Wife, you didn't really drug me, did you?

Is there more to the game?

Everyone was shocked by what Sister Chen said, because they felt that the benefits Sister Chen had mentioned were already enough. How big could the chess game be?
Is there anything greater than amassing the wealth of the world and putting it into one's own pocket?
The crowd was puzzled, feeling that Chen Jie might be exaggerating, but Chen Jie remained calm, glanced at them, and said, "Collecting the wealth of the world is one thing, but there is another, and that is what I truly desire."

"I would like to hear the details!"

Everyone then looked at Chen Jie, wanting to hear what he had to say.

At this moment, Chen Jie spoke up: "This collection of wealth from all over the world is, after all, just collection, and the wealth of all over the world is finite."

"Nowadays, gold, silver, and copper are the most common metal currencies in the world. However, metals are finite; there are only so many metals in the world. But there are countless people. Let me ask you a question: What is wealth?"

What is wealth?

Hearing this, everyone was dumbfounded. After a long while, Ni Wenjun said, "What is wealth? Gold and silver jewelry are wealth, aren't they?"

Upon hearing this, Chen Jie looked at Ni Wenjun and asked, "What about ancient calligraphy and paintings?"

Zhou Chu said, "Then let's add antiques and calligraphy."

Chen Jiedao said, "What about grain, tables, chairs, benches, houses, carriages, the clothes you wear, and the shoes you wear? Aren't these wealth?"

"this?"

Zhou Chu glanced at himself and then said, "I guess so."

Chen Jie laughed and said, "Isn't that right? These are all wealth, but is this all wealth?"

Upon hearing this, Hu Weiyong and Shen Wansan fell into deep thought, while Wu Hong, though also thinking, clearly had his mind elsewhere and was not thinking about these things.

Chen Jie chuckled and said, "So, have you figured it out?"

"What exactly is wealth?"

At this point, everyone frowned. After a long while, Shen Wansan said, "All resources that humans can utilize are wealth."

Hu Weiyong said, "No, human labor is the real wealth!"

Upon hearing this, Chen Jie looked at Hu Weiyong. No wonder he was able to become a prime minister; he had such foresight. At this moment, Chen Jie said, "Hehe, that's right, Prime Minister Hu is absolutely right."

"Human labor is wealth. Food is wealth. If humans don't farm, where will food be produced? Gold and silver are wealth. If humans don't mine them, where will gold and silver come from?"

"Therefore, human labor is wealth, but human labor cannot be directly exchanged, or rather, it is extremely troublesome to exchange. Therefore, a substitute is needed to represent the value of labor."

What would be suitable?

Ni Wenjun said, "Gold and silver!"

Why choose gold and silver?

Ni Wenjun said, "It's rare. Otherwise, if we use stones, everyone would just pick one up and go to a restaurant. The restaurants wouldn't be able to operate like that."

"We can't do without the gold bank!"

Chen Jie continued to patiently guide him.

Upon hearing this, Ni Wenjun asked, "If not gold and silver, what should we use?"

Chen Jie glanced at Shen Wansan and Hu Weiyong, both of whom were deep in thought. After a while, Shen Wansan said, "During the Song Dynasty, there was a kind of paper called Jiaozi, which could be used as money!"

Chen Jie chuckled and said, "Right, then why can paper be used as money?"

Hu Weiyong thought for a moment and said, "Because everyone agrees."

Chen Jie said, "Haha, that's right. Everyone agrees that if everyone recognizes something, then that thing can be used as money."

"Then what's the point? We're perfectly fine with gold and silver, why would we replace them with something else?"

Ni Wenjun looked puzzled. "There's no need for that. Everyone's using gold and silver just fine now. Why should we change them?"
Chen Jie chuckled and said, "Because gold and silver would restrict economic development."

"I ask you, is there a fixed amount of gold and silver?"

Hu Weiyong said, "There is naturally a total amount. It is precisely because there is not enough gold and silver that copper coins were created."

What if there isn't enough copper either?

Hu Weiyong frowned slightly, and Chen Jie said, "Something with a fixed total quantity is not suitable as currency."

"As we just said, wealth is the embodiment of human labor, and gold and silver are the concrete manifestations of wealth. Since gold and silver are quantifiable, wealth is quantifiable, but human labor is quantifiable. Currently, ordinary people work three hours a day. If we ask them to work harder, they can work five hours. What will be used to pay for those two hours?"

“We don’t have enough money, and this doesn’t even take into account the use of technology. For example, a person can normally clear one acre of land in two days, but what if he uses the new agricultural tools developed by our Academy of Sciences? He can clear one acre in half a day. What if he doesn’t rest and works for two days?”

