In this era, due to Zhang Juzheng's whipping reform, all taxes collected by the court were converted into silver, including labor services. As a result, silver became the universal currency. However, in the specific daily transactions of ordinary people, copper coins are still the main currency.
But there are many kinds of copper coins, some are cast by the government, some are cast secretly by private individuals, some are cast by emperors in different periods, etc. These copper coins, even if they are cast by the government, have different qualities, that is, different copper contents, thus forming a complex variety of copper coins on the market. Different types of copper coins actually have different purchasing power. This is very inconvenient for ordinary people's daily transactions.
As for silver, it is generally used for tax collection and relatively large transactions in commercial transactions. Moreover, like physical currency, silver has inevitable quality problems. Like copper coins, it is inconvenient to use. Even worse, it requires special scissors and scales to measure the weight and determine its value.
In addition, Emperor Chongzhen remembered that from a paper summarized by later generations, it was not unreasonable to say that the Ming Dynasty was destroyed by Baiyin and Zhang Juzheng's whipping method.
Generally speaking, as society progresses and the total amount of materials becomes abundant, the corresponding currency must increase. For example, if the amount of goods increases by ten, the currency must also increase to ten yuan, so that one piece of goods can be purchased for one piece of currency and a normal exchange relationship can be maintained.
But if there is no corresponding increase in currency, that one piece of currency is equivalent to buying ten goods (this purchase can also be understood as a corresponding relationship), which is equivalent to the value of the currency actually increasing ten times. This is problematic because the value of currency increases.
This problem of currency appreciation existed in the late Ming Dynasty!
Because silver mines and even copper mines are scarce in the Ming Dynasty, and after more than two hundred years of development, the Ming Dynasty has actually become quite prosperous, and the total amount of goods in society has increased many times compared with the beginning of the founding of the country.
Originally, the Ming Dynasty exported goods to European countries and Japanese countries through foreign trade, in exchange for a lot of silver. It can be said that at that time, all the silver from the world was flowing into the Ming Dynasty, so that the currency of the Ming Dynasty could barely keep up with the increase in goods, and there was no serious imbalance between goods and currency.
However, at the end of the Ming Dynasty, the Japanese state began to close itself off and banned external transactions, which reduced the outflow of silver. The Thirty Years' War began in Europe, countries began to fight to the death, and military expenditures increased, thus restricting the outflow of silver.
Due to these two reasons, the amount of silver flowing into the Ming Dynasty decreased sharply, which immediately caused an imbalance in the proportion of Ming Dynasty goods and silver.
In addition, there are traditional reasons, which is that the Ming Dynasty officials and gentry, including ordinary people, like to hide all the money they earn in cellars and do not use it for circulation in the market. Therefore, the imbalance in the ratio of goods and silver is aggravated. As for the imbalance in the quantity of silver between regions, let alone the fact that there is more silver in the south of the Yangtze River and less in the northwest.
As a result, a serious problem arises.
For example, the court stipulated that one tael of silver should be collected per acre of land. In the past, farmers could exchange half of their grain for one tael of silver, pay taxes, and still keep half of the grain. But now, due to the serious imbalance in the ratio of goods to money, farmers cannot exchange half of the grain for one tael of silver, so they can only continue to sell grain to collect enough money to pay taxes.
So, it's tragic.
Where the imbalance between goods and money is greater, that is, where money is scarcer, farmers may sell all the grain and not even have enough to pay taxes. Then, either sell other things to make ends meet while still starving yourself, or you can stop farming and flee your hometown to escape the land tax. Either way, it will cause social unrest.
In this situation, everything is going smoothly, assuming that there is no decrease in grain yield per acre, and there are no corrupt officials making things difficult. Just because of changes in the economic relationship between currency and land can cause social unrest.
If you add the Little Ice Age in the late Ming Dynasty and the rotten officialdom problems in the late Ming Dynasty, it will increase the burden on the farmers and make it impossible for them to survive. The chaos in the late Ming Dynasty will inevitably start in the northwest. got up.
Of course, in this era, no one has realized that just the relationship between currency has seriously affected the social stability of the Ming Dynasty. Compared with this consequence, the inconvenience of using physical currency is secondary.
Therefore, Emperor Chongzhen felt that banks must be established and banknotes must be issued, which was one of the most important means to revive the Ming Dynasty.
Now, taking advantage of the opportunity to lay off staff in the palace, he felt that he could slowly build up the bank. He didn't need to do it all in one step, but just started to work on it slowly.
As an emperor, you have great advantages and have many resources at your disposal.
First, it is necessary to print banknotes that are difficult to counterfeit. The paper presented as tribute to the palace was one of the best papers and could be used to print banknotes.
Second, the raids on the Imperial Horse Guards and the Imperial Guards yielded a lot of shops and properties, which can be used to open banks. Or it may be stipulated that all transactions in shops must use banknotes issued by the royal family.
Third, all salaries issued in the palace, including palace maids and chamberlains, royal relatives and nobles, and military pay for the troops under the Royal Horse Supervisor, etc., can all use this kind of banknotes. After sending it, if you feel uneasy, you can go to the bank to exchange it for physical currency, such as silver and copper coins.
Anyway, at the beginning, it was just to establish the credibility of the banknotes issued by the palace. As many banknotes were issued as salary, it was all a one-to-one relationship, and the exchange was liberalized. Everyone here in the capital must have an impression. It doesn't matter if you get banknotes, you can exchange them for physical currency at any time, thus creating trust in banknotes.
As long as there is confidence in banknotes, they will begin to circulate. This will form the most basic prototype for establishing a central bank.
Everything is difficult at the beginning, especially in the Ming Dynasty. The credibility of the Ming Dynasty banknotes was ruined, which made it even more difficult. However, Emperor Chongzhen believed that as long as he continued step by step, he would eventually be able to restore the credibility of the banknotes.
Thinking of these things, Emperor Chongzhen felt that this must be done immediately. In the future, all money will be issued according to this situation, which can speed up the establishment of the credibility of banknotes.
But the first step now is to find a way to print banknotes that are difficult to imitate. At this time, the emperor's power was reflected again. A decree was issued to let the outer court and factory guards look for talents in this field. Of course, he didn't explicitly say that he wanted to print banknotes, he just said that he wanted to print something unique and difficult for others to imitate.
While Emperor Chongzhen was excitedly busy with this matter, the commander-in-chief of the Qing army, Fengtian General Dorgon, became depressed.
