I, the prince, only want to be deposed.

Chapter 292 Liu Che's Grand Narrative

Sang Hongyang's words really gave Liu Ju a great surprise.

His thoughts have touched upon the scope of financial wars that often appear in the news in later generations. It is hard to imagine that an ancient man more than two thousand years ago already had such advanced thoughts... No!
It doesn't seem to be that advanced.

Sang Hongyang’s idol seemed to be Guan Zhong of the Spring and Autumn Period, and Guan Zhong was the founder of Chinese finance.

Guan Zhong's core idea is to "stop war with commerce", that is, to develop commodity economy internally, so that the people will be rich and not rebel. Externally, it is to expand foreign trade and use trade to check and balance war. Let the cost of launching wars for various countries be greater than the cost of ending trade!

For this reason, Guan Zhong launched many famous financial wars in history.

For example, wearing silk to surrender Lu and Liang, buying fox fur to surrender Dai, the Hengshan Plan, purchasing deer to destroy Chu, the Yinli Plan, the Jingmao Plan... and so on.

And this "Jingmao Strategy" was also used by Liu Che in history.

During the Spring and Autumn Period, the King of Zhou was already in financial difficulty, and Duke Huan of Qi wanted to use the opportunity of honoring the king to help the King of Zhou.

So Guan Zhong offered a suggestion. He took advantage of the rule that the Zhou emperor ordered his entourage to carry Jingmao as mats when offering sacrifices to heaven and earth. He banned all the "Jingmao" produced between the Yangtze River and the Huai River. This made it so that the princes could only participate in the ceremonies of offering sacrifices to heaven and earth by spending a large sum of money to buy it from the Zhou emperor. In this way, the Zhou emperor's financial difficulties were solved.

And in the history books, Emperor Liu Che did the same thing when he performed the Fengshan Ceremony, making the princes and officials who participated in the ceremony bear the expenses together.

Liu Ju had reason to suspect that this move was most likely the idea provided by Sang Hongyang to Liu Che.

However, there was obviously a big difference in ideas between Sang Hongyang and Guan Zhong.

Guan Zhong supported the "free market economy" and once firmly opposed Duke Huan of Qi's idea of ​​monopolizing state resources by the court.

What Sang Hongyang now supports is the "administrative-oriented market economy", believing that resources such as salt and iron, which are related to people's livelihood and war preparedness, must be firmly controlled by the court.

So although Sang Hongyang tried to make Guan Zhong his idol, he was not just imitating and learning from him, but was constantly improving and making adjustments according to local conditions...

Thinking about this, Liu Ju suddenly found the Lighthouse Country of later generations very funny.

A country with only two hundred years of history, which forcibly disguises itself as a civilization, actually attempts to use the methods left over by its ancestors to suppress and defeat a civilization with five thousand years of history, which disguises itself as a country. Isn't this a bit ridiculous and naive?

Perhaps this was the reason why Liu Ju traveled through time.

As the contradictions and conflicts between the two countries intensify, the things done by the beacon country become more and more ridiculous and ugly, giving people the feeling of a monkey wearing a human mask, right?

"Your Highness has also had similar ideas as this humble official?"

Sang Hongyang also instantly became alert.

Although Liu Ju always said that he was "not good at doing business", after a brief contact with him during the state-run salt and iron reforms, he felt that Liu Ju was too modest, which was why he paid him a visit today.

But at first he just wanted to seek Liu Ju's opinion on the "Equalized Transport and Price Stabilization System" and the "Monopoly on Liquor Sales".

Now that Liu Ju has shown such interest in this matter, if I can really provide him with some useful help, it would definitely be a pleasant surprise, and a bigger surprise.

"The word profit carries a knife, and the word benefit carries blood. If you can gain profit without using a knife or shedding blood, then it is definitely the most worthwhile business in the world. If it is possible, how can I, the Han Dynasty, miss it?"

Liu Ju smiled and said,
"Tell me quickly, what problems are we facing in achieving this goal now?"

Your Highness, His Majesty seems to have said this before...

While Sang Hongyang was complaining in his heart, he sat up straight and said seriously,
"First of all, there is the issue of trade routes. In fact, Your Majesty has already started working on this matter."

"Ever since Marquis Bowang drilled through the Western Regions and learned that the farthest countries in the Western Regions were Parthia and Rome, Your Majesty has been interested in establishing contact with them. He stationed envoys in Dian to find out the way to Sindhu. Unfortunately, after many years, there has not been much success."

