Chongzhen revived the Ming Dynasty

Compiling books is just an embellishment of cultural governance.

What Zhu Youjian cares more about now is the operation of parliament.

This was an important measure for him to reconcile the internal conflicts within the Ming Dynasty. He hoped to use parliament to provide a platform for consultation for all classes in the Ming Dynasty.

After learning from Liu Zongzhou that the Zhuolu District Council had requested him to write an inscription, Zhu Youjian said with delight:

"Since it is a request from the people, sir, you should agree to it."

"I also wrote the same title, 'Conference of the Four Peoples'."

He ordered people to take out paper and pen and wrote the four big words "Conference of the Four People", hoping that the four classes of people - scholars, farmers, merchants and artisans - would unite in the parliament.

Then, after learning that the salt industry reform bill had been passed and would soon be made into a bill by the Congress Preparatory Office, he happily said to Liu Zongzhou:

"The measure of governing the country by rites and laws is a good one. I think it should be implemented."

“Congress cannot just pass a bill and then sit back and do nothing. It must set up a supervisory implementation committee to oversee the implementation of the bill.”

"Members of the Supervisory and Executive Committee enjoy the power of censors, and those with a certain rank can be given the title of assistant censor and even receive a salary."

Use Congress to urge the Ministry of Revenue to implement the reform and face together those who hinder the salt industry reform.

Liu Zongzhou was not a coward, otherwise he would not have worked with the emperor to re-establish rituals and music. He was very happy that the emperor allowed the Supervisory Committee to enjoy the power of the Censor, because this strengthened the power of the National Assembly.

But when it comes to another proposal, he becomes a little worried:
"The issuance of silver dollar certificates was barely approved, but the congressmen proposed to change the silver dollar certificates into subsidiary currency certificates, and to make it clear that only subsidiary currency would be issued."

"It is also believed that the 20 cents, 20 cents and 20 cents coins are not commonly used and can be directly cancelled in order to reduce the number of coins that the public needs to identify."

As various conditions were put forward, Zhu Youjian could hear the parliamentarians' distrust of the issuance of paper money.

Especially after learning that the support rate was only barely more than half and was almost rejected, he frowned and said:
"It seems that people still don't trust paper money!"

"We need to come up with a more perfect solution!"

A barely majority vote can be considered passed, but Zhu Youjian's psychological bottom line for such a major bill is that the support rate reaches two-thirds.

In particular, in the Zhuolu District Council, 40% of the council members are designated.

The current situation shows that there are very few people who support the issuance of silver dollar notes, and even some of the members of parliament appointed by the court may disagree.

If paper money is issued by force, it is likely to fail.

This was naturally unacceptable to him as he planned to use cents to replace copper coins.

After thinking about it, he told Liu Zongzhou:

"Send someone to have a good discussion with the councillors from Zhuolu District, ask them what concerns they have, and then report them to the Ministry of Revenue."

"The Ministry of Household Affairs' proposal needs to be readjusted and then sent to the Zhuolu District Council for another vote."

“We will strive to get the support rate of the new bill to reach more than two-thirds.”

“In the future, for major issues, a two-thirds majority will be required.”

"For the etiquette and laws that the emperor must follow, a four-fifths majority is required."

"You have to have a bottom line in your heart and treat this as a failure."

The concepts of two-thirds majority and four-fifths majority had been mentioned before when the Parliament of Nobles was established, and Liu Zongzhou knew them.

He was very surprised at the news leaked by the emperor, thinking that the emperor would privately express his position and abide by the etiquette and law provisions passed by a four-fifths majority in the future.

This made him very excited, and he assured the emperor:

"I will definitely communicate more with the councillors in Zhuolu District to address their concerns."

"It is to follow the method established before. Once the proposal of the Ministry of Revenue is passed, it can be made into a bill."

"If we let them put the proposal to a vote again, not only will the Ministry of Revenue be unhappy, it will also violate the previous rules."

"I think we should not change the order overnight and submit the bill again."

Regardless of what the emperor thought, the issuance of subsidiary currency notes had been approved at the Zhuolu District Council.

Liu Zongzhou believed that in order to maintain the authority of the parliament, the bill should not be submitted again. Otherwise, the officials of the Ministry of Revenue and the Zhuolu District Councillors would treat the vote as a joke.

In response to his concerns, Zhu Youjian nodded slowly and agreed:

"Since the motion has been passed, there really shouldn't be any more votes." "But the Zhuolu District councillors' suggestions for amending the motion shouldn't be ignored either."

"In this case, let the Ministry of Revenue submit the revised issuance plan of subsidiary currency notes to the Standing Committee of the Zhuolu District Council for deliberation."

“After they approve it, it will be submitted to the Congressional Planning Office as a new bill.”

"If there is anything that needs to be revised, let them propose it."

This is to still recognize the authority of the previous vote, but make certain modifications based on the opinions of the members.

