Haisheng Mingdi

Chapter 210 Seigniorage

Private minters will recycle good money and melt it into private money.

And if the money cast by the imperial court uses too much material and its value exceeds the value of the currency, then unscrupulous businessmen will melt the copper coins to make copper wares for profit.

How to find a balance is very difficult.

Therefore, the successive dynasties issued new copper coins with different ratios of fineness and materials, just to find a balance in the middle. To achieve a relative conversion ratio.

For example, Chongzhen Tongbao is too worthless now, so he has to increase his copper materials, or even increase the weight, etc., so as to increase the value of copper coins and increase the price, and finally reach the desired ratio, such as one tael of silver for one thousand yuan.

But now that the Ming Dynasty has collapsed like this, who cares about the currency.

The imperial court simply doesn't want to see copper coins, and uses silver for taxation, etc., and occasionally prints some precious banknotes to deceive people, but such things as precious banknotes have long since lost their credibility. It's just itchy.

Coin minting originally has a large profit margin, and if it is managed properly, it will be a fortune.And if the court is stable and has good credit, it can even issue banknotes, and issue more banknotes with a small amount of reserves, which is more beneficial.

It's a pity that the emperors of the Ming Dynasty were short-sighted, and the treasures were worthless during the Hongwu period, let alone other things.Even the copper coins were ruined by them, and they lost a lot of seigniorage in vain.

Zhu Yihai looked at the foreign silver, and asked for a lot of copper coins, including Jiajing coins, Wanli coins, Chongzhen coins that were light and fragile, and many imitation private mint coins.

The currency chaos not only affects the business and people's livelihood, but also loses a large amount of financial revenue in vain, so I can't help but feel distressed.

"Yu Qing, is the imperial court capable of casting new copper coins?"

It is a normal operation for the emperor and the courtiers, and for the emperor to mint a year coin. Yu Dafu didn't think much about it, "Of course, but now the war is raging, copper is in short supply, and many workers are lost. It is not easy to mint money, and The cost is high, and there are many private castings, so there is little profit, and even a loss of money.”

Zhu Yihai nodded.

After returning, he began to think carefully about the currency. Daming has been inseparable from silver for a long time now, and the silver standard cannot be changed, but the current currency system is indeed too chaotic.

He wants to reorganize the monetary system, preferably with silver and copper coins. If it is done well, it will not only help business and people's livelihood, but also get rich seigniorage from it. Wouldn't it be good?

The first thing he thought of was to imitate Yinyang to mint silver coins, stipulate the face value of the currency, and trade according to the face value, instead of complicated identification, color lifting, water weighing or even cutting for use.

If silver coins can be circulated, casting silver coins is the same as casting copper coins, in which the color and face value can be adjusted, which is profitable.

As long as you don't make it too exaggerated when you start it, then it should be acceptable.

Originally, some merchants among the people began to use self-made silver cakes. They are well-made and have exclusive anti-counterfeiting marks.

If Zhu Yihai made it directly like foreigners' silver coins, for example, a coin with a denomination of one tael of silver and a weight of one tael, but in reality, some copper could be added. It is stronger and wear-resistant, and it can properly retain some minting benefits.

It is stipulated that the value of a silver dollar is one tael of full grain silver, so that the actual fineness of a silver dollar is two or four precipitation, which is the opposite of two or four silver coins, which is two or four precipitation. Wenyin 100 taels.

This silver dollar is 100 taels less than four taels, and it does not rain when it is actually used. It is stipulated that although it contains silver and folded silver, it is only 95 taels, but it is used as 100 taels of silver. These four taels include copper materials and wages. Silver coin margins, etc.,

There must be a lot of benefits.

As long as Zhu Yihai announces that silver dollars can be exchanged for silver indefinitely, then his credit can be improved. As long as everyone accepts it, the circulation will increase, and the profit will be obtained.

Then, based on the Ming silver dollar as the standard anchor, the materials and components of the new copper coins were drawn up. For example, the copper coins before the Ming Dynasty were made of brass or red copper, and then lead was added.

Cast brass coins and red copper coins.

But later in history, the Tatars added tin to it, turning brass coins into bronze coins. If this kind of copper-lead-tin co-cast money is melted again, it cannot be made into bronze wares, which prevents the copper coins from being destroyed. Caster.

