so on."
"Actually, not much money was minted after the southern crossing. However, most of the bad coins on the market today are such bad coins. The good copper coins were either melted into copperware or hoarded by wealthy families. If not for the profit from stocks, , I’m afraid they won’t use it until they die.”
Then Zhao Mengqi said again, "Gold, silver, and copper have a high value-preserving property and can be called hard currency. For individuals, they definitely prefer to hold hard currency, but for the entire world, this is not a good thing. .”
"Because from the perspective of supply and demand balance, the total value of currency in the market is equal to the total value of goods, which is the best state of the economy. However, due to the difficulty of mining gold, silver and copper, the stock is limited. When the economy starts to prosper, the production of goods is easy. Exceeding the total value of currency, the lack of currency at this time will prevent goods from being circulated and making profits, so production will be frustrated, and the flame of economic prosperity will have to be extinguished."
"If we use low-cost and easy-to-print banknotes, this situation can be avoided. Additional issuance can be based on demand to meet circulation needs and stabilize economic prosperity."
"However, if the printed banknotes exceed the total value of goods, then inflation will occur and the banknotes will depreciate. Depreciation has pros and cons. The advantage is that it stimulates consumption, thus driving production. The disadvantage is that the credibility of banknotes decreases. People gradually refused to use it."
"As the issuer of currency, the imperial court uses currency to earn profits, which is actually a disguised form of taxation. When faced with difficulties such as economic downturn, financial insufficiency, natural disasters, wars, etc., it can be solved by issuing additional currency. It is then shared among all currency holders.”
"So, our government's issuance of banknotes such as Jiaozihuizi is in line with the economic situation and is the most advantageous choice. However, hidden taxes are also taxes and must be controlled within a reasonable range. Therefore, the issuance of additional banknotes must be moderate."
According to the money flow theory, if prices are too low and people's purchasing power is not high, economic depression will trigger an economic crisis.
And when the government adopts a slight inflationary policy at the right time, rising prices is not a bad thing.
However, when inflation becomes malignant, banknotes depreciate, and prices soar, the monetary system becomes chaotic or even destroyed, eventually leading to economic collapse.
This was one of the main reasons for the demise of the Southern Song Dynasty. Zhao Mengqi naturally had to find a way to reverse this problem.
After listening to what Zhao Mengqi said, Jiang Wanli was very emotional, "The imperial court actually understood this and was very cautious at the beginning. It didn't mention it before crossing to the south. Starting from the 31st year of Shaoxing, it issued a reserve fund of 100,000 guan. After Huizi, Xiaozong established a rule in the fourth year of Qiandao that every three years, the old banknotes would be replaced with new ones, so that the value of the banknotes would be relatively stable for a long time, with 80 to 90% of the face value, continuing until the sixth session. At that time, there was a shortage of money in the market, causing the value of Hui Zi banknotes to exceed their face value. Then Xiaozong decided to issue additional coins in the seventh session to solve the problem of lack of money. From then on, Hui Zi began to depreciate in value out of control. Later, there was no additional issuance. New ones were issued, but the old ones were not taken back, and were extended for use. First, the extension was for three years, and then extended to ten or twenty years. In fact, this is the same as additional issuance, more than additional issuance. Up to now, the 18th Congress has a total of Fifteen million banknotes were issued and have been used for fifteen years. The banknotes are only worth 50% of their face value..."
Perhaps this is boiling a frog in warm water. The gradually deteriorating monetary system has also led to the gradual deterioration of the economy, leading to collapse step by step.
Zhao Mengqi couldn't help but shake his head, "The imperial court is both a rule maker and a regulator. After tasting the benefits of using additional issuance to solve financial problems, even if it knows that it is drinking poison to quench thirst, it cannot control itself at all, so I think it should be done by A third party will issue banknotes, and the court will be responsible for supervision, so there are checks and balances.
, may be able to maintain the healthy development of the banknote system. "
Jiang Wanli thought for a while and thought about the equity structure of the three companies. "Does His Highness mean that the currency issuance rights of the Song Dynasty will be handed over to the Royal Bank in the future?"
Zhao Mengqi nodded, "Yes, and I plan to introduce regulatory agencies mainly composed of private individuals at the appropriate time."
"This seems to be a safe strategy, but I think this is a serious matter, so we should proceed slowly." Jiang Wanli looked cautious.
Zhao Mengqi replied, "Shi Yu is right. The first priority now is to establish the credibility of the Royal Bank. Now the Royal Bank has more than 90 million yuan in capital. With the most cautious attitude, it can also issue 10 million yuan in new banknotes. In fact, it cannot be said that It is a new banknote, which can only be regarded as an exchange voucher. After all, we must be able to exchange it for other currencies at a one-to-one basis at the market price at any time, so as to slowly collect the messy currencies on the market. In the end, even if real new banknotes are issued, it will be It is endorsed with goods such as gold, silver, refined salt and sugar to ensure the value of the new banknotes."
