Do you know: I am the crown prince

Chapter 476: New Currency
"But if Yelu Yixin..."

Zhao Xing originally wanted to say that Yelu Yixin directly attacked Hehuang during the pursuit, and Dong Jian could not withstand it at all.

But he quickly realized what Dong Zhan relied on.

Hehuang has a special location. If Yelu Yixin really wants to send troops to Hehuang, neither the Western Xia nor the Song Dynasty will sit idly by.

Because no one wanted Yelu Yixin to occupy Hehuang.

This gave Dong Jian the confidence to accept Empress Dowager Xiao.

As long as Yelu Yixin withdraws his troops, he will then focus on controlling the internal affairs of the Liao Kingdom and will not be able to send troops for the time being.

"All this is just speculation. It's hard to say whether Empress Dowager Xiao can escape." Zhao Xing said.

"We can only leave it to fate. Unless Your Majesty is willing to go to war with the Liao Kingdom at this time, there is no other way to intervene in this matter."

"However, Your Majesty can ask the Duke of Ying to make an offensive gesture. Yelu Yixin will be somewhat cautious and will allocate some troops. In this way, Empress Dowager Xiao will have a greater chance of escaping." Han Zhang said.

"For now, we can only take it one step at a time."

Zhao Xing had no better idea, so he could only do as Han Zhang said and immediately asked someone to draft an edict.

"Let's do this."

Zhao Xing said, "I summoned you here for one more thing. Sanshui, show the silver coins to you, my dear ministers."

"Yes!"

Sanshui responded and distributed the silver coins sent by the Ministry of Industry yesterday to Han Zhang and others.

After getting the silver coins, everyone was a little confused and didn't know what Zhao Xing was going to do.

As for the portrait of Taizu on the silver coin, they really didn't recognize it.

After all, the Song Dynasty had already been passed down to Zhao Xing for the fifth generation. The portrait of Taizu was enshrined in the Taimiao, and officials were not qualified to enter.

However, they still recognized the portrait above because it was wearing the emperor's crown.

Zhao Xing did not hide anything and said calmly, "Ordinary people usually use copper coins for transactions. Silver has different values ​​due to its purity, so it has to be weighed when trading. The Song Dynasty's trade with foreign countries has led to the outflow of copper coins. There is a shortage of copper coins among the people, and some people can only barter, which is very inconvenient.

This silver coin was specially made by my order. The silver used has been refined and is of high quality.

I plan to implement this policy throughout the country and prohibit the people from using loose silver.

In this way, there will be no situation where someone is cheated because of the different quality of silver.

At the same time, it can also solve the problem of lack of currency among the people.”

"Your Majesty, this is inappropriate!"

An official stepped forward and said, "There is a lot of gold and silver among the people. If Your Majesty prohibits it, what will happen to that gold and silver?"

"Your Majesty, I have seen the words 'one tael' printed on the silver coin, but I feel that there should be less than one tael on the silver coin. If the silver coin is promoted, I am afraid that many people will forge it!"

At one time, a large number of officials came out to oppose it.

Zhao Xing sneered in his heart. Maybe some of these people were really worried about some drawbacks, but most of them were definitely doing it for their own interests.

He had someone investigate and found that the outflow of copper coins from the Song Dynasty was indeed serious. However, the number of copper coins minted by the court since the founding of the country was not large.

It is said that with the prosperous business in the Song Dynasty and a large amount of money concentrated in the hands of a few people, there should be a shortage of money among the people.

However, according to investigations, although this phenomenon exists among the people, it is actually not serious.

This is so because someone creates money.

The technical content of casting copper coins is not high. Even if there is a difference between them and those cast by the imperial court, as long as the difference is not big, the people can't tell the difference at all. Zhao Xing asked people to collect some copper coins from the people, carefully identify them, and divide out a part of the "price".

After weighing, it was found that one hundred fake copper coins weighed only as much as eighty of the coins minted by the imperial court, and it was not obvious when distributed to each coin.

Casting copper into coins is profitable in itself, not to mention that counterfeit coins use less copper.

The benefits involved can be imagined.

Not only is fake money slightly lighter in weight, but the workmanship is also much worse.

It's not fake at first glance, but you can tell them apart with a little effort.

However, when Zhao Xing had people collect counterfeit money, he found that it had already been minted during the reign of Emperor Taizong.

But for such a long time, there was no news at all.

It is impossible for those private shops not to see it, but they still accept it as real money.

It can be seen how deep the water is behind this.

What’s even more terrifying is that among the copper coins that Zhao Xing had people randomly collect, almost half were real and half were fake.

This means that half of the Song Dynasty copper coins are fake.

How many copper coins does the entire Song Dynasty have? If you add in the ones that have leaked out, it's an astronomical figure.

"My dear ministers, you are worrying too much. I have certainly considered the issue of counterfeiting, and I have my own way of distinguishing it. I will not talk about how to distinguish it for now. As for what the ministers asked about the gold and silver of the people, this problem is easier to solve.

I will order people to open money houses in every prefecture in the Song Dynasty. You can take your silver to the money houses and exchange it for silver coins. You only need to deduct the fire consumption and the purity.

The Song Dynasty had a developed business, but merchants had to carry large amounts of money, which not only made travel inconvenient, but they were also likely to encounter robbers.

Build a money house so that merchants can deposit their money and then withdraw it somewhere else.

For example, if I want to take 100,000 taels of silver to Luoyang, I can deposit it directly in the bank in Bianjing and take the bill to Luoyang to withdraw it. Shu has already used this method, which is very convenient. "

"Your Majesty, this cannot be done. The reason why this law has not been implemented throughout the country is because bills can be easily forged. Once someone forges them, who will be responsible for the money lost at that time?" Han Zhang said.

Because of road problems in Shu, merchants joined together to establish money houses.

Only used between merchants who jointly set up a money shop.

But it is a different matter if you want to promote it nationwide. In ancient times, there was no Internet like in later generations, where information stored here can be found anywhere. Once someone forges information, it is impossible to prevent it.

"Since I want to set up money houses in various places, I have naturally made preparations. Merchants need to deposit a large amount of money. When they withdraw money from other places, they must deposit it in advance and specify where they will withdraw it.

The bank that receives the deposit will check the information in detail and then inform the bank that needs to withdraw the money through the post station to avoid the possibility of fraud. "

"Your Majesty, there is always a loophole in a perfect plan. Once something goes wrong, it will cause chaos," said Han Zhang.

"You are worrying too much, my Lord. I will establish a strict review system and a strict punishment system to prevent such things from happening. Setting up a money house will not only earn a lot of money for the court, but will also benefit the people of the world. We must not throw the baby out with the bathwater." Zhao Xing waved his hand.

Han Zhang stopped trying to persuade them after hearing this. Instead, the other officials asked about how to calculate the fire consumption and purity of the silver coins when exchanging them.

Ordinary people hardly use silver coins, and copper coins are still the mainstream.

Therefore, some officials who participated in counterfeiting copper coins did not encounter much resistance.

Zhao Xing sneered in his heart. The reason why he did not propose to recast the copper coins was because he had anticipated this.

Once the Imperial City Bureau has thoroughly investigated the issue of counterfeit copper coins and dealt with those people, we can then propose minting new copper coins. By then, there will naturally be no resistance.

(End of this chapter)