Gao Shi enthusiastically welcomed Yuan Zai, and the two giants in Yangzhou City were enjoying themselves, which also made Gao Shi's subordinates feel relieved.
When the banquet was over, Gao Shi took Yuan Zai and asked:
"Gongfu, do you know about the money shortage in Jiangnan?"
Yuan Zai knew that this was the main topic of the banquet, and he sobered up a bit.
The money shortage in the south of the Yangtze River was also a problem Yuan Zai discovered from the official documents of the Ministry of Household Affairs before he took office.
In fact, Yuan Zai's predecessor Wu Qi had already discovered the money shortage problem in Jiangnan.
Since the first year of Emperor Kaiyuan's reign, the imperial court has continuously given furnace coins to Jiangnan in an attempt to solve the problem of money shortage in Jiangnan.
Furnace coins are the molds used for minting coins. When the imperial court gave furnace coins to Jiangnan, it was approval for Jiangnan to mint its own coins. As long as the coins minted met the court's copper content requirements, the money could flow into the monetary system of the Tang Dynasty.
The emperor once gave furnace coins to several areas in Jiangnan Province where trade was developed, and there was also a mint in Yangzhou that kept minting coins.
However, coinage also requires precious metals such as copper. The Jiangnan Mint once minted Kaiyuan Tongbao with a very low copper content. However, due to insufficient fineness, the money was called white money and lost its circulation value.
At the same time, the white money also brought the credit of the Jiangnan government to an even lower level. After that, the people of Jiangnan were often unwilling to use the new coins minted, and even if they knew how to use them, they would use them at a discount.
Because Jiangnan Baiqian's credit went bankrupt, Gao Shi was no longer able to issue additional coins to solve the money shortage.
The operation and settlement of the salt industry are also based on money, and the money shortage in Jiangnan is also a huge problem for Yuan Zai.
Yuan Zai also investigated along the way. The problem of money shortage in the Tang Dynasty was not limited to Jiangnan. The Bianzhou area with developed commerce along the waterway also faced the problem of low money and cheap goods.
"Use Shibosi to solve the problem of money outflow in the Tang Dynasty?" After hearing Gao Shi's "idea", Yuan Zai frowned and looked at the Jianghuai Military Envoy.
Jiedu envoys were in charge of military affairs, but often they were military generals and were not good at managing civil affairs.
The military governors in many places could not even manage the military, let alone manage civil affairs.
Gao Shi was truly worthy of being a civil servant who was transferred to a military position, and he was actually able to come up with such an insightful idea.
Looking at Gao Shi's excited eyes, Yuan Zai said: "Controlling the outflow of Tang coins through the Municipal Shipping Department, and organizing the official fleet of the Municipal Shipping Department to trade with surrounding countries to recover Tang coins. This method does not sound problematic."
"Is it really okay? Is there a sea ban imposed by the imperial court?"
Yuan Zai said with a smile: "When I left the capital, the Ministry of Revenue was already discussing the abolition of the maritime ban."
Gao Shi was overjoyed. The technical difficulty of sea trade was not high. There were already excellent ports and docks in the south of the Yangtze River. As long as the imperial court lifted the sea ban, it would soon be possible to organize a fleet to do business at sea.
Gao Shi quickly asked: "Why did the imperial court suddenly lift the sea ban?"
Yuan Zai said: "It's not the King of Yue who submitted a letter. When I left the capital, the King of Yue wrote a letter requesting the court to lift the maritime ban and submitted ten pros and cons of sea trade. After your majesty read it, he sent it to the Political Affairs Hall and the Ministry of Household Affairs for discussion. Maybe it will be passed.
The sea ban will be lifted in a few days."
King of Yue?
Gao Shi thought that Li Daoyuan, who presented him with sea-going ship drawings and proposed sea trade to solve the money shortage, seemed to be from Longyou as well. Is there any connection between this?
Probably not. Li Daoyuan is far away in Yangzhou. Even if he is a subordinate of the King of Yue, it is impossible for the King of Yue to cooperate like this. This should be a coincidence.
Gao Shi then said: "Gongfu, our shipping company has suffered a serious loss of talent since the ban on maritime trade. Do you have capable people under your command who can support the affairs of the shipping company?"
Now Yuan Zai understood what Gao Shi's attentiveness was for.
Technocrats who understood finance were quite scarce in the Tang Dynasty. Although Gao Shi proposed a plan to solve the money shortage problem through trade, no one under him could handle the trade.
In fact, this is normal. Gao Shi's men are all soldiers marching and fighting. It's okay to let them charge into battle. But let them read the account books of the Shipping Department. It's strange that they can understand it.
If you send someone who doesn't know what he's doing to the Shipping Department, he's probably going to be beaten to death by his subordinates.
Therefore, after Li Daoyuan proposed to Gao Shi to reorganize the Municipal Shipping Division, Gao Shi never took action against the Municipal Shipping Division.
Yuan Zai also frowned. He didn't have many staff who were proficient in finance and taxation. Moreover, he had just taken over the Jianghuai Salt Institute and still had a lot of things to deal with.
Just when Yuan Zai was about to reject Gao Shi's request, Gao Shi suddenly said:
"Actually, I had someone recommend someone to this section a few days ago. However, there are no people under Gao who are proficient in financial affairs, and there is no way to identify whether this person is good or bad, so I want to invite the public assistant to check it."
It turns out that Gao Shi, a dignified military envoy, held banquets and showed affection, just for this purpose.
