"I see that most people buy goods by barter. Why don't they use money to buy them?" Zhao Si asked.
"I don't have money, and those who have money don't come here." The vendor shook his head and felt that Zhao Si's question was a little strange.
"The Qin Dynasty has issued a decree that no money other than half a tael of money can be used for sales and purchases. Why are you still using Chu money?" Zhao Si asked again.
"This..." The vendor scratched his head.
"There aren't many Qin coins on the market... If I don't have Qin coins, I can only use Chu coins."
"It's all one coin, so why can one Qin coin be regarded as five Chu coins?" Zhao Si asked again.
"The money is so bad..." the vendor said.
As he spoke, the vendor handed the Chu money to Zhao Si. Zhao Si took the Chu money, rubbed it carefully, and compared it with the Qin Banliang he had carried. No matter the workmanship, quality or weight, they were not even the same.
"The Chu country has always been barbaric and lacked skilled craftsmen. It could not make sword, cloth, and ring coins, so it made more shell coins..." Li Si opened his mouth and added an explanation.
Dao coins are currencies that look like swords, with different shapes. For example, the official currency of Qi Yanzhao is Dao coins.
Cloth coins are not cloth currency, but shovel-shaped currency.
Huanqian is a round currency. The Qin and Wei Dynasties used ring money. It was originally a round hole. Later, when the Qin Dynasty unified the currency, it was changed to a round square hole. Each copper coin weighed half a tael, and it also said "half a tael" on it. , so it is called Qin Banliang.
Shell coins are currency shaped like shells, mainly circulated in Chu State, and later generations often call them ant-nosed coins.
Due to the casting level, Chu's ant nose money is relatively light, only about one-third as heavy as Qin's banliang, and the quality is particularly poor and the materials used are mixed. Therefore, Chu's money has always been at the bottom of the economic chain. .
Zhao Si nodded and groped for the ant-nosed money in his hand and fell into deep thought. After a long time, he asked: "The State of Qin has repeatedly sent Qin Banliang to various places. Why is it that Qin Banliang is rare here? Then Qin Banliang went there again. Where?"
"He must have been hidden by a wealthy family!" the vendor said matter-of-factly.
"What do you usually use to pay for your purchases?" Zhao Si asked.
"I often barter for things. I'm good at making pottery. I usually use pottery and people to exchange items." The vendor said.
"Wouldn't it be troublesome to barter without setting a price?" Zhao Si asked again.
"What's the trouble? It's just a matter of negotiating the price. As long as everyone thinks it's done," the vendor replied.
"In other words, if you can barter, you are willing to spend time bargaining with each other to barter. If you can't barter, you will use ant nose money to pay. Then if the other party does not accept ant nose Why do you only charge Qin half a liang of money?" Zhao Si asked.
"Then don't buy it, go to another store." The vendor said without thinking.
"What if you have to buy this thing?" Zhao Sifu asked again.
"How can it be so hypothetical..." The vendor looked helpless.
"In other words, if there are no special circumstances, you are not willing to use Qin Banliang to buy things, right." Zhao Si said.
The vendor nodded.
"Qin Banliang can be collected anywhere, but it's not that easy to get it out. Let alone Qin Banliang, it's just ant nose money. As long as the quality is better, you have to wait until the last time you have to spend it." , you see, I can buy anything with Qin Banliang, but if I buy things like lacquerware and pottery, one Qin Banliang is just one Qin Banliang, and it cannot be used as two coins, so naturally I don’t want to. I paid half a tael for it." The vendor patiently explained to Zhao Si for the sake of his big business.
"If that's the case, then I know. Pack up all the pottery in your stall for me." Zhao Si asked the question and nodded.
The vendor smiled when he saw this and hurriedly packaged Zhao Si's food, fearing that Zhao Si would regret it.
"The total cost of these pottery is one hundred and sixty-seven yuan. If you pay with half a tael, just give me thirty yuan." The vendor said with a flattering look.
It was said that five ant-nosed coins were worth one Qin Banliang, but the vendor abruptly added a fraction of seventeen coins. It seemed that Qin Banliang was already worthless in this place.
Zhao Si nodded and took out a wad of money from his arms, counted thirty Qin half taels, and lined them up in front of the vendors.
The soldiers who followed the guard wisely picked up the packed pottery.
"It doesn't look like the situation is very optimistic." Zhao Si looked at Li Si and said.
