Prime Minister

Chapter 878
In the meeting of the two governments in Zizheng Hall, Zhang Yue was among them and listened to the high-level speeches of the two governments. Besides him, there was Zeng Bu, the third secretary, and Zhang Dun, who was annotated by fellow practitioners.

After Wang Anshi dismissed his chancellor, he strongly recommended Zhang Dun, who is now in the position of Zhizhi. Later, in the case of Zeng Bu and Lu Huiqing, Zhang Dun made a decision to support Lu Huiqing, and was entrusted by Lu Huiqing to judge military weapons. The post of supervisor.

Zhang Yue glanced at Zhang Dun standing beside the screen.

The reason why Lu Huiqing is so good is that he is not alone, he represents all the officials in the court who support the new party, the party that Wang Anshi did not end, Lu Huiqing ended.

You can offend one person, but not the whole party.

This is why Lu Huiqing can completely disregard Feng Jing, Zeng Bu, and even Zhaowen Xianggong Han Jiang in front of the emperor.

At the same time, Wang Anshi and Lu Huiqing's eloquence skills, there are not many people in the temple who are their opponents.

Feng Jing first refuted the disadvantages of Lv Huiqing's building and folding two coins: "In the Han Dynasty, Empress Lu first cast eight coins, and then changed them to five coins. Five stalks of money were forced to extort from the people, and finally the world collapsed. Liu Bei entered Shu without a penny, cast a hundred and five stalks, and forced to exchange one hundred and five sho

Zhang Yue heard what Feng Jing said was all about the government stealing money from the people.

One of the standards of the prosperous age is that the official coins are very good.

Take the Yongle Tongbao of the Ming Dynasty as an example, which is recognized as a good currency.That was when the Ming Dynasty was at its strongest.

In the Han Dynasty, five-plant coins were popular, but Empress Lu wanted to cast eight-plant coins at first, which was also made in the Qin Dynasty, but the national power did not allow it at that time, so the five-plant coins were used as eight-plant coins.

Wang Mang usurped the Han and issued "Daquan Fifty", but Daquan was only worth two and a half of five baht coins, but he had to use it as fifty.Therefore, every time Wang Mang issued a big coin, it was equivalent to stealing 47 and a half five baht coins from the people.

In the end, when Liu Bei entered Shu, he made one coin worth a hundred among the people. This profit was more than Wang Mang.

As for Wang Anshi, Lu Huiqing's offer of a two-coin discount looks pretty good, and one newly minted copper coin is worth two of your copper coins.

In addition, there are iron coins used as copper coins, and copper coins mixed with lead. This is a fine tradition of official coinage since the Han and Tang Dynasties.

All in all, the more troubled times are, the worse the quality of official coins is.However, Wang Mang still needs to show some face. Daquan Fifty is very well-crafted. As for Liu Daer's straight hundred and five coins, the quality is recognized as poor, and it can't be sold for a few dollars in the second-hand market in later generations. One hundred pieces.Of course, it is said that Soochow also has a variety of Daquan Wuqian.

Lu Huiqing said: "Did Mr. Feng think that I minted two coins just to compete with the people for profit? What should I do about this money shortage? The imperial court has repeatedly banned copper, but they can't stop the people from melting copper to cast private money. Emperor Renzong once issued an order If there are more than one consistent copper coin brought to a foreign country, the leader will be executed. Logically speaking, copper coins should flow in the country, but has Mr. Feng seen what kind of money the common people use? They are all flat coins, iron coins, but no copper coins .”

"I heard that rich families in Hedong and Shaanxi hide copper coins and use them instead of using iron coins. This is the result of the money shortage. Previously, the Xining Yuanbao was folded into two coins, but I think the Xining treasure will be cast into three pieces. , [-]% off, can we resolve the current situation where money is more important than material?"

What Lu Huiqing meant was that I was not trying to compete for profit with the common people, I was really solving the problem of money shortage for the country.It's not enough to fold two, I have to fold three and five.

Zhang Yue heard it from the bottom of his heart, hehe, in another time and space history, the first time Cai Jing was dismissed from the prime minister was because of the issuance of "Dang Ten Coins". It seems that you, Lu Huiqing, are not far away.

