In the Southern Song Dynasty, I competed with Mongolia for the world

Chapter 487 Currency Reform
Abbasid Baghdad actually has the largest number of universities in the world.

Zhao Yurui couldn't help but reflect on himself.

He planned to build the Song Dynasty Medical College in the early Yuan Dynasty. It only took several years to build a hospital in the early stage and prepare teachers and students. It only took five or six years for it to be fully operational.

As the only professional university in Song Dynasty, Da Song Medical College can now export thousands of professional medical students to Da Song every year.

However, medical skills still require years of experience accumulation. These medical students from the Song Dynasty were more often used by Zhao Yurui on battlefields and in various garrison areas, serving as military doctors.

Opening up people's wisdom is not good for feudal rule, but Zhao Yurui doesn't care about his own rule.

After all, he cannot live forever.

As for whether he will be surnamed Zhao or Liu in the Song Dynasty after his death, what does it have to do with him?

Therefore, many of his policies were relatively radical, such as not establishing a crown prince and putting the edict of passing the throne on a plaque in the Daqing Hall.

Like foreign colonization, foreign governors are allowed to raise troops to deal with the emperor who raises taxes.

After graduation, you can participate in the imperial examination and serve as examiners, which can be regarded as a system for cultivating skilled talents. However, because the number of official positions in the Song Dynasty is limited and Zhao Yurui limits the number of officials, most people end up going into society and doing other things. If something happens, some people will enlist in the army and become the Song Army.

Of course, many poor counties in remote areas may have only a few dozen students. According to data obtained by Zhao and Rui at the beginning of the year, the smallest county has only 28 students in Hanzhou Province overseas.

After entering the Yuanzhen year, schools were successively built in various places, starting with Lu (the seat of the provincial capital). At that time, it was extremely difficult to recruit students. Many officials were forced to send their sons to schools because of their tasks.

At the same time, veterans who have been in the army for more than three years and less than six years can apply to the Imperial Military Academy, and about 600 people are admitted every year.

After nearly ten years of promotion, the Song Dynasty now has more than a thousand counties, and each county has a school.

The first is the Imperial Military Academy of the Song Dynasty. After graduating from a local school at the age of 16, you can enter the Imperial Military Academy. Four hundred people are admitted every year. After four years of study, you can serve as a military attaché in the army, starting as deputy capital officer. (Deputy position of 100 people)

In the seventh year of Baoqing, Zhao and Rui set up the Ministry of Education to withdraw from the province and prepare for the construction of schools.

The current school in Da Song Dynasty lasts eight years from entering the school at the age of eight to graduating at the age of sixteen.

Moreover, all the graduates from the Imperial Military Academy are junior military attachés, so the financial pressure is not great.

However, the Song Dynasty now has millions of troops, and its foreign colonization has increased. The number of military attachés killed and retired every year is close to a thousand.

And then there's math: mathematics and calculations, including accounting and statistics.

After the death of Zhao Yurui, it has nothing to do with the chaos in the world. I just want to ensure that the country is peaceful and the people are safe while I am in power.

Adding a thousand military attaches a year sounds like a lot.

The second is to prepare for the establishment of Imperial University, which is the first comprehensive university. Its main majors are language translation: given that the main expansion direction of the Song Dynasty is the Eurasian continent, the school currently mainly trains Persian, Arabic, and languages ​​​​from various parts of Europe. Translation, the future direction of graduates is to work as a translator or envoy in a colony.

The Imperial Military Academy is divided into four majors: infantry and cavalry, weapons, navy, and engineering.

Physical and Chemical Technology: Basic knowledge of physical chemistry and research on industrial machinery. There are not many students in this major, and only the descendants of outstanding craftsmen in the Song Dynasty can apply. After graduation, they will be officials or clerks and work in court-related institutions. They are not allowed to find jobs on their own.

In mid-August, Zhao and Rui summoned the cabinet, and after discussion, decided to build several more universities.

After seeing that Baghdad has the largest number of universities in the world, Zhao and Rui felt deeply and planned to build several more universities to expand the training and utilization of talents.

Zhao Yurui is not a saint, nor can he achieve perfection in everything, nor can he predict the future. He has always believed that he cannot find ways to avoid something just because it is not good for the rule.

The Imperial Military Academy plans to enroll 5,000 students and graduate about 1,000 people each year.

Then it was extended to prefectures, states, and counties, and county schools were converted into schools. Each county had a quota of students, and it became an assessment task for local officials.

Historical Geography: Zhao Yurui believes that history should be one of the most important subjects for a country and dynasty, so it attaches great importance to history. According to Zhao Yurui's request, the court compiled annotations starting from the Yan and Huang Dynasties, plus the history books of each dynasty, highlighting the key points. It includes the evolution of matrilineal, slave, feudal and other levels, the reasons for the rise and fall of each dynasty, the relationship and threats between nomads and Han people, and the role of the ruling class. It also adds world geography, introduces the surrounding environment, world maps, and advocates his colonial thoughts.