According to the cost of materials, the fineness of copper, lead and tin is properly adjusted, and finally the cost of labor and other costs is calculated, and a certain amount of minting profit is left. In theory, it is completely possible to exchange one thousand copper coins for one tael of silver.

From [-] renminbi to one tael of silver, or [-] renminbi to one tael of Jiajing gold-backed copper coins, to [-] renminbi to one tael of silver, the new copper coins must have more materials and more valuable money. It attracts a large number of private castings. Even if tin is added to prevent damage to the castings, private castings will be a problem.

Of course, as long as the profit margin inside is kept to the right level, and the crackdown is increased, a good balance can still be achieved.

Compared with the kind of forced casting of big money, it is better to directly rob money such as casting hundreds or fifty.

Zhu Yihai wants to mint new currency, not only wants to make a fortune from it, but also wants to stabilize the currency system and stabilize the stability in the ruling area.

Of course, you can also make fake money by yourself, making some crude private coins to circulate in the occupied areas of the Tartars, messing up their market.

There is actually no problem with the technical aspects of casting silver coins. No matter how silver coins are minted, they are better than copper coins. Even if the value of silver coins is increased, such as one tael, five cents, two cents, and one cent are added, but the lowest one is one cent. For silver denominations, it is at least equivalent to a hundred copper coins.

Thinking about it differently, Zhu Yihai felt that he could actually mint more big coins, such as two copper coins, five copper coins, ten coins, and twenty coins.It is not simply to cast big money to rob the people, but to increase the copper content, such as changing hole coins into copper coins, increasing the copper content, the weight of coins, etc., to increase its own value and reach the value of the corresponding currency value, then no longer It is to steal money, but to enrich the denomination of currency to facilitate transactions.

After all, a silver coin of one penny is worth at least one hundred copper coins, so between a silver dollar and a penny, there must be some intermediate units to make the transaction more convenient.

If the common people no longer shred silver and use it, there must be a reasonable intermediate unit of currency, but it is impossible to make silver coins into five cents and two cents, so the copper coins should be made larger.

Even copper coins such as [-] Wen and [-] Wen can be mixed with silver to increase their actual value.

Zhu Yihai devoted himself to research all night long, and at noon the next day, he called Yu Dafu, Chen Qianfu, Fang Fengnian, Xu Shiqi, Shen Chenquan and others with red eyes.

Then he solemnly took out his coinage plan.

Seeing his seriousness, everyone thought it was the latest national new policy.

They were a little dazed after seeing the coin reform, and felt that the current priority was too urgent to care about the money system, but after they read it carefully, they all felt a sense of enlightenment.

Zhu Yihai has great ambitions. After this system of silver and copper coins is established, official bills can be set up in the future, that is, paper money will be issued, but they are not treasure bills, but exchange certificates, which are marked with the denomination like silver coins, and directly printed on them. It is stated that it is redeemable on demand, that is, a voucher that can be repaid indefinitely.

It is not banknotes, so theoretically it does not use reserve funds, but how many cash vouchers are printed as much silver in the treasury. The issuance and circulation of vouchers is for the convenience of transactions.

But in fact, it can be operated like banknotes, such as using [-]% silver as a reserve and issuing more vouchers, because in theory, the more issued, the lower the possibility of simultaneous exchange, as long as it does not happen For a run, with [-]% to [-]% of the reserve fund, it is completely possible to issue two or three times the number of exchange certificates.

As long as the number of these super-issued exchange coupons does not exceed a certain scale, it is theoretically money.

Of course, there is no condition to take it out now, so it was not written in the plan.

It only says that silver is used as the standard, and patterned silver is used as the basic unit of calculation. The silver dollar is minted, and one yuan is equal to one or two patterns of silver.

But when used, it is used as one tael of silver, and can be exchanged for one tael of silver unconditionally.As for the casting of new copper coins that exchange one thousand for one tael, a set of copper coins will be minted, a large copper coin with two, five, and ten coins, and a silver-copper coin with silver at [-], [-], and [-].

"My lords, if this set of coins can be successfully circulated, it will not only solve the current chaotic currency circulation problem, but also help business transactions and people's lives, especially the imperial court can get a lot of interest from it.

I have calculated it alone, and interest of one million taels of silver a year is not a problem. "

Everyone's eyes widened when they heard that they could earn 100 million taels a year.

Xu Shiqi couldn't help asking, "Is this robbing folk wealth?"

