I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 147 The plunder game begins

"Du Langjun, can the number of papers this year be increased to 5000 million?"

Du Yu was stunned for a moment and said, "Why did it rise so much?"

"Not only the princes of Luoyang need it, but also Xudu and all parts of Hebei."

"Liu Langjun, does he know how much 5000 million is?"

"Of course I know."

"Liu Langjun thinks about it again. It is already March. If we want 5000 million pieces of paper this year, it means that an average of nearly 20 pieces of paper must come out every day. This kind of thing cannot be calculated on average, and transportation takes time. This means that in the next six months, at least 4000 million tickets will be issued."

"That's right!"

"Do you really need so many?"

"Really needed!"

"Is there enough food?"

"Enough, keep paper everywhere!" Liu Xu said seriously, "I have ordered people to transport 20 shi of grain."

Du Yu's heart trembled, 20 stones?

20 shi of food is enough to feed an army of [-] for a year!
To buy 5000 million pieces of paper, the total food required is at least 200 million stone.

Du Yu didn't understand why the demand for paper suddenly soared to 5000 million shi.

"If Governor Guo learns of such a big movement like ours, I'm afraid..."

"Guo Boji won't stop it, and he doesn't dare to stop it."

"Where does so much food come from?"

"Every family needs paper." Liu Xu said, "I must reiterate again, these are extraordinary times. Will Du Langjun make money from this money?"

"I can only do my best."

"Then please!"

After Liu Fang left, Du Yu returned to the back garden, lay on the deck chair, and fell into deep thought.

After thinking for a while, he still couldn't figure out why Liu Fang suddenly wanted so much paper, so he decided to write a letter to Li Heng first.

"Mr. Lang, what makes you so worried?"

"I was very shocked when Liu Xu suddenly asked for 5000 million pieces of paper."

"This is indeed unusual, but it is normal if you think about it carefully. After all, Sichuan paper is indeed exquisite, and it is normal that scholar-bureaucrats and nobles like it."

Du Yu remained silent, he always felt something was wrong.

He asked again: "What's the latest news in Chengdu?"

"I heard that Li Jian was preparing to mint currency in Chengdu, which aroused great opposition from Chengdu officials." Du Ling said, "This Li Jian, I don't know what to think. Shu money is already a freak. He actually dared to increase the mintage. Some officials even publicly Scold him for doing what Wang Mang did!"

"Coin?" Du Yu had another doubt in his mind.

It's all right, what's the point of minting coins?
Du Yu admired Li Heng very much, especially after he learned that Li Heng established the Taifu Temple in Chengdu and promulgated the "Management Rules of Dahan Trading Company". He felt that Li Heng was simply outstanding in balancing politics and business. Unparalleled genius.

"Do you want him to stipulate that you must use Shu money to buy paper?" Du Yu suddenly stood up from the recliner.

Du Ling was also shocked when he heard this, and said in surprise: "So, don't we have to prepare a lot of Shu money?"

Du Yu's face became heavy. If Li Heng really stipulated that Shu money must be used to buy paper, this would cause a huge disturbance.

This is forcing everyone in Wei who wants to buy paper to collect money from Shu.

What is the method of collecting money from Shu?

There is only one way: sell the goods to Yizhou in exchange for Shu money.

It would be fine if Shu money was a normal currency, but Shu money is not normal.

And extremely gangster!

The material of Shu money's Zhibai coin only weighed four baht, which was one baht less than the five baht coin of the Eastern Han Dynasty. However, because of the mark, the official announced that its value was a hundred times higher than the five baht coin.

In other words, the government used less copper to generate money and forcibly increased purchasing power.

This directly made it impossible for Cao Wei to play with his original five baht money, because people are greedy. For money with the same appearance, yours is a hundred times as much as mine?
Then if I carve two characters on it myself, it will look exactly like yours. Shouldn’t I just use one and a half baht as a hundred and five baht?This is how bad money drives out good money.

In the age of metal currency, once bad money appears, good money will be driven away.

Du Yu was very clear about this. He began to panic and even regretted helping Li Heng sell paper.

If it's just business, Du Yu thinks it's totally fine.

For example, the price of paper will drop sooner or later.

But now there's more than just business involved.

The problem becomes complicated.

"Pen and ink wait!"

At the end of March of the 14th year of Jianxing, the first batch of newly minted copper coins came out amidst a lot of scolding.

Jiang Wan, Dong Yun and Meng Guang went to the Money Making Supervisor in person and inspected the first batch of new coins.

Meng Guang took the first batch of money and looked at it left and right. After reading it, he exclaimed: "The workmanship of this batch of money is much better than the previous one."

"Ji'an, how do you do it both quickly and well?"

"I'm afraid this is a secret. Why do you need to know this?" Li Heng said with a smile, "Since Tan took over the case, all new craftsmanship have been secrets."

Dong Yun nodded and said, "When will it start?"

"We can start now." Li Heng said, "The first batch of salt has been transported to the entrance of Xiegu and flowed to Cao Wei merchants."

"So fast?"

"If I gave you a large amount of refined salt now, Mr. Dong, would you take it?"

Dong Yun was stunned for a moment, then coughed twice: "To be honest, I am really prepared to open this mouth, just to see if you will give it to me?"

"We are all our own people." Meng Guang chuckled twice, "Would Ji'an not be willing to part with his own people, right?"

"Of course, we will give you money." Jiang Wan hesitated and then said.

"Don't worry, everyone, I have prepared it for you a long time ago." Li Heng laughed and said, "Prime Minister, I have sent people to Guanzhong to eat this kind of salt in the future."

"Hahaha, Jian's arrangements are still thoughtful."

Ancient salt tastes bitter and is poisonous, causing chronic poisoning because it contains magnesium chloride.

The salt extracted by Li Heng has removed all toxic substances.

It is absolutely impossible for people in the Three Kingdoms era to know this principle.

The so-called paper trading is linked to Shu money, which cannot be a dimensionality reduction blow to Cao Wei.

Because papermaking is not difficult, even if Cao Wei doesn't get it yet, as long as he gives Cao Wei some time and continues to explore, he will be able to make a batch of paper soon.

After all, papermaking existed before this and had a foundation.

But the refining of refined salt is not that simple.

The most important thing is that paper is only used for the upper layer, while salt is a necessity in life.

Even if civilians want to use paper, they have no choice. Because they are illiterate, there is no use case.

But salt doesn’t hurt. When refined salt comes out, it will definitely be expensive due to production constraints, but as long as you increase investment, the price will come down soon.

Once it comes down, civilians will be able to buy it.

Once even civilians use Shu money, the entire currency circulation link will be quickly opened up.

At that time, no one can stop the large circulation of Shu money in Cao Wei and Sun Quan.

Even if Cao Rui once again strictly prohibited the use of currency, it would have no effect.

Because after trying the taste of refined salt, people can no longer accept the bitter and astringent coarse salt.

Next, the loot game begins.

(End of this chapter)