I am Da Song

Chapter 165
When it came to currency reform, Zhao Huan felt that he had to intervene forcefully.

Although Yang Shi was talented, experienced, and experienced, his knowledge was far from being comparable to that of Zhao Huan due to the limitations of the times.

Let him preside over the currency reform, and he will definitely recast copper coins.It is a waste of money and outdated by the times.

Even in the West, London began to use paper money a few hundred years later.

The highly developed economy in the East has already laid a sufficient foundation for the circulation of banknotes.

Jiaozi from Sichuan in the Song Dynasty is very popular in the local area.A hundred years later, in the Yuan Dynasty, the state directly stipulated that banknotes were the official currency.

Since then, Yuan, Ming, and Qing dynasties have all vigorously promoted banknotes. The precious banknotes of the Ming Dynasty and the silver notes of the Qing Dynasty were all very popular for a while.

In particular, the existence of treasure banknotes laid the foundation for the rule of Hongwu in the Ming Dynasty.

The final collapse of paper money in all dynasties was not due to the disadvantages of paper money itself.On the contrary, because of the advantage of the low cost of paper money, the unrestrained excessive issuance of paper money by the central court made it lose its value.

On the contrary, the krone issued by Denmark, a descendant of the Western Vikings, has been very successful and has withstood the test of nearly a thousand years.

The reason is not that Krona has any advantages.He also just bound the value of krona with silver.The most important thing is that Denmark recycles currency in a controlled manner and does not issue it indiscriminately.

This made Zhao Huan, an orientaler, have heard of the name of Krona.

So Zhao Huan said to Yang Shi: "As for the new currency, I plan to follow Jiaozi's example and issue banknotes, named the Great Song Emperor Banknotes."

The reason why it is called the emperor's banknote is that Zhao Huan intends to print his own face on the banknote.

After all, who can deny that their own face is printed on banknotes?

And this can also let the people know which emperor they are loyal to.

It is much easier to print a head on a banknote than on a gold coin, and there is no technical difficulty in this.

Yang Shi just couldn't accept that the whole country replaced all currencies with paper money for a while, and said: "The folks are used to measuring in terms of text and consistency, so it may be difficult to accept paper money in a hurry."

Zhao Huan disagreed with this view.Under the feudal small-scale peasant economy, there will not be a big gap between the first and last hundred years.Since the Yuan Dynasty could accept banknotes, the Song Dynasty must also be able to.Moreover, it is difficult to say that the economy of the Yuan Dynasty can surpass that of the Song Dynasty today.It's just that people's habit of using banknotes has not yet been developed.

Zhao Huan calmly analyzed: "It's not that the folks don't have the habit of using banknotes, it's just that Jixiang didn't regard it as orthodox. Regardless of Jiaozi in Sichuan, just look at the world. Jixiang thinks that the closest thing to banknotes is what?"

Yang Shi was well-informed and quick-witted all his life, so he quickly thought of the key point.It is circulated in all directions, owned by the world, and it is made of paper. The answer is ready to come out: "Guanjia refers to Yanyin?"

"That's right, it's Yanyin. Ji Xiang also said just now that the most circulated currency in the Hedong area is Yanyin."

"Salt is a national treasure, and I plan to use salt to anchor the price of imperial banknotes. As long as the people take imperial banknotes to the government, they will definitely be able to exchange them for salt, and it will be cheaper."

Yang Shixin had a feeling, and said: "If so, the emperor's banknotes can be regarded as a more popular salt."

"That's right. If Hedong Yanyin is extended to the whole country and used as the national unified currency, then Yanyin will be the emperor's banknote. However, the emperor's banknote goes a step further and will be divided into Guan, Zhu and Wen according to the habits of the people."

"Guan is to print a string of copper coins on the emperor's banknotes, Zhu is to print a hundred Wen copper coins on the emperor's banknotes, and Wen is to print a Yansong Wufang coin on the emperor's banknotes." Such a great method, of course, was copied by Zhao Huan in the later Ming Dynasty. .

