A Millennium Aristocratic Family Starting from the Shang Dynasty

Chapter 400 Reform is coming
Qianyuan Hall.

As the suggestion of 'please abolish the power of states and counties to mint coins' was put forward, the hall immediately became noisy, and ministers stepped forward to give advice.

"Your Majesty, the right to mint coins is the decree of the First Emperor. For decades, this policy has filled the world with money, so that people do not need to barter, and people do not need to sell grain at low prices to obtain coins."

"Doesn't this prove the sageness of the First Emperor? Jia Yi, you are questioning His Majesty the First Emperor, how dare you!"

"Your Majesty, you are wise and decisive. Please kill this traitor who is causing trouble to the imperial court to show that you are listening!" An old minister, with his hair and beard sprouting, glared angrily at Jia Yi who had just put forward this advice, looking like he wanted to kill him. His appearance.

Jia Yi was not afraid at all and turned a blind eye to it.

"Since the time of the First Emperor, the Daqian court has never been guilty of remonstrance. Zhou Yan, why do you want His Majesty to set this example?" Wang Ce, the internal minister sitting in a wheelchair next to him, said coldly.

The old man just now suddenly broke out in cold sweat on his forehead, and he quickly bowed and said: "Your Majesty, please forgive me, but I broke my promise because I was angry about the court affairs!"

"Stand back!" Wang Jing waved his hand.

The old man brought His Majesty the First Emperor out just now because he wanted to rely on his influence to suppress this matter, but Wang Ce directly resolved it with a few words.

It's just that Wang Jing didn't care about what he just said, but others did.

Wei Wei Xu Zhao immediately came out and said loudly: "In the court, you can speak freely. This court does not punish crimes with speech. This is the rule set by King Haotianwen back then. If you shout about beating and killing like this, I'm afraid you don't care about the court. Well, I think you are just making huge profits by minting money yourself, so you are preventing the imperial court from taking back the right to mint coins!"

As a descendant of the royal family, Xu Zhao has assisted the royal family in the past, and naturally represents the interests of the royal family. The right to mint coins should be taken back.

As for the right to mint money, it used to be because the copper mines controlled by the imperial court were insufficient, so the right to mint money was decentralized, hoping to use the power of states and counties to obtain more currency circulation and prosper the economy.

Now, the market is full of coins, and the imperial court has mastered enough copper mines. Naturally, it does not want to hand over the right to mint coins to the states, counties, and localities.

Minting is a huge profit industry. According to the current imperial coinage, if you mint one hundred copper coins, you can still get [-]% of the profit after excluding the raw materials copper, tin, lead, manpower and fire consumption.

The coins minted by local states and counties are of slightly lower quality, with lower labor costs and higher profits than the imperial court. How can they be willing to give up this money?

The imperial court was short of money, so it was natural to keep the stable income from coinage in its hands.It can be said that from the beginning to the end, no matter what the discussion was in the court today, Wang Jing decided to take back the right to mint coins.

The officials in the imperial court continued to argue about the right to mint. Among them, the Legalists supported the withdrawal of the right to mint, while the Confucians supported it half way and opposed it in one step. The other schools of thought all opposed the withdrawal of the right to mint.

Among them, the Huang-Lao school believed that after the right to mint money was taken back, because of the high profit of minting money, powerful people from all over the world would definitely risk their lives to steal money, or mint some bad money to obtain profits in various ways.

Some people even resmelted copper coins and cast them into copper utensils for sale.

"Your Majesty, if we ban the casting of copper coins in various places, I am afraid that those powerful officials and wealthy families will melt the money to make copper utensils. Even if the court mints coins every year, it will not be able to match the speed of those people who can make copper utensils. I invite you, Your Majesty. Don’t take back the right to mint coins!”

Originally, many officials in the imperial court collaborated with state and county officials to mint copper coins locally, and made huge profits from it, so they were unwilling to hand over the right to mint coins. Now the controversy at the court has also made many people hesitate and feel that It would be better if the coinage rights were retained locally.

Wang Jing is very clear about this point, and he is also very clear about the pros and cons of withdrawing and decentralizing coinage rights.Among the economic techniques left by Zijue back then, there was talk about the right to mint coins.

"Whether the coinage power is decentralized or withdrawn depends on the pros and cons for the country and the court. Just like administration, every administration by the court has only advantages and no harm. The administrators must weigh the pros and cons every time they administer administration."

"We must make sure that the advantages outweigh the disadvantages, maximize the benefits and reduce the disadvantages."

"In the past, the right to mint was decentralized because the imperial court did not have enough copper to mint a large number of coins for the world to use. Now, the right to mint is gained because the court is short of money. There is also enough copper to mint coins, so naturally the right to mint must be taken back. .”

Both Wang Jing and Wang Ce knew this. As for taking back the right to mint coins, bad money would flood and the powerful would privately melt down the coin-making instruments.

In fact, these situations and the right to mint money are completely two different things. If bad money is minted privately or coin-making tools are damaged, there are inspection censors and embroidery envoys to deal with it.

Wang Ce watched everyone arguing, and immediately went to the bronze chime next to him, picked up a small copper hammer and knocked on the bronze chime three times.

Only the clear sound of the chime was heard, and the ministers who were still arguing immediately stopped.

