Traveling through the Ming Dynasty, as soon as you open your eyes, you will die

Continuous wars, pensions for dead and wounded soldiers, rewards for meritorious soldiers, the death of Dezong, the celebration of the new emperor's enthronement, a series of things happened, which made the Ming Dynasty once again have a financial crisis since my mother was born, and the original financial crisis There is no money. Now not only is there no money, there is also a huge hole of five million silver dollars.

When Lu Mou came to the throne, he was given such a big problem. Before the chair was even warm, I encountered a threat.

Upon hearing that there was such a big hole in the finances, before Lu Mou could express his lamentations, the Prime Minister and the King, who had no concept of money, could not sit still. He supervised the Ministry of Finance by himself, and this was the first thing he had done for himself. For such a big problem, my brother asked me to take the responsibility and experience. It was simply a trap for me.

He stood up and asked: "No, this war cost a lot, I admit it. However, if you didn't hack the eight major businessmen in Shanxi, it would be a full 20 million. Can't you make up for it?"

Lu Mou didn't wait for He Fugui to explain, he said bluntly: "Brother, it is true that the 20 million yuan confiscated from the Eight Great Families of Shanxi was not true, but it is not real gold and silver. All the real gold and silver flowed into the private sector and turned into 30 to 40 million yuan." Food and horse feed. These are consumables. You can’t give them food and horse feed when paying military salaries.”

Everyone nodded, you are right, we can make cows and horses for you, but we are really not livestock.

He Fugui nodded: "Our only gain is that the food reserves consumed in this war have been restored. If the next war breaks out, we don't have to panic for food."

"That's not right. Isn't it the gold and silver worth tens of millions that Yu Minzhong robbed from North Korea?"

In front of hundreds of officials, Lu Mou taught his younger brother step by step about financial management: "The seizures from North Korea are only of value. Except for the medicinal materials and fur, most of them are brass, and the total is about About ten million. But brother, you have to know that when turning copper into copper coins, the melting cost has been reduced by 20%, so it becomes eight million.

At the beginning, my brother and I adopted the cold casting stamping method in order to save the waste of labor and edge materials. As a result, the copper coins in our household department at that time were not copper coins, but copper plates. "

"What's the difference between copper coins and copper coins?"

"Of course there is. The difference is huge."

There was a slight commotion about this incident at the beginning, that is, everyone really did not understand why the regent stipulated that the Ministry of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty no longer issued copper coins, but copper plates.

This is not in line with the common people's usage habits. At the same time, the officials are even more distressed. Without the hole in the middle, it is equivalent to giving an extra point of copper, which is a huge loss.

Lu Mou explained to his younger brother and other ministers that copper coins should be cast using the original model casting method. It seemed to save the middle penny of copper, but the labor cost wasted in more than 20 processes was already far higher. out of the value of that little bit of copper. Moreover, the loss in processes such as polishing in the middle is even more outrageous.

This is why in ancient China, there was almost no ban on the private casting of copper coins. There are two reasons. Minting copper coins is a loss-making business, and if you want to make money, you have to cut corners. Just like the copper coins cast by Wang Mang, in order not to lose money, those coins actually floated on the water.

Or come up with something that counts as ten or hundred. That is to rob the people openly.

Therefore, if you mint and cut corners on the money, you will naturally not be able to circulate it in the market if you grab the money.

The real court would rather have private mints among the people, as that would solve the money lost by the court in order to satisfy market circulation.

After explaining this truth, before He Fugui could blame himself, Lu Mou took the responsibility on himself: "Originally, my method was good, but I did not adopt He Shangshu's suggestion. In order to ensure the credibility of our copper coins , I adopted the ratio of copper to six and lead to four. As a result, a huge loophole appeared. Our copper coins were of high quality, without the hole in the middle, and they were of sufficient weight. As a result, after they were issued to the private sector, they were directly exchanged by many wealthy merchants. , then melted and cast into bronze.

Nowadays, Xuande stoves are hard to find on the market, and Chongzhen stoves are even more rare. As a result, the 100 ships of brass originally seized from North Korea were originally minted into coins worth eight million silver dollars, but now less than half of them are circulating in the market. "

He Fugui was ashamed and wanted to explain to his mentor the emperor: "It is my fault that I did not make it clear to the emperor at that time."

Lu Mou smiled and waved his hand: "I understand your desire to protect your father's reputation, but whoever is at fault is his fault. I can't pass the blame. I have to be brave enough to take responsibility."

As soon as these words came out, the ministers were excited and Chongzhen, who was hiding behind the screen, was ashamed.

Prime Minister Wang Zhu Cizheng said quickly: "Then let's change the copper coins in the inventory as soon as possible."

Patting his hands, he explained patiently: "The reputation of the imperial court is greater than the sky. The copper coins originally issued were six copper and four lead. If we suddenly changed them to other ingredients, the people would feel that we were short of money. We should start from It is exploited quietly in the hands of the common people, so your method must not be implemented.

Remember, if you are in financial difficulty, you can only find other ways to solve it, and you must not issue random currency or cheap and bad currency, especially unprotected banknotes and waste paper. This will cause chaos in the market and will The depreciation of the currency will lead to skyrocketing prices, which will lead to a huge disaster. "

In the midst of this deafening warning, before anyone else said anything, He Fugui stood up and apologized seriously: "If it weren't for the emperor's long-term vision, in order to solve the financial crisis in the past six months, Wei Chen was about to ask the emperor to issue a treasure It's an emergency. Wei Chen almost made a capital crime."

Lu Mou understood He Fugui's heart. As a businessman, why didn't he know the dangers of treasure banknotes? The reason why he wants to propose such a solution is not because of the country's financial emergency.

After some words of comfort, looking at the anxious eyes of the ministers, he realized that the final solution to the financial problem still had to fall on him.

I lamented in my heart, this is the difficulty of being an emperor. When something happens, everyone can shirk the blame. When the blame comes to the emperor, it can only be resolved by the emperor.

While he was thinking of a solution, Prime Minister Wang Gedi stood up and said: "What are you afraid of about the financial gap? Let's go grab it according to the method that brother has always used to solve money problems."

Everyone, including Lu Mou, covered their faces together.

Now Lu Mou is no longer the regent. It is understandable that he will resort to any means for money.

However, now that the regent is already the emperor of a majestic empire, he should refrain from talking about profit for the sake of face, let alone blatantly say that he wants to rob it.

This is so outrageous, it can make the surrounding seventeen nominal vassal states think that the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty is a bandit leader, and the Ming Dynasty is a bandit group. Then how can they occupy the moral high ground in the future?
Now the emperor must not give an order to rob in order to solve financial problems. At least he must use a high-sounding slogan to rob.

There's nothing wrong with this. (End of chapter)