Xinshun 1730

Chapter 959 The Last Successful Reform of the Dynasty ([-])
Although the emperor had warned Liu Yu a long time ago, don't do things that "force the court", even if you think it is right and really beneficial to the country, don't engage in such "forced" reforms.

But now it seems that Liu Yu is neither obedient nor obedient.The reforms that are going to be done now may not be regarded as "reversed", but directly paved a smooth road ahead, so that the emperor had to go.

The cornerstone of these three reforms, rice reform, salt administration reform, and canal reform, seems to be the canal issue.But it is actually a Nanyang issue.The Nanyang issue is essentially a naval issue.The victory of the navy brought self-confidence to the emperor. He overcame the fear of the unknown ocean and the fear of being captured by the Yangtze River estuary to cut off the north and the south, which eventually led to this series of reforms.

The emperor would sometimes think about how this was different from the "reverse force" he had warned before. After thinking about it for a long time, he only felt that it could be said to be different or the same.

For example, the reform of the salt administration, the emperor thought, do you, Liu Yu, want to reform the salt administration?You must be thinking about it, at least you support it, but you don't say anything and wait for the court to take the initiative to change.

The emperor did not continue to talk about the details of the salt administration reform and currency reform, but instead asked: "Aiqing strongly advocates the establishment of the Academy of Sciences. The root of it is to believe in Xunqing's righteousness: to control the destiny and use it."

"Heaven has permanence. It does not exist for Yao, nor perishes for Jie. When it should be ruled, it will be good, and if it should be chaotic, it will be evil. If it is strong and economical, then the sky will not be poor; if it is prepared and moved, then the sky will not be poor." disease; if you follow the way and don’t make mistakes, then the heavens will not be able to cause disaster.”

"Since that's the case, from the perspective of Aiqing, is the reform of the salt administration considered to be the order of the heavens? And is the reform of the currency a rule according to the heavens?"

Liu Yu thought about it for a while and replied: "Your Majesty, although the course of heaven is constant, it is beyond the reach of human beings. I dare not even talk about the superficial aspects of the economy. But since your Majesty asked Xun Qing's righteousness, I also Dare not to answer."

"The reform of the salt administration can be regarded as a response to it."

"Currency reform... I have no idea at all, so I implore reform."

"It's like a basket with a big fruit outside, but it can't be stuffed in. Either learn to weave a basket, weave a bigger basket, and stuff the fruit in; or, cut the fruit and stuff it in." In the original small basket."

"I'm stupid, I don't know how the economy works, and I can't solve the money problem if I know a little bit of superficial knowledge."

"Yes, there are two ways to solve the problem. Either, solve the problem; or, solve the problem."

The Chinese language is vast, and the emperor smiled slightly. How could he not know the difference between the meanings of these two "solutions"?

If the problem of money exchange cannot be solved, then the problem of directly letting money exchange does not exist, wouldn’t it be solved?
In the past few years, Liu Yu has been busy with his daily life, and the emperor also knows that if Liu Yu said that he only has a superficial understanding of economics, then the rest of the people in the court don't understand even superficially.

Since Liu Yu couldn't solve the currency exchange problem, I'm afraid no one else could come up with a better solution.

After chuckling, the emperor sighed: "Manpower is limited, the way of heaven is permanent, and people can achieve great things with superficial knowledge. As for controlling the destiny and using it, it is beyond human's ability to think."

"Money is one thing, and that's the case. How about governing a big country? Isn't it more complicated than knowing how to exchange money for money?"

"Who doesn't know how to act according to the sky and rule according to the sky? It's just that if you don't know the way of heaven, how can you obey and respond? Just like Aiqing, it's best to study the infinity of the universe and the truth of heaven and earth, not just this money Is it hard to understand anything?"

"As for governing the country, according to Westerners, it is either empiricism or rationalism."

"Use past experience to sum up gains and losses, and learn from the history of various dynasties."

"Or use rational deduction to deduce future events and guide national policies."

"It's just that many things now have no experience in the past. Such as the strike in Suzhou Prefecture, the unemployment of people on the Dayuling Commercial Road, and the huge amount of silver brought about by overseas trade. "

"However, if it is rational, it is so difficult to predict and predict a mere currency exchange, so how can we talk about governing the country with pure reason?"

Liu Yu smiled secretly, thinking that you are just taking the meaning out of the letter.

Besides, taking history as a mirror is such a case of taking history as a mirror?People draw an egg, draw an ellipse, and fill it with tea red; when you draw a duck egg, you also draw an ellipse, and then fill it with tea red.

Indeed, the problem of massive silver inflows has never been encountered before.But in the year of the damn Yongle, a large amount of spices and peppers flowed in, never encountered it?

People on the Dayuling Commercial Road were unemployed, which had never happened before.But the transfer of the damn city's shipping company, the deviation of the trade route, and the decline of Quanzhou Port, have you ever encountered it?
Liu Yu probably understood what the emperor meant, but he was still full of fear and anxiety about the unknown future, and always felt that the direction Dashun was going in became more and more strange, completely different from the past.

It's okay to speculate.

