A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 340 Monetary Policy
Wang Ke wanted to sort out his finances, but he didn't know much about finances.But even though he didn't understand it, there were people in the clan who studied finance.

At that time, his father, Wang Luo, unified the world and promoted the unified writing, the same writing, the same track, and the unified currency.The previous ones were implemented quickly, but the last unified currency proved somewhat difficult.

It's not that they refuse to use Daqian's currency because of their iron heads, but because of the lack of currency.

Originally, there was a lack of currency among the six countries, and they often bartered. The Huai Kingdom at that time was better.But after Da Qian unified the world, he found that there was not enough money.Even though Wang Luo would order a large number of coins to be minted every year, they would disappear in the blink of an eye as soon as they were put in.

The money put in is not proportional to the people at all.

Under this situation, after Wang Luo discussed with everyone in the clan, he finally decentralized the minting power.Allowing states to mint their own coins, the decentralization of coinage power will indeed allow local governments to obtain a lot of wealth, and the national finance will be reduced.

But this approach also promotes the flow of goods, so people will not be left without money, and the country's economy will not collapse.

And this approach also has an advantage, that is, powerful people from all over the world will hoard copper coins as wealth instead of hoarding various materials. At the same time, Wang Luo also left a pit in this.

Although the power of coinage was delegated to states and counties, in fact, states and counties also cooperated with local powerful people.

In order to obtain more money, those powerful people and states and counties began to reduce the copper in coins and increase the tin in coins.

As a result, bad currency drove out good currency, causing the current currency devaluation in Daqian.

Qianyuan Palace.

Wang Luo liked to live in Shangyang Palace, while Wang Ke preferred Qianyuan Palace, so after he ascended the throne, he moved to Qianyuan Palace.

In the main hall, several members of the Wang family who are proficient in financial management were explaining financial issues to Wang Ke.

"Your Majesty, it is not easy for you to take back the right to mint money. The powerful people in those states and counties are used to big fish and meat. How can you hand over this right!" said a white-haired old man. Although he looked very old, his spirit was Still good.

"Hey, what if they don't want to? Weren't they already prepared?" Another old man said with a smile.

The imperial court wants to take back the right to mint coins. On the surface, those people do not object, but they are definitely going to stir up trouble secretly. It is very likely that they will secretly mint inferior coins with worse quality. Wang Ke is eager for them to do this. As long as they do it, don't blame him for taking action when the time comes. .

By directly confiscating the packages and taking them away, not only the wealth accumulated through hard work was harvested, but also the people were lost.

In fact, Wang Luo thought more ruthlessly at the beginning and directly took away the powerful people from those places.As long as the emperor has food and troops, and is equipped with bows, crossbows and armor, no matter how much money the local tycoons make, it all belongs to the court.

Wang Luo had prepared to forcibly move powerful people from various places to guard the tomb for him.When the powerful people from these places are moved here, what will happen even if they are rich?Without a foundation, the powerful people in these places have no power to resist.

The imperial court could easily siphon off their wealth.When Wang Ke saw his father's plan, Wang Luo was shocked.He didn't expect that his father had already dug a hole for the powerful in those places.

"Your Majesty, now is not the time to collect the right to mint money. The world is in ruins and is waiting for prosperity. The food supply in the entire Daqian is increasing year by year, the population is also growing, and there are more and more various kinds of cloth and other commodities. According to the current recovery speed, In the next few decades, the world will still be short of money and more coins will need to be minted." Another old man next to him said.

"Then when is it time to take back the right to mint coins?" Wang Ke asked.

"It's very simple. When the prices of food, cloth, salt and other materials all increase, please note that these increases are not caused by natural disasters or man-made disasters, but are natural increases." The old man said.

"Your Majesty, during the Zhou Dynasty, countries have been attacking for hundreds of years. The year-round wars have caused the population growth of Zhuxia to be very slow. However, since the unification of Daqian, the population growth has begun to increase, so the amount of money required has also continued to increase."

Wang Ke nodded and then asked: "Sixth Uncle, I understand, it's just that these people are greedy and have earned a lot of wealth by minting coins. Now they actually mint bad coins and use bad coins to steal wealth. Come to plunder the people's meager wealth, and now there are signs of this."

"Your Majesty, poor money can be circulated because there is a shortage of coins in the world, and because of the imperial edict, coins minted in various places can be circulated. This has led to the current results. It is not difficult to change it.

As long as the imperial court issues an edict to discount money of insufficient quality and allow these bad coins to restore their original value, or deliberately lower the value of bad coins, without enough benefits, those people will naturally not mint bad coins. ! "

"Deliberately lowering the discount, those people dare not object, because according to the imperial law, casting bad coins is not allowed. If they dare to speak out, it is giving the imperial court an excuse to punish them. When the time comes, they can just order their arrest!" The old man said He grinned, but the words he spoke made people feel chilled from the bottom of their hearts.

"The imperial court only needs to be responsible for issuing appropriate decrees and conscientiously implementing and supervising them."

In fact, most things get out of hand because those who implement the decree break the rules.Just like the emergence of bad coins now, when the emperor discovered that he could easily harvest the wealth obtained by the hard work of the people by casting bad coins, how many people could withstand such temptation.

What's more, this person is still the supreme emperor without any restrictions?

So what happens next?History has already given the answer.

How many times in history have "Zhi Bai Qian", "Zhi Fifty", "Dang Five Hundred" or even "Ping Five Thousand" and "Zhi Wan Qian" appeared? Later, iron coins appeared instead of copper coins, and banknotes were handed over to the public. Zi, treasure notes, etc.

Is this money really of such high value?Wang Mangping's five thousand at least used gold and silver to make it, but he still couldn't guarantee its value. Others did it even more ruthlessly. Liu Bei was benevolent and loved the people, but he didn't show mercy at all when dealing with hundreds of dollars.

Later, Zhu Yuanzhang initiated the issuance of Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes. When it came time to collect taxes, he himself would not accept the treasure banknotes. Why should he let the people collect them?In the end, the cost of the Ming Dynasty treasure banknote was actually higher than the real currency value, and it was completely unplayable.

In ancient times, because it was a small-scale peasant economy, even if the currency collapsed, the consequences would be less than the financial crisis in the previous life. At most, it would go back to barter, which would only consume the credibility of the court. But if it loses credibility, the court is only a few steps away from extinction. Not far away.

Wang Luo exchanged currency with these people back then and resisted this temptation, but who can guarantee that future generations will be able to endure this temptation?
PS: This is the first update today. Happy National Day everyone!

(End of this chapter)