This major is the key major of Imperial University and recruits the largest number of students. The so-called enlightenment of wisdom basically relies on this major.

The Mongolians elected their Khans, the European parliamentary system, the slavery system of backward dynasties, and various ideas that are different from those of the Song Dynasty will all be learned in the historical geography major, allowing students to compare themselves and empathize with them.

Educational management: This major is mainly designed to train teachers in schools and expand education in the Song Dynasty. Zhao Yurui also weakened Confucianism and adopted the approach of letting all schools of thought flourish. Mohism, Legalism, Taoism, and Confucianism in ancient times , study all kinds of ancient books, and let the students comment on which one is better or worse.

Then coupled with modern management and other experience, graduates can be teachers in the future, or they can also take the imperial examination. This professional knowledge is rich, and the chance of taking the current imperial examination is relatively high.

Agricultural studies: This major is also quite complex, including water conservancy construction, agricultural farming, and animal husbandry. The graduation direction is also very good, because the Song Dynasty colonized everywhere and there were more and more overseas colonies. There is a lot of demand for this kind of talents, especially like The island countries in Southeast Asia, including today's West Asia, the coast of Africa, the Americas and other places, are mostly uncivilized indigenous people. Many places in Europe are also not good at farming, especially water conservancy facilities. These are all for future graduates to find employment. place.

Navigation, machinery and trade: This major has the most words, and it also means that it is one of the most important majors.

It includes navigation technology, ship manufacturing and repair, maritime trade and other major categories. The semester for other majors is four years, and the semester for this major is six years.

In the future, students graduating from this major will not only be qualified ship captains, but also know how to build and repair ships. All students will eventually have to spend one year as an intern in a shipyard and one year at sea.

The Song Dynasty will definitely focus on colonization in the future, and this is also the main colonial player cultivated.

The previous Imperial Military Academy also had a naval major, but they were all about navigation and fighting, and they didn't know how to build ships, so they could only do simple repairs.

In addition to not knowing how to fight, students here have to learn a little bit about shipbuilding, nautical charts, maritime trade, including world geography, and some foreign languages.

In short, Zhao Yurui's Imperial University was the first comprehensive university he built in the country, with more than a dozen majors.

With so many majors, how can there be so many teachers? Do you still need so many teaching materials?

Fortunately, when Zhao Yurui established the medical school a few years ago, he had already found someone to prepare some textbooks in advance. Zhao Yurui would personally review all the textbooks and make decisions himself.

The establishment of the military school this time was relatively simple. In the eleventh year of Yuanzhen, the teachers and students had been completed, and the only thing left was the construction of the school.

As for the early teachers of Imperial University, they had been preparing teaching materials for two or three years, and the first batch of students had to wait until the summer of the fourteenth year of Yuanzhen's reign.

After Zhao Yurui and the cabinet confirmed the construction of the two universities, they waved their hands to the chamberlain Huang Shang to bring a plate of things.

It is then distributed to cabinet members.

Everyone looked at it intently, but there were all kinds of coins, and they were coins they had never seen before.

"This is called dinar. It is the currency of the Abbasid Dynasty. There are gold coins and silver coins." "This is the gold coin of Persia."

"This is the silver coin used by European Fangs."

Zhao Yurui probably explained it to the ministers, then picked up a Persian silver coin and said with a smile: "I set up a port in Persia to collect taxes, and collected a lot of local silver coins."

"Their fifteen silver coins are equivalent to the weight of one tael of our silver. Of course, the silver coins contain a small amount of other metals."

"So when we convert, we usually exchange one tael of silver for twenty silver coins."

Zhao Yurui laughed evilly when he said this. Just a simple calculation, for every one tael of silver exchanged by the Song Dynasty, the Persians could earn three silver coins.

The gold coins of the Abbasid Dynasty were the same. For every one or two gold coins exchanged in the Song Dynasty, one could probably earn one gold coin.

Seeing the benefits, Zhao Yurui naturally exchanged a large number of them, so that he could make an extra sum just by converting them every year.

The ministers smiled bitterly. The officials were taking advantage of others, so they were very happy.

But Zhao Yurui said at this time: "Based on our silver content, the purchasing power of a Persian silver coin in our Song Dynasty is about one hundred copper coins."

"But in fact, locally, their purchasing power is equivalent to three hundred copper coins."

"In the Abbasid Dynasty, the purchasing power of the same Persian silver coin became even higher. Do you know what this means?"

