Xinshun 1730

Chapter 957 The last successful reform of the dynasty ([-])
It's okay not to mention this, but once this is mentioned, the emperor is even more excited.

I thought to myself that this trade is being constrained everywhere, and it can still earn so much; if it is really a major event that breaks the British and Yi navigation regulations in the future, it will not take off?
Now the businessman has received 36 taels of "benefit fee" in return for increasing taxes on the Danish business house.

It will become a rule in the future.You can also use the same method to deal with other families.

Of course, this year's situation is indeed special, but if there is a short-term decline in the future, it only needs to make up for it in the future.

"I know what Ai Qing said. Don't worry, I won't use this year's figure as my usual situation."

"I am most at ease with Aiqing in this overseas trade matter. I will not ask others to interfere indiscriminately."

The reason why the emperor said these words was mainly because of the idea of ​​"high-end porcelain makes more money" that he slapped his head back then, and lost a large sum of money to lose out.

Foreign trade, of course, must pay attention to science.

In fact, there are many such "funny" decisions in history.

In history, in 1843, the end of a crow, the British capitalists were very excited.

Then, a company in Westfeldt spent huge sums of money and used a large amount of the company's working capital to ship a shipment of "knives and forks" to China, planning to make a fortune.

This is no longer a decision made by slapping the head, but a decision made by the head being pierced by a high-pressure water gun.

Relying on this kind of head-scratching decision-making and the suppression of the East India Company, which really understands the situation in the East, Britain "successfully" "successfully" exported its exports to China, except for opium, from a peak of 250 million pounds to 52 years. 140 million pounds.And after the two crows, China created a semi-colonial 1876% tariff in 2.5 that seemed like a magical world, and once again had a silver surplus of 1058 million taels...

In the current situation, Liu Yu is not worried about the dumping of foreign goods at all, but worried about many domestic problems caused by the gradual increase in trade volume.

When the country cannot issue currency, tens of millions of taels of silver enter the country every year, which is dangerous enough.

Fortunately, Dashun's administrative ability is not very strong, and it cannot collect and spend large sums of money, so the price revolution in Europe has not had a great impact on China so far.

However, even if the administrative ability is not strong, the entry of a large amount of external silver will gradually affect the whole country as the emperor spends money.

For example, the construction of the Huaihe River this year is a financial transfer payment.The silver from all over the country was spent in the Lianghuai area, and 4000 to [-] million taels of silver poured in all at once, and the impact was a bit huge.

The simplest point will definitely cause the problem of silver price ratio in the Lianghuai area.

And this is exactly what Liu Yu is worried about.

Dashun's monetary policy is neither a silver standard nor a copper standard, but a very peculiar monetary policy.

Dashun's legal currency is copper coins, but the tax is collected in silver.And the statutory one thousand copper coins can be exchanged for one tael of silver is only a theoretical thing - Dashun doesn't even have an official bank or currency exchange office, and even such a large-scale foreign trade is calculated directly by weighing How could it be possible that the non-governmental exchange ratio can follow the official one?

This is similar to the official issuance of legal currency, but the official tax collection is charged in pounds, francs, Dutch guilders, and Spanish dollars.

In the past, foreign trade was not very proactive, and it was impacted by the silverization of currency and the silver tax reform.

Nowadays, the amount and quantity of foreign trade are increasing rapidly. If the currency issue is not considered under this situation, something will definitely happen.

From a practical point of view, this matter may not be a big deal.

But in the court, it may become the direction of being criticized for trade, so it is necessary for Liu Yu to mention it to the emperor in advance.

Dashun's scholar-bureaucrat level makes it difficult to understand the economy.

A lot of it is based on feel.

Historically, since the 1810s, there has been a sudden wave of cheap money and expensive silver. In some places, it has risen to 1600 to 1700 to one tael of silver in an instant.Many scholar-bureaucrats believed that it was caused by opium smuggling based on their feelings.

Although opium smuggling was indeed serious at that time, the problem was that even if opium smuggling was included, the annual silver income in those years was still at about 600 million taels.

The literati will attribute it to the problem of opium smuggling.

From a standpoint, this is a good thing, raising awareness about opium.

Putting aside our position, opium smuggling was not the main factor when silver became expensive in the 10s, and even the actual export volume and silver inflow increased in those years.

This situation may be a bad thing for Dashun at this time: if there is a sharp fluctuation in the ratio of money to money, these scholar-bureaucrats in Dashun will also blame the problem on foreign trade based on their feelings.

When something really happened, the emperor was not vaccinated by Liu Yu in advance, maybe he was really moved by the imagination of those scholar-bureaucrats, thinking that it was all caused by foreign trade.

"Your Majesty, this time we have opened up Western trade, and there is something that I have to tell His Majesty. Your Majesty also knows that the Tanyuan alliance in the past, the yearly coin was only 10 taels of silver. Nowadays, in Songjiang and other places, the homes of the rich are worth millions. You can take it out."

"Since the beginning of trade in the late Ming Dynasty, the inflow of silver has increased day by day. This matter of money and silver exchange must be investigated."

"People use copper coins for their livelihood unless they pay taxes. Buying cloth, rice, and other livelihood needs rarely use silver."

"The minister is worried that if the money policy does not change, the livelihood of ordinary people may be damaged in the future."

Hearing Liu Yu's words, the emperor couldn't help laughing and said, "Aiqing is wrong. According to what you said, more silver flows into Japan. Doesn't that mean that originally one thousand yuan was exchanged for one tael of silver, but now one thousand yuan can be exchanged for one tael?" Two or three five coins? So, the livelihood of the common people should be getting better?"

