Recreating the prosperous Tang begins with summoning players

Chapter 605 Qianyuan Heavy Treasure
Fifth Qi proposed to the court that the solution to financial problems was coinage.

Fifth Qi proposed in the memorial to ask the court to issue a currency with a higher value, and because the current year name is Qianyuan, the coin that Fifth Qi asked to mint was called "Qianyuan Chongbao".

The solution proposed by Fifth Qi is to cast a heavier and more valuable currency, and stipulate that "one Qianyuan Chongbao is worth ten", that is to say, one Qianyuan Chongbao can be exchanged for ten Kaiyuan Tongbao.

After the memorial was delivered to the emperor, extensive discussions were held in the court. The emperor, who was already frightened, summoned Wu Qi to the Yanying Hall. .

Fifth Qi stood on the Yanying Hall with his hands down, and he was not nervous about the gazes of the prime ministers. As the minister who knows "economy" best in the Tang Dynasty, Fifth Qi has this confidence.

"Fifth Aiqing, where did the copper for casting the Qianyuan treasure come from?"

Li Heng is very interested in this method of minting new money. Being able to issue new money is also a feat that can go down in history. For Li Heng, he is unwilling to let go of any opportunity to surpass the emperor.

Fifth Qi had prepared the answer a long time ago, and he said, "Your Majesty, in fact, the new coins are issued in the same way that Gaozu minted Kaiyuan Tongbao back then."

Li Heng asked with great interest: "What's the explanation?"

Fifth Qi said: "At the end of the Sui Dynasty, the common currency in the world was the Sui five baht. As the name suggests, the Sui five baht weighed five baht, and Kaiyuan Tongbao weighed two baht. By exchanging one Kaiyuan Tongbao for one Sui five baht, collect all the coins in the world and change it into Kaiyuan Tongbao."

Now the emperor understood, it turned out to be this way!
Fifth Qi continued: "During Emperor Taizong's time, money was expensive and rice was cheap, but now rice is expensive and money is cheap. People often need to carry a lot of Kaiyuan Tongbao to buy things, and merchants even need carts to transport coins."

"I think that the newly minted Qianyuan Chongbao can be exchanged for ten Kaiyuan Tongbao, and the Qianyuan Chongbao weighing six baht is more appropriate."

The ministers present began to calculate one after another. If they ordered one Qianyuan Chongbao to be exchanged for ten Kaiyuan Tongbao, one Qianyuan Chongbao for six baht, and one Kaiyuan Tongbao for two baht, then only three Kaiyuan Tongbao could be cast from the market. Qianyuan Chongbao worth ten Kaiyuan Tongbao.

Even if the coins were lost, the imperial court could still make money casting Qianyuan heavy treasures!
The prime ministers looked at each other in blank dismay, and they couldn't raise any objections to Fifth Qi's plan.

Fifth Qi seems to be playing with a very new thing, but he brought up the old story of Emperor Gaozu from the very beginning, and Kaiyuan Tongbao is the most popular currency in the market today, and Sui Wuzhu has also been swept into the historical trash. There seems to be no problem with the method.

The imperial court can benefit from minting new money and solve the current lack of money in the imperial court. Does this sound like a good idea?
For Li Heng, being able to keep his year name on the coins seems to excite him more than solving the problem of the imperial court's money shortage.

There is not much left for me to surpass my father. You must know that my father has not issued new money!
(Kaiyuan Tongbao was issued by Tang Gaozu Li Yuan, but Li Longji cast a large number of good-quality Kaiyuan Tongbao during his reign, which is of great circulation value.)
"Add Fifth Qi as the minting envoy, set up the Mint Division in the Ministry of Households, and Fifth Qi lead the casting of important treasures of Qianyuan!"

Since the prime ministers did not object, the emperor immediately promulgated a decree and added errands to Fifth Qi.

However, the matter of minting new money is of great importance, so the emperor and the prime ministers all believed that new money should be minted secretly, and then introduced to the people after enough new money was minted.

The emperor happened to collect a large amount of copper coins by donating to the prison, so Li Heng handed over the remaining copper coins donated to the prison and ordered him to mint new coins secretly.

However, the court of the Tang Dynasty was like a sieve that leaked air. On the way to the Princess Mansion, Shang Bo had already learned about the new coin minting from Cui Guangyuan.

The news from Eunuch Mu confirmed each other, and Shang Bo already knew the details of the newly minted Qianyuan Chongbao.

Today the princess specially sent someone to call Shang Bo over, there must be something important, Shang Bo changed into a suit of clothes and rode to the princess mansion.

Everyone from the concierge to the servants in the Princess Mansion knew this Shangliu envoy. When he arrived at the gate of the Princess Mansion, there would naturally be a servant leading the horse for him. The concierge directly opened the side door and welcomed Shang Bo in.

"Please pass it on, Shangbo is asking to see Her Royal Highness the Princess."

The concierge smiled and said, "What kind of joke did the envoy of Shangliu say? What else do you need to tell me when you come? Your Highness is waiting for you in the back garden."

Shang Bo always felt that the concierge's words were a bit awkward, but he came to the back garden with ease.

