Tibet.

Chapter 1428 Issuing Silver and Money
Shi Qianquan's carriage slowly drove into the palace from the Zuo Yintai Gate, went along the Hengjie Street, and entered the harem from the Penglai Gate. The palace complex in front was the Penglai Palace where Empress Dugu lived.

The carriage slowly stopped in front of the steps. Dugu Xinyue had been waiting on the steps for a long time. Yang Yuhuan and Liu Qingyu were standing next to her.

Li Chenghua helped Shi Qianquan get off the carriage. Li Chenghua stepped forward and saluted Dugu Xinyue, "Your humble servant greets Her Majesty the Queen!"

Dugu Xinyue pulled her arm and said with a smile: "Why has Sister Chenghua become so dark?"

"Don't mention it. The river is windy and sandy, the sun is strong, and there is no shade. I wear a veil hat every day, but I am still blown black. Look at my arms, they are black."

"But Sister Chenghua wants to stay in the river for a long time, what should we do?"

Li Chenghua smiled and said, "You'll get used to it. Anyway, I won't marry again in this life, so the black spots don't matter."

She slightly turned her body to let Shi Qianquan out, and Shi Qianquan stepped forward and bowed deeply, "The little girl of Shi country, Qianquan, greets the queen!"

Dugu Xinyue quickly helped her up, "It's inconvenient to perform formal formalities in a skirt, Princess, please stand up!"

Qingyu whispered at the side: "Second sister, I just realized now, she is still a princess, the heir to the king, not our sister."

Yang Yuhuan smiled and said, "Everyone knows it well, so there's no need to be too rigid about etiquette!"

Dugu Xinyue looked Shi Qianquan up and down and saw that she was about the same height as herself, with a plump but slim figure, blonde hair, big eyes, long eyelashes, deep blue eyes, and skin as white as cream and extremely delicate.

Dugu Xinyue secretly praised in her heart, saying that Chenghua was indeed a peerless beauty who combined Chinese and Western cultures, and that he had good taste.

She took Shi Qianquan's hand and introduced her to Yang Yuhuan and Liu Qingyu. Shi Qianquan heard from Li Chenghua that these two were the emperor's first two concubines, and now they are both imperial concubines, one is Concubine Hui and the other is Concubine Xian. Concubine Yang Hui, in particular, was extremely favored by the emperor.

She did not dare to be negligent and bowed respectfully.

Dugu Xinyue smiled slightly and said, "Princess, you will temporarily live in our palace. Concubine Liu will take care of you. Go take a bath and change your clothes first. You can meet your family when we have dinner together in the afternoon."

Shi Qianquan nodded and bowed to Li Chenghua to thank her for her care along the way. Li Chenghua felt a little sad. She had been with Shi Qianquan day and night for several months and she had treated her like her own daughter. Now that they were finally going to part, she felt a little reluctant.

"Go ahead, Princess! I'll visit you again when I have time."

Liu Qingyu walked away holding Shi Qianquan's hand. Yang Yuhuan asked curiously, "Doesn't the princess have a maid?"

Li Chenghua said quickly: "There are four maids. I will temporarily arrange for them to stay in the post house. I need the Queen's consent before I can send them to the palace."

Dugu Xinyue nodded and said, "You can let them enter the palace and continue to take care of Princess Qianquan!"

At dinner in the evening, everyone saw Princess Shiguo. Some liked her and some disliked her.

However, they got along quite well. The key was that Queen Mother Pei Sanniang accepted Shi Qianquan, and no one had anything to say.

The wedding date was also set, November 1st, twenty days later.

Shi Qianquan also knew that she was about to become a member of this family, so she settled down with peace of mind and worked hard to learn everything. Especially after she learned how to play mahjong, she quickly integrated into this family.

In October, many things happened in the court. The most important thing was that the first batch of 200,000 silver coins were distributed to court officials as salaries.

Silver coins are issued according to the current official market price, and one tael of silver is exchanged for three strings of coins.

One liang is equal to ten qian, so one silver coin is equivalent to three hundred copper coins.

From ancient times to the present, the imperial court has had two sources of finance: one is taxation, and the other is the issuance of currency.

However, the Tang Dynasty did not issue paper money, but real precious metal currency. All things in nature are nothing more than five things: gold, wood, water, fire and earth. The so-called trade and commodity exchange are nothing more than the exchange between these five elements, or adding a little artificial added value.

