Take control of Wei Zhongxian at the start and confiscate 100 million from him!

Chapter 339 People will do anything for a death sentence, but nobody will do a losing business.
As soon as Fan Jingwen asked this question, the heated atmosphere in the warm pavilion, which had just been ignited by the emperor's earth-shattering analysis, seemed to be doused with a bucket of ice water.

Yes, it was exchanged for silver.

In our Great Ming Dynasty, silver is the only hard currency, the foundation of the imperial court's tax collection, and the yardstick for measuring immense wealth.

The outflow of copper coins was exchanged for more valuable silver coins. On paper, it seems... that it wasn't a loss?

Zuo Liangyu's anger, which had just been ignited, subsided. Although he was not good at economics, he understood this simple principle.

People will do anything that could cost them their lives, but nobody will do anything that loses money!

If there is no profit to be made, why would maritime merchants take such enormous risks?

This is a deadlock, a seemingly simple deadlock that is enough to overturn all previous conclusions.

Zuo Liangyu and Fan Jingwen, without prior agreement, focused their gazes on the emperor with a hint of tension and confusion.

The emperor showed no surprise at being questioned; instead, he smiled.

The smile held a hint of pity, as if watching two toddlers who had just learned to walk arguing over a profound question.

He didn't slowly turn around; instead, his gaze was fixed on the area outside the palace gate.

Through the carved window lattice, one could see a leaden gray sky, with a few crows huddled on withered branches, and the palace walls stretching endlessly, desolate and silent.

The emperor's voice, like the weather outside the palace, was clear, cold, and distant.

"Fan Qing, you only saw the silver coming in, but you didn't see... what a terrible illness my Great Ming will suffer when tens of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of copper coins are constantly flowing out of this body like blood."

Zhu Youjian withdrew his gaze and softly uttered two words.

"A cash shortage!"

A cash crunch?!
Fan Jingwen's eyes narrowed into slits in an instant!

As the head of the Great Ming Treasure Bank, no one understood the terror contained in the words "money shortage" better than him.

In historical records, these two words appear like ghosts and shadows whenever a dynasty is nearing its end.

It is not simply a lack of money; it is the beginning of all the economic depression and the devastation of people's lives. It is a plague that is invisible yet powerful enough to tear the world apart!
But he always thought that the root cause of the money shortage was the insufficient minting of coins by the imperial court and the private hoarding by the people... He never thought that there was a giant hand from overseas behind the scenes, frantically sucking the blood of the Ming Dynasty!
Seeing Fan Jingwen's face turn deathly pale, Zhu Youjian knew that he had grasped the first level, so he slowly began to reveal the full extent of this hellish scene to them.

"What happens when there's less money in the market, but the same amount of goods?" the emperor asked softly. "It's simple: money becomes more valuable. In the past, a copper coin could buy an egg; now it might buy one and a half. That sounds like a good thing, doesn't it?"

He looked at the two of them.

"But for the people of the world, this is an utter disaster!"

Fan Jingwen began to think almost subconsciously, his brain racing as he matched the emperor's words with the scenes he had witnessed in the local areas over the years.

A moment later, he suddenly raised his head and looked at Zuo Liangyu beside him.

That one glance transcended the barriers between the literary and martial arts, and the unfamiliarity of the past, leaving only immense shock stemming from the enlightenment of their intellect!
Zhu Youjian's voice continued to ring in their ears, unhurried and calm.

"For a farmer, he toils hard all year round and harvests 100 bushels of rice. In previous years, one bushel of rice could be sold for 500 coins, so 100 bushels would be 50,000 coins. He could use this money to pay taxes, buy salt, cloth, and farm tools, and still have some left over."

But now there's a money shortage, money is worth more, and rice prices have plummeted! A bushel of rice can only sell for three hundred coins, or even two hundred! He's worked hard all year, but his income has suddenly decreased by thirty or forty percent!

"The same applies to artisans. The profits they used to make from weaving a bolt of cloth or firing a piece of porcelain have been greatly reduced. Their incomes have plummeted. However…"

The emperor's tone suddenly turned serious.

"The various exorbitant taxes and levies they had to pay, measured in copper coins, were not reduced by a single penny!"

"It's his mother's fault!"

A vulgar curse burst out of Zuo Liangyu's mouth without warning.

His weathered face flushed red, his fists clenched so tightly that the veins stood out, as if he wanted to crush something to pieces.