I only saw Princess Yanguang wearing a loose robe and a snow-white mink coat on her shoulders, lying lazily on the bed in the back garden, holding a book of stories and reading with gusto.

Seeing Shang Bo coming, the maid naturally welcomed him to Nuan Tiao.

Putting down the scriptures under her hand, Princess Yanguang said in a casual tone: "Hurry up and ask Shang's left-behind envoy to come over, come here, and give Shang's envoy some refreshments."

The maids retreated one after another. Seeing Princess Yanguang's amorous appearance, Shang Bo couldn't help turning his eyes away and asked, "Your Highness is calling urgently. Is there anything urgent?"

"Couldn't it be possible to invite Shang's envoy to come over if there is no urgent matter?"

Princess Yanguang smiled slightly, and then said: "Okay, okay, I'm not kidding anymore, it's the palace today, and I heard a big news."

"what?"

"Father is going to mint new coins."

Sure enough, this is the case. Shangbo has already heard the news from two sources. It seems that the matter of minting new coins is a certainty.

Princess Yanguang looked at Shangbo with piercing eyes and asked: "Father is going to mint six baht worth of Qianyuan heavy treasures, and issue new coins with the value of one Qianyuan heavy treasure as ten Kaiyuan Tongbao. The merchant will keep it for future envoys. Do you think so?" "

Princess Yanguang is a very intelligent woman, and the princesses who can get along well in the Li and Tang royal family are without exception those with high IQ and EQ.

This distribution method made her see an opportunity in it.

Only three Kaiyuan Tongbao are needed, but Qianyuan Chongbao worth ten coins can be issued. This is not minting new coins, it is simply changing money out of thin air!
Shang Bo's face also became serious, and he also realized the great profit.

However, Princess Yanguang is a woman after all, and it is inconvenient to deal with many things. She looked at Shangbo and said, "I have ordered the entire Princess Mansion to collect Kaiyuan Tongbao, and now I will exchange all the things that can be sold into money. Can there be reliable people to do things?"

Shang Bo looked at Princess Yanguang, but he didn't expect the princess to be so strong in execution.

What happened next, Shang Bo also immediately understood that the princess wanted to forge Qianyuan treasures privately!And she needs Shangbo to help her mint coins!

Princess Yanguang went on to say: "Even if we sell this princess mansion, we won't get much money. I heard that the East Palace and King Qi have already received Qian Fan!"

Shang Bo quickly wrote down this important information. Qian Fan is the mold for casting copper coins. The new money is still being minted secretly.

However, it is not uncommon for Shangbo, the crown prince and the king of Qi to win the heir, naturally many small officials would secretly join them, no matter how secret the coin casting is, now the high-level officials in Chang'an basically got the news.

Shang Bo secretly sighed, although Fifth Qi's money method sounds good, it is a good thing that can solve the currency transaction and the financial difficulties of the court, but what he didn't count is the greed of human nature.

Princess Yanguang still wanted to collect Kaiyuan Tongbao and recast new money for arbitrage. After the release of Qianyuan Chongbao in history, high-ranking officials and dignitaries cast new money privately one after another. money's worth.

Because there were too many private mints, Qianyuan Chongbao couldn't maintain the exchange value of one to ten, and the new money quickly depreciated to one to three soon after it was issued. After the late Tang Dynasty, it even fell to the point of one to one with Kaiyuan Tongbao.

When studying the history books, Shangbo still didn't understand why Qianyuan Chongbao depreciated so quickly. Now that he saw Datang like this, he immediately understood.

Princess Yanguang looked at Shang Bo with playful eyes and said, "I'm afraid the crown prince will benefit the most this time. When he donated the prison last time, the prince's brother made a lot of money."

Shang Bo understood that Princess Yanguang was reminding himself to let the Yue King in Longyou quickly participate in this feast, but Shang Bo smiled and said: "Thank you for your reminder, I will leave this matter to Shang."

When the Tang court was busy issuing new coins, in the mint in Longyou, a shiny silver coin came off the assembly line, and Jiang Lun handed it to Li Tan who was visiting the mint.

"Is it sterling silver?"

Jiang Lun said honestly: "This is the purest silver coin that can be achieved by current craftsmanship, but the weight of our Longyou silver coin is slightly lighter than that of Roman silver coins and Persian silver coins."

"Why not mint the same weight as those silver coins?"

Jiang Lun said: "Counting the cost of fire consumption, in fact, the Dudu Mansion still has to lose money when casting a silver coin. If our silver coins are large and pure, then some people will take the risk and privately change the new silver coins into foreign silver coins for arbitrage. This is bad money driving out good money."

"So the silver coins newly minted in Longyou have the same overall silver content as the current silver coins on the market, so there will be no room for arbitrage by unscrupulous merchants, and there will be much less counterfeit and bad coins."

That's it, Li Tan nodded, and then Jiang Lun sent another gold coin to Li Tan.

I only saw that this gold coin is about the same size as the one-yuan coin of later generations, with peony flowers printed on the front and "Da Zai Qianyuan" printed on the back. The golden coin looks very precious at first glance. Li Tan said with satisfaction: "This new coin Well cast!"

(End of this chapter)