Prime Minister

Chapter 883

In the political affairs hall, Zhang Yue and Lu Huiqing discussed and made a final decision.

Wang Gui has always been a scholar of the Hanlin Academy, but he only worshiped Zaizhi because of his qualifications.

When Wang Anshi was in the phase, he was beaten repeatedly by Zeng Bu and Lu Huiqing.

Now that Wang Anshi has passed away, Wang Gui is still the same, doing a muffled gourd every day and not talking. He knows that Yingzong and the emperor don't trust him, so he just makes arrangements for himself.

And Feng Jing has always had arguments with Wang Anshi and Lu Huiqing, but they are not firm.

All in all, I just couldn't compete, so I took a detour, but my attitude was still there.When facing the emperor, he also managed to speak out and advise on everything, but not violently.

In terms of the details of salt and banknotes, Feng Jing and Wang Yu are not as good as Zhang Yue, and Lu Huiqing is familiar with it, so he didn't express his opinion.

However, Xu Anshi and others kept putting forward opinions.

Xu Anshidao: "The imperial court can earn millions of guan every year by issuing more salt notes. Therefore, issuing false notes properly can increase the court's income. The lower officials think that it is okay to print more salt notes."

"At present, there is a shortage of money among the people, and everything is depreciated, except for salt and banknotes. In Shaanxi, merchants now only need one-third of the price to buy rice from the market, and then exchange it for salt and banknotes from the government. emptiness."

The deflation caused by the money shortage will cause prices to plummet, but Zhang Yue has always strictly enforced the policy of not issuing salt money indiscriminately.

Merchants competed to exchange rice for salt banknotes when they bought money, and the merchants who made a living by buying money made a lot of money, but the court lost money.

Therefore, Xu Anshi suggested that the imperial court issue more salt bills to reduce the price of salt and at the same time increase income.

Kumamoto on the side said: "That's right. I heard that the more money is scarce, the more the merchants in Shaanxi are hoarding copper and iron money, and the salt money is also in their hands, and the prices of ordinary people are so cheap that the good farmland in the past is not worth it."

Lu Huiqing said: "The Shaanxi Transshipment Department can be made to overestimate the price of rice, and it should be overestimated, so as not to make these buying merchants profit. As for the salt banknotes involving salt books, false banknotes must not be printed."

False valuation is the Tang Dynasty’s system of adjusting official prices and market prices. Subsidies are given to merchants who pay in kind. This part of the subsidy is called Jiarao.

Generally, a price higher than the market price is given, but Lu Huiqing underestimated it.

The official price is the contract price for long-term supply, regardless of whether rice is expensive or cheap, it is the same price.When the price of rice is high, the merchants who buy rice will lose money, and the court will make money; when the price of rice is cheap, the merchants who buy rice will make money, and the court will lose money.

Lu Huiqing's method of false estimation made these officials and businessmen only lose money but not make money.All in all, there is no way to earn money from the court.

However, these losses and gains are only on the bright side. Those who can be officials and businessmen are all hands-on. Otherwise, any official can say that your good food is soaked in water and then dried and not exchanged when inspecting the grain.

The final result of this move is that the grain merchants collectively shoddy.

Zhang Yuehao took a sip of tea in his spare time, and then said: "The method of overestimation is very harmful. I think that since the official banknotes are insufficient, I can take the repurchased Jiaozi and transfer it to Cao Si in Shaanxi, and let them take the salt banknotes and Jiaozi separately [-]% of the way is to exchange money for the merchants who bought the money."

Lu Huiqing couldn't help but shudder when she heard this, thinking that Zhang Yue's move is so good.

How tall is it?
It's as high as a ten-story building!

Zhang Yue looked around and said: "There is no money in Shaanxi, so the money shortage is solved with banknotes. Salt banknotes are used as a quota and cannot be printed, but Jiaozi can..."

"This can not only solve the urgent shortage of official banknotes in Shaanxi, but also increase the price of rice. It is not easy for the people of Shaanxi to work on the frontier, and they cannot be let suffer."

After Zhang Yue finished speaking, Feng Jing, Wang Gui and other officials suddenly realized.

It turned out that Zhang Yue was determined not to combine Yanchao and Jiaozi into one place, but divided them into two for management.

