Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

"Establish a cabinet advisory position?"

"Why did Han Qing come up with this idea?"

Zhu Youjian inquired.

Han Kuang explained Chen Jiru's suggestion, believing that with his reputation and ability, he was qualified to serve as an advisor and fill any gaps in the cabinet's services.

When Zhu Youjian heard that it was Zhang Pu who suggested it to Han Kuang, he smiled and said:
“This Zhang Pu, who has become the chief advisor of the Laborers Association, now wants to set up a cabinet office.”

"However, what you said about filling gaps and making up for deficiencies is indeed necessary. Setting up cabinet advisors can attract talent from the private sector."

"In this way, the cabinet will establish an advisory group and hire experts and scholars to provide consultation, with a term of three years."

Having agreed to Han Kuang's request, Zhu Youjian, worried about the expansion of the cabinet, gave the following instructions:

"Cabinet advisors must be selected from among those who have passed the imperial examinations, are scholars, or academicians, and can only be appointed by imperial decree."

"And it must be done publicly and subject to questioning by Congress."

"If someone is not a good fit, then don't hire them."

Han Kuang readily agreed, extremely pleased that the emperor had accepted his suggestion.

Although the emperor had various demands, his proposal was approved, proving that he held a position of influence with the emperor.

Or, to put it another way, the emperor had already regarded him as the next chief minister, and was further delegating power to him, giving him the authority to do things.

Zhu Youjian was indeed delegating power to him, but it would be impossible to say that he had no control over him at all.

The Academy of Sciences is actually the cabinet's largest think tank, and he had already arranged for Zhang Pu to join the Planning and Development Commission.

He will also arrange for royal companies to fund research institutions and other private think tanks, thereby enhancing his influence over both the government and the public. Through this subtle and gradual approach, he aims to expand the royal family's influence.

Of course, the prime minister will also be given the powers that are due. Each prime minister can hire cabinet advisors, who can be regarded as personal assistants.

This is also a move to professionalize staff, giving staff and strategists a public status.

If someone like Wang Wenyan were to emerge again, they would definitely strive to become a cabinet advisor and catch his eye.

Han Kuang intended to appoint advisors, and he knew that the emperor cared about this, otherwise he would not have established the Secretariat and assigned secretaries to ministers.

However, for some staff members, being appointed as a secretary was too humiliating. Therefore, upon hearing Zhang Pu's suggestion of an advisor position, he quickly felt it was a good one—

Having the title of "cabinet" signifies their status. The title of "advisor" indicates that their responsibility is to answer questions.

This title, similar to "a minister in plain clothes," is very suitable for staff members and ordinary people, and can attract more talent.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have readily agreed to Zhang Pu's request to establish an advisory body in the cabinet.
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After reaching a consensus, Zhu Youjian prepared to appoint Chen Jiru as a cabinet advisor.

Furthermore, a procedure was established, first summoning the Grand Secretaries of the Cabinet to investigate and question Chen Jiru:

"Mr. Chen's suggestion about basic supplies is a good one."

"Does the imperial court require everything when levying corvée labor and supplies?"

"No, the most important thing is the supplies that are related to the national economy and people's livelihood, and maintaining the stability of the Ming Dynasty."

"The Planning and Development Commission needs to determine what constitutes basic materials and strengthen the procurement and stockpiling of these materials."

Han Kuang and the others responded, and Chen Jiru said:
"Supplies will be lost, and if the loss is too great, it will reduce the court's revenue."

“Zhang Xiuzhuan, who was in charge of the Academy of Sciences, had done a lot of research on this.”

"I believe that a Loss Research Institute should be established within the Academy of Management Sciences to specifically study this issue."

Zhu Youjian smiled and nodded, then said:

"We need to study not only this, but also finance."

"How currency is issued is a science."

"We must not issue too many, lest we repeat the mistake of issuing paper money."

"We also cannot issue too little, or there won't be enough currency in the hands of the people."

"Currently, the price of silver is rising, which is greatly affecting people's lives."

"One reason is the shortage of currency. Wars broke out in the West, reducing the amount of silver being transported over."

"If there is a shortage of silver, there will be a silver shortage, and the price of silver will continue to rise. At that time, farmers who pay silver will suffer more and more losses."

This viewpoint surprised the courtiers.

Grand Secretary Zheng Yiwei, who is in charge of finance, said:

"In that case, won't the price of silver keep rising indefinitely?"

How will the imperial court collect silver from now on?

Wen Tiren then flattered him, saying:

"His Majesty is wise and far-sighted; he already knew this."

"Therefore, people are allowed to pay grain or silver as they please, whatever they have to pay."

"After the price of silver rose, the people could pay their taxes."

He praised the emperor extensively, believing that the emperor had foresight.

Zhu Youjian kept Wen Tiren around so that he could agree with him, and upon hearing this, he smiled and said:

"What you said is exactly what I was worried about."

"If silver is levied as a mandatory tax, the price of grain will fall relatively after the price of silver rises. The actual burden of a tax of three cents per mu of land may double."

