In the last book "Currency", Shao Shude talked about very conceptual things - and he only intended to write about conceptual things.
He still couldn't understand that many businessmen already had a basic understanding of these concepts in actual operations, and even had their own unique understandings. Why not publish a book?
In fact, this is true not only in business, but also in many other aspects.
Since no one is doing it, he will do it.
Businessmen may understand currency, but officials may not. For officials, there is no need for advanced theories, just understand conceptual things, so as not to make people laugh and make decisions that slap their heads.
After completing this book and before starting to write "The Population Trap", Shao Shude once wanted to write another introductory book on currency, business, and credit, but based on the previous reason, he gave up.
Today's world does not have the ability to fully use metal currency, and the stock is not enough.
In the late twelfth month of the twelfth lunar month, when the book "Currency" was completely finished and the four books "Commerce", "Land Rent", "Taxation" and "Population" were just beginning, Du Xiao, the Minister of Household Affairs, took several Zuo Er
The official arrived early - he succeeded his brother Du Guangyi as the Minister of Household Affairs at the beginning of this year. His brother's heart rash became more and more serious and he had to go home to recuperate.
That night, he received a handwritten copy of "Currency" and read it all through the night.
On the 23rd of the twelfth lunar month, Shao Shude summoned officials from the Ministry of Revenue in Penglai Hall.
"Have you finished reading the book?" Shao Shude asked bluntly.
"I've finished reading it," Du Xiao replied.
In fact, not only did he finish reading it, but several ministers, lieutenants, and ministers also each made a copy of it and went back.
"How about it?"
"Your Majesty doesn't want to abolish silk and promote money, right?"
Shao Shude laughed when he heard this and asked, "Do I look so stupid?"
Du Xiao was speechless.
He knew that the saint had always had a special liking for silver coins and derived such things as silver dollar bills.
Of course, Du Guangyi supports some of the saint’s policies——
Thirty years ago, in order to alleviate the money shortage, the Saint vigorously promoted the centralized transaction and accounting currency model, which greatly reduced the demand for metal currency among the people.
Thirty years later, businessmen have gradually become familiar with and recognized this model, because it is really convenient for business transactions.
Over the past thirty years, this habit and cognition have been continuously strengthened, so that now the credit of silver dollar bills has greatly increased, and they can be directly traded.
But - it can only go so far.
The saint's actions greatly alleviated the money shortage, which was a blessing to the people of the world and a great kindness to the merchants. But if you want to say that directly using silver dollars as currency is unreliable, Du Xiao disagrees.
Fortunately, the saint is also very sober.
"I know that silver dollar bills are not yet currency, but just a kind of credit certificate. There is no essential difference from the flying tickets issued by Jinzouyuan in various towns in the former Tang Dynasty." Shao Shude said: "In the next few decades or even more than a hundred years, silver dollar bills will become more and more popular."
It will always be circulated within a very small range, and most people in the world will never see its true identity, or even hear about it."
"Then - why did Your Majesty write this book?" Du Xiao asked curiously.
The content of the book is very white, and even the diction is awkward, making it difficult to read. Moreover, it seems that too many new words have been created, which makes people confused.
"I'm old..." Shao Shude only said one sentence.
Du Xiaoran felt sad and wanted to say something, but felt it was inappropriate.
"So I want to leave something behind. Even if it is not suitable now, when conditions are ripe in the future, maybe someone will remember this book." Shao Shude continued.
In fact, as he said, if we work hard now and lay a solid foundation, maybe in a hundred years, metal currency can gradually squeeze cloth and grain, which are very difficult to use, out of the market, and let them slowly become history.
This is the reason why Shao Shude wrote "Currency": to popularize various concepts and principles in the field of metal currency and to educate officials.
Don't overestimate the knowledge of officials.
Officials from the history of reading the Bible know almost nothing about economics, and it is easy to engage in all kinds of sleazy operations. It is not that they are deliberately causing trouble or deliberately messing up, they really don't understand.
"Don't say those depressing words." Shao Shude smiled and added: "I wrote a way to make money in the book. Maybe a hundred years from now, a certain prime minister will be able to grasp the essence after reading the book and serve the court.
increase income."
"Legal currency and seigniorage?" Du Xiao asked.
"Exactly this thing." Shao Shude said: "Don't underestimate it. If you operate it well, the court's income will greatly increase and it can solve a lot of troubles. With more money, many troubles will disappear."
Shao Shude always felt that the Ming Dynasty wasted its unique conditions.
The massive inflow of Japanese silver—the Manila galleon trade did not actually provide much silver, after all, only 1-2 ships every two years—made the Ming Dynasty the first dynasty in Chinese history to be able to truly implement metal currency.
, but they wasted...
The Ming Dynasty only had silver and no currency.
First, there were no coins of various denominations minted at the national level - what Shao Shude called "fiat currency" in his book "Currency".
This is the source of all chaos.
Because there is no legal currency, the people are messing around on their own, cutting silver at will, silver beans, silver coins, etc., flooding everywhere.
Compared with the West at the same time, even a small city-state would mint its own legal currency. Currency exchange offices can be found everywhere. When foreign merchant ships arrive, the first thing they do is to exchange local silver coins. Currency exchange offices conduct random inspections.
, use chemical methods to test the silver content of silver coins, and then give an exchange rate.
By the time of the Ming Dynasty, Amsterdam had already had the exchange rates of more than a dozen major silver coins, which were announced regularly.
For example, the French were financially strapped due to the war, so they minted a large number of low-quality French currency "Livres" with less silver content. After the news spread, the exchange rate of Livres in the Amsterdam market immediately plummeted.
In the field of finance and finance, the Ming Dynasty and Western countries in the mid-term were far from the same level.
