I am Emperor Wanli

Chapter 85 Silver is a good thing!

Yang Jinshui saw the expressions of the crowd and burst into laughter.

"By the way, everyone loves silver, and so do I. Silver is a bastard. But without it, you are a bastard."

Everyone looked at each other.

Eunuch Yang's words may be harsh but his point is valid!
Yang Jinshui continued to ask: "Why do people love silver?"

This question was asked.

"Eunuch Yang, because it's valuable!"

"Valuable? It is money, the currency that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince mentioned."

“It can buy things. It can buy everything.”

Yang Jinshui pointed at Li Sanjiang and said in surprise: "Yes, Sanjiang is right! Silver can buy anything. With it, you can go to a restaurant, eat delicious food, and eat whatever you want!
When you go to a brothel, even if you look like a pig, as long as you pay enough money, all the pimps will say you are Song Yu or Pan An and they will love you to death.

You can buy land and houses and pass them down to your descendants. Who wouldn’t love such a good thing?

Everyone nodded.

"Eunuch Yang is right. Silver is really a good thing."

Yang Jinshui asked again: "Why can silver buy everything?"

Everyone looked at each other and asked, why are there so many eunuchs like Yang today?

I see. He wants to ask us again the same question he asked the Crown Prince.

But this question is not easy to answer at all.

Because the principle that money can buy things is easy to understand and everyone knows it, but if you really want to explain it, it seems that no one knows where to start.

Seeing that no one answered, Yang Jinshui said, "Last time I went to the capital to report on my work, I also asked His Royal Highness the same question."

Sure enough, we were not wrong.

How did His Royal Highness answer?
"Your Highness told me that silver can buy anything, mainly because everyone recognizes that it is valuable, and this recognition has been cultivated over hundreds of years."

Everyone nodded.

"Your Highness told me that there are two conditions for silver to be valuable and become currency. The first is that it is recognized by everyone. There is no doubt about this. The second is that there are abundant resources. I didn't understand this at the time.

His Royal Highness asked me a question, how much is a stone of rice in Suzhou? I answered, about eight coins of silver. The prince asked me, how much is a stone of grain in the bitter cold land of Ningxia and Shaanxi?
I hesitated for a moment and replied that it would have to be at least three or four times as much.

His Royal Highness nodded and asked me, if there is a great famine and there is nothing to eat within a hundred miles, and you have a warehouse of grain and your neighbor has a cellar of silver, what will you do?

Yang Jinshui turned around and asked everyone, "Everyone, what are you going to do?"

Everyone was silent, and a clerk from the Southeast Office mustered up the courage to speak up: "In response to Eunuch Yang, I will sell the grain at a high price, which will be several dozen times more. It won't be long before the silver cellar of the neighbor's house will be mine."

Take advantage of the situation!

Adding insult to injury!

Not a good person!

But if it were me, I would definitely do the same.

Standing on the moral high ground, after looking down on the clerk, everyone turned their attention to Yang Jinshui, waiting for his answer.

"I didn't sell a single grain of food. My neighbor's family starved to death, but I survived. So the silver in the cellar is naturally mine."

Yang Jinshui's words made everyone gasp.

He really is a man without any balls, so cruel!
Yang Jinshui was very satisfied with the horror on everyone's faces.

However, the truth he did not say was that his answer was actually similar to that of the clerk, except that it was closer to the moral bottom line - he used food to force a neighbor's family to sign a contract to sell themselves into slavery.

The saying that if he didn't sell a single grain of rice, his neighbors would starve to death and a cellar of silver would naturally fall into his own pocket was actually said by the prince.

But Yang Jinshui would not reveal this secret to the venerable. After a pause, allowing everyone to figure out what he said, Yang Jinshui continued, "His Royal Highness the Crown Prince told me that silver is valuable. As currency, there must be two conditions: one is that it is recognized by everyone, and the other is that it must be abundant in resources. Do you understand these two points?"

I glanced at everyone. If you don’t understand, just continue listening with doubt. I’m not a teacher and I have no obligation to explain it to you in detail.

"Everyone understands the first point very well. The second point may be a little confusing. In fact, it is also very simple. Silver is valuable because it can be exchanged for things. If there is nothing to exchange it for, it is worthless."

Everyone finally began to nod.

"So where in the Ming Dynasty is the most silver?"

"southeast!"

Someone answered the question first.

"Yes, the southeast is rich in products, and silver from home and abroad is pouring in here. So which wealthy family in the southeast doesn't have several cellars dug to hide silver?
Hiding silver! The wealthy families in the southeast love to hide silver. Silver flows in like a sea, all flowing into their cellars. No wonder, they don't know that silver itself is worthless. Silver is valuable and can buy anything. This is the value that everyone gives it.

