I seek economic hegemony in the Three Kingdoms

Chapter 363 Guanzhong Inner Circulation

Fei Yi said: "I still have a few doubts."

"What doubts does Feisma have?"

"First, if only paper money is used, counterfeiting will inevitably occur among the people. Second, paper money is so easy to make. If the court is short of money in the future and just make it, wouldn't it cause chaos in the world? Third, now is the time for war. Once both sides raise armies, business will inevitably suffer. Influence."

Li Heng thought to himself that Fei Yi was worthy of being one of the successors designated by the prime minister.

Although he does not understand the economic theory of the 21st century, his ability to understand things is beyond ordinary people.

Li Heng said: "Everything I just said is based on the premise that our army can resist the Wei army. In other words, there will be no war in Guanzhong from now on."

"So, the war can only be in Zheng County and Linjin area, right?"

"Yes, the hinterland of Guanzhong needs peace." Li Heng said, "The only thing we rely on is the food purchased from Cao Wei to fill the shortage of food in Guanzhong. Once the war breaks out again, it will have a non-negligible impact on the introduction of food in Guanzhong. My suggestion is to establish a beneficial The grain transportation line from Zhouzhou to Guanzhong.”

Fei Yi seemed to understand, and he said again: "The general means that we can form an internal business in Guanzhong, rather than trading with Cao Wei?"

"The fourth is to establish the "Dahan Commercial Law", including the "Contract Law" and "Commercial Tax", and complete the private registration system of trading companies. Whether it is Chang'an Road General Trading Company, Chang'an Textile Workshop, or Chang'an Manufacturing Bureau, they are all official. Just rely on The government cannot meet the needs of the people. We need to encourage private businessmen to register trading companies voluntarily, but in order to control businessmen, the court needs to establish a "Contract Law" and a "Business Tax".

"The first is to build roads. According to the "Regulations on the Administration of Dahan Commercial Companies", Guanzhong can set up Chang'an Road General Trading Co., Ltd. and hire two thousand people to build roads. With Chang'an as the center, build roads leading to various counties, and pay monthly salary in paper money. . It is said that if you want to be rich, you must first build roads. Roads are the basis for commercial circulation.”

"If you want to be rich, build roads first?" Zhuge Liang repeated this sentence and couldn't help laughing, "That's good."

"The third is to set up Chang'an Manufacturing Bureau to manufacture vehicles, boats and other tools for transportation and riding. This will still help business. The more tools there are, the more goods will be circulated."

Zhuge Liang continued to nod.

"Jian, what do you think we can start from?" Zhuge Liang asked.

"It can also be extended to Longyou and let the Qiang people participate. The Qiang people also have many products."

"The second is textiles. The Chang'an Textile Factory was established. Clothing is a necessity for everyone. Clothing is mainly used for weaving. The raw materials for weaving are easy to obtain, and people are more willing to wear cloth, which is easy to sell."

Zhuge Liang still nodded.

"Sufficiency of food is the basis for the prosperity of business. Guanzhong is currently short of food. The introduction of food in Guanzhong is related to the overall situation. This must be controlled by the government. Chang'an will also set up a municipal office to not only manage commodity prices, but also monitor food prices at any time. Feedback is given to the dental department every month, and officials of the governor's dental department will rationally distribute food according to market demand to ensure sufficient food in each county. "

"Fifth, the money bank must establish a complete set of loan evaluation rules. This is the top priority." Fei Yi asked doubtfully: "Loan evaluation rules?"

"We say that both the government and the private sector are doing business. Many people in the private sector may not have the capital to do business. Money banks can lend part of the money to private businessmen, but in order to prevent the borrowed money from being unrecoverable, money banks must review it carefully before lending. The identity of the borrower, existing money, house, land, etc. "

"Oh, that's it. When will the money lent by the money bank be recovered?"

"Several different time periods can be specified. In the short term, half a year, this kind of lending to merchants who mine the mines can be sold for money soon. In the medium term, it is one year, which is feasible for the general textile industry. In the long term, it is two to three years. Even if it takes five years, for example, if you participate in road construction or housing construction in Chang’an, the work hours will be longer and the return on investment will be slower.”

Fei Yi was still confused: "Is this really feasible?"

"Take Chang'an Road General Trading Co., Ltd. as an example. According to the current currency, a worker will receive a salary of 15 guan a month, and three thousand workers will receive a salary of 80 guan a month. We said before that a pound of grain is worth guan. This A worker's monthly salary can buy fifty kilograms of grain. For a family of six, one person works, two work on the land, and one weaves. The weaver works in a textile workshop. This family has a monthly salary of thirty kilograms. If the other two people grow up to be ten years old, they can help."

(In ancient times, it was generally impossible to plant eighty acres of land every day, and many fields also needed rest.)
"This method is completely satisfactory for a family. What Fei Sima is worried about is whether the court can bear the money distributed, right?"

"Yes, money cannot appear out of thin air. Even if the money is printed by the court, I think it is not unlimited. This is the second question I raised. The court cannot print money unlimitedly, because a large amount of printed money is invested in the private sector, which will inevitably lead to skyrocketing prices. . We have adopted penetration attacks against Guanzhong in the past, and I don’t need to elaborate further.”

"The reason why the imperial court has the confidence to print money and distribute it is because the value created by the labor of the people in Guanzhong is the basis. As long as a large number of crops grow in the fields, as long as the government's grain merchants transport a large amount of grain from Cao Wei or Yizhou. As long as the food price is stable at the price I mentioned, the government can print money.”

"The general means that food prices are an important factor in measuring additional currency issuance?"

"Yes, we develop commerce in order to make the people rich and to increase the income of the court. However, the issuance of currency is a double-edged sword. Feisma's second question mentioned the essence of this problem. Since money is so easy If the people in power are short of money, they can use it as they please. But that is not the case. When food prices rise much faster than the people's income, everything will be ruined if the people cannot afford to eat. Money really becomes paper.”

"What about the first question?"

"The first question needs to be looked at from several aspects. First, the court needs to use craftsmanship that is difficult to imitate among the people to make paper money; second, from the clear law, counterfeit money becomes waste paper that everyone throws away, and the court collects taxes We must strictly investigate and anyone who uses counterfeit currency will be imprisoned; thirdly, we must understand that no matter what method we use, counterfeit currency cannot be completely eliminated.”

“One thing can help us, but we can’t not do it just because it carries risks.”

After listening, Fei Yi finally breathed a sigh of relief. He really didn't expect that Li Heng would take these issues into consideration to this point.

Zhuge Liang also praised: "Food prices are an important factor in measuring the increase in currency issuance. I think this is particularly important. When the court invests heavily in road construction, the businessmen and workers involved in road construction are bound to get a lot of money." , money flows into their hands, and if the food supply is insufficient, the price of food will rise. If the government monitors it in time, it can stop some unnecessary investment. "

"In fact, we need to be able to keep up with the preparation of metal currency in a timely manner. When we start this, we must have strict legislation, otherwise latecomers will take shortcuts for convenience and ignore the reserve of copper coins, laying the foundation for disaster."

(End of this chapter)