This was finance. Zhao Yurui couldn't explain it carefully to the ministers. He could only say simply and clearly that the Song Dynasty also wanted to make silver and gold coins and reform monetary policy.

Using silver coins and gold coins, you can not only make money from the people, but also money from abroad.

Due to the chaos of transportation and wars in this era, other countries did not see the threat of financial war, but Zhao and Rui saw opportunities from the different purchasing power of currencies.

When everyone heard that the emperor wanted to make money from the people, they were stunned.

how to earn?
In fact, the content is reduced, but the exchange is equivalent.

After that, Zhao Yurui waved again, and Huang Shang brought another plate. After distributing it to everyone this time, everyone gasped.

Pieces of exquisite silver and gold coins appeared in everyone's hands.

"Yuanzhen Tongbao" is the first set of gold and silver coins issued by Zhao Yurui, which will gradually cancel gold and silver transactions across the country.

The denominations of gold and silver coins are divided into four types: 1, 2, 5, and 10 according to size and weight.

Measured in one silver coin.

Zhao Yurui first took out a one-silver coin.

The size is about the same as a later one-yuan coin, slightly thicker. On the front are the words Da Song, Yuan Zhen, Tong Bao, etc., as well as the year of casting, and on the back is a rye pattern. It is completely made of die-casting technology, which is quite exquisite.

Zhao Yurui said that this silver coin will be equivalent to one tael of silver in the future. After mass production, all the silver on the market can be purchased and exchanged at the bank, and then two silver coins will be equivalent to two taels of silver, and so on.

As soon as this statement came out, the scene exploded.

"Your Majesty, you are too dark." Chief Assistant Wei Liaoweng couldn't hold it back and said that the emperor was too dark.

Zhao Yurui's expression did not change, but he did seem a little dark.

This silver coin is okay, but the one with a face value of ten silver coins contains half a tael of silver. It is actually equivalent to ten taels of silver. It is simply twenty times the profit. Who will exchange it with you? I won't change it.

"You can't say the silver content." Zhao Yurui said seriously: "Look at the casting process, how many times more exquisite than the small countries in Europe and Asia? This is a piece of art."

What the emperor said seemed to make sense. Everyone couldn't put it down after holding it in their hands. It was cast in the Song Dynasty and was much more exquisite than the gold and silver coins we saw earlier.

According to Zhao Yurui's explanation, one silver coin only contains twenty grams of silver, and there are other cheaper metals in it. All the ministers complained that the emperor was too dark.

Just exchange one silver coin for one tael of silver, and the profit will be more than 20 times, not to mention other areas.

"I'm afraid the people are not willing to change." A minister suggested, and at the same time he thought to himself, I am not willing to change either. This is a clear disadvantage.

"It is mandatory. From now on, gold and silver cannot be traded in the market. They can only be traded with gold coins, silver coins and copper coins." Zhao Yurui said.

In fact, after the gold and silver coins came out, trading with gold and silver was obviously at a disadvantage. People who had gold and silver had to either exchange them or hide them at home for future generations, and they would definitely not go out to trade.

This first suppressed the ability of gold and silver to communicate as trade currencies.

Think about it, assuming you use a silver coin worth one tael of silver (which contains only twenty grams of silver), you can buy a chicken.

Are you still willing to spend one tael of silver to buy a chicken?
So it doesn’t matter whether the people are willing to exchange it. As long as the court comes out with gold and silver coins, then all officials, officers and troops will be paid in gold and silver coins, and at the same time, private gold and silver are recycled. It won’t take long for gold and silver to become collections. Without trade coins Function.

As for ordinary people, you don't want to exchange them, but you can't buy them, so you can only keep them at home as collections.

Zhao Yurui is confident in promoting gold and silver coins. The biggest difficulty in the Song Dynasty is not promotion, but the Song Dynasty is a vast country with many people. It takes time to mint a large number of gold and silver coins, so gold and silver will continue to be used in the early stage.

And this thing cannot be over-distributed, as it can easily cause shallow flooding, thus hitting prices.

Based on the 110 million yuan spent by the imperial court last year, Zhao Yurui only planned to issue 60 million gold and silver coins in the first year, and replace the rest with copper coins.

Later, it will be increased or decreased as appropriate based on the circulation of gold and silver coins on the market.

In short, he took several steps. The first step was to exchange all the gold and silver in the country, and then recast it. The court made a lot of money and at the same time obtained a large amount of gold and silver reserves.

The second step is to push overseas based on the situation and trade with overseas countries.

The silver and gold content of Zhao Yurui's coins are less than those overseas, so they can make a profit by exchanging one for one.

But his casting is so exquisite, and the Song Dynasty is now in its period of prosperity, so it will definitely be very popular by then.

At this time, a minister asked: "Can the people make it?"

(End of this chapter)