Chaos of the Three Kingdoms Summons

Chapter 2430: The First Year of Yuanshi, the Economy Moves South

"Your Majesty, the copper coins, ingots, and silver notes are all being produced. Once the samples are ready, they will be sent to Your Majesty for preview..."

While speaking, Guan Zhong also presented the design of the new currency he designed.

Although the embryo sample seal has not been typed yet, the design drawing is already available.

Li Xiang took a close look at the design drawing of the copper coin, which was the key to coinage.

In fact, the Jin Dynasty used very little silver. It was only used by the imperial court and merchants for large-scale mobilization. Ordinary people often used copper coins to each other. After all, the economy was not developed in troubled times and there was no large-scale flow of money.

With the living standards of the common people, the spare money in their pockets is at most a few copper coins. Things like gold and silver have basically nothing to do with them.

However, even so, the copper coins and silver on the market are extremely complicated, with varying qualities, and are very chaotic.

Let’s not talk about silver for now. After all, the people don’t mainly use it for circulation. But the copper coins on the market are also in chaos. If the economy wants to recover quickly, this chaos must be rectified.

The problem of copper coins on the market is directly linked to this chaotic world.

Each prince basically has his own copper coin system.

For example, their Great Jin Dynasty launched the Shenlong copper coin shortly after its founding.

Other princes also had their own copper coins, and the sizes and weights of these coins varied, including large and small coins of all kinds.

After unifying the Central Plains and the South, the most mainstream currencies in today's Jin Dynasty include three types. Among them, the original Shenlong version of the Jin Dynasty occupies half of the market, while the currencies originally belonging to Zhao Kuangyin and Zhu Yuanzhang's forces occupy 45% of the market.

As for the remaining half of the market, it is other small-scale currencies, or the currencies of the remaining princes.

After surviving the epidemic, these currency problems also need to be urgently resolved by them.

Therefore, under Guan Zhong's suggestion, Li Xiang planned to launch Yuanshi Tongbao, and gradually exchange all the currencies circulating on the market from the hands of the people, and then melt them down and reforge the currency.

Yuanshi, this is Li Xiang's reign title, the second reign title after Shenlong. And this year is the first year of Yuanshi.

Yuan means origin. Shi means the beginning. It is the beginning of the universe and the beginning of the primordial energy, so it is called Yuanshi. Yuanshi is the reign title, which also symbolizes that after the epidemic, Dajin will have a new beginning.

However, the title Yuanshi was also a reign title used by other emperors in history.

Shenlong is okay, at least the owner of this era name is hundreds of years later. At least for now, no one has used this era name. Li Xiang is the first one.

But the reign title Yuanshi is different. It is the reign title of Emperor Ping of Han in history and it is a reign title that has appeared before.

Of course, Li Xiang didn’t care about the use of the reign title of Shenlong, and now he doesn’t care about the use of the reign title of Yuanshi either.

Even if this era name has been used by someone, so what?
As long as he can unify the world, establish a unified dynasty, create a foundation for all things, and build a prosperous situation, in the future, his life will be forever, and when people mention Yuanshi, they will only remember him, Li Xiang, and no one else.

Just like when later generations mention Wu Mu, they will only remember Yue Fei, not others. Even many people think that Wu Mu refers specifically to Yue Fei. But in fact, there are many people in history who have been given the name Wu Mu.

"Your Majesty, once the embryo is born, I estimate that within one month, all the old money in Sizhou will be recovered and exchanged for the new money.

Within three months, the states of Liang, Yong, Bing, He and Yi will be able to complete the exchange.

Within a year, the new currency will be fully introduced throughout the country. From then on, in our Great Jin, there will only be Yuanshi Tongbao..." Wang Meng said confidently.

Guan Zhong is about to go far away to the Central Plains, so this matter will probably fall on him.

However, he also understood the importance of coinage, which was directly related to the speed of economic recovery.

When Wang Meng said this, Li Xiang couldn't help but interrupt, "How many silver notes, silver treasures, and copper coins should be issued? You must make a detailed plan. You can't just throw them all out at once. You have to assess the capacity in the market. Don't devalue the value, which is disguised as too high prices..."

That is what is called inflation.

Strictly speaking, at this time, there was a shortage of money in the Dajin market. Li Xiang was not afraid of austerity, but was afraid of expansion.

They have just experienced an epidemic. If inflation occurs by accident, they, the Great Jin, will not be able to hold on. This concerns the fundamentals of the economy and must be handled with caution.

As for silver bills, in fact, with the current level of economic development, the demand for silver bills is not great. Only a small number of people can use silver bills.

For ordinary people, copper coins were their main currency. They hardly used gold and silver, let alone silver notes. Even for lower-ranking officials or some small businessmen, gold and silver were enough to meet their market needs, and they did not need silver notes at all.

However, since the coins had to be re-coined, Li Xiang thought of the silver notes again, so he might as well launch them together.

With the current level of economic development, although the demand is not great, when the economy develops to a certain level in the future, there will always be a need for silver bills.

Not to mention, Li Xiang’s plan for the next step in economic recovery and rectification of the administration in the Central Plains is to vigorously develop the south.

As a person from later generations, he certainly knew how great the economic potential of the South was.

After the first economic migration to the south, the development speed of the south soared. And after the second economic migration to the south, the south's contribution to the feudal court's tax revenue was incomparable to that of the north.

Although in history, the first time the economic center moved southward, the Five Barbarians' Invasion was a very direct reason.

Although judging from the current situation, Li Xiang is confident that there will be no Five Barbarians Invasion in the future of the Great Jin Dynasty. The Five Barbarians Invasion is only the direct reason for the economic migration to the south, and it is by no means the fundamental reason. Even if there was no Five Barbarians Invasion, the South would not be silent. The economic migration to the south is only a matter of time, it may be later, but it will definitely not disappear.

As for Li Xiang, he is well aware of the economic development potential in the south and wants to take the initiative to promote this process.

Wang Meng responded, "Yes, I am discussing with the Ministry of Revenue. Based on the tax revenues of previous years and the commercial taxes of recent years, I plan to issue a silver note of 1 million taels this year to test the waters."

Li Xiang nodded slightly. Wang Meng's actions were still rather conservative, which was not in line with his style. But that was understandable. After all, this was the first time in the history of the world.

In particular, the current Jin Dynasty could no longer withstand the turmoil, and the ministers under it had to be conservative.