Song Gexing

Chapter 84 Paper Money of the Song Dynasty

Zhao Fang was surprised at first that Murong Shuanghua knew martial arts, but after thinking about it, he was right. His cousin was Yang Wenguang's wife Murong Ying, and there was a tradition in the family of women practicing martial arts.

Murong Yingna is the prototype of Mu Guiying in later novels, but was grafted onto Yang Yanzhao's non-existent son Yang Zongbaona.

The 15-year-old Murong Shuanghua couldn't pour water into the spear dance, and he even had to compete with him in martial arts on the night of the bridal chamber. If he wasn't really good at it, he might have to sleep in the study room during the wedding night of the bridal chamber.

Of course, that night also let him know that his own mother's eyes were indeed vicious, and she could actually see through the long skirt and see through other people's figure advantages.

Murong Shuanghua is better at horseback riding, probably because he has been practicing equestrian since he was a child. His slim waist, big butt, and long legs can happily transform him into a busy little bee.

Tonight, Meng Xin made him know that he should never underestimate girls. For this reason, he took a trip to the inner court library when he was about to enter the palace to serve tea to his parents the next day.

In the past, he didn't bother to learn the dual cultivation technique. He relied on his true energy to protect his body and was not afraid of any woman.

But now he knows that there are really talented people in this world, and they can't do it without practice.

Just coming out of the library and seeing his parents again, his father's meaningful eyes made him blush.

Zhao Zhen, who was rarely embarrassed to see him, laughed unscrupulously, and he was so embarrassed that he didn't want to talk to him anymore.

"Okay, okay, daddy, please stop laughing."

Zhao Zhen happily asked him to sit down, pressed his shoulders and rubbed him, and said, "Thanks to the elder brother's suggestion a few years ago, otherwise the money law in Northwest China would be chaotic this year, and the court might not be able to solve the problem."

Zhao Fang knew about this. The money supervisor of the Song Dynasty had always been in chaos. The coins in the south of the Yangtze River were the best, but the ones in the northwest were in chaos. There were small copper coins and large iron coins.

The imperial court also thought about improvements during the reform, but transportation was inconvenient in ancient times, and it was impossible to transport all copper coins from the capital.

The northwest is an important military area, and military expenditures are huge. A large amount of coins are needed every year, so money can only be minted locally.

However, there are not many copper mines in the northwest, and the Song Dynasty was already short of copper, so in the early Song Dynasty, iron coins began to be cast as a substitute.

When Liu E came to power, in view of this inconvenience, the government legalized paper currency. However, the court did not have enough understanding of paper currency. It was okay at the beginning, but it soon became a maladministration.

Zhao Fang once suggested casting silver and gold coins as a large currency supplement, but the ministers in the DPRK thought it was inappropriate.

Since gold and silver coins cannot be too large, there is a difference between the face value and the actual weight. We are afraid that the people will not be able to accept them, and we are even more afraid that private minting will seize people's wealth.

In the end, Zhao Fang suggested returning to paper currency, but explained the importance of currency credit in detail.

In fact, people in the Song Dynasty knew about this, but they just didn't pay enough attention to it. When Liu E initially established the Yizhou Jiaozi Service, there was a reserve fund, which was the same as the currency issuance in later generations.

However, as the imperial court's expenditures increased day by day, especially the large military expenditure caused by the northwest military, the imperial court began to issue jiaozi indiscriminately, and even issued jiaozi when Shaanxi had no reserve funds.

This is a complete joke on the national credit. Once the copper coins cannot be exchanged, Jiaozi will become useless paper, and the people will no longer believe that this currency can be used.

The issuance of currency is based on national credit. The same is true for gold, silver, copper and iron currencies. However, gold, silver and copper, as precious metals, are more valuable than banknotes and are more easily accepted.

In the Jiaozi period of Liu E's time, the reserve was 28% of the issuance, and it already had the credit of later generations of currency, but this credit was destroyed during the Song-Xia War.Therefore, when Zhao Fang proposed a new paper currency, he used the gold standard system that he later understood. This was the currency system that was common around the world before the proliferation of U.S. dollars in the [-]th century.

It is also the most stable and mature currency system. After recycling and abolishing iron coins, recycling and standardizing copper coins, banknotes with denominations of 100 Wen, 200 Wen, 500 Wen and Yiguan money were introduced.

It also limited the currency to one thousand coins, did not allow private individuals to increase or decrease the exchange rate of banknotes and copper coins, and regulated the various states' handovers as official exchange units.

Zhao Zhen and his ministers did not take it seriously at first, but with his insistence, they first used Kaifeng Prefecture as a pilot project and gradually expanded it to the Sijing area.

At the beginning of this year, the proliferation of privately made iron money broke out in Shaanxi, which almost triggered a financial crisis in Shaanxi. Only then did the monarchs and ministers discover to their surprise that the banknotes issued by the four capitals had become hard currency.

This attracted the attention of the imperial court, and therefore launched a comprehensive policy of issuing banknotes, stabilizing the economic order in the northwest.

Now the paper money of the Song Dynasty has been officially designated as one of the standardized currencies, which is a step further than Jiaozi. It uses the same name as the copper coins issued in the same year, abolishing the name of Jiaozi.

In other words, the current banknotes are actually currency. For example, the copper coins issued in the eighth year of Qingli are called Qingli Tongbao, and the banknotes are also printed with this word.

In fact, Jiaozi is not a real currency. It is just a product of an intermediary. It was improved from Feiqian in the Tang Dynasty and was used for large transactions.

After merchants get Jiaozi, they usually exchange it with Jiaozi, deducting the exchange fee, and the denominations of Jiaozi are also large. The smallest Jiaozi in the Renzong Dynasty was five guanqian, and in the Shenzong era there were five hundred coins. But soon the money-making relationship at least as usual was restored.

Banknotes of this denomination actually have a small circulation range. After all, ordinary people rarely use the same amount of money to buy things.

Therefore, Jiaozi in the Song Dynasty was actually more like a bank draft or check in later generations, but in this reform, it completely became currency.

In order to prevent the storage and transportation of copper coins from being unstable, the imperial court stored silver as exchange items in the exchange units of various states, minted silver ingots worth [-] coins, and used them as exchange gold.

The exchange unit set up for this purpose required a large number of staff, diverted a large number of officials for the court, and reduced the financial burden to a certain extent.

Of course, this move resulted in the increased power of the Ministry of Household Affairs, which gave it a great say in the Three Envoys Department. At the same time, in order to monitor the corruption of the exchange unit itself, Zhao Fang suggested the establishment of a patrol censor system.

This in turn strengthened the power of the Yushitai, and the embryonic form of official reform had already taken shape.

He won't talk about these things out loud. It's best to let things ferment slowly and naturally.

"Dad, you see I have made such a great contribution, why don't you lift the ban?"

Seeing Zhao Zhen happy, Zhao Fang cautiously probed.

Unexpectedly, Zhao Zhen, who was originally smiling, immediately straightened his face when he heard this and said: "Don't even think about it! I want to cancel this year before the year is up. It's a good idea. Stay well and give me some grandchildren for daddy." That’s the business.”

"What! Dad, you are stupid. I am only 13 years old, so why should I be a father?"

"What's wrong with being 13 years old? Thirteen fathers and fourteen mothers have existed since ancient times. Besides, now that we have a daughter-in-law, she will be born next year. Are you still young when you are fourteen?"

(End of this chapter)