"It makes sense." Zhu Biao touched Dongba, his eyes twinkling.
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 only be yellow and red things that cannot be used and cannot be 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 does not issue coins indiscriminately and the wealth remains unchanged, the same coin will But there are fewer and fewer things to exchange for.”
"Fifth brother, is what he said wrong?"
"Brother, what you said is so wrong!" Zhu Su praised. Zhu Biao seemed to be talented in misunderstanding the economy, and he clarified the concept of currency so quickly. "Then deny the two functions of 'currency', and one is the 'value scale' ', and the second is the 'circulation leg'. It has no value in itself, it can only be used as a measure to reflect the value of various kinds of 'wealth' in the market."
"That makes him very popular." Empress Ma also said with a smile. "For example, if the palace wants to buy a piece of cloth, I asked for a price of two to three cents. But if the court sends out coins indiscriminately and the cloth is not good, I will ask for a price. But I begged to become seventy or eighty taels."
"At first glance, it seems that the Eastern Imperial Court has a lot of money, and there are only so many things that can be purchased."
"Not bad." Lao Zhu, who had been deep in thought, spoke.
"Lao Wu, do we understand what I mean by 'currency' and 'wealth'?"
"Is that statement really a good prescription for the ages? If you think about it that way, many things that we seemed to understand and didn't understand before can be regarded as obvious."
"Is it possible? We don't know how popular it is. If not, how come Yuanting has issued treasure banknotes twice before, but how can it be used to replenish the national supply?"
"If it follows that principle, then there should be no difference between issuing banknotes and not issuing banknotes..."
"The act of issuing banknotes will definitely increase the wealth of the entire society." Zhu Su straightened his figure and looked at Lao Zhu seriously.
"Could Yuanting successfully enrich the state by issuing banknotes? In other words, it can be said that it has gained 'wealth'."
"Then Dad, think about it, where did the 'wealth' that seemed 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, "Did I say that the people..."
"Of course!" Zhu Su nodded.
He took a long breath, gathered his thoughts, and then continued to explain in the solemn eyes of Lao Zhu and others:
"It stands to reason that as 'currency' increases, the 'wealth' being sold in the market should also command a higher price."
"But the problem is, the people will not know immediately that the currency has become worthless. For a long time, the people who do not know why will sell their hard-earned money at the original price. 'Wealth' gained through labor."
"And what about Yuanting? Just write the amount on the banknotes, and you can get wealth from the legs of the ignorant people... Why not use such convenient legs? Anyway, the people dare not disobey the laws of the Yuan Dynasty. Fa, and naively believe that his labor has indeed paid off."
"When the common 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?"
Empress Ma's brows were deeply furrowed, and Prince Zhu Biao was already dumbfounded: "Then... wouldn't that be a disguised form of plundering the people..."
"Bang!" Lao Zhu punched the table hard. "Li Shanchang! Those stupid officials in the Ministry of Revenue deserve to be killed! We asked them if there were any drawbacks to the banknote method, and they patted their chests and assured us, please don't.
If you send spam, there will definitely be no problem."
"Killing the people...isn't that a problem? Then is it 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 frightened by me!" Empress Ma patted the frightened Zhu Xiongying in her arms and comforted him while calming down Zhu's mood. "Korean Duke and the imperial court
The officials here may not have thought of that level. After all, for thousands of years, generations have thought that wealth only consists of gold and silver, who could have thought that far?"
"Besides, I didn't even think of going to that level. If Su'er hadn't made it clear, the Baochao Tribunal would have gone east. My Emperor Zhu might not have even known that he was harmed in the first place.
The people are very proud of themselves!"
"... We are not the emperor, nor are we the accountants!" Lao Zhu was stunned and argued with his neck stiffened. The anger that Ye Chang wanted to kill had been dissipated by Queen Ma. He thought about it for a while.
Bu Fu felt unhappy and murmured: "Those big turbans, you know what they are doing. We let them help manage such a big country, and they almost caused such a big mess!"
"It can be seen that the so-called 'half of the Analects of Confucius governs Tiandong' is not false." Zhu Biao shook his head and sighed. "There are many categories of talents in Tiandong. After all, it is impossible to understand every aspect just by reading the books of sages.
"
"Fifth brother, what I said before was to introduce hundreds of schools of thought to the Imperial College... Only now do you realize what I mean."
Now it seems that those 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 that Confucianism had held in his heart had almost been completely shattered.
"How can there be so many advantages in the world? All things that seem to be free often come at the heaviest price." Zhu Su concluded. "The treasure banknotes seem to be printed out.
, in fact, the price he needs is to win the trust of the people from the court."
"The more printing, the more trust is overdrafted, and the people become more and more resentful of the imperial court. At this time, they are proud, but one month they will beg for rebellion. The so-called 'opening of rivers becomes the source of money troubles' is no longer true."
"
With that said, Zhu Su went through the history of Lao Zhu’s issuance of treasure banknotes and the time when the treasure banknotes turned into waste paper in detail. The luck of the Ming Dynasty was obviously better than that of the Yuan Dynasty. During the period when the problems of the Ming Dynasty’s treasure banknotes began to explode,
It happened that Fuma was in the period when Emperor Zhu Di was in power.
Because Zhu Dicuo had extremely strong control over the country in the East, the court suppressed a series of turmoil caused by the collapse of the banknotes. Although the court continued to issue banknotes, the people no longer recognized it.
The treasure banknotes have basically been withdrawn from circulation, and they have not caused any major problems anymore.
But despite this, the credibility of the Ming Dynasty was also riddled with treasure banknotes. Many officials and petty officials used treasure banknotes to buy and sell by force, and robbed the people. The court also used treasure banknotes to distribute official salaries and wages according to the old Hongwu system.
Military household pay indirectly led to the Ming Dynasty officials, who had almost no official income, to regard corruption as a routine and earn "extra money" wantonly. Military households also misunderstood the imperial court's alienation.
Until hundreds of years later, a post military household named Li chose to rise up because he could no longer live in the East...
"Alas!" Lao Zhu sighed heavily. "That's not the bad policy of leaving things to our descendants!"
"It seems that the treasure money method is absolutely impossible."
"But what should we do with Ming Dynasty's empty treasury?"