"Lao Wu, what's the problem with this... this treasure note?"
Lao Zhu's voice was unprecedentedly weak.
"Third brother, go ahead and see why the hot water for washing your face has not been delivered yet." Seeing that Lao Zhu wanted to ask questions about politics, Empress Ma quickly turned to Zhu Fan and said. Zhu Fan was startled for a moment and looked at Zhu Su with a strange look.
"Yes." He didn't say much, just nodded and withdrew.
"Fifth brother, could it be that in history, my Ming Dynasty also had treasures?" This time it was Zhu Biao's turn to ask. "Could it be that issuing treasure banknotes is not feasible?"
"Brother, dad, who suggested that you issue Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes?" Zhu Su answered the question and gritted his teeth: "Whoever came up with this policy should be punished!"
Lao Zhu and Zhu Biao looked at each other in horror. They originally thought that Bao Chao's strategy would only have some minor disadvantages that they had not thought of. After all, Qian Yuan had already used this strategy before, so there wouldn't be any serious trouble.
But he didn't expect that this fifth brother would be so vulnerable to a powerful enemy.
I am even more excited than when I talked about other bad policies before!
"The first person to pay for this method was the Korean Duke." Zhu Biao replied. "Fifth brother, what is wrong with this treasure money method?"
"This method is full of problems. The biggest problem is that he should not appear in the Ming Dynasty at this time." Zhu Su said seriously. "Dad, brother, do you want to implement the banknote method because the imperial treasury is overwhelmed, so you want to issue banknotes to temporarily mint coins?"
"Not bad." Lao Zhu nodded. "The imperial courts of all dynasties have originally minted copper coins. Printing treasure banknotes can reduce the waste of coinage and enrich the national treasury..."
really! Zhu Su shouted in his heart. Lao Zhu was thinking about issuing banknotes, and as expected, he thought of using banknotes as tokens to reduce waste.
According to common sense, the casting of copper coins in the past dynasties is no different from the act of printing treasure banknotes. In later generations, won't a batch of banknotes be issued every few years? It seems to be no different from the copper coin Tongbao cast in the feudal dynasty.
"It won't work." Zhu Su shook his head. Although it seems feasible, the problem of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes is full of holes, and it can't be finished for days and nights.
Zhu Su sorted out his thoughts and said: "Dad, brother, treasure banknotes cannot replace copper coins. If my guess is correct, you should want to do nothing and write the currency value directly on the treasure banknotes so that the people of the Ming Dynasty can We just use it as money, right?"
"What's wrong with this? Isn't it the same with casting copper coins?" Lao Zhu blushed. "Issuing treasure banknotes is no different from minting copper coins."
"It's a big separation." Zhu Su said. He began to detail the disadvantages of treasure banknotes, and followed the instructions step by step: "Copper coins have been popular for thousands of years, and ordinary people have long recognized that copper is money. Even though the money system of some dynasties was chaotic, and copper coins were often adulterated, they still contained more or less Some coppers are recognized by the common people."
"But treasure money... to put it bluntly, it is just paper. If it is not managed well and distributed indiscriminately, it will be too hard to wipe your butt!"
"How can this thing be equal to a copper coin?"
"However, copper mines in various places have been mined for generations, and now China has long been short of copper." Lao Zhu said. "We can't build the Ming Dynasty and not even mint money, can we? Let's continue to use the money of the former Yuan Dynasty? How can we lose face?"
Zhu Biao also said: "If our Ming Dynasty does not mint money, wouldn't the world's wealth be like a pool of stagnant water, with no living spring flowing in?"
"As time goes by, there will be no money in the world. Isn't my world going to become increasingly poor?"
"Brother, that's not the truth." Seeing that Lao Zhu and Queen Ma also agreed with Zhu Biao's words, Zhu Su shook his head and said.
"To understand this problem, we must first understand what wealth is. Brother, what do you think of wealth? Gold, silver, and copper coins are wealth, right?"
"Isn't it true?" Queen Ma asked curiously. He also felt that Zhu Biao was right.
Old coins will be damaged. In addition, foreign countries often use Chinese coins, and some wealthy people often use their money to bury themselves in burials. These costs accumulate over time and are not a small amount.
If the imperial court does not mint new coins, there will always be only so many coins in the world. Wouldn't it be a source of stagnant water? Coupled with many expenses, wouldn't my Ming Dynasty's wealth become poorer and poorer?
Even Lao Zhu showed a questioning look. He has been thinking the same thing these days. He took a fancy to the benefits of making money, which would not cause any harm to the people. On the contrary, it would increase the total value of the world's wealth.
But the problem is that the Ming Dynasty did not have that much copper, so there was no money to cast it!
Now that the country is facing a difficult situation, if we switch from minting copper coins to issuing treasure banknotes, the national treasury can also count as an income, right? Why can't it be done?
"No, gold, silver and copper coins are not wealth!" Zhu Su said firmly. He looked around and saw an uneaten chicken on the table. He picked up the chicken and asked, "Brother, look, this chicken is worth a few copper coins in the market. Could it be considered wealth?"
"If it's worth copper coins, it's naturally considered wealth... But after all, he hasn't exchanged it for copper coins yet, so..."
"Then let's put it another way." Zhu Su tugged on his clothes. "Look, if I take off the clothes I'm wearing and change them, I think I can get dozens of chickens in exchange for them."
"Maybe my clothes can be considered wealth?"
"This..." Zhu Biao was stunned.
Lao Zhu seemed to have thought of something, his eyes lit up, "Lao Wu, do you mean that only edible food can be considered wealth?"
"Gold, silver, and copper coins are nothing more than foreign objects. It's really not good. Can't we exchange for things by bartering?"
"Chongba should be more than just food." Queen Ma thought thoughtfully. "Clothes can be exchanged for chickens, and chickens can naturally be exchanged for clothes."
"Since edible chickens are wealth, there is no reason why clothes are not wealth... Xiao Wu'er, do you mean to say that everything in the world can be wealth?"
"You are so smart!" Zhu Su gave Queen Ma a thumbs up. "But to use a more accurate statement, it should be 'labor is the real wealth'."
"Everything in the world is the result of labor. For example, chickens are the result of the labor of the people who raise chickens. Clothes are the result of the work of weavers who raise silkworms and weave. The food in the fields is the result of the labor of farmers who cultivate the land. "
"The so-called gold, silver, and copper coins are just an intermediate price and a currency needed to measure real wealth. They cannot be considered wealth in themselves."
"Dad, brother, think about it, when the Beiyuan banknote law first began to collapse, did the people carry dozens of taels of banknotes, but they could only use them to buy things that only cost a few cents?"
"The printing of more banknotes does not mean that the world has more wealth. On the contrary, it is because there are so many banknotes that it takes much more banknotes to buy an item that is exactly the same as before."
"Similarly, the price of food in the city becomes more expensive during disaster years. The essence is that the real 'wealth' of food becomes less, but the total amount of money in the city can be regarded as unchanged."
"As a result, people can only use more 'currency' to purchase the 'wealth' of scarce food."
"There is no way to truly increase wealth by simply increasing the amount of currency."
Zhu Su talked eloquently, and in the thoughtful eyes of Emperor Hongwu and his family, he taught the first emperor, the most virtuous queen and the first prince an economic lesson.
(End of chapter)