Why does this happen?
If unprofessional people do unprofessional things, this will happen.
Therefore, it is very necessary to educate officials and enable them to establish basic financial knowledge.
"Your Majesty, is there any way to get a lot of silver now?" Du Xiao suddenly asked.
"There is no way." Shao Shude pointed at him with a smile and said: "There are more than a hundred silver mines in the country, the ones that produce silver stably are only thirty or forty, and there are only a few places that produce large amounts of silver. And what about the surrounding areas? The small ones are small.
Let’s not talk about the source of silver, let’s talk about the big ones. Currently, there is only one in Japan. Moreover, it has only been a few years since they discovered the silver mine, and the quality is very poor. I am worried for them. If there is silver, they cannot dig it out, and the quality of the refined silver is poor.
,well!"
"There are rumors in Luoyang that the Tocharians have a big silver mine there, I don't know..."
"It's not a rumor, it's true. That place is called Panjshir Valley." Shao Shude said: "It may not be much smaller than Japan's Silver Mountain. Of course, this is just a guess. I have never been there, so I don't know for sure."
"Then can..."
"Haha!" Shao Shude laughed and said: "During the Western Expedition, you kept trying to persuade me. What? Are you anxious now?"
Du Xiao was a little embarrassed.
"It's actually useless." Shao Shude suddenly sighed and said: "Silver needs to be accumulated. Even if the Panjshir Valley and the Japanese Silver Mountains belong to me, what's the use? Without hundreds of years of continuous inflow and accumulation of silver, what's the point?
Is it enough? I’m old and can’t wait for that day.”
In fact, Shao Shude had very low requirements for Daxia's economic officials.
If one day, enough precious metals flow into Daxia to enter the Silver Age, the imperial court will begin to mint legal currency (silver coins).
Stop using fucking bullion.
Gold and silver bullion is not currency, it is legal tender. This concept must be understood clearly.
He believed that as long as this concept was understood, officials would be motivated to mint legal tender because they could collect seigniorage.
After the introduction of legal tender, in order to collect seigniorage, the imperial court would strictly prohibit private coinage of currency and crack down on the use of gold and silver bullion transactions. This was something that had happened in Western history.
Businessmen who have accumulated a large amount of legal currency will not choose to melt it down, because this will cause losses - assuming that the official rule is that one yuan of legal currency can be exchanged for one tael of silver, but in fact, the weight of one yuan of legal currency often does not reach one tael.
level, and it also contains 10-20% base metals, which is the source of seigniorage.
The Ming Dynasty won't even collect seigniorage, so I don't know what to say.
The book "Currency" not only popularized the concept, but also pointed out to future generations an important financial source of the imperial court (seigniorage).
Shao Shude believes that no one will be stupid enough not to implement legal tender... right?
"Are you still opposed to me toiling in the Western Regions?" After sighing, Shao Shude, who was just a little depressed, suddenly remembered the white buttocks that Queen Gao of Bohai took the initiative to extend, and the little pepper Cai Bangshi grinned at him.
He looked refreshed and said, "I'm not old yet, and I can still play with women, so I changed my tone and said, "The Western Region is very important to Daxia, and I can't give it up. Do you realize it now?"
Du Xiao was silent for a moment, then stood up and saluted, saying: "Your Majesty, I have little knowledge and now I know that I was wrong."
Shao Shude looked at him for a long time and praised: "Du Qing has the world in mind, so he is a good minister."
What he said meant something.
In fact, for officials and scholar-bureaucrats, is it important whether there is metal currency? In fact, it is not that important.
Being self-sufficient and squeezing the common people like serfs can also maintain their high quality of life. After all, what people ultimately consume is physical goods, and currency is just a medium of exchange.
From the perspective of scholar-bureaucrats, any drastic changes in society will not please them.
It is true that change may bring benefits to them, but it may also bring disadvantages.
As a person with vested interests, a big family and a big business, stability is the most important thing, and he is naturally averse to all kinds of risks.
In their view, it is best for society to continue like this until the end of the world, because its trajectory is completely predictable and they can still maintain wealth. In British society in the 18th century, there were many traditional aristocrats who fell into poverty. In order to maintain a so-called decent life, they
It can be seen from this that he had to borrow money from businessmen.
It was very difficult for Du Xiao to speak from the perspective of the court and the world, so Shao Shude called him a "good minister".
But Du Xiao can only represent himself, not others.
Will other officials and scholar-bureaucrats hold the same position as him? Not necessarily.
Therefore, Shao Shude wanted to wake them up from their dream.
Why are you pretending to be an ostrich? Can you not see the three-hundred-year cycle of chaos? Do you think that if you bury your head in the sand, all this will not happen? What a joke!
Stop lying to yourself.
The life of men farming and women weaving will not last forever, and conflicts will eventually break out.
Shao Shude didn't think he could reverse this trend, but he believed that when the Great Xia Dynasty fell, he could leave more things to the world, so his visit to this world would be worthwhile - as he once said,
I pay for my own debauchery.
A dynasty is a dynasty, and the world is a world. Shao Shude still makes a clear distinction.
The book "Population" is specially prepared for those traditional scholar-officials.
Next, he will give priority to writing this book and try to finish it before the Chinese New Year. It is only tens of thousands of words, but it explains the essence of the cycle of chaos.
Don’t they all care about family inheritance?
Don’t they all think about future generations?
After reading this book, can you still sit still?
If you can't sit still, should you think of something to do?
Now that Daxia has just been established, the conflicts have been greatly alleviated. You can all enjoy wealth and honor, but what about future generations? Although it may not be possible to completely resolve this conflict, it is good to let it be delayed in the future. Why don't you hurry up and get to work?