"No, if you make a lot of money in Baoquan, if you count ten as a hundred, that's called stealing money. This coinage method just keeps some interest on the coins. It's the same as copper coins. The more money you mint, the more you accumulate. For the common people, the new coins will not have any impact at all, and it can even make life more convenient. Although one tael of silver contains only [-] silver, he can exchange it for one tael of silver at any time."

"This money can also be used to pay food, taxes and other services. Do you think this can be called robbery?"

If it doesn't affect the common people, that's not called robbery.

There is no reserve fund for treasure banknotes, which are printed casually and then exchanged for materials in the hands of the people, or distributed to soldiers as military pay and officials as salaries, that is called money grabbing.

"Why not just mint coins like Baoyin or Jinhuayin?" Xu Shiqi couldn't react for a while, because he was old after all.

Zhu Yihai chuckled, and directly cast it into Jinhuayin or Baoyin. Firstly, the denomination is too large and inconvenient to circulate, and secondly, isn't it profitable?
If I mint one or two taels of silver, the face value is still one or two taels, so don't I have to bear the cost of fire?
This is not a loss?

Of course, it is the imperial court that is really losing money, and the local officials earn a lot of money every year by relying on this fire consumption. Therefore, Zhu Yihai really wants to make silver and copper coins, and those local officials may be the most opposed. After all, silver dollars will no longer be converted into fineness. And melting and casting precious silver and golden flower silver, there are many links that can make money missing in the middle.

In the past, everyone kept cutting silver ingots into broken silver, and then melted the broken silver into silver ingots, repeatedly collecting fire consumption, which was to rob the court of seigniorage in disguise.

But Zhu Yihai felt that the current currency system was more advanced and more profitable for the imperial court, and even conversely, it could greatly reduce and reduce the links of official corruption and oppression of the people, so it was naturally worth implementing.

Yu Dafu understood.

"His Royal Highness's strategy for the new currency system has been written in detail and clearly. From the perspective of casting technology, there is indeed no problem now, and if coins are minted according to this method, the market will indeed be stabilized, the people will be more convenient, and the court will benefit from it. Just like this, it may affect the income of countless officials, after all, fire consumption is a lot of money." He said truthfully.

"Gu has already returned all the fire consumption to the public, and readjusted the distribution of fire consumption, fully taking into account their interests, and gave some compensation. If they only want to embezzle and make money, then Gu will not be tolerant to them. "

"Since the new money law is beneficial to the country and the people, there is no reason not to implement it. Yu Qing, I plan to build a new mint to be responsible for the reform of the new currency system and the minting and issuance. At that time, I will also build a household bank to be in charge of issuing, Exchange, etc., this matter is up to you to take the lead."

Xu Shiqi has also understood it thoroughly, and agrees with Yu Dafu's opinion, but he is already old, and he still supports Jian Guo's statement. Since it is beneficial to the country and the people, why not do it?
Although he wanted to grab money from officials all over the world, if he could grab a million taels a year, it was worth grabbing. He was even willing to take the lead in the battle.

At this time, I took the initiative to invite you, and I am willing to take the lead and host together.

This is not to claim credit, but to take responsibility. After all, a cabinet scholar who takes the lead has a much higher standard than a co-administrator.

This currency reform does not involve gold, because the value of gold is too high and the circulation is small, and the common people generally don't use it, so they don't bother to bother.

Zhu Yihai is poor and crazy now, so wherever he can get money, he wants to get a foot in it.

As for the thoughts of the officials, he didn't think about it at all. After all, it takes time for the circulation of silver dollars, and in the future, he doesn't limit what kind of silver the people can use to pay taxes, as long as it is silver.

For the silver that was handed in, Zhu Yihai would take them all to the mint and mint them into silver dollars, and then decree that the silver dollars should not be damaged or cut for use.However, the face value of the silver dollar is higher than the actual value, and it is impossible for the common people to be stupid enough to cut it and use it.

Slowly, all kinds of silver will gradually become silver dollars for circulation.

And even if someday it is really all silver dollars, the fire consumption has already been set. Tentatively, [-]% plus the fire consumption will be collected. This fire consumption will belong to the public and will be redistributed by the court. , and this time it is justifiable, reasonable and legal, which is better than the gray income in the past.

If this doesn't satisfy the officials, then Zhu Yihai has nothing to do with it.

　Thanks to Shui De Shang Hei, handsome rice, and classmate D for their support, thank you.

　　In the new year, I wish you all the best and good health.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)