"But if the tax is changed to grain tax, the people will not have to sell their grain, and their burden will naturally be reduced."

"However, there will be losses when collecting grain, and there are also costs in transportation. The imperial court needs to find a way to reduce intermediate losses, as the collection is very troublesome."

"Using this method to deal with the silver shortage is ultimately just treating the symptoms, not the root cause."

Chen Jiru seized the opportunity to say:
"To completely solve this problem, we still need to issue paper money."

"The Emperor issued subsidiary currency notes using silver as collateral, and also issued vouchers using goods as collateral."

"Once these banknotes are accepted, the silver shortage will naturally be resolved."

"Unfortunately, some people do not understand His Majesty's intentions and restrict the issuance of subsidiary currency."

"I believe that the Currency Act should be amended."

Zhu Youjian hesitated for a moment and asked:
"Do you all think the Currency Act should be amended?"

"If the people think that the imperial court changes its orders frequently, how can the credibility of the subsidiary currency be maintained?"

Chen Jiru said:

"The Currency Act was drafted by the Zhuolu District Council, which is a local law."

"I believe that Parliament is fully capable of amending the law as needed in order to implement it nationwide."

“As long as people know that subsidiary coins can be exchanged for silver coins, they will naturally not worry.”

Zhu Youjian shook his head, feeling that Chen Jiru's thinking was too simplistic. Moreover, he stated explicitly:

"Although the Currency Act was drafted by the Zhuolu District Council, it was acting as the parliament at the time and can be regarded as being drafted by the parliament."

"I have already signed and approved it; it will not be changed arbitrarily."

Chen Jiru said:

“Vouchers are actually a form of currency, even though this isn’t stipulated in the Currency Act.”

"The existing Currency Act must be amended."

This statement left Zhu Youjian speechless.

He wanted to issue more tokens while there were no regulations, but Chen Jiru saw through his plan.

Now that this matter is out in the open, he has no choice but to respond, otherwise he would be disrespecting the bill he passed through Congress.

Therefore, he said seriously:
“Vouchers are indeed currency and should be included in the Currency Act.”

"However, since we are going to make changes, we must establish rules and regulations so that people don't feel that the court is not following etiquette and law."

"As I have said before, the Currency Act is a second-tier law, and its provisions can only be amended if it is passed by more than half of the Congress."

"Submit the revised proposal to Congress for a vote." "If it doesn't pass, then it cannot be revised."

Between making money and upholding the law, choose to uphold the law.

This was the core of his reform of rites and music, and he would govern the country by rites and music from then on.

Therefore, the first strategy for reforming rites and music was to establish a parliament to be responsible for formulating rites and laws.

This respect for Parliament pleased Chen Jiru, who was serving in Parliament.

However, he was also worried that his proposed modifications would not be approved in Zhuolu District, and suggested:

"Now that parliaments have been set up in places like Tianjin, I believe that they should be set up throughout the entire Shuntian Prefecture and a Shuntian Prefecture Parliament should be established."

"Compared to Zhuolu District, it is more suitable to perform the duties of Congress."

"Shuntian Prefecture, with its high demand for currency, understands the significance of issuing paper money even better."

This is an important step in the preparation for the establishment of the National Assembly, moving it from the county level to the prefectural level.

Moreover, Shuntian Prefecture was vast, almost comparable to a small province.

If the Shuntian Prefectural Assembly can be run well, other provincial assemblies can be run in the same way.

Han Kuang was eager to achieve more merits during his tenure and immediately expressed his support:
"The Emperor has established a system of elections by drawing lots. Once the district and county councilors are elected, the prefectural councilors can be elected by drawing lots."

"I believe it is indeed worth trying to establish the Shuntian Prefecture Council."

Zhu Youjian didn't actually want to push things forward so quickly, but since he had chosen to delegate power, he respected the opinions of his ministers.

Especially after he relinquished power, he needed an institution to check and balance the cabinet, and Congress seemed to be a suitable option.

He can enact various laws to constrain the power of the cabinet, ensuring it follows his instructions and doesn't act arbitrarily.

The Shuntian Prefectural Council is more suitable than the Zhuolu District Council, and a person of prestige should be appointed to it.

After thinking it over, he said:
“The government council can indeed try it out.”

"Liu Zongzhou was appointed concurrently as the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, responsible for organizing the parliament."

Liu Lishun, who organized the Zhuolu District Council and proposed the lottery election law in the Susong New Area, was promoted to Assistant Magistrate of Shuntian Prefecture and concurrently served as Speaker of the Council, assisting in the organization of the Council.

"Suzhou-Songjiang New Area..."

After thinking for a moment, Zhu Youjian, not trusting anyone else to handle the matter, stared at Zhang Pu and said:

“Zhang Xiuzhuan was in charge in the past and continued Liu Lishun’s measures.”

"It would be a good opportunity to take a look at the lives of workers in Suzhou and Songjiang, and to draft more laws to protect their rights."

"While we're at it, let's implement the Planning and Development Commission's plan in the Suzhou-Songjiang New Area."

