Autumn of the 17th year of Chongzhen

Chapter 1005 Copper Coins
It has not been a few years since Emperor Chongzhen hanged Meishan, maybe the crooked neck tree is still there. Although the situation faced by the Gongzhi Dynasty and the Chongzhen Dynasty is not the same, and today is different from the past, Wang Yan still has to learn from history and succeed tomorrow.

Since the liberation of Nanjing, Wang Yan clearly felt that the ranks of officials were rapidly deteriorating, from a group of officials with faith to bureaucrats.This is the same as Donglin back then. At first, he also had ideals and hoped to reform the administration of officials, but later he became a bureaucratic group that only cared about local interests.

In the past few months, the Chu party also showed this characteristic in the court loan, and Wang Yan couldn't control it anymore.

Now the economy is developing obviously, but the people still have a lot of grievances. The big reason is that the bureaucrats don't understand the people's conditions.

Fortunately, the overall situation of the Ming Dynasty is not bad. Now there is still time to clean up the morals of the world and people's hearts. Don't be like Donglin, who regretted the death of the party and the country.

How to clean up the hearts of the people is to start with the smallest things and give convenience to the people.

The conversation on the table next to him aroused Wang Yan's interest. It seems that starting a business in the past few years has caused ideological turmoil among the people. Most of the older generation still insist on their inherent ideas, but the young people are already eager to try.

After the fat man with the round head and short neck left, Wang Yan looked at the two people around him and asked, "Do you have any copper coins with you?"

Wang Fuzhi nodded, took out a few loose coins from the purse, and put them on the table. Wang Yan picked out two of the copper coins, one was the newly minted Gongzhi Tongbao by the imperial court, and the other was old coins with Wanli typeface.

"In the market, nine hundred copper coins are exchanged for one tael of silver, but the copper coins are of different quality, so it is very inconvenient for folks to use." Wang Yan held two copper coins, one new, one old, new Contains significantly more copper.

Wang Fuzhi was the head of the household department, and he said: "It is indeed a lot of inconvenience. Sometimes this copper coin contains high copper, and sometimes it has little copper, and the value is constantly changing." He picked out one and handed it to Wang Yan, " This is from the reign of Chongzhen, and its fineness is worse than that of Wanli, and only two coins are exchanged for a new coin."

Wang Yan frowned, "This copper coin is not easy to carry, and the value of casting varies from year to year, which seriously affects the transaction!"

"Generally, when new coins are minted, old coins will be gradually driven out of the market." Wang Fuzhi said in a deep voice, "Especially the newly minted copper coins of the imperial court have fine outlines, round and thick flesh, full of fineness, and even characters are all handwritten by everyone. It is no problem to drive the old coins out of the market, but now the market is too big, and the imperial court is short of copper, and the copper coins on the market are not enough, so there are so many old coins in circulation."

Wang Yan took a closer look at the new coins, and they were indeed much more beautiful, "Is this the character of Lord Mu Zhai?" He paused for a moment, and then asked: "There is not enough copper coins in the market, which will affect the business, what solution does the Ministry of Households have to solve it! "

"There are two, one is to melt the Buddha statues like in the past, and the other is to issue treasure notes!" Wang Fuzhi said.

In ancient China, there was a shortage of copper, and there were several Buddhist extermination campaigns in history. For example, the extermination of Buddhism by "Three Wus and One Sect" was related to economic interests. Zhou Shizong ordered the abolition of monasteries without edicts in the world, destroyed bronze statues, and collected bells, chimes, cymbals, and duos. Class coins.

The influence of Buddhism in the Ming Dynasty was not strong, and there was no sharp conflict with the whole society. It may not be the case to integrate Buddha statues for no reason.As for the precious banknotes, I am afraid that no one will buy them after they are issued.

Wang Yan smiled helplessly, "Brother, you can't implement these two methods!"

"It's really impossible to implement. I directly vetoed the proposal made by the officials under the household department."

If there is not enough money in the market, the market will not develop, and may even shrink. The transformation of Ming Dynasty society from a small peasant economy to a commodity economy will be weak in follow-up and unable to complete this transformation.

Wang Yan couldn't help thinking for a while, and after a while, he suddenly asked: "This silver ticket can be accepted, so can we get a copper ticket?"

"Bronze notes?" Wang Fuzhi was slightly taken aback. Copper is money, and silver is also money. It is theoretically possible, but the absence of copper notes on the market shows that it is not very feasible.