The Qin State unified the world and forcibly unified the currency, and the forging technology of the Qin State was indeed the top of the seven countries. The half liang of money was also sufficient, and the purchasing power of the Qin Banliang had indeed increased.
The materials are sufficient, the workmanship is good, and it is genuine at a price of one and a half taels of Qin coins. There is no doubt about its purchasing power.
Problems also emerged. In addition, the government imposed a stipulation that only Qin Banliang could be used for currency transactions, but it could not prevent the circulation of inferior currency among the people, which also caused a problem.
Bad money drives out good money.
People are self-interested creatures.
In his previous life, Zhao Si knew how to spend the money first when buying things. The new money just withdrawn from the bank was spent last.
That's still paper money, it's credit currency.
Not to mention the copper coins of the Qin Dynasty, they were genuine copper, they were precious metals.
All fools know that they should spend the bad things first and then the good things.
If you can barter, you don't need money, if you can use other money, you don't need Qin Banliang, and the rich and powerful people are even more shocked by this.
They monopolized the local economy, and a large amount of local high-quality currency was swallowed up by them, but like a wild animal, they could only get in and out.
Hey, I'll charge you Qin Banliang, and I'll give you Ant Nose money.
Where is Qin Banliang? They were all gathered in the warehouse.
High-quality currencies issued by various dynasties in the past dynasties cannot escape this fate.
Money will eventually be hoarded by powerful families from generation to generation. In the end, every feudal dynasty will inevitably experience a money shortage.
The speed of building money simply cannot keep up with the speed of their money collection.
Not to mention the Qin Dynasty, copper not only played the role of currency, but also played the role of casting weapons, armor, daily tools, and ritual utensils...
So, the obvious happened.
Not long after the Qin Dynasty was unified, the money shortage was about to come.
Zhao Si saw an interesting point of view. Instead of viewing Da Qin as a newly established new dynasty, it is better to view Da Qin as an old and aging country.
The accumulated conflicts and irrational distribution of resources in various countries during the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods were all shouldered by the Qin State with the unification of the Qin State.
For example, the issue of collecting money...
Obviously, the nobles certainly did not start collecting money after the First Emperor unified China.
The high-quality currency issued by the Seven Kingdoms, and the nobles of the Seven Kingdoms must also have a lot of it.
However, the Qin State later unified and forcefully used half liang coins as the currency of the world, which disrupted their process of collecting money. But for this group, it was nothing more than replacing other currencies they had collected with higher-quality Qin banliang coins.
Qin State was short of money, or most of the areas far away from Guanzhong were already short of money.
The official currency Qin Banliang no longer participates in the circulation of the market economy at all.
It can be seen from the attitude of the vendors that Qin Banliang even has collectible value.
"It's not a good thing if money is too valuable!" Zhao Si looked at Li Si and said.
"The problem is that there is not enough copper..." Li Si sighed.
"The copper mined every year has to be cast into armor, weapons, and ritual vessels. If you throw it away, it will be hidden. Now even if you add the copper shipped back from Fuso, it will be a drop in the bucket. I have thought about getting iron money. , but the price of iron is too low, no one will use it." Li Si pondered.
Zhao Si touched his chin when he heard the sound.
Is there really no solution?
To expand on the idea, first of all, iron can definitely replace the metal demand of copper. As long as the technology tree of steel smelting is set up, all the existing copper can be used to make money, and there will be no need to worry about money shortage for hundreds of years.
Secondly, it is not undesirable to make money from gold and silver.
Fuso produces massive amounts of gold and silver. It would be too wasteful if gold and silver were not given currency circulation properties.
There is a big golden mountain outside, which is enough for hundreds of years. The nobles like to hoard money, and sometimes it is not necessarily a bad thing.
Of course, Zhao Si didn't plan to say anything like this in advance.
He was also counting on using the lack of money as an excuse to get the First Emperor to support him in opening the steel smelting technology tree.
"In addition, some changes must be made regarding the current business policies and restrictions. Economic exchange actions are too few and too single, and the barren business environment is not conducive to the circulation of currency. Of course, there must be restrictions."
Zhao Si did not intend to let the Qin Dynasty become as prosperous as the Song Dynasty.
After visiting all the way, it was unclear whether Li Xiang saw anything, but Zhao Si did have a lot of ideas in his mind.
(End of chapter)
