When Zhu Yunwen walked out from behind the screen, Ma Enhui was standing next to the box, holding five ingots of silver in his hand, his eyes slightly squinting, exuding a light of longing from time to time.
"Queen..."
Zhu Yunwen shouted softly.
Ma Enhui looked sideways and said with a smile: "Look, Your Majesty, there are 9,800 taels of silver here, plus the initial payment of 3,000 taels of medical gauze, there is a balance of 12,800 taels. Central Bank Finally, I have enough money to cover the bottom of the box.”
Zhu Yunwen looked at Ma Enhui who put the silver back into the box, and knew that although she was a little money-crazy, the money-crazy was not greedy for her own selfish purposes, but hoped to make the harem independent in its income and expenditure through her own efforts and no longer waste national funds.
Murong Jing'er is a smart man and knows who the master of the harem is.
If the income from the cultural troupe is only a small profit, it will be no problem to leave it to meet daily expenses. But now the revenue was too big and it was too big to handle, so Murong Jing'er took the initiative to hand over all the revenue to the Queen for disposal.
Ma Enhui was very satisfied with Murong Jing'er, so she kept 70% and let Murong Jing'er take the remaining 30% back.
"With only more than 10,000 taels, it cannot support the central bank. Some time ago, King Liao and King Min talked about the issue of banknotes being cheap, silver and copper being precious. There is a big problem with the method of treasure banknotes. I need the central bank to have it." Only with more money can we reform the currency.”
Zhu Yunwen closed the box and said softly to Ma Enhui.
Ma Enhui called the eunuch to carry the silver to the temporary warehouse next door, and said to Zhu Yunwen: "I also know that banknotes are cheap and silver is expensive. I also heard that copper is more expensive in the market. In the past, one tael of silver could be exchanged for a thousand copper coins, but now, I can only redeem it for eight hundred or seven hundred, and I don’t know what went wrong.”
Zhu Yunwen smiled softly and said: "Things are rare and valuable. If there is less copper, it will naturally become more valuable."
In Chinese culture, copper is a very special existence.
The ancients believed that the color of copper meant nobility. Looking at the tripods used in ancient rituals, the most noble ones were not jade or gold, but copper.
Before the Han Dynasty, and even dating back to the Shang and Zhou dynasties, the word "gold" appearing in many classics actually refers to "copper".
"Shangshu" records: The Yin people moved many times, eight in the first and five in the last.
This means that the capital was moved eight times in the early Shang Dynasty and five times in the later period, which meant that the capital was moved every few decades. The specific reason is difficult to say, but it was not due to the expiration of property rights after seventy years.
Many historians believe that the Yin and Shang Dynasties moved their capitals frequently, firstly to avoid floods, secondly because of disputes over the throne, and thirdly because of nomadic wandering. However, some historians believe that the biggest reason why the Yin Shang Dynasty moved their capital was to find sources of bronze ore.
The splendid bronze culture is supported by copper mines.
Copper mines are small and valuable, so it is suitable as legal tender. After all, ordinary people can't make this thing by going to a blacksmith shop, and they can't imitate it.
There were not many copper mines in the Tang Dynasty, mainly in Xuanzhou, Yi'an, Yongxing counties, Longyou, Jiangxi South Road and other places.
Copper mines in the Song Dynasty were mainly distributed in the three provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong. There were four large copper mines, namely Shaozhou Censhui Mine, Tanzhou Yongxing Mine, Xinzhou Qianshan Mine, and Raozhou Xingli Mine.
But by the Yuan Dynasty, copper mines had decreased a lot.
In the Yuan Dynasty, paper money was rampant, and gold, silver, and copper were all on the sidelines. Just dig up a little and provide a wine glass for the nobles of the court.
After Zhu Yuanzhang took over the mess from the Yuan Dynasty, there were only two copper factories in Dexing and Qianshan in Jiangxi. When we used the money method to develop the economy, there was simply not enough copper. Later, we also failed to implement the banknote method. This resulted in a situation where the banknote method and the money method were running in parallel.
During the Zhu Yunwen period, the Ming Dynasty had a greater demand for copper, but copper production could not keep up. Naturally, the exchange ratio of silver to copper would be unbalanced.