Zhang Pu opened his mouth and accepted the appointment.

He didn't want to be transferred out at this time. What authority does the head of the Suzhou-Songjiang New Area have compared to the group leader of the Planning and Development Commission?
However, he dared not disobey the emperor's intentions, and he also needed to give an explanation to the Suzhou and Songjiang laborers who had given him the opportunity to achieve the highest honors in the imperial examinations.

Moreover, he still had some grudges from his hometown, and now that he has returned home in wealth and status, it's a good time to settle them all at once.
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After making these arrangements, Zhu Youjian discussed with Chen Jiru how to amend the Currency Law.

He discovered that the old gentleman from Suzhou and Songjiang had some knowledge of currency, and understood it better than others.

He said:
"The essence of money is a general equivalent, and its purpose is as a medium of exchange."

"It has value because it can be exchanged for goods."

"Otherwise, gold and silver are neither edible nor drinkable, and are nothing special."

Chen Jiru seemed to be deep in thought, and said:

"Paper money can also be exchanged for goods, so it can replace gold and silver."

"They are all currencies, and there is no essential difference between them."

Zhu Youjian nodded and said:
"That's exactly why they are all currencies."

"It's just that gold and silver are scarce, and their value is unknown to everyone."

"Paper money is printed, but if too much is printed without corresponding materials, its value will decrease."

"The reason why the paper money of this dynasty collapsed is because too much was printed and could not be exchanged for the corresponding goods."

"Therefore, when I issued subsidiary currency notes, I strictly controlled the quantity and stipulated that they could be exchanged for silver coins."

"Now that you want to expand the issuance scale, what I am most worried about is a run on the bank."

"If people cannot exchange paper money for corresponding goods or silver, the credibility of paper money will collapse, and it will become like a worthless banknote."

He shook his head repeatedly, clearly very worried about this.

Expanding the issuance of paper money is related to how much money Han Kuang can mobilize to achieve his goals, he said:
"It is good that the Emperor cares about the people, but with the current shortage of silver, we have to take some risks."

"Otherwise, if there is not enough currency in the market, the government will suffer too much loss when levying taxes in kind."

"Bartering was also very inconvenient for ordinary people."

"As long as each banknote has a corresponding silver coin, I believe there is nothing to worry about."

After thinking for a moment, Chen Jiru said:
"I believe that we can follow the example of the restrictions on the exchange of subsidiary currency and increase the limit."

"The lowest denomination of the silver coins minted today is one jiao (0.1 yuan)."

"Only by collecting ten auxiliary coins can you exchange them for one jiao of silver coin."

"I believe it can be raised to one yuan or even one hundred yuan. Only when it reaches one hundred yuan can the bank exchange it."

"There should also be a daily limit on the number of exchanges to prevent a run on the bank."

This method made Zhu Youjian frown, as if it seemed somewhat familiar.

After thinking for a while, he realized that this was the gold standard, where a certain amount had to be reached before gold could be exchanged.

Of course, Chen Jiru was referring to silver dollars, but the principle is the same.

This inspired him, and he said:

“Silver coins are not easy to mint, and the imperial court does not have that many silver coins at the moment. It is more convenient to mint silver ingots.”

"You can also add gold nuggets to the exchange."

“Gold bars, silver bars, copper bars, iron bars... can all be included in basic resources and used to issue vouchers.”

"This way, the public will be more accepting of vouchers, and vouchers that can be redeemed for gold bars will be more authentic."

"If the imperial court cannot provide supplies or silver dollars, then it should directly exchange them for gold bars."

"This can be called the gold standard, and the people should have more faith in it."

This was a solution that Zhu Youjian came up with on a whim.

He wasn't actually that confident about the issuance of the vouchers, otherwise he wouldn't have insisted on maintaining the exchange rate with the silver dollar.

However, not issuing currency is not an option; the Ming Dynasty needs to increase its currency supply.

Now, reminded by Chen Jiru, he realized that he could use a gold bullion standard, setting a requirement for exchanging gold bullion and issuing vouchers with the gold reserves.

Of course, his gold bullion standard differed from later systems; not only were the requirements for exchanging gold bullion high, but it also placed gold bullion last in the exchange list.

Exchange them first, as long as you have supplies and money.

Gold, however, was kept as much as possible as a last resort reserve.

In this way, the vouchers naturally became linked to gold, transitioning from the silver standard to the gold standard.

This was Zhu Youjian's long-term plan, because he knew that gold was the most valuable commodity.

Silver is a byproduct of non-ferrous metals. With the improvement of smelting technology, it will be produced in large quantities and will become less and less valuable than gold.

Of course, silver is still very valuable now, and silver coins will be issued. People in the Ming Dynasty now recognize silver, not other currencies.

However, its value, compared to that of a voucher, actually depends on the gold-silver ratio.

The changes are not obvious in the short term, but the differences can be significant over a long period of time.

Zhu Youjian hoped that the vouchers would retain their value better than silver and eventually replace silver coins. (End of Chapter)