"Similarly, factories that produce cotton cloth, steel, and various other goods will develop rapidly under the stimulus of our economic policies. At that time, will there be enough gold and silver?"

"What if there isn't enough gold and silver? The workers will work harder, but they won't earn more money. How can transactions be completed in this way? Without transactions, the entire commercial society will stop developing!"

"So if the economy wants to develop, the first thing is to increase the amount of money so that everyone can see it, and that they will have the motivation to do so."

"But there's only so much gold and silver, and so much copper. The annual mining output can't keep up with the demand. What are we going to do?"

Chen Jie looked at everyone, who were all completely bewildered. What could they do?
"With paper? No, with Jiaozi!"

Zhou Chu then spoke up, looking at Chen Jie. Chen Jie said, "What you say is very true, but how can you guarantee that your paper will be accepted by the people?"

Upon hearing this, everyone frowned.

Chen Jiedao: "Bank!"

Chen Jie pointed to the bank, and everyone's eyes immediately turned to the two words "bank" on the table.

"My lord, there are some things I didn't understand. Could you explain them to me in more detail?"

Ni Wenjun scratched his head and said.

He's good at fighting, but he's not good at things that require thinking.

Chen Jie looked at Ni Wenjun and smiled, "Brother Ni, if you were an ordinary citizen, and the bank offered you a savings plan that would give you one tael of interest for every thousand taels of silver, would you take it?"

Ni Wenjun said, "I'll do it."

Chen Jie laughed and said, "That's simple. Once the first step of fundraising is successful, they will all have banknotes in their hands. We'll run this step for three years first."

"The goal is to make the people believe that these banknotes are indeed silver, and that they can exchange them for their face value at the bank by taking this piece of paper."

"That's the first step: to let them understand and trust this piece of paper." "The second step, three years later, is that we can promote paper money in the name of the government and banks, with a maximum denomination of one tael. With one tael, you can exchange it for one tael of silver at the bank."

"At the same time, banknotes of five qian, two qian, and one qian were issued."

"These banknotes are the same as one tael of silver; they can be directly exchanged for silver at the bank."

"At the same time, we need to issue a policy that all our taxes will be based on paper money from now on. We will only accept paper money. If you don't have any, you can go to the bank to exchange it."

"Secondly, all official transactions in Huangzhou Prefecture, such as cotton mills, wineries, and other bulk commodities, will be settled in paper money only. We do not accept cash. If you don't have any, go to the bank to exchange it."

"Third, when the people all acknowledge that this paper money is equivalent to silver."

"The second set of paper money was introduced, with denominations of one hundred copper coins, fifty copper coins, twenty copper coins, ten copper coins, five copper coins, and one copper coin. This was to facilitate small transactions for the people."

"These same paper notes can all be exchanged for an equivalent amount of physical copper coins at the bank."

"And so it goes for another three years!"

"Paper money can gradually become something that people take for granted, while gold and silver may also circulate, but they will eventually be replaced by paper money."

Ni Wenjun said, "That's one way, but what's the point of doing it?"

Chen explained, "Paper money, we print it ourselves. We can print it in batches, so we can control how much money there is, right?"

Upon hearing this, Ni Wenjun thought for a moment and said, "My lord, we can print more, but what if everyone comes to exchange for them and we don't have enough silver to do so?"

Chen Jie looked at Ni Wenjun and said, "You're talking about the early stage. In the early stage, there is a lack of trust, so there will be large-scale exchanges. But this plan is long enough for six years. Six years is enough for everyone to build trust, and then there will be no large-scale exchanges."

"At this point, when you exchange your money and someone else deposits it in, you can simply give them the money they deposited, right?"

"As long as a dynamic balance is maintained, there will be no problem."

"When this policy is implemented for another twenty or thirty years, paper money will be the currency that everyone recognizes and become a social consensus. At that time, no one will be so eager to exchange silver. Then we can directly control the economy through government control. That's the real deal."

Upon hearing Chen Jie's words, everyone present gasped in astonishment. What a brilliant plan! This plan was for policies decades in the future.

What a political genius!

Hu Weiyong felt that he was just a greenhorn in front of Chen Jie, and his political talent was only so-so. After all, such a grand plan, which was so imaginative but could change the economy of the whole world, was something he could never have imagined.

Even if the lord gave you this plan, and you racked your brains to come up with it, you still couldn't do it so thoroughly even after several years.

But our lord practically presented the plan to us directly—what a genius!