Zhu Yunwen spread out the map of the mountains and rivers of the Ming Dynasty and looked at Raozhou Prefecture in Jiangxi.
Later generations built a super copper mine base here, with "six mines and two factories". The copper mines were richest in the country. If I had arranged for people to dig some copper mines in Dongxiang and Yongping in advance to expand the scale of mining in Dexing, no one would say anything.
After all, we are all descendants of China, descendants of the same blood...
In addition to Jiangxi, which is rich in copper deposits, there are also Yunnan, Gansu, Anhui and other places.
Yunnan is very uneasy right now. There are too many elephants, ivory is worthless, and there are many people who are disobedient. We should wait for a while to start mining.
Gansu is also out of reach. Mongolians will appear from time to time. You can't dig a copper mine today and be taken away tomorrow, so you can work in vain.
It seems that we can only mark the copper mines scattered in Jiangxi and Anhui in later generations and send people to dig them.
"Your Majesty, Queen, King Liao and King Min would like to see you."
Shuangxi comes in to announce.
"Let them in."
Zhu Yunwen looked at the map and said.
King Liao and King Min came, and there was a lot of noise. A group of eunuchs carried more than twenty mahogany boxes and placed them in the courtyard, and then carried two boxes into the room.
"Queen, it seems that we can ask the food supervisor to add another dish tonight."
Zhu Yunwen smiled immediately when he saw this posture.
Ma Enhui glanced at Zhu Yunwen, said nothing, and forced herself to watch calmly.
After the two kings saw the ceremony, Zhu Zhi took out the account book with a smile on his face and said: "Your Majesty, it is difficult to find a horse in the capital. I have made a lot of money in the past two days. This money belongs to the palace. This is the account book."
Zhu Yunwen didn't look at the details and turned to the end. When he saw that the balance was as high as fifty-eight thousand taels, he couldn't help but be secretly surprised. He raised his head and asked, "You sold the horse as gold?"
"Your Majesty, we are in a hurry to leave the city. There are too many people delivering news. The price of a horse has risen to one hundred taels. Even renting a horse will cost two or three taels a day. Now it's Haili."
Zhu Zhi sighed.
The emperor just revealed a piece of news to himself in advance, saying that the horses in the capital were a rare commodity, so he and Zhu Geng invested thousands of taels, sent all the servants, and rented the capital at twice the usual price. Most of them are loose horses.
In order to prevent others from going back on their word and to show fairness, they also signed a contract.
Now those people would rather break the contract and hope to get the horses back, but the two kings have already rented out the horses, so there is no other way to break the contract...
Zhu Yunwen was like a trader. Based on a piece of news, he used a horse as a knife to severely scratch the skin of officials and wealthy gentry.
"But they're all taxed?"
Zhu Yunwen pointed to the account book and asked.
Zhu Geng looked a little ugly and said aggrievedly: "Your Majesty, I have paid taxes, nearly four thousand taels. The tax of one for fifteen is really too heavy."
Zhu Yunwen shook his head and said with a smile: "Fifteen taxes and one tax, is this beneficial?"
Zhu Geng suddenly choked.
Zhu Yunwen smiled and said: "In my opinion, the tax of fifteen to one is still light. Even if the tax is one to ten, you will still have a big profit. As long as it is profitable, your business will not be ruined. Besides, the tax money is nearly four thousand taels, and the income is It belongs to the treasury of the Ming Dynasty, and this money is used to pay salaries to officials and pay meals to soldiers. As a prince, you can do something good for the country, don’t you have any complaints?"
Zhu Zhi and Zhu Geng shook their heads quickly, who dared to complain.
Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly and asked, "Uncle Yan Wang has come to see you?"
Zhu Zhi and Zhu Geng nodded repeatedly.
Zhu Zhi said: "Your Majesty, King Yan seems to be interested in getting into business..."
Zhu Yunwen laughed, took out a copy of "Strategy for the New Army" from the desk, put it into a box containing money, and said to the two kings: "Send these two boxes of silver to Prince Yan's Mansion, he will understand what I mean. mean."
