Ming Zuo

Zuo Menggeng knew that under the prosperity of Songjiang Mansion, there must be hidden problems.

Blessings and misfortunes depend on them, and misfortunes and blessings depend on them.

Find the problem and solve the problem.

But I didn't expect that the problem would be so big.

"Isn't the business good? Why is there still a problem with money?"

Songjiang Prefecture is now definitely the largest trade distribution center in the world, and the daily transaction volume is very impressive.Such a place is said to be short of money, so what about other places?
It was only after Qu Yin made a long discussion that he explained the whole story.

"Business is indeed getting more and more prosperous, but we found that in the process of the transaction, we are always the ones who suffer. At first we didn't know what the problem was, but then the local price situation came from Batavia, Only then did we discover that the price of silver is different at home and abroad. The price of silver in our country is fully twice that of foreign countries. Those Westerners who come to trade with silver can buy twice as much for only half the price. Goods. The result is that we export more goods but earn less silver."

Zuo Menggeng's eyebrows frowned, and suddenly realized.

"Ah, arbitrage."

This kind of method is common in later generations, and anyone with a little bit of currency knowledge can understand it.

The way to take advantage of the differences in currency exchange rates between regions and seek benefits from them is arbitrage.

He just didn't expect that in this era, someone would already do this.

No, obviously he was negligent.

Because Xia Guo has been doing the same thing to Dongpu.

It's just that they didn't expect that Westerners were doing the same thing to Xia Guo.

Although Zuo Menggeng is not a financial expert, at least he knows that the middle and late Ming Dynasty was the period when silver from all over the world poured into China.

Because China's own silver production is not much, it is because of the supply of silver from the outside world that Zhang Juzheng's reform was promoted.

Otherwise, if you want to spread the income to the mu, what will the people use to pay taxes?

The massive influx of silver also caused prosperity for quite a long period of time.

However, in the long run, the exchange rate gap will only harm China.

Westerners only need to spend a small amount of money to buy a large amount of goods from China, and they have taken advantage of it for nothing.

At the same time, the influx of a large amount of silver has also caused currency depreciation and rising prices, that is, inflation.

Originally, if this situation continued, the damage to China would not be too high.

After all, with sufficient silver inflow, the country's finances are guaranteed.

But the problem is that the Thirty Years' War in Europe has begun.

In order to win the war, European countries desperately invested resources and strengthened themselves, resulting in a sharp decrease in the flow of silver into China.

This is good, and the price is soaring even more.

Now Xia Guo is also facing this problem.

"Most of the Westerners who came to trade in the past six months proposed to barter, and they couldn't produce enough silver. Although the commodities they brought were all we urgently needed, they lacked the link of currency transactions. The government's taxation It's starting to drop off sharply. That has to change."

Chen Zhi has been sitting in Songjiang Mansion and raised serious questions.

Chinese goods are urgently needed by Westerners, but they can't get more silver to trade, so they have to return to the most primitive way of bartering.

This method is actually more fair than silver trading and can even out the difference in exchange rates.But for the government, it is very unfriendly.

Inconvenient to collect taxes.

The reduction in tax revenue will also affect the national finances.

Faced with a series of problems, fortunately Zuo Menggeng came, and everyone finally found the backbone.

This question is a big one.

Zuo Menggeng understands that if it is not properly resolved, it will inevitably cause serious damage to the economy of Xia Kingdom.

In the final analysis, the root of the problem lies in two aspects.

One is the exchange rate issue, and the other is the source of silver.

But the two problems are one in two, two in one.

If domestic silver is abundant, then the exchange rate is not a problem.

However, it is obvious that it is absolutely impossible to obtain sufficient silver based on the domestic situation.

China itself is not a country rich in silver mines, and without foreign silver imports, it cannot meet its needs at all.

"Silver's problem will take some time, but it won't be too long. It should be alleviated by the end of this year at the latest."

Seeing that everyone didn't understand, Zuo Menggeng simply spoke more clearly.

"The country is going to take action against the Spaniards in Luzon. After the Spaniards are resolved, Luzon will belong to us. The mineral deposits there are very rich, enough to meet the needs of silver."

Zuo Menggeng clearly remembered that the silver reserves of the Philippines ranked fifth in the world.

As long as you win here, you can definitely alleviate the domestic silver crisis.

As soon as this remark came out, everyone immediately became happy.

No one expected that Zuo Menggeng would solve the economic problem with political and military problems.

In the past, many of them felt that it was not a good thing for Xia Guo to fight everywhere. Wouldn't it be good to do business and make money with peace of mind?

Now that they can rob money, they realize their superficiality.

Xu Ji felt relieved and raised an important question.

"Zhongheng, Westerners like to cast silver into silver coins, and use the value engraved on it as the basis for the price, unlike us, who use the weight of silver as the basis. Is there something tricky about this?"

Zuo Menggeng still understood this question.

"That's where the concept of money comes in."

"Currency is not a kind of physical object, but a general equivalent. It is to use a thing with a constant price recognized by the world to achieve the purpose of transaction. This thing with a constant price is currency. In ancient times, people used shells as currency. Later, It is gold, silver, copper, etc. Generally speaking, the smaller the quantity and the higher the quality of the metal, the higher the value as currency. For example, gold is more expensive than silver, and silver is more expensive than copper. This is the principle. In this case, Currency itself has no value, so gold and silver can be used, why not set a number? As long as there is national endorsement and sufficient gold and silver reserves as a guarantee, even a piece of paper can play the role of currency.”

When everyone heard this, their expressions were astonished.

Xu Ji was even more frightened.

"At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang also issued banknotes, but in the end it didn't matter. Zhongheng, we must be cautious about this matter."

Zuo Menggeng smiled when he heard this.

"How does Zhu Yuanzhang know what finance is? He just issued a decree and slapped his head. Daming didn't have enough gold and silver reserves to maintain the value of banknotes. After a long time, it will naturally collapse. We Xia Guo is different, although there is not much silver, but gold reserves are not a problem at all."

In the land occupied by Xia Guo today, there are not many silver mines found, but gold mines are very gratifying.

In addition to the inherent gold mines in Shandong, gold mines with amazing reserves have been discovered in Sakhalin Island and the extreme north.

In particular, a gold mine discovered on the Longya Peninsula (Kamchatka Peninsula) is quite comical.

After the exploring soldiers went ashore, they urinated everywhere.

As a result, under the impact of urine, the dust on the surface of a large stone was washed away, revealing the mystery inside.

Under the bright sunlight, the big stone exudes a dizzying golden light.

How big is that stone?

It's as big as a human head.

There is no impurity, the whole piece is gold.

The northern military region received the report and quickly dispatched mining experts there, only to find out that the gold reserves on the surface of that place are incomparably astonishing.

Now that the gold reserves can be guaranteed, Zuo Menggeng felt that it was time to change the backward financial system.