What the Standing Committee needs to determine is whether the new proposal should be revised according to the opinions of the members, not whether to submit a new proposal.

Liu Zongzhou thought this method was good. It could allow less satisfactory bills to be revised and improved, while also maintaining the authority of the parliament and being more reasonable.

But how much can a bill be amended? How to prevent some people from changing it into a new bill under the guise of amendment? All of these require the formulation of a charter and improvement in future implementation.

He decided to issue subsidiary currency notes and formulated revised regulations.

The officials of the Ministry of Revenue were therefore still very busy during the Chinese New Year, constantly traveling to Zhuolu District to discuss opinions with local councilors.

The final result of the modification was that the original silver dollar certificate issuance plan was changed beyond recognition, and it was not simply changed to subsidiary currency notes, but was transformed into a currency issuance plan.

The new currency issuance plan stipulated the main currency of the Ming Dynasty.

In addition to the copper coins originally used, three types of silver coins were identified:
Ten cents, fifty cents, one dollar.

There are six types of subsidiary notes:
One cent, five cents; one fen, five fen; ten cents, fifty cents.

The one-yuan silver coin was determined to use a ten-petal lotus pattern. Only silver coins were issued, not so-called silver yuan coupons. The silver content was 37.5 grams, which could be exchanged for one tael of pure silver.

(Ten-petal lotus picture reference)
The five-cent silver coin and five-cent subsidiary coin note both use the five-petal plum blossom pattern. The silver coin contains 18.75 grams of silver and can be exchanged for half a liang, or five cents of pure silver.

(Five-petal plum blossom picture reference)
The 3.75-cent silver coin and the -cent subsidiary coin both use a cluster of orchids, with ten orchids. The coin contains grams of silver and can be exchanged for one ounce of pure silver.

(Dime coin picture reference)
For the fen and li coins below the jiao coin, no silver coins were minted, only paper subsidiary currency notes were issued.

The five-cent subsidiary coin note uses an orchid pattern, with five orchid stalks, while the one-cent subsidiary coin note has only one orchid pattern, which is printed on the front and back of the note.

The 5-cent subsidiary note uses a bamboo pattern, with five bamboos, while the 1-cent subsidiary note has only one bamboo, which is printed on the front and back of the note.

When the total face value of subsidiary currency notes reaches 10 cents, 50 cents, or 1 yuan, banks, money houses, and other financial institutions must unconditionally exchange them for the corresponding silver coins. They must not refuse to accept these subsidiary currency notes under any conditions.

Official institutions such as government offices also had to accept subsidiary currency notes and could use them to pay taxes.

The amount of currency issued each year is subject to review by Congress.

……

A variety of conditions have been proposed, all of which are written in the currency issuance plan.

The Ministry of Revenue insisted on a maximum of 100 yuan exchanged per day and per time, and that reservations must be made for any amount exceeding the limit, to prevent someone from suddenly exchanging large amounts of money at the bank and not being able to take them out, causing a crisis of trust.

At the same time, under the emperor's suggestion, they took the initiative to propose a clause:
That is, anyone can bring gold and silver to the mint designated by the Ministry of Revenue to make silver coins. The silver coins you get will contain no less pure silver than before. Gold will be exchanged for silver coins according to the price of the metal exchange.

If anyone has doubts about the silver content of silver coins minted by the mint designated by the Ministry of Revenue, they can randomly select newly minted silver coins and have them identified in the presence of a member of parliament.

If the three coins contained less pure silver than the required standard, the mint officials would be found guilty of violating the law, and anyone could file a lawsuit to seek sanctions.

This clause greatly enhanced the trust of the members of parliament in the silver coins made by the court, allowing the currency issuance plan to gain support. It also made the Ming silver coin one of the most trusted silver coins.

Subsidiary currency notes that could be exchanged for silver coins at an equal value were also issued.

These silver coins and subsidiary notes issuance terms, as well as coinage and verification terms, were formulated by the Zhuolu District Council and the Congress Preparatory Office as the "Currency Act", which became the document that must be followed in the manufacture and issuance of Ming Dynasty currency.

All silver coins and subsidiary notes manufactured in the future must comply with this bill.

Silver coins manufactured previously were exempted for ten years due to circulation requirements.

They will be withdrawn from circulation after ten years and holders can redeem them for new silver coins before maturity.

Because more than three million of these silver coins were produced and most of them were later recycled, the price of them in the collection world remains high, making them recognized treasures.

The new lotus one-yuan silver coin, plum blossom five-cent silver coin, and orchid ten-cent silver coin are circulated all over the world due to their huge issuance volumes.

The two units of liang and gram also spread to all parts of the world along with the circulation of three types of silver coins.

Even because metal exchanges have always used the tael, it later became one of the metal trading units around the world and was also called the troy tael. (End of this chapter)