But now there is a problem of currency exchange, I can't even guess it, and Dashun's path is getting more and more strange, and it gradually reaches the point where there is no history to follow, what should I do?
The future is long, is it good?is it bad?
This is good or bad, and there are different subjects.Is it the common people?Is it a scholar-bureaucrat?Is the royal family?Is it the emperor?
If it was something else, Liu Yu could still say a few words.

But the matter of being exchanged by the emperor for silver money today, he made a point and mentioned it a bit, but he had nothing to say.

I had to use a metaphor that the emperor could probably understand to explain this problem.

Dashun's currency system is similar to the longitude and moon phase map problem that Dashun Navigation is facing now.

If there is only one earth and one moon, the calculation is very simple.

If there is only one sun and one earth, it is not difficult to calculate.

But if one sun, one earth, and one moon are all considered, it becomes extremely difficult to calculate.

At least Liu Yu didn't understand such a problem. In history, Euler also lamented that he wasted several years of his life by calculating the problem of the sun, the earth and the moon without any results.

The same is true for Dashun's currency.

If it's just copper coins, it's easy to calculate.

If it's just silver, it's easy to calculate.

However, there is no stipulated exchange ratio between copper coins and silver, which is not understood at all-copper coins and silver are not the relationship between yuan cents, but the exchange rate of pure market fluctuations.

This makes it impossible to measure at all.

The emperor had the Digu and Kepler systems taught by those Westerners Qin Tianjian before him, and he also had a certain mathematical foundation. He could still understand Liu Yu's analogy to some extent.

Then the emperor asked Liu Yu a question.

"I understand Aiqing's train of thought."

"Then, isn't it similar to Aiqing's idea of ​​emphasizing agriculture and suppressing business in previous dynasties?"

"I can understand the operation of the country based on small farmers, but I can't understand the operation of the country based on merchants and businessmen. Therefore, I suppress business and industry in order to use the principles I can understand to govern and govern. What I am most familiar with is to turn the world into a A big village."

"What's the difference between this and Aiqing's idea of ​​abolishing copper coins without knowing the currency issue?"

Liu Yu said calmly: "Returning to Your Majesty, there seems to be no difference. The world belongs to Your Majesty, and what happens to His Majesty's holy will determines what happens to the world. There is no difference, it just depends on what Your Majesty thinks."

"But in fact, there is still a difference. Regarding the issue of silver, if it is based on what His Majesty said, it should be to discard silver and only use copper coins. Since ancient times, there has been no custom of using silver as a coin in the Celestial Dynasty. of."

The emperor laughed out loud when he heard the words, knowing that Liu Yu was alluding to the fact that some people in the court opposed the learning of Westerners. Although the "Western learning" appointed by the emperor was only related to religion, and science and technology were regarded as "practical learning", some people did not like it. Been obfuscating on purpose.

As for things like the shareholding system and the buyout system, even though Liu Yu dug out ancient books to find chapters and excerpts from the past, and said that they existed in ancient times, there were still voices of opposition.

Now Liu Yu uses copper coins and silver as a metaphor. The emperor understands what Liu Yu means to say that it is not acceptable to return all of them, but he can use the experience of managing copper coins in the past to manage silver.It just depends on whether the emperor wants to completely return to the "bronze" age, or keep pace with the times and continue to move forward to the "silver" age.

The world belongs to the emperor.Liu Yu is just a part-time worker, so if you don't want to use it, you don't have to.

When the emperor heard these words, Longyan was very happy. After laughing, he said: "Aiqing has hit the point. Since I use you, I don't want to go back. Nowadays, there are so many changes around the canal. When you can't go back."

"However, since the reform has begun, many new problems will arise."

"What's new? Something that hasn't happened before."

"I thought that these new problems could be solved with Aiqing's wisdom. Until today, regarding the matter of money, I knew that Aiqing was also at a loss and fearful when faced with these new things. For a while Just sigh."

"I might as well tell you that in the past, when you talked about promoting the navy, taking Nanyang, and developing industry and commerce, there were many people in the court who had the same mentality as Aiqing when facing money matters: at a loss, fear and uneasiness, not knowing the way forward, not knowing what to do. What are the ghosts and ghosts in the road ahead, and I don’t know how to solve them.”

"After this incident today, Aiqing should also understand the thoughts of the court officials before. It is also a good thing. In case Aiqing always thinks 'what is there to be afraid of', 'what is there to worry about', 'those newcomers Isn't the problem easy to solve'."

"If Aiqing can understand this, in my opinion, it is better than the several million taels of silver bills you sent. This way, you will know that not every problem in the world can be deduced with reason, and it will also destroy your arrogance. It's my great fortune to stop your impatience and think more about things."

"Now that we understand it, let's settle this matter first. The Huaibei salt administration reform should be coordinated with the reform of small banknotes that you said. In the process of advancing, don't be impatient, and changes will happen if you are hasty. You need to take a step and look at it, because of this matter. You can't deduce whether the result is good or bad, so you can't be like before, and you must seize the day and night when you decide on one thing. You need to take your time, you can afford to wait, and I can also afford to wait."

(End of this chapter)