Further up, Zhao Huan did not intend to continue printing.Once it is counterfeited, it will do too much harm to the people.Although it was rare to print counterfeit banknotes in the classical era, after all, unlike the easy punishment of later generations, imitating counterfeit banknotes in feudal dynasties would really be defeated by the rulers, and even punished by the Lingchi clan.

Despicable people have no ability to imitate, and scholar-bureaucrats who have the ability to imitate have too many safer ways to make money.

On the contrary, the government can rely on the advantage of low printing costs to print a large number of new coins to replace the complicated currencies in the world with an absolute advantage in quantity.

Compared with imperial banknotes, other currencies have a disadvantage that cannot be equalized, that is, their minting costs are high.Whether it is iron money or copper money, they are all made of metal smelting in the final analysis.

In the era of feudal small farmers, iron and steel smelting was a heavy financial pressure.Whether it is transporting ore or smelting metal, it will consume a lot of manpower and material resources.

The emperor's banknote is in line with the backward infrastructure of the Song Dynasty, and the court only needs to consider how to promote it.

Yang Shi asked: "The government intends to use salt to anchor the price of imperial banknotes. Is it because they intend to abandon the official operation of salt and iron?"

Zhao Huan smiled brightly and said: "After listening to Qing's plan for merging taxes and levying silver according to mu, I believe that there will never be any shortage of financial revenue in the Holy Dynasty. The imperial court will not need to use salt and iron to maintain finances." income."

Anything that is officially run means expensive.The price of salt in the Song Dynasty was more than ten times that of the Liao and Jin countries, and it had been fighting with Xixia for years. In the final analysis, it was all because of this official system of salt and iron.

Now that Song Dynasty even dared to look forward to the super tax scale of [-] million strings, naturally there was no need to use high salt prices to maintain fiscal revenue.

Zhao Huan could even imagine how ecstatic the common people would be when they heard that they could buy salt for only a tenth, or even a few tenths, of the usual price.

Therefore, Zhao Huan ordered: "From now on, all the people in the four directions can go to the salt field to pay salt with the emperor's banknote. The salt field must pay salt to them based on the same effect as the salt."

"If this is the case, the emperor's banknotes and Yanyin are more and more similar. Salt merchants only need to bring tens of thousands of imperial banknotes, and they can buy a large amount of salt when they go to the salt field. In this way, the imperial court is only in charge of the salt field, and officials from various government offices such as transshipment and sales are also responsible. It can be streamlined and abolished.”

"This is a big matter. Please try it out in the Hedong and Gyeonggi areas first." Yang Shi said cautiously.

Zhao Huan nodded. This large-scale reform must be piloted first, and it is impossible to make it easier overall.Otherwise, once a problem occurs, the imperial court's financial system will collapse as a whole.

"This is exactly the significance of the imperial court's recovery of Hedong. Starting from Hedong, taxation and currency reforms are easier to be accepted by the people."

It's interesting to say that, the organization that issued currency in the Song Dynasty actually made Yantiesi.The big merchants in Hedong, when they went to fetch Yanyin, found that what they got was the currency enforced by the government. I am afraid that their jaws would drop to the ground in surprise.

But after letting go of the salt and iron official camp, Da Song no longer has to worry about Zhang Shicheng's murderous big salt lords and private salt dealers who sell salt with large and small armed forces.

After setting the national tax, Zhao Huan was in a relaxed mood, and told Yang Shi, "Master Ji will devote himself to studying commercial tax in the next few months. From then on, I will formulate a professional industrial and commercial tax."

"The [-] million national tax is just a guarantee for the court's tax revenue. Whether it can achieve [-] billion fiscal revenue in the future depends on the industrial and commercial tax."

Fiscal spending of tens of billions?Yang Shi was so shocked by the grand goal of the officials that he almost lost his mind.

Where have the officials seen such a huge financial project?
If Da Song Guo can achieve such a magnificent feat, what is the point of going far away from the Han and Tang Dynasties?Ping Bahuang and sweeping Liuhe are no problem!
(End of this chapter)