"How can you be so rude in front of His Majesty in the court hall?" Wang Ce said coldly.

"I'm sorry for the disrespect, Your Majesty!" In the main hall, all the ministers bowed and saluted. "Everyone, get up!" Wang Jing waved his hands and said.

After Wang Ce interrupted, order was finally restored in the court. Wang Ce ordered someone to push his wheelchair forward, and then said: "I have listened to the debate of the ministers just now. I am just worried that because of the withdrawal of the right to mint, there will be consequences. All kinds of problems.”

"But just because of these difficulties, shouldn't we stop doing something? Will the court stop fighting the Huns because they are worried about losing the battle? Are there people in the world who don't eat food because they are worried about choking? Are there people who don't eat food because they are worried about drowning? Someone who doesn’t know how to fetch water?”

"I don't think there is such a person."

"Your Majesty takes back the right to mint coins, and the things you mentioned may happen, but now that we know it, let's find a solution. If anyone dares to mint privately, we will send inspection censors and embroidery envoys to patrol the world, and deal with those who dare to mint privately. Those who dare to privately mint will be severely punished, and I believe that private minting will be under control."

"As for deliberately melting copper coins to make copperware, then the imperial court will order to lower the price of copperware to reduce the profit of copperware. At the same time, those who are found to have melted copper coins will be severely punished. If the embroidery envoy and the patrol censor do not find out, then Order the people to give heavy rewards to those who report illegal minting or melting of copper coins."

"The power of minting was decentralized by the First Emperor back then, but the First Emperor also said that he would take back the power of minting when the world's coins are sufficient. At the same time, since the Huai Kingdom, the Huai Kingdom has undergone several reforms, and now it has unified the world. Things change at any time, and things change with the situation. , should the rules of the Xia, Shang and Zhou dynasties continue to this day?"

"Reforms in the past were all because the old laws were out of date. How can there still be people who cling to the old laws and refuse to reform them?"

"When there are shortcomings in the administration of the imperial court, isn't this something that the courtiers should find ways to solve? Isn't it the duty of the ministers to argue about the pros and cons of the imperial administration instead of solving them?"

Wang Ce directly bypassed the pros and cons of the debate between the two parties, found out the cons, and let the courtiers solve them.If these shortcomings are controlled and solved, won't there be no problems in the government's governance?

In the main hall, the ministers were directly shocked by Wang Ce's words, and those ministers who supported the withdrawal of the right to mint suddenly became happy and made suggestions one after another to solve the problems caused by the withdrawal of the right to mint.

As for those ministers who had just opposed the withdrawal of coinage rights, they had no choice but to start making suggestions.

Wang Jing was very happy when he saw that the withdrawal of coinage rights was passed.But taking back the right to mint money cannot be solved by issuing an edict from the imperial court.

If an edict is issued and everyone in the world implements it seriously, then there won't be so many things in the world.

After the dynasty dispersed, Wang Jing summoned some ministers in the inner hall.

"Your Majesty, although the right to withdraw coinage was passed today, after this decree is implemented, there will definitely be a large number of profit-minded people in the world who will take risks."

"Since ancient times, money has been attractive to people. These people have enjoyed the huge profits from making money for decades. It is too difficult to take it back at once!"

"Jia Qing, your Majesty naturally knows these things." Xu Zhao, the guard next to him, said: "Those powerful and powerful officials are acting recklessly in the local area. The time will come when they will be punished!"

"Your Majesty, I suggest that you send an embroidered envoy to conduct a detailed investigation. As long as those local powerful people, big officials, and nobles dare to do it, then directly issue an edict to send them all to the Western Regions."

"Nowadays, the Western Region lacks a large number of cadres. Exiling these people to the Western Region can just enrich the population of the Western Region!" Wang Ce said coldly from the side.

The royal family has always been disgusted with local powerful people, big officials, and illegal nobles. They know very well that if these local people become bigger, they will squeeze the living space of ordinary people.

These small people were the foundation of the Daqian court. These people provided Daqian with food, taxes, and soldiers. Without them, the court would not be able to control the world.

Wang Jing also had the same plan. He had always wanted to enfeoff his disciples and go to the Western Regions, but because of lack of money and food, he thought of taking back the right to mint money.And taking back the right to mint money will definitely make a large number of powerful people and officials dissatisfied.

At that time, they will be confiscated from their homes and distributed. Each of these big families is extremely rich. If some of them are confiscated at that time, won't the money used to divide the countries in the Western Regions come in?
Once you have money and people, you can recruit some good family members, and then you can go to the Western Regions to establish a kingdom.

"Your Majesty, please mobilize your troops to garrison in various places, and then order the withdrawal of the right to mint money, so as to prevent some local powerful officials and powerful officials from taking risks!" Zhang Liang suggested.

"Accurate!" Wang Jing agreed directly.

Although Wang Jing was fully confident of suppressing the rebellion of those powerful and powerful officials, this would cause a large number of casualties. Even if they subsided, there would be heavy casualties in the local area.

Wang Jing naturally did not want to see this situation.

As Wang Jing's order was issued, a large number of heralds set out from Luoyang to various places, and a large number of troops also began to mobilize.

Wang Jing's will was quickly implemented.

(End of this chapter)