Only after the curses left his mouth did he realize where he was. He was terrified and immediately knelt down with a thud, kowtowing and saying, "Your Majesty, I have been disrespectful! I deserve to die! Please punish me!"

But the emperor simply smiled calmly and waved his hand.

"Get up. If I were to punish someone for a single, heartfelt, crude remark, then the world would be left with only hypocrites." Zhu Youjian's tone was unreadable. "Your ability to be angry about this proves that I have not misjudged you."

Zuo Liangyu raised his head in a daze, stood up awkwardly, and stepped aside. His chest was still heaving violently. That curse was directed at those sea merchants and Japanese pirates, at this absurd world, and at himself for being completely unaware of it before!
Fan Jingwen was deeply shocked by what he saw.

What shocked him was not Zuo Liangyu's loss of composure, but the emperor's words.

did not expect!
Fan Jingwen, who was proud of his extensive reading and knowledge of monetary law, had never seen the devastating impact of the money shortage on the people so clearly from this perspective.

With just a few words, the emperor revealed the blood, tears, and cruelty involved in this matter in great detail!
Then the emperor's voice rang out again.

"Farmers and artisans suffered sharp declines in income and lacked food and clothing. Would they still buy extra things? No. As a result, merchants' goods could not be sold, goods piled up, and they had no choice but to close down."

When shops close, employees lose their livelihoods. As a result, trade stagnates throughout the market, all industries decline, and a lifeless atmosphere pervades everywhere. This is a classic case of deflation; it stifles the economic vitality of the very bottom of our Great Ming Dynasty, the very foundation of our nation!

Upon hearing this, Zuo Liangyu and Fan Jingwen felt their breathing become long and heavy.

Zuo Liangyu couldn't help but sigh, his voice hoarse: "No wonder His Majesty said that the harm of this matter is greater than the great defeat in Liaodong! The defeat in Liaodong only resulted in the loss of an army and a piece of land; but this matter is rotten to the core, from the inside out!"

Fan Jingwen muttered to himself, his eyes filled with a bewildered and fearful look after a profound realization: "This... is not war, but victory over war... This... is also a kind of war!" "Well said."

The emperor nodded approvingly.

It is through this patient and persuasive approach that those caught up in the game can step outside their own narrow perspectives and view this game, which concerns the fate of the nation, from a broader viewpoint.

Seeing the look in their eyes that had completely led them astray, he knew the time was right.

"As I just mentioned, the large outflow of copper coins has led to a currency shortage in our dynasty. Logically, scarcity increases value; with fewer copper coins, they should be more valuable than silver. Isn't that right?"

Fan Jingwen nodded subconsciously; this was a matter of course.

"But that's the irony!" Zhu Youjian's voice carried a hint of sarcasm. "Because of Zhang Taiyue's Single Whip Law, all taxes in our dynasty are levied in silver. This gives silver a higher legal status than copper coins in our Great Ming. It has become a higher-level currency. The court's mandatory demand for silver has artificially inflated its value!"

"On one hand, the amount of copper coins circulating in the market is decreasing, while on the other hand, the demand for silver from the imperial court and the upper class is increasing. This has led to huge chaos and...bloody exploitation among the common people, especially when they pay taxes, due to the exchange rate between copper and silver!"

Every word the emperor spoke was like a heavy whip, striking Fan Jingwen's nerves.

"The official exchange rate set by the imperial court is one tael of silver for one thousand copper coins. This is a well-known and established rule. But now, because of the shortage of money and the people's eagerness to pay their taxes, they have to use the only copper coins they have, which they have worked so hard to earn, to exchange for silver at money shops and pawnshops in the market to pay their taxes."

Zhu Youjian's gaze sharpened like a knife.

"What will those money shops do at this time? They will tell you that money is worthless now, and it costs 1,200 cash to exchange for one tael of silver! In a couple of days, it will cost another 1,500 cash! Even when the tax season is at its tightest, it will cost 2,000 cash to exchange for one tael of silver, and you will have to grit your teeth and exchange it!"

"Gentlemen, let's do the math on this."

The emperor's voice echoed in the warm pavilion, cold and clear.

“A farmer’s original tax was one tael of silver. He only needed to collect one thousand copper coins. But now he has to work hard to collect one thousand five hundred or even two thousand copper coins to exchange for that one tael of silver to pay his tax! His actual tax burden has increased by 50% or even double out of thin air!”

"His entire year's harvest, after deducting living expenses, and the little bit of hard-earned money left, might be completely plundered by those people in this one exchange! And it might not even be enough!"