"Banks are all engaged in the business of firms and the settlement of large-scale trade. They cost thousands of taels and ten thousand taels. The average person deposits silver, which is about a hundred and ten taels. How can a bank see a matter of tens of pennies. Besides, bank notes It can be passed because he can exchange silver and it is linked to silver. There are as many silver tickets as there are silver tickets. If there are copper tickets, it needs to be the same. The tickets must be equal to copper coins before they can be accepted by the people. The problem of convenience does not solve the problem of copper shortage in the market." Wang Fuzhikai analyzed.

Wang Yan pondered for a while, and then said in a deep voice: "I really think you can try this copper ticket. If it succeeds, it will not only benefit private transactions, but also be of great benefit to the imperial court."

Wang Fuzhi and Gu Yanwu couldn't help asking in unison: "How do you say this?"

Wang Yan smiled slightly, "After the banknotes were circulated in the market, how many people got the banknotes and took the silver out of the bank?"

The two shook their heads. For the convenience of the merchants, most of the money was exchanged for bank notes, but very few people would take out the money.

Wang Yan then said: "The bank's deposit silver only needs to be able to maintain normal exchange, prepare a batch of emergency silver, and the remaining silver can be used by the bank for lending. If it is exchanged for copper notes, is it the same, as long as the guarantee It can be exchanged. In fact, there is no need to put the same amount of copper coins in the warehouse as the copper notes on the market. After having a certain amount of copper coins, you can even issue more copper notes to meet market demand.”

Wang Fuzhi frowned, "Chaofa, isn't this letting the bank collect money? How is this different from precious banknotes? What if there is a run?"

Wang Yan shook his head, "Precious banknotes cannot be exchanged for copper coins at the same value. As long as copper notes can be exchanged for equivalent copper coins at any time, that is the difference. As for the issue of over-issuance, as long as we control the ratio and do not over-issue, there is no danger."

According to Wang Yan's thinking, bank notes can actually be operated in the same way. If you have 80 taels, you can issue 100 taels of bank notes, which is a money grab.But in this way, there is a huge advantage in foreign trade. For example, if you earn 80 taels of silver from Xiyi, the Ming Dynasty can use 80 taels to issue 100 taels of silver notes, and then buy 100 taels of things from Xiyi. return.

This can be regarded as the initial currency and exchange rate. If only gold and silver are used, countries without currency will suffer big losses in trade.

Wang Fuzhi thought for a while, if the ratio could be controlled, it would indeed be feasible, and the wealth of the imperial court would increase sharply in a short period of time, but he also smelled danger.

"I'm afraid there will be problems in the operation of this matter. It is not easy to manage so many banks, and if the banks can issue more than one, I am afraid that not only the copper notes will not be available, but the reputation of the silver notes will also plummet!"

Wang Yan nodded, "The royal banknotes are a lesson. If I want to buy them, I plan to give only one bank the right to issue copper notes, and the number of issued copper notes will be jointly managed by the imperial court and the bank. As for silver notes, over-issuance is currently prohibited. There must be money where there is floating, and the Ministry of Household Affairs must introduce some policies to strengthen the management of banks."

Wang Fuzhi nodded and said: "This matter is very important. After I go back, I will ask Chen Yonghua from the Wude to consult with the household department to see if it is feasible."

"Yes, this matter really needs to be cautious. In addition, when the Ministry of Households mints money, can it mint some large copper coins, just like the gold and silver coins of Xiyi!"

At present, one tael of silver is equal to nine hundred cash, and it is too troublesome for common people to find hundreds of cash for transactions.

"I'll ask the Ministry of Finance to come up with a plan for this matter!"

Wang Yan was in a better mood when he heard the words. If the issue of copper coins is resolved, it will not only be convenient for the people, but also solve another problem for him. Once the over-issue can be made, the Ministry of Households will not need to cast so many copper coins, and there will be copper for quick-shooting bronze gun.

At that moment, Wang Yan was in a good mood and drank a glass of rice wine. At this time, the bartender happened to pass by his table. He suddenly stopped the bartender and asked, "How many copper coins are here? Is the second brother willing to accept copper coins or copper tickets?"

The second brother in the restaurant is usually a clever person with a very active mind. He thought about it for a while, and then smiled: "If it's like a silver ticket, of course I'm willing to accept a copper ticket!"

"Why?" Wang Yan and the three asked in unison.

The second brother rubbed his head, "Copper coins are troublesome, they vary in color, some are new and some are old, so it's inconvenient to convert them. Copper notes like silver notes are naturally as easy and convenient as silver notes."

After hearing this, Wang Yan gave the second brother all the copper coins on the table, and then said with a smile, "Thank you for your enlightenment, we will remember."

(End of this chapter)