The Legend of Shushan Xuanjian

Chapter 492 Currency Wars
The warriors who are exhausted from all battles mourn, and the Central Plains is hard to recover from a defeat.

Although the children of Jiangdong are here today, are they willing to come back with the king?
——"Wujiang Pavilion with Overlapping Titles" Wang Anshi
……

After talking about the private salt monopoly, Bai Fu asked about minting new coins.

Yun Yanying said to a person at the neighboring table: "Brother Wang, you are the chief bookkeeper of the Department of Money and Silver of the Ministry of Households. You are very familiar with the history of coins in the past dynasties. Can you tell us about the re-minting of coins?"

Wang Jiangting sighed: "Since ancient times, in order to have peace in the world and economic prosperity, the imperial court should try to ensure the full value of official coins and maintain price stability.

Since the founding of the Tang Dynasty, the government has cast two kinds of copper coins.The first is the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" cast by Emperor Gaozu in the fourth year of Wude. Each thousand pieces weigh six catties and four taels.

The term "Kaiyuan Tongbao" is called Xiaoping money, which is the smallest unit in copper coins, which is what we usually call "one penny".

The second type is the "Qianfeng Quanbao" cast by Emperor Zetian in the first year of Qianfeng.

'Qianfengquanbao' is a kind of ten coins, that is, one 'Qianfengquanbao' is worth ten 'Kaiyuan Tongbao' coins.Emperor Zetian cast "Qianfeng Quanbao" in the past, with the original intention of increasing the number of coins and alleviating the shortage of money.

But things backfired. After the "Qianfeng Quanbao" was cast, the common people hid the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" money one after another, so only the "Qianfeng Quanbao" money remained in the market, resulting in skyrocketing prices and depreciation of big money.

The outlaws saw that it was profitable, so they began to privately mint "Qianfengquanbao" to reduce weight, and some privately minted money was even less than half the weight of the official mint.As a result, there has been a situation in which the official casts a lot of money and wastes financial resources, while the private casters enjoy the benefits.

In desperation, Emperor Zetian issued an edict to stop casting less than a year after the "Qianfeng Quanbao" was in use. Equivalent circulation.

After this change, Emperor Zetian never forged a large amount of money for the rest of his life.

Unexpectedly, more than 90 years later, someone would follow the example of Emperor Zetian and mint big money at the risk of the world.

What was even more unexpected was that Mr. Fifth Qi, a doctor in Duzhi, did not intend to alleviate the money shortage this time, but to adopt the method of currency depreciation, by issuing large amounts of false value money, and amass wealth from the people to raise military expenses to quell the rebellion.

His Majesty has named this new coin 'Qianyuan Chongbao'.The weight of this money is one thousand pieces and ten catties, but its face value is ten times that of 'Kaiyuan Tongbao'.That is to say, by issuing new minted money, one is worth ten, and the old money is not wasted, and the "Kaiyuan Tongbao" money will be depreciated by more than six times with ten times the profit.

According to Master Fifth Qi's deployment, next year, a thousand "heavy wheel Qianyuan coins" weighing [-] catties will be issued.Each piece of this kind of money is worth [-] pieces of 'Kaiyuan Tongbao'. On the basis of 'Qianyuan Chongbao', the value of 'Kaiyuan Tongbao' is depreciated by more than two times. "

Seeing that some of the people did not quite understand, Wang Jiangting explained: "Let's put it this way, Kaiyuan Tongbao Xiaoping coins, Qianyuan heavy treasure coins worth ten, and Qianyuan heavy wheel coins worth fifty. The weights of these three coins are respectively Four, six, twelve, but the corresponding denominations are one, ten, and fifty, reaching an unprecedented level of depreciation in history.

Such a huge price difference will definitely make criminals take risks, and private casting among the people will become more rampant! "

Sun Yan said angrily: "This is blatantly plundering the wealth of the people. Fifth Qi casts a huge amount of money with a false value, which is called counter-insurgency to raise military expenses. But if the currency is devalued, the wealth accumulated by the people of the world will be looted in an instant, and it will definitely arouse public resentment." boiling.

When Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty cast platinum three-grade coins and Wang Mang cast Daquan coins, both caused chaos in the world.At that time, the price of grain was soaring, and rice buckets cost thousands of dollars, and the starving dead slept on the road.The common people had no choice but to steal private money.

The tragedies of the past are vivid in our minds, we must pay attention to them! "

Bai Fu asked: "This action is no less a disaster than a war. Why don't you speak to the imperial court?"