Issuing banknotes like this is simply reversing the course of history, going back to the beginning of Jiaozi's birth, but the national credit of the Song Dynasty has been ruined, so he had to start over and rebuild credit.
At this time, Zhao Heyun was thoughtful, "Your Highness, is he planning to withdraw the copper coins completely?"
"Yes, the price of copper is high today because most of it is used to make money. Only when copper is withdrawn from circulation will the price of copper return to normal."
To be precise, Zhao Mengqi planned to remove all metal currencies from circulation and completely replace them with banknotes. Gold and silver would only be used to endorse banknotes, not for circulation.
The reason why he wanted to drive down the price of copper was because he found that if he wanted to make firearms, copper was the most suitable until the quality and output of steel could not meet the requirements.
According to his estimate, a copper cannon capable of firing ten kilograms of shells would cost at least two thousand kilograms. If the price of copper at this time was used, the material would require at least three thousand or four thousand kilograms.
Who the hell can afford this...
"So that's it." Zhao Heyun had some understanding, "If the Royal Bank issues exchange coupons, the copper coins, like gold and silver, are actually just warehouse goods. Shipping them overseas will not affect the currency of the Song Dynasty. It is equivalent to Is one portion of the money used as two portions?"
Zhao Mengqi smiled happily, "Children can be taught, but this is only one of the reasons. The other reason why overseas countries are willing to use the copper coins of the Song Dynasty, in addition to quality reasons, is because the huge economic size of the Song Dynasty endorses these copper coins. , if our Song Dynasty no longer uses copper coins, what do you think they should do?"
Zhao Heyun was stunned, "If you can't use copper coins to buy goods from the Song Dynasty, then it is very likely that the Song money in overseas countries will depreciate significantly. Japan, which mainly relies on Song money, will be seriously affected..."
"Based on the current situation of Japan, it is unlikely. After all, their main purpose of using Song money is for their own domestic circulation. It doesn't matter even if they can't buy our goods. However, if we take the initiative to give them a market Increasing the circulation of Song Qian will be different."
After copper coins were withdrawn from circulation in the Song Dynasty, good quality coins could be melted into copper materials. However, some low-quality coins with low copper content were actually much better than those cast by the Japanese themselves. If they were intentional, the quantity could be enough to buy out the people's livelihood supplies on the Japanese market. , causing it to fall into the abyss.
"But these are not my main goals." Zhao Mengqi sat up straight and looked around at everyone. "As the saying goes, if you want to take something, you must first give it to it."
"Our trade with Japan was once very prosperous. Although it continues now, the transaction volume has been declining year by year. The more important reason is the trade imbalance."
"The most popular commodities sold to the Japanese country in our dynasty were spices, porcelain, silk brocade, tea, and dyes. In addition to minerals such as sand, gold, mercury, and sulfur, what the Japanese country sold to us were mostly handicrafts such as fans and screens."
"Among them, the spices are not native to our country. Nowadays, the shipping department in Quanzhou City is not as good as before. The spices imported are getting less and less. We are in short supply ourselves, so there are not many to sell. Then Japan's own silk weaving industry has also reached a certain scale. , although the quality is still lacking, it has also alleviated the demand in this area. As for others, although the demand is still there, due to the increase in market shipping taxes and production costs, the market will naturally shrink after the price rises, causing copper coins to become Got it
It is the biggest need of Japan. "
"To solve this problem, in addition to reducing the market tax and improving trade policies, it is more important to come up with products that are attractive to the Japanese. We are already working on this, namely snow sugar, refined salt, loose tea, and new porcelain Wait, we expect to reach a certain output within a year.”
"But in this way, the goods of Japan cannot meet the trade demand. After all, in my opinion, apart from minerals, those handicrafts are dispensable, so we should also inspire and guide them to produce the goods we need."
"It takes time to adjust the industrial layout. In order to shorten this process and make the Japanese mining industry meet our needs as soon as possible, the most effective and quick way is to spend money and use their favorite Song money to arouse their enthusiasm."
Zhao Mengqi's intention was not complicated. He just wanted to exchange high value-added commodities such as sugar for the minerals of the Japanese people, but he was not willing to wait for the Japanese people to slowly adjust, so he used this method to promote the birth.
In the final analysis, what he wanted was not to destroy the Japanese country, but to regard the Japanese country as the blood bag of the Song Dynasty.