But the wealthy like to hide their money, which is a problem for us businessmen."

Everyone is a little confused. Why does it become a problem for doing business if a wealthy person hides his money?
"At first, I was just like you, I didn't understand it very well. His Royal Highness gave me an example. There have been two price fluctuations in the capital in the past two years. The first was in the 41st year of Jiajing, when the Yan Party was impeached, Yan Shifan, Yan Maoqing and others fell, and their property was confiscated; the second was in the 43rd year of Jiajing, when some Shanxi merchants and the Shanxi Party were found to have colluded with the enemy and sold out their country, and their property was confiscated.

The southeast also experienced a price fluctuation. That was in the 42nd year of Jiajing. Twenty southeastern families, led by the Zhang and Wu families in Suzhou, the Yang family in Jiaxing, the Lin family in Kunshan, and the Gu family in Ningbo, had their properties confiscated because they collaborated with Japan and sold out their country.

Did you notice? "

Everyone thought about it for a while and it seemed so.

Someone answered hesitantly, "I feel that silver was worthless during that period. Things that could be bought with one tael of silver before now cost one tael, two or three cents."

"Yes, in the 43rd year of Jiajing's reign, when Shanxi merchants were investigated, I happened to go to the capital, and I found that silver seemed to be worthless during that period. Things that could be bought with one tael of silver before now cost one tael and three or four cents."

Yang Jinshui nodded: "Because during that period, the government confiscated the property of the criminals, and most of the confiscated silver quickly flowed out, millions of taels of silver. There was too much silver on the market, so of course it was worthless."

Listening to Yang Jinshui's long and roundabout way of talking, some smart people realized what he wanted to say, but they hadn't fully understood it yet and needed some guidance.

Zhang Jinyuan glanced at everyone and deliberately asked, "Eunuch Yang, what you mean is that our current business growth is in trouble and it has something to do with silver, or the currency that the prince mentioned!"

Yang Jinshui replied cheerfully, "That's right. Silver, or what the prince called currency, will seriously affect the efficiency of our trade transactions. When we do business, it's usually like this: Wang San sold a boatload of cotton cloth to Huguang and exchanged it for grain, copper and silver.

When they arrived in Nanjing, they sold the grain for copper and silver, and then returned to Suzhou to buy a shipload of silk to transport to the north. Half of the transportation capacity was spent on transporting copper and silver.

Yes, copper coins and silver are valuable, but they are very heavy. Especially copper coins, not only are they heavy, but they are also worthless. A shipload of copper coins cannot even be exchanged for a shipload of silk.

Why did silver become so popular later? Because it was valuable. One shipload of silver could be exchanged for several shiploads of silk.

Yang Jinshui continued, "There is another big problem. The prices of silk, tea and cotton cloth, which we say follow the market, are actually very abnormal. Often when sea merchants bring a shipload of silver to buy goods, the price of silk and cotton cloth rises because there is more silver on the market and it is worthless.

After the merchants left for a few months, the silver in the market became less valuable, and the price of silk and cotton actually dropped. Is this normal? It's very abnormal!
If the price went up because of poor harvest of silk cocoons or cotton, the output of silk and cotton cloth decreased, which was understandable, but it turned out that the price fluctuated drastically because of the amount of silver in the market, which was not normal. "

When everyone heard this, they thought what Yang Jinshui said made sense. Why didn’t we notice it before?

Yang Jinshui also sighed: "We are in Mount Lu, and we don't know the true face. His Royal Highness is far away in the capital, and he can see through the report of the Commercial Investigation Department and see it clearly.

With the prince's teachings, we can now understand why we feel that business is becoming more and more difficult. Because our business is getting bigger and bigger, the currency and silver we need are also increasing. But the silver in the market is not more, but less, that is, the currency is decreasing.

Our transaction costs have increased, and the transaction volume is also limited. The bigger we want to be, the higher the cost.”

"Eunuch Yang, so much money flows in from overseas every year, isn't it a lot?"

Yang Jinshui shook his head: "Is it not a small amount? The wealthy families in the southeast have hundreds, thousands, or even tens of thousands of taels of silver hidden in their treasury. When they spend money, they take out a few, dozens, or hundreds of taels. Can it be a small amount?
It's just like the Wusong River. The shallower the water, the smaller the boat it can carry!"

Everyone lowered their heads and thought for a while, the more they thought about it, the more it made sense.

We are all business veterans, and we will understand the principle once it is explained clearly.

They couldn't help but ask, "Eunuch Yang, what should we do?"

"Yes, did His Royal Highness give you any advice on how to do this?"

Yang Jinshui turned around, looked at everyone, and spoke slowly.

(End of this chapter)