"It makes sense." Zhu Biao touched his chin, his eyes flashing.
Zhu Su's words seemed to open a door to a new world for him.
"No matter how much gold and silver coins are accumulated at home, if there is nothing to buy in the market, it will just be yellow and white things that cannot be spent, eaten or worn."
"The reason why money has value is that people regard it as 'currency' and can use it to exchange for almost any other 'wealth'."
"While it can be used to exchange wealth, its value must also be comprehensively considered from the amount of wealth in the market and the amount of the coin itself. If the court issues coins indiscriminately and the wealth remains unchanged, the same coin can There are fewer and fewer things to exchange for.”
"Fifth brother, am I right?"
"Brother is so right!" Zhu Su praised. Zhu Biao seems to be talented in economics, and he clarified the concept of currency so quickly. "These are the two functions of 'currency', one is the 'measure of value', and the other is the 'means of circulation'. It does not have value in itself, but is only used as a measure to reflect the various forms of 'wealth' on the market. It’s just about the value.”
"If you put it this way, I understand." Queen Ma also smiled. "For example, if the palace wants to buy a piece of cloth, the asking price would be 2, 2, or 3 taels. But if the court were to issue coins indiscriminately, the cloth would still be the same, but the asking price would become 7, 8, or 8 taels."
"At first glance, it seems that the court has a lot of money, but there are still only so many things it can buy."
"That's not right." Lao Zhu, who had been deep in thought, spoke.
"Lao Wu, we finally understand what 'currency' and 'wealth' you mean."
"This statement is indeed a good prescription through the ages. If you think about it this way, many things that we seemed to understand before can now be understood."
"But, we don't understand. If this is the case, how come Yuanting has issued treasure banknotes twice before, but it can really enrich the national use?"
"If this is the case, then there should be no difference between issuing banknotes and not issuing banknotes..."
"The act of issuing banknotes will definitely not increase the wealth of the entire society." Zhu Su straightened his body and looked at Lao Zhu seriously.
"But Yuanting's banknotes have successfully enriched the state, in other words, gained 'wealth'."
"Then dad, think about it, where does this 'wealth' that seems to appear out of thin air actually come from?"
"Where did it come from..." Lao Zhu frowned. Suddenly he remembered something and his pupils twitched, "You mean, the common people..."
"Of course!" Zhu Su nodded.
He took a long breath, sorted out his thoughts, and then continued to explain in the solemn eyes of Lao Zhu and the others:
"It stands to reason that as 'currency' increases, the 'wealth' sold on the market should also command a higher price."
"But the problem is that the people don't know immediately that the 'currency' has become worthless. For a long time, the people who don't know why will still sell their hard work at the original price. The 'wealth' gained."
"And what about Yuan Ting? You only need to write the amount on banknotes, and you can exchange wealth from the ignorant people... Why not use such a convenient method? Anyway, the people dare not disobey the laws of Yuan Dynasty, so Naive enough to believe that one’s labor has indeed paid off.”
"When the people realize that the banknotes are becoming less and less valuable... what can they do except sigh? Is it possible to seek justice from those officials and the Mongolian emperor?"
Queen Ma's brows were deeply furrowed, while Prince Zhu Biao was already dumbfounded: "This...isn't this a disguised form of plundering the people..."
"Bang!" Lao Zhu punched the table hard. "Li Shanchang! Those stupid officials in the Ministry of Revenue should be killed! We asked them if there were any drawbacks to the banknote method, and they assured us that as long as they don't issue it indiscriminately, there will be no problem."
"Is there no problem in killing the people? This is making the people suffer the consequences of being dumb..."
"When the people can't bear it any longer...then the world will fall apart!"
Lao Zhu cursed angrily.
"Chongba, don't be so angry... My eldest grandson was scared by you!" Queen Ma gently patted the frightened Zhu Xiongying in her arms and comforted him while calming down Zhu Xiongying. "The Duke of Korea and the officials in the imperial court may not have thought of this. After all, for thousands of years, generations have thought that wealth is gold and silver. Who could have thought that far?"
"Besides, you didn't even think of going to this level. If Su'er hadn't made it clear, I'm afraid the treasure bank transfer case would have been opened. You, Emperor Zhu, may not even know that you have harmed the people in the end, and why? So smug!"
"...We are the emperor, not the accountant!" Lao Zhu was stunned and argued with his neck stiffened, but the murderous anger had been dispelled by Empress Ma. After thinking about it for a while, I still felt unhappy, and murmured: "Those big turbans, you know what they are doing. We let them help manage this huge country, and they almost made such a big mess!"
"It can be seen that the so-called 'half of the Analects rules the world' is all false." Zhu Biao also shook his head and sighed. "There are so many different kinds of learning in the world. You cannot master every aspect just by reading the books of sages."
"Fifth brother, what you said before was to introduce hundreds of schools of thought to the Imperial College... Only now do I know what you mean."
Now it seems that these court officials who are full of sages and classics are not as useful as hiring a few accountants.
Zhu Biao felt that the sacred filter of Confucianism in his heart was almost completely shattered.
"There are so many advantages to take advantage of in the world. Everything that seems to be free often comes with the heaviest price." Zhu Su concluded. "The treasure banknote seems to be printed with money, but in fact, the price it requires is the people's trust in the court."
"The more they print, the more their trust is overdrawn, and the people become more and more resentful of the imperial court. If you are proud at this time, one day the whole country will rebel. This is the so-called 'opening of rivers becomes the source of disaster'."
As he said that, Zhu Su went through the details of how Lao Zhu issued treasure banknotes in history and ended up turning the treasure banknotes into waste paper. The luck of the Ming Dynasty was obviously better than that of the Yuan Dynasty. The period when the problems of the Ming Dynasty's treasures began to break out coincided with the period when Emperor Zhu Di was about to take power.
Because Zhu Di had extremely strong control over the country, the series of disturbances caused by the collapse of Bao Chao were suppressed one by one by the court. Later, although the imperial court continued to issue banknotes, the common people no longer recognized the treasured banknotes. The treasured banknotes were basically withdrawn from circulation, and they did not cause any major problems.
But despite this, the credibility of the Ming Dynasty court was also riddled with holes because of the treasure banknotes. Many officials and petty officials used treasure banknotes to buy, sell, and plunder the people. The imperial court also used treasure banknotes to distribute official salaries and military household pay in accordance with the old Hongwu system. This indirectly led to the Ming Dynasty officials, who had almost no official income, to regard corruption as a routine. He made "extra money" wantonly, and the military households were also alienated from the court.
Until hundreds of years later, a post station military household named Li chose to rise up because he could no longer survive...
"Alas!" Lao Zhu sighed heavily. "This is another bad policy that we will leave to our descendants!"
"It seems that the treasure money method is absolutely impossible."
"But what should we do with the empty treasury of our Ming Dynasty?"
(End of chapter)