"You also said that before the Swedish government kept the rent in kind, because the silver in Europe was increasing day by day, he collected the rent in kind, and the money that went into the treasury was actually more. The money rent was collected in the current dynasty, and the silver was cheaper every day. Isn't it common people? Is the burden on you less? Originally, you have to exchange one thousand renminbi for one tael of silver to pay taxes, but in the future, you only need 800 or 500 renminbi to exchange one tael of silver for tax?"

What Liu Yu is afraid of is that the emperor thinks this way. The reason seems to be right, but it must be less consideration of variables. At least history has proved that there must be some things that have not been understood.

Otherwise, it is impossible to explain that foreign trade has been in excess throughout the 18th century, and a large amount of silver has flowed in, but the exchange price of silver and copper coins has gradually increased from 700 to 1100.

It is also impossible to explain that after the second crow, the exchange price from boiling against Yingtian to 2600 was gradually reduced to 1000 after the second crow.

Liu Yu himself couldn't explain it clearly, so he had to say: "Your Majesty, if the price of currency exchange changes, there will be lawless people who will get the difference. Whether it is accumulating copper coins or silver, no matter what it is, it is not good. No Spending money is not a good thing.”

"My minister thinks, is it possible to determine one thing? Both copper and silver are determined, but nothing is determined. The court taxation, expenditure, military expenditure, etc. are all in silver, why not use silver as the price?"

"It can be printed on small paper, one piece of paper is one penny, and a thousand sheets can be exchanged for one tael of silver. In this way, no matter how much copper there is or how little copper is, the people will not complain about the exchange."

"This matter is very important, and I dare not take it lightly. After all, the bank run by me is just a bank. It does not have the right to issue banknotes. It is just convenient to exchange for silver. But if you issue small banknotes, it is the business of the imperial court's coin minting bureau. If you do that, you will be acting as a substitute."

The emperor nodded, but he agreed with Liu Yu's saying that "no matter how high or low" it is not good, it is best to maintain a stable exchange rate.

At present, the exchange ratio between copper coins and silver stipulated by the imperial court is 1000, but in fact, the exchange is basically free everywhere. After all, the imperial court does not exchange it, and it is all up to the merchants to exchange it themselves. There will definitely be many problems in this.

Moreover, the emperor was as clear as a mirror in his heart, paying taxes requires silver, and before taxes are collected every year, there will inevitably be merchants who exchange silver to lower the price.

If you can really use a small note that is worth 1000 Wen to a tael of silver, it can indeed solve a lot of troubles.

only……

"Aiqing also knows about Mongolian Yuan and Qianming banknotes. I am afraid that the people will not believe it for a while. If they are not forced to change, the people will still prefer copper coins; but if they are forced to change, they may cause many troubles."

Seeing that the emperor was still hesitant, Liu Yu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, this matter is not a trivial matter. In the future, there will be more trade, and the daily income of silver will be more than 10 taels, but the currency exchange is still increasing every year. It is said that the daily income of silver The more you have, the more expensive the money should be, but it’s just the opposite.”

"There is a philosopher in the West, Ma Shi, who said: The growth of wealth makes the more precious metals replace the less precious metals to perform the function of the value measure. Copper is replaced by silver, and silver is eventually replaced by gold, although this order is not the same as the poet imagined. The chronological order is contradictory."

"It is also said that in the world market, all currencies lose their form of coinage and appear directly in the form of precious metals... The copper coins of this dynasty cannot be used as money in overseas trade."

"This money varies from good to bad, and its value often changes. If it was good in the past, now the foreign trade is increasing and the impact is huge. If you don't plan ahead, there may be chaos."

"The Potosi silver mine in the West can easily mine more than one billion taels of silver. If there is more silver, there will be more people coming to this dynasty."

"But if Westerners go to war with each other, why don't they buy less goods from this dynasty? The silver will be cut off all of a sudden."

"It's okay to talk about silver, but I'm afraid that if the money is exchanged for silver, there will be big problems. The changes in silver in the world market will affect foreign trade. That's a big deal, so it's easy to talk about. But the exchange of money and silver involves small people, and that's a big deal. .”

Liu Yu often quoted the words of Ma Shi, a Westerner. The emperor had heard it more than once, and he didn't know who this Ma Shi was.

But these words are easy for the emperor to understand, because Dashun has a ready-made example.

That is the Kanei money in Japan.

As long as you come to Dashun, because of the high copper content, you will be melted when you come.As money, it is true that when the two countries trade, it can only be used as precious metals, not money.

The words quoted by Liu Yu are nothing more than saying that whether people or businessmen prefer silver to copper, they use it as a last resort.

But this kind of mentality will gradually increase the price of silver. Everyone likes silver and dislikes copper, which leads to the influx of so much silver every year. Dashun’s silver-money exchange rate is still rising slowly, instead of simply silver with more copper coins Expensive.

Since the country is opened to do business, the impact of the influx of silver has to be considered.Liu Yu said to plan for a rainy day, but he meant to wait until something happened to solve it, and I'm afraid it would be difficult to solve it.Once the currency exchange rate changes, it is not a matter that can be resolved in a short time—at least for Dashun, it is not a matter that can be resolved in a short time. The administrative efficiency is too low, and the imperial power does not come down to the county at all. It will take a long time to implement it to bear fruit .

(End of this chapter)