Once preached: "Your Majesty, money is useless, but things are used for it; money is not important, but things are important..."

Zhang Yue heard that Zeng Bu is worthy of being the third envoy, and he really has something. This sentence is somewhat similar to gold and silver are not currency, and currency is naturally gold and silver.

"I thought that if the official casting was divided into two, it would be discounted by three, and even if it was discounted by five, I would have to dig three feet of the ground. How could this kind of plundering of money from the people really solve the money shortage? I thought that the people would be destitute..."

Lu Huiqing retorted and said: "Your Majesty, what Zeng Bu said is that the people are not living well, but my ministers think it is not good. He does not allow ministers to make coins that are divided into two or three. He would rather the rich and powerful make coins privately than the court to make coins and let the people chisel and cut them." Copper coins are not allowed to be used as two?"

There is a saying that a penny can be spent by breaking it in half. This saying is not a joke. To the extent that folk money is scarce, it is to cut copper coins in half to use.

Enraged by Lu Huiqing's words, Zeng Bu couldn't help but said, "So what if the people are allowed to make private money? In ancient times, the people used shells as coins, and later they used copper coins, gold and silver. These are all decided by the people themselves. in the country?"

"Your Majesty, I thought that the money shortage could be solved by letting go of folk self-casting. Back then, Zhang Jiuling published the "Imperial Discussion on Freeing Private Casting of Money" as a chancellor, but it was blocked by the treacherous Prime Minister Li Linfu."

Zeng Bu meant that he was Zhang Jiuling, and that Lu Huiqing, who advocated making official coins, was Li Linfu.

But Zhang Yue listened to Zeng Bu's words and thought, you are really mad at Lu Huiqing, and it is okay to let the people mint private coins to solve the problem of money shortage?
Where is the authority of the imperial court?
That's right, the history books always scold Li Linfu and agree with Zhang Jiuling, but the question is who did the emperor finally support and whose opinion was adopted?Who has been the Prime Minister of the Tang Dynasty for 19 years?
Now in front of the officials, one advocates the government to mint money, and the other advocates letting go of private minting of money. Which one do you think the government will trust more?
Sure enough, after hearing Zeng Bu's words, the official's complexion was not good.

He thought Zeng Bu was okay before, but after Wang Anshi stepped down as prime minister, he was really inferior to Lu Huiqing in every way.

And Lu Huiqing's face was bright. When it comes to governing the world, Zeng Bu and Feng Jing together are not his opponents. There is really no one in this palace who can fight.

Lu Huiqing said: "Your Majesty, I think that in order to resolve the money shortage among the people, we can mint [-]% off, [-]% off, [-]% off, or even iron coins, depending on the convenience of the people."

"Your Majesty, I think that two coins can be used, but three or five and iron coins are not."

After the words fell, Lu Huiqing's expression froze, and Han Jiang and Wu Chong all turned their heads sideways to look at the end of the palace.

But I saw a person coming out of the shift, it was Zhang Yue who never said a word.

Wang Gui and Cai Ting felt a little thoughtful when they saw Zhang Yue.

The official nodded approvingly and said, you can be regarded as a leader, otherwise I would think that you are dozing off every time the two governments hold meetings.

Zhang Yue also had no choice. He didn't want to fight with Lu Huiqing, but this time he couldn't fight.

Behind the war is a political problem, behind the politics is often an economic problem, and the manifestation of an economic problem is mostly in the currency system.

Why do you say that?
Whether it is money shortage, or money is more important than goods, it will be deflation in later generations.

Deflation means that money is not enough, why?
One possibility is that the economy is developing too fast and overproduction has caused the currency issuance to fail to keep up.

Another problem is that the gap between the rich and the poor is too large, money is concentrated in the hands of the rich, and ordinary people have no money to spend.

There is less money in the society, so it is natural to increase the amount of currency injection. Therefore, Lu Huiqing prescribed the prescription to ask officials to mint two coins, while Zeng Bu let go of private minting.

(End of this chapter)