Hu Weiyong was very arrogant, considering himself a peerless genius, and he didn't take ordinary people seriously at all.

Just like in history, he did not think that Zhu Chongba's political intelligence was superior to his own, which is why he made some foolish moves later on.

Once you have completely won him over, he will have no reason to disobey.

Just like Li Shimin, one of the few emperors in history who did not kill his meritorious officials, why did Li Shimin not kill his meritorious officials? Because he was far superior to his subordinates in every aspect, so why did he kill his meritorious officials?

He has the greatest merit, so he is not afraid of his achievements overshadowing his master.

This is the best protection for all ministers.

Hu Weiyong was truly convinced of Chen Jiu Si's abilities. In terms of martial prowess, apart from the two immortals, only Zhu Chong Ba was his match.

In terms of political wisdom, Hu Weiyong felt that no one in the world could rival his lord.

Because he certainly wasn't, and Hu Weiyong always considered himself the number one political figure, including those under Zhu Yuanzhang, such as Li Shanchang, whom he didn't accept.

These people are not even as good as themselves, so how dare they try to mess with their own lord!
Thinking this, Shen Wansan spoke up: "My lord! There is still one thing that needs to be resolved, otherwise this great undertaking may be ruined."

Chen Jie looked at Shen Wansan after hearing this and said, "Speak!"

Shen Wansan said, "Paper money is not gold or silver. It is very difficult to counterfeit gold or silver, but with the emergence of paper money, there will inevitably be counterfeiters who will follow suit."

Upon hearing this, Chen Jie said, "Yes, you're right, forgery is a problem."

Chen explained: "There are two methods. First, the paper used to make silver coins needs to be improved. I recently discussed this with the Academy of Sciences. Mulberry bark paper is the most difficult to imitate because it requires the inner bark of mulberry trees. Therefore, we can directly monopolize mulberry bark, making it a government-run enterprise, and prohibiting private trade. Anyone found doing so will be executed without mercy!"

"Secondly, there's the font. We've done some research and found that we can use the Nine-Fold Seal script, which is extremely difficult to imitate. We can also work on the ink."

"Thirdly, we have strict legal constraints. We print the words 'Counterfeiters will be beheaded and their entire family will be exterminated' on the back of every banknote. At the same time, we encourage reporting counterfeiting. If anyone can discover a counterfeiting den, they will be rewarded with three hundred taels of silver."

"Severe rewards and punishments, monopolization of raw materials, and improved processes should be enough to eliminate some of these problems."

Chen explained his thoughts: it's hard to avoid counterfeit money when making paper currency, but by following the points mentioned above, most of it can be avoided. As for the small percentage, there's nothing that can be done, but compared to the final benefits one gains...

This is just a single hair from nine cows.

Chen Jie cannot abandon the entire economic plan because of a single hair.

However, in order to eliminate the possibility of this happening, Chen Jie still imposed the most severe punishment of his life: the forger's entire family was exterminated!

Extermination is certainly inhumane, but there's no other way; we must leave them no room for complacency from the very beginning.

Moreover, Chen Jie has another way to atone for your sins: if you report someone in your family for making counterfeit money, thus putting the greater good before your own family, then you can be spared the death penalty for informing on someone else!
Upon hearing Chen Jie's explanation, Hu Weiyong and Shen Wansan, both with business acumen, were astonished.

However, Shen Wansan, as the Minister of Commerce, raised another question.

“My lord, what you just said can indeed solve the problem of these counterfeit coins, but there is one thing: mulberry bark is very expensive. So I think we should not use mulberry bark for small denominations such as one copper coin and five copper coins, otherwise the cost will not be compensated.”

After hearing Shen Wansan's words, Chen Jie realized what was going on. "Oh, that's how it is!"
Chen Jie thought of something: coins, coins for small amounts.

At this point, Chen Jie said, "That makes sense. All the copper coins, including the five-copper, ten-copper, twenty-copper, and fifty-copper coins, should be made of alloy. The one-copper coin should be a regular copper plate, the five-copper coin can be thickened, and the ten-copper coin should be even thicker and larger. In this way, a set of copper coins can be designed."

Upon hearing this, Shen Wansan exclaimed, "My lord is wise!"

Chen Jie was overjoyed to hear this, finally solving a major problem. As long as the plan was implemented, he should not lack money within his territory.

Since money is not a problem, the rest is easy to solve.

At this moment, Hu Weiyong suddenly stood up and said, "My lord, besides money, there is another important matter that must be resolved. Please make a decision."

"what's up?"

Chen Jie looked at Hu Weiyong, who said, "You should declare yourself king!" (End of Chapter)