However, this was a piece of cake for Yuan Zai, who was proficient in finance. He nodded and said, "In that case, Yuan will help Gao Jiedu to check whether this person is mediocre or talented."
Gao Shi was overjoyed and quickly offered Yuan Zai several glasses of wine. It was not until Yuan Zai was carried back to the Jiangnan Salt Courtyard by his family that the Fengfeng Banquet was successfully concluded.
Two days later, the tired Wang Yadong finally arrived in Yangzhou City.
Wang Yadong is not an economics major, but a senior keyboard warrior and amateur economist.
As a private economist who has read through "On Monetary Theory", Wang Yadong insists that economists other than Keynes are just talking nonsense.
After Wang Yadong entered the game, he gave himself the forum nickname "Kane" and debated with players in the forum every day.
Wang Yadong, a "folk economics master", naturally has a careful way of speaking, and even those with a professional background will be stained by his words. He has also repeatedly criticized Jiang Lun's economic policies in forums.
Such a keyboard warrior was buzzing on the forum every day, and Jiang Lun couldn't stand it, so he simply "recruited" him and let Wang Yadong enter Wangfu Bank.
Wang Yadong's "self-taught" economic theory will definitely be tortured by reality in modern society, but in the era of the Tang Dynasty, it was like a fish in water.
Wang Yadong was promoted to the vice president of Wangfu Bank based on his actual merit. He was also assigned the important task of opening up the Luoyang branch, but was sent to Luoyang by Jiang Lun.
Now Wang Yadong is naturally more arrogant. Perhaps because his work in Luoyang is not saturated, he spends more time trolling people on the forum.
This time Li Daoyuan asked for help, saying that Jiangnan needed a talent who was proficient in economics. Jiang Lun immediately contacted Wang Yadong.
When Wang Yadong heard about this opportunity, he jumped up.
There has been a popular theory among amateur economists that the origin of the modern state is the establishment of customs.
A sign that the West is moving towards a modern country is that after the establishment of customs to regulate import and export trade, the country has a policy-level grip, using an invisible hand to regulate and manipulate trade between countries.
The core of Keynesianism is the theory of using policy to find ways to benefit the country in international trade.
The customs office of the Tang Dynasty was the Shipping Department!
Jiang Lun asked him to interview for the position of director of Jiangnan Customs, and Wang Yadong naturally agreed excitedly.
After sending the invitation and recommendation letter from Li Daoyuan, Wang Yadong was immediately summoned by Gao Shi, the governor of Jianghuai.
After waiting in the side hall for a long time, Wang Yadong, led by the department officials, came to the Tiger Hall where Jiedushi summoned his subordinates.
All he saw was that in the bright and spacious Tang Dynasty, apart from Gao Shi who was interviewing him, there was also an official wearing a green official robe sitting there.
After Gao Shi's introduction, it turned out that the green-robed official was Yuan Zai, the salt and iron envoy from Jiangnan.
Wang Yadong secretly took a breath, Yuan Zai is a big shot!
Although he has not studied the history of the Tang Dynasty deeply, he has already made popular posts by players summarizing the great figures he could meet in this era.
On the normal historical line, Yuan Zai was the powerful prime minister in the reign of Emperor Daizong of the Tang Dynasty. Even the emperor had to use imperial guards to capture Yuan Zai before finally eradicating him. This shows how powerful Yuan Zai was during the reign of Emperor Daizong.
In addition to being proficient in political power, Yuan Zai was also a minister proficient in finance. The Two Taxes Law that later extended the life of the Tang Dynasty for two hundred years was also initiated by him during his tenure.
Unexpectedly, he met two big names during an interview. Wang Yadong suppressed his inner excitement.
After Wang Yadong saluted the two of them, he stood in the Tiger Hall with his hands lowered.
Gao Shi and Yuan Zai were also looking at Wang Yadong. Seeing that he was not very old, Gao Shi was a little disappointed.
However, Li Daoyuan left a deep impression on him. Since Wang Yadong was recommended by Li Daoyuan, Gao Shi still had expectations for him.
Gao Shi first asked: "Is Wang Lang from Longyou? I heard that a branch of the Wang family from Taiyuan moved to Longyou. Is there any relationship between Wang Lang and Zhuangyuan Gong?"
Wang Yadong shook his head and said: "Wang comes from a humble background and is not a child of aristocratic family."
Gao Shi was born in the Bohai Gao family and was a little disappointed that Wang Yadong did not come from a famous family.
However, Yuan Zai came from a poor family, so he felt a bit of admiration for Wang Yadong who spoke so frankly about his poor family background.
Gao Shi asked again: "Which great scholar did Wang Lang study under? Which classic did he study?"
Since he was not from a high-ranking family, he was a child of a famous teacher. In this era, the Tang Dynasty began to rely on background and academic qualifications when recommending officials.
But Wang Yadong still shook his head and said: "Wang does not have a famous teacher, he is self-taught!"
As an amateur economist, Wang Yadong looked down upon economics students with a bachelor's degree. He immediately replied.
Now Gao Shi was even more disappointed. He was not from a famous family and had no famous teachers. He also said that he was self-taught. It seemed that the guy recommended by Li Daoyuan was not a talented person.
Originally, Gao Shi was ready to end the interview and find a small official to kill Wang Yadong.
Yuan Zai suddenly asked: "Self-study, what kind of knowledge did Wang Lang learn?"
Wang Yadong immediately said loudly: "What Wang learned is the study of Guan Zhong, and what he learned is the art of enriching the country and the people!"