"What if it's not enough? They'll have to sell land, sell houses, sell their children! Once it gets to that point, how far away will it be before they rise up in rebellion?"

After these words were spoken, the entire warm pavilion fell into a deathly silence.

Fan Jingwen's hands had begun to tremble slightly.

He stared intently at the emperor, his lips trembling, as if he wanted to say something but couldn't utter a sound.

Finally, as if he had used up all his strength, he managed to squeeze out a few words from his throat.

"Indeed..." His voice was hoarse, filled with boundless regret and lingering fear. "Your Majesty... Previously, I had discussed the problems of the high price of silver and the low price of copper coins with a few close friends and colleagues. But we were only discussing the matter at hand, thinking that it was just a matter of poor monetary laws within our Great Ming Dynasty, and that unscrupulous merchants were taking advantage of the situation to profit! Only today, after hearing Your Majesty's words, do I realize that in addition to these internal problems, there is also such a huge external threat fueling the situation! Only today do I understand the whole picture!"

He recalled the eloquent discussions he had with his colleagues in restaurants and teahouses, who boasted of their economic talents.

They cited classical texts, from the five-zhu coins of the Han Dynasty to the Jiaozi coins of the Song Dynasty, analyzing them logically and eloquently. However, they all ultimately attributed the root cause to the government's ineffective supervision or the ignorance of the people.

Has anyone ever turned their gaze beyond that vast blue sea?
Linking this invisible shackle that exploits the people with the copper coins that are shipped eastward in boatloads?
No, there isn't a single person!
They are all blind, a bunch of self-righteous blind people!

The only one who truly saw the game clearly was this young emperor before them!

Looking at Fan Jingwen's deeply shocked expression, Zhu Youjian felt no pride, only a heavy sense of urgency.

What he wanted was not just to shock them, but to get them to take action.

So he threw out the last straw, the final straw that broke the camel's back.

"The imperial court works hard to mine, smelt, and mint coins. The coins produced are the lifeblood of the nation. They should circulate within our territory to promote trade, be used by the people to pay taxes, and then be used by the court to support the army, promote economic development, and provide disaster relief. This is a complete cycle."

"But what was the result?" The emperor's tone was chilling. "In the end, we became the fools who did all the work for others! Most of the coins we minted flowed to Japan, injecting a continuous stream of vitality into their stagnant pool!"

"The imperial court's minting of coins is profitable, and this profit is called seigniorage. It should be a source of income for the national treasury. But now? This profit has been completely seized by smugglers who travel by sea!"

“Even worse!” Zhu Youjian’s voice rose. “To cope with the increasingly severe currency shortage in the country, the court has to spend more money to mine increasingly difficult-to-mine copper mines and to mint more new coins. But this is like pouring water into a pool with a huge hole at the bottom! As soon as we put the new coins in, merchants, smelling the blood, rush over and use all sorts of methods to exchange these high-quality new coins for their own, and then ship them overseas again!”

"This has greatly depleted the national treasury and overdrawn the nation's strength! If this continues, the national treasury will be empty and the finances will be in ruins. How will I provide relief to the disaster victims? How will I reward the border troops? How will I repair the river embankments and build water conservancy projects?"

"This is the truly deadly place!"

The emperor's words completely shattered Fan Jingwen's last shred of hope.

He let out a long sigh, a sigh filled with realization, fear, regret, and endless sorrow.

"Alas..." Fan Jingwen sighed, his expression dejected. "A slow and steady flow, digging into the fate of the nation. If Your Majesty had not enlightened us today and analyzed it so thoroughly, I fear I would never have understood until my death that these seemingly insignificant misdeeds, when accumulated, actually constitute such a bottomless catastrophe!"

This is a war without gunfire, yet it is eroding the very foundation of the nation!
Thieves used silver as bait to steal the copper coins that the Ming Dynasty relied on for survival; in this cycle of going out and coming in, of high and low value, a dead end was created, with only outflows and no inflows.

The vitality of the Ming Dynasty was being extracted and refined in this silent breathing process, flowing endlessly across the vast ocean to nourish the hungry wolf that was watching from across the sea, whose claws and teeth had already been sharpened!

Zuo Liangyu, standing to the side, no longer felt the anger he had shown before, nor the sadness that Fan Jingwen had displayed.

His sharp eyes were now filled with a chilling killing intent.

He clenched his fists so tightly that his knuckles turned white.

Now that we know the cause of the disease and understand how deadly it is, there is no need for further lamentation or regret.

Time to draw my sword!
(End of this chapter)