Therefore, gold and silver are the best of the gold element and can certainly buy everything. They are put into the market as a rare resource, not a credit currency created out of thin air. Their own scarcity is destined not to cause any inflation problems.

However, in order to stabilize the market, the imperial court melted the first batch of 60,000 copper coins issued during the reign of Emperor Suzong of Tang Dynasty at the same time as issuing 200,000 silver coins. This type of copper coin had a low copper content and was of poor quality. It was always called rotten money by the people. Together with the big coins known as evil money, it was extremely unpopular and no one was willing to accept it.

Li Ye has always been worried about the situation where bad money drives out good money, that is, the good money is collected and the money circulating in the market is all bad money.

But it seems that this time the silver coins did not have this problem. On the second day of the trial issuance, the silver coins appeared in the West Market and were quite popular. In the imperial study, Wei Gao, who was ordered to investigate the market, came back and said, "Your Majesty, I and my men went to a total of 23 shops to inquire, and 16 of them received silver coins, mostly rice shops. Judging from the reactions of the shops, the silver coins are still quite popular. We used up all the 500 silver coins we brought with us, and it went smoothly."

Li Ye nodded and asked, "Didn't they suspect that this was fake money?"

"No doubt about it. The court has done some publicity before, and all the shops know that the court is going to issue gold and silver coins. Everyone is looking forward to it."

"Why don't you doubt it?"

Li Ye continued to ask: "After all, he sold something. What if the money was fake? I want to know how they were sure that the money was real? Why did they trust it? This question is crucial."

Wei Gao was speechless and couldn't answer.

"Your Majesty, let the merchant answer this question!" Wei Jiansu's voice came from the door.

Li Ye smiled and said, "Please ask Prime Minister Wei to come in!"

Wei Jiansu walked in and said with a smile, "I am going to the East Market to investigate. Your Majesty, are you interested in going with me?"

Li Ye happily said: "I'll put on some makeup and go with you!"

Jiqing Jewelry Shop in the East Market is one of the five largest jewelry shops in Chang'an, specializing in high-end business. In the afternoon, two men who looked like wealthy businessmen walked into the shop, one was about sixty years old and the other was about thirty years old, followed by two guards.

Seeing that the two men had extraordinary demeanor, the waiter quickly informed the shopkeeper, who came out to greet them with a smile.

"My two distinguished guests, if you need anything, just let me know!"

The two people were Emperor Li Ye and Prime Minister Wei Jiansu. Li Ye was wearing a mask and could not be recognized at all.

When Li Ye saw that the counter was made of glass, he immediately became interested. He knocked on the counter and asked with a smile, "Is this glass or crystal?"

"Of course it's glass. It's hard to find such a large piece of crystal that's so clean. Maybe there are, but ordinary people can't see it."

Li Ye nodded and smiled, "Very good! Glass is even installed on the counter."

“We were mainly inspired by windows. Windows can have glass, so why can’t counters have glass?”

"That makes sense. I believe it will be promoted soon."

The shopkeeper shook his head. "Not necessarily. It's very expensive. It costs me fifty strings of cash to install this. Most shops wouldn't be willing to spend that much. It's only because I'm a jewelry store that I need it."

Li Ye nodded, "I want to buy a high-quality jade pendant, do you have any?"

"Yes! Yes!"

The shopkeeper hurried to get the box.

Li Ye really wanted to buy a jade pendant for his eldest son Li Fang, asking him to be a modest gentleman and as gentle as jade.

Of course, he also has quite a few treasures of his own, and of course the ones he bought personally for his son have a different meaning.

The shopkeeper came over with a box in his hand and said with a smile, "Since the court lifted the ban on ordinary jade pendants, the sales of jade pendants have increased a lot. This box contains the highest quality Khotan jade in my shop, and there are only three pieces in total."

The shopkeeper opened the box and found three jade pendants inside. They were pure white, smooth and delicate in texture. They were indeed top-grade jade.

Li Ye nodded, "How much does it cost?"

"We dare not deceive you, sir. The minimum is three hundred strings of cash!"

The price was not expensive. Li Ye thought it would be at least a thousand strings of cash.

"Will you accept money?" Li Ye finally got to the point.

(End of this chapter)