My Ming Dynasty, I have the final say

Chapter 148 Yuan Shizhen, do you understand what currency is?
"Reinstate the ban on gold and silver in southern Zhili, and impose an additional [-]% or even [-]% fire cost."

Holding Yuan Shizhen's memorial in his hand, Zhu Youxiao looked at the guy kneeling on the ground in surprise.

"Yuan Aiqing, do you know what you are talking about?"

"Return to Your Majesty, I know."

Hearing this, Yuan Shizhen straightened his body, looked at the emperor sitting above and said.

"Since the opening of Longqing Port, a large amount of silver has flowed into the Ming Dynasty from Yuegang, Jiangnan, Guangdong, Guangxi, and Fujian. Every time a ship docks, the price of silver in various places has fallen and prices have risen. The people have been suffering from silver for a long time. Now, Your Majesty casts silver into coins , the purpose is to stabilize prices.”

"However, there is a lot of silver in the southern provinces, and only [-]% of the fire consumption can be exchanged for silver. I don't know when and what month it will be redeemed. And now the imperial court is seriously short of silver. Only by exchanging heavy consumption for silver coins in the southern provinces can the urgent need be met. "

"Then, when you do this, have you thought about the lives and deaths of the people below?"

With a bang, he smashed the memorial on the table and looked at Yuan Shizhen angrily and asked.

"One silver coin plus [-]% of the fire consumption means that [-]% of the money that the people have worked hard to earn in a year has been lost. How can the people live? If you do this, wouldn't the government force the people to rebel?"

With that said, Zhu Youxiao stood up from his chair and pointed to the dragon pattern on his uniform.

"The emperor embroidered the dragon, the queen embroidered the phoenix, the civilized bird, the armed beast."

"With such a high fire consumption to conquer the world's silver, you want me to lead the beast to eat people and become a beast in clothes!"

"I am not asking Your Majesty to lead the beasts to eat humans, but to save the common people from suffering from the unknown currency."

Seeing the emperor's anger, Yuan Shizhen was not timid, but recited a poem that the emperor had memorized in his previous life, and then continued to speak stiffly.

"The charcoal seller cuts firewood and burns charcoal in the southern mountains. His face is dusty and smoky, his temples are gray and his fingers are black. Where can he make money from selling charcoal? He only wears the clothes on his back and eats in his mouth."

"Your Majesty, the people in Guizhou don't have much money. After a year of hard work, they can only get 30 taels of silver at most. They still need to buy some clothes and food to support the whole family."

"For the people in Guizhou, they don't have much silver in their hands. Besides, without silver, people can still use copper coins."

"Those who have silver, especially those wealthy businessmen, use gold and silver because silver is valuable, easy to carry, and easy to trade."

"Merchants can accept the additional levy of [-]% or even [-]% of the fire consumption, because using silver coins can prevent counterfeiting and there are no counterfeit coins. Secondly, it is convenient for counting and carrying. It is very popular in Beizhili. For them, this is good governance. ah."

"..."

After hearing Yuan Shizhen's words, Zhu Youxiao slowly sat back down and thought about his words.

It seems that this is the truth?
He has always allowed people to exchange silver in small amounts, one tael or two taels.

Hearing what Yuan Shizhen said, Zhu Youxiao suddenly realized that he could still make a fortune from this silver exchange?
"Get up."

After thinking for a while, Zhu Youxiao looked at Yuan Shizhen and asked.

"What are you going to do?"

"I plan to first give Nanzhili a time to determine the restart of the gold and silver ban, and then give the number of silver coins that can be allocated to Nanzhili every month."

Seeing that the emperor understood his thoughts, Yuan Shizhen breathed a sigh of relief.

"When the time comes, gold and silver trading will be completely banned in South Zhili, and only silver coins and copper coins will be allowed to circulate."

"Whether they are merchants or wealthy households, they spend a huge amount of money every day. If they learn that the imperial court prohibits gold and silver trading but promotes silver coins, they will definitely want to convert the silver into silver coins first."

As he spoke, Yuan Shizhen looked at the emperor, expecting the emperor's statement.

"Then it will be logical to collect more fire consumption when the time comes."

It is a good thing that the emperor cares about the people at the bottom, but it also makes some methods inconvenient to use.

Fortunately, the explanation passed.

Hearing this, Zhu Youxiao pondered what Yuan Shizhen meant.

Yuan Shizhen's plan, in layman's terms, is to freeze currency circulation and put a fixed amount of old currency into the market every month to exchange for new currency.In order to maintain their own expenses and transactions, and to have priority in obtaining new currency exchange rights, wealthy households must accept high fire costs.

"Turning other people's white silver into scrap metal will cause trouble."

After pondering for a while, Zhu Youxiao said.

"The people in Guizhou are often short-sighted and have many good deeds. Once they reach the private sector, they can easily cause big troubles. How do you plan to guard against it?"

"Please ask Jin Yiwei to station in Nanjing, and then order Nanjing Baoyuan Bureau to mint more copper coins, and exchange money for the common people at the rate of one tael of silver to one thousand copper coins."

Hearing this, Yuan Shizhen settled a score for the emperor.

"When I was in Lianghuai, one hundred catties of copper was worth two taels of silver, and one hundred catties of lead was worth one tael of silver. If the labor cost is not included, the copper and lead were cast at a ratio of [-], and one tael of silver could probably cast ten thousand copper coins."

"After exchanging money for the common people, the court will make [-]% of the net profit."

"???"

After hearing Yuan Shizhen's words, Zhu Youxiao had a bunch of question marks on his head.

If one tael of silver does not count the labor cost, how can one tael of silver be minted into ten thousand copper coins?
So in history, how did the Tianqi Dynasty manage to make money and lose money?

"What about labor costs?"

"The profit is about [-]%. After all, in addition to the workers' wages, there is also charcoal money."

In front of the emperor, Yuan Shizhen explained to the emperor after counting with his fingers.

"If the profit from minting hadn't been so high, Sejong wouldn't have been able to stop it even with the death penalty."

"That's right."

Hearing that the benefits were so high, Zhu Youxiao immediately picked up his jade seal and stamped a large seal on Yuan Shizhen's memorial.

"You write a statement and then think about who can do it."

After returning the memorial to the young eunuch Yuan Shizhen, Zhu Youxiao continued.

"In addition, please remember clearly to me the matter of casting copper coins. The quality of copper coins must be guaranteed. It is absolutely not allowed for bad coins to drive out good coins."

"I understand."

Hearing this, Yuan Shizhen looked solemn and said.

"I invite the cabinet, the Metropolitan Procuratorate, the Sixth Section, Jinyiwei, and Dongchang to go to South Zhili to supervise this matter and prevent corruption from happening."

The more people are sent and the more complex the factions are, the easier it is to accomplish this task.

After all, there are only so many benefits, and it is difficult to divide them when there are too many people. Once one person in the middle reveals something due to uneven distribution, everyone else will suffer, and corruption will not easily breed.

"Okay, you go back first."

Zhu Youxiao thought for a moment, understood Yuan Shizhen's intention, and nodded.

"Let me think about who to send."

"I thank Your Majesty Long En."

After hearing the emperor's agreement, Yuan Shizhen's face became relaxed and he bowed.

"Good news from Liaodong! Xiong Tingbi defeated Jiannu! Beheaded eight thousand people!"

Just when Yuan Shizhen was waiting for the little eunuch to write the draft, suddenly a burst of shouting came in

"Ok?"

　Monthly pass!Monthly pass!Monthly pass!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)