Salt banknotes are based on Jieyan and Zhangyan. In order to alleviate the money shortage, the issuance of salt banknotes will be increased, which will undermine the imperial government's plan for salt administration.

Therefore, the annual issuance of salt banknotes is fixed, and cannot be easily increased or decreased, otherwise, once the salt banknotes cannot be exchanged, it will destroy the trust of the currency.

Both Zhang Yue and Lu Huiqing saw this.

But what Lu Huiqing didn't see was the second layer. Jiaozi's capital was the legendary '36 Guan' iron money, but all the money was spent.

Therefore, Jiaozi can increase or decrease the number of issuances according to the amount of money in circulation in the market, and implement another monetary policy.Seeing the shortage of money in Shaanxi, it is too late to make two coins even now, but Jiaozi and other banknotes are different.

This is the reason why Yanchao and Jiaozi must be separated.

It turned out that this was Zhang Yue's original intention.

He had thought about this problem a long time ago, so he set up this mechanism and designed two systems and issuance methods for salt banknotes and Jiaozi respectively.

Immediately, Xu Anshi, Kumamoto and others were convinced, even Feng Jing and Wang Gui were also full of admiration.

A few days ago, the imperial court used real money to buy back the quotations in the exchange exchange, so that the official Jiaozi increased from more than 100 documents to more than 700 documents, and it came in handy in just a few days.

Lu Huiqing's face was a little tense. He looked at Xu Anshi, Kumamoto and the others in admiration for Zhang Yue, knowing that he had lost again for a while today.

Afterwards, Lu Huiqing and Zhang Yue went to the Chongzheng Palace to report the matter to the officials and Han Jiang.

Zhang Yue talked eloquently in the hall: "I think that the value of money and goods lies in the circulation. If the flow can be inexhaustible, both the government and the people will benefit a lot from it."

"For example, if I have a hundred thousand dollars, if one person uses it, it will be one hundred thousand dollars. If it is distributed in ten rooms and circulated in the hands of ten people, it will be one million dollars."

"To resolve the money shortage in Shaanxi, communication is ten times better than seeing money."

The official and Han Jiang looked at each other with expressions of admiration.

Han Jiang said: "Your Majesty, as Zhang Yue said before, printing salt banknotes will only produce false banknotes and corrupt the banknote law. If you print Jiaozi, there will be no such disadvantages, as long as the imperial court can do it. "

In other words, Jiaozi can fluctuate to a certain extent.

Immediately, Zhang Yue's method was approved by the imperial court, and when he came out of Chongzheng Hall, Han Jiang said to Zhang Yue, Lu Huiqing said: "I talked with Jiefu about the money shortage in the Northwest in a letter earlier, so he said, 'Why don't you make more money? "Salt banknotes" come, he explained that salt fluctuates every year, if there are few banknotes, the court will lose the salt profit, and if there are too many banknotes, just buy it again."

"Also, let's go and make friends, and make money alone. Fortunately, I didn't talk about this with the officials just now."

Zhang Yue smiled when he heard this, and then looked at Lu Huiqing with disdain.

After Han Jiang finished speaking, she took the first step, leaving Zhang Yue and Lu Huiqing alone.

Zhang Yue said to Lu Huiqing: "Wang Xianggong studies heaven and man, but when it comes to economics, he is really far behind Dacan."

Why doesn't Lu Huiqing think this way in his heart, do you, Wang Anshi, still want to return to the aspect?He actually wrote to Han Jiang to discuss the politics of money and goods.

That's all for you to talk about, this printing of salt money is obviously a short-sighted move.There is also the abolition of cross reference, independent salt money?As Zhang Yue said, Wang Anshi really doesn't understand economics.

However, Zhang Yue's words seemed angry, and Lu Huiqing also caught whether the other party was taking the opportunity to drive a wedge between himself and Wang Anshi.

Lu Huiqing pretended to be ignorant and said: "Duzhi, you and I are the only ones who can discuss major issues in the court, and the rest are insignificant."

After Lu Huiqing finished speaking, suddenly there was thunder in the sky, Zhang Yue heard why he said this with an atmosphere of "the only hero in the world is the king and the ear".

(End of this chapter)