Wang Jiangting was heartbroken, and said: "How can the imperial court not know the danger of casting huge money with false value?
Although this move sacrifices the interests of the people, it can raise money, solve the exhaustion of tax sources, and make up for the gap in military expenditures.Therefore, in the court hall, many important officials remained silent, allowing Fifth Qi to take risks.

Issuing large amounts of money with false value has always been a double-edged sword. To collect money at the expense of the interests of the people is really drinking poison to quench thirst.Unless it is absolutely necessary, it must not be done.

Si thought that once the war was over and the treasury had a slight surplus, it should be collected as soon as it was good, and immediately issued an edict to stop minting new coins! "

Sun Yan snorted coldly, and said: "That being said, I'm worried that once the imperial court tastes the benefits of issuing large amounts of false money, it will become greedy, intensify, and get out of hand!"

Wang Jiangting poured the whole pot of strong wine down his throat, coughed and sighed: "We are all lowly officials with low positions, and we can only complain a few words, how can we affect the court."

Seeing that everyone was mad and began to allude to the court, Yun Yanying pretended to be confused and said: "Only talk about love and moon, don't talk about state affairs, drink a few more glasses today, get drunk, break up..."

At the end of the banquet, when he was parting, Bai Fu asked the staff of the Bashu Guild Hall to prepare ten catties of bacon and two jars of good wine for each scholar.

Everyone was overjoyed, thanked them again and again, and said goodbye one by one.

After all the scholars left, Bai Fu called Huang Zhen and Tang Kui into the secret room, and told them what the officials of the Household Department had said just now.

Bai Fudao: "I once heard the Taifu talk about the casting of 'Qianfengquanbao' in the Wu and Zhou Dynasties. The Kaiyuan Tongbao money saved by the people in their lives shrank instantly, and the wealth quickly disappeared. The prices of all things in the world soared, and the people complained. .

Later, most of the big bells and bronze statues in the temple were destroyed, the purpose is to take copper to make money.There are countless people who violate the law and steal coins. "

Tang Kui sighed: "The people are not stupid. How can they be willing to be exploited in such a situation? They will definitely hide a large amount of Kaiyuan Tongbao money. Or, take the risk and imitate new money. It is inevitable that the trend of private casting will continue."

Huang Zhen didn't understand finance and taxation, so he asked straightforwardly: "Brother Fu, what do you think we should do?"

Bai Fu said: "Today's information is very valuable. Once the new money is issued, it will depreciate greatly and the price of goods will soar, especially the price of rice. Therefore, I think we should plan ahead, prepare early, and hoard more supplies, especially grain.

Second, exchange more Kaiyuan Tongbao coins and hide them in our secret warehouse.

Third, buy all the copper mines that can be bought in the states and counties in the names of the two princes Li Yan and Li Qiu or Princess Qingluan.It doesn't matter if it's more expensive.

Fourth, widely hoard copper materials for copper ware, and secretly recruit skilled craftsmen who are good at minting coins, in case of emergencies. "

……

Tang Kui was startled and said, "Brother Fu, do you want to mint new money privately?"

Bai Fu frowned, and said, "Brother Jiang Ting said just now that the depreciation of the newly minted big money is unprecedented in history.

If the private miners can't find the copper material, they will destroy the official coins and recast them into lighter copper coins for profit.In order to compete with private minters for profit, the imperial court will also begin to reduce the weight of copper coins.Once the profit is less, the private minters will further reduce the weight of copper coins.The two compete with each other to keep losing weight.In this way, the phenomenon of stealing coins will be out of control, and there will be countless people who violate the law and prohibit stealing coins.

If what brother Jiang Ting said is true, not only the common people will suffer, but also the royal family, nobles and wealthy families will not be spared, and the looted wealth will be even greater.This move is bound to offend the public.

I guess not only criminals will steal and mint coins, but if the situation is not good, aristocratic families will also mint them privately. "

Speaking of this, Bai Fu's eyes turned cold, and he said: "Let's make preparations first and act according to circumstances. When necessary, I dare to take risks!"
He is not benevolent, I am not righteous.I can't just sit and watch the property we saved with all our efforts, be plundered by Wu Qi and his gang, ransacked wantonly, and turned into nothing in an instant! "

　bibliography

　　1. "Financial Code of the Central Empire", Guo Jianlong, Lujiang Publishing House, published in September 2018

　　2. "Chinese Currency History", Peng Xinwei, Renmin University of China Press, published in February 2020

　　3. "Who Minted Coins in the Past 3000 Years: A Minimalist Chinese History of 50 Coins", Wang Yongsheng, CITIC Publishing Group, January 2019

　　
　
(End of this chapter)