Marquis of Bowang is the famous Zhang Qian, the pioneer of the ancient Silk Road.

Unfortunately, Zhang Qian had died of illness in Chang'an the year before Liu Ju traveled through time, so there was no chance for them to communicate or meet.

But it can be said that the two of them have some fate.

Zhang Qian was granted the title of "Marquis of Bowang" and Liu Ju's prince's palace was called "Bowang Garden".

"Bowang Garden" was named first, and "Marquis Bowang" was conferred the title later. I wonder if Liu Che had any other ideas when he named and conferred the title?

Now thinking about it carefully, Liu Ju felt that it might be possible.

Bowang means broad observation and looking into the future.

The crown prince is the future emperor of the Han Dynasty, and the Western Regions are the future that the Han Dynasty will surely step into... Does this contain Liu Che's expectations for the future of himself and the Han Dynasty, or does he regard it as a legacy left to himself?

"Go on."

Liu Ju also listened very carefully and nodded. The trade route was not a big problem. Liu Che and the existing countries were still in the stage of exploring the map, but for Liu Ju, the map was already fully lit. In this respect, he was a full-map cheater.

All we need to worry about are the geopolitical issues on the trade routes...

"The second is the problem of enemy countries. Although the Han Dynasty has completely controlled the Hexi Corridor and the Xiongnu have been driven to the northern desert, many small countries in the Western Regions are still subservient to the Xiongnu."

Sang Hongyang continued,

"So much so that when our delegation passes through various countries, they are still subject to restrictions and harassment from these small countries. This is the case for the delegation representing the Han Dynasty, let alone the caravans for foreign trade."

"Under these conditions, it is not only profitable, but it is also common for caravans to lose both people and money. It is difficult to carry out large-scale foreign trade."

"Um……"

Liu Ju nodded again.

This was indeed a problem. He suddenly understood Liu Che's purpose in attacking Dayuan at all costs in history.

Purchasing horses from Dayuan might just be an excuse, and what he wanted to open up more might be this trade route... Liu Che was very good at this method, and many times when he sent envoys to other countries, what he sent were essentially human declarations of war.

Moreover, after conquering Dayuan, the goal seemed to have been achieved. From then on, small countries along the way sent envoys to the Han Dynasty to surrender. The only step was to establish the Western Regions Protectorate in Luntai, which was massacred by the Han army.

Unfortunately, Li Guangli was defeated in the war with the Huns afterwards.

The shock that the Battle of Dayuan brought to these small countries in the Western Regions collapsed, and they once again lived under the shadow of the Huns. Liu Che knew that setting up the Protectorate of the Western Regions at this time would be tantamount to giving it away for free, so he had no choice but to issue the "Luntai Edict".

Now that I think about it, this should have been a complete series of national policies.

Attack Dayuan - intimidate small countries - establish the Western Regions Protectorate - open the Silk Road - foreign trade - financial hegemony!
Liu Che's "great unification" was even more grand than imagined.

Unfortunately, this grand narrative was interrupted in the war with the Huns and died before the establishment of the Protectorate of the Western Regions.

Perhaps this is Liu Che's greatest regret in life, a greater regret than his failure to become an immortal. In the story he wanted to tell, he was supposed to be a hero who truly realized "wherever the rivers flow, wherever the sun and moon shine, all belong to the Han Dynasty", but he ended up being a tyrant who oppressed the people in his later years...

"Finally, the most important point in my opinion is currency."

Sang Hongyang continued,
"The Western Regions use silver as currency. The currency is shaped like the face of the king. When the king dies, the currency is changed to look like the king's face."

"But the Han people use copper as money, and it is difficult to exchange currency with the Western Regions."

"The value of copper and silver is different. Silver is still a scarce commodity in the Han Dynasty, just like gold. It is used to make ritual objects for the kings and nobles, and it is difficult to form a scale of use as currency."

"And the Western Regions countries only accept silver but not copper, so when my country conducts trade with them, it is necessary to use actual goods for barter, which makes it difficult to create a situation in which the Han Dynasty has an advantage and other countries lose in foreign trade."

"It is just as the saying goes, 'The capital is heavy and the currency is empty.'"

“For a country, money cannot be eaten, drunk, worn, or used to forge weapons. Even if a country has a lot of it, it will only be a symbol of wealth at a critical moment. The only thing that truly gives money value is the actual goods that are closely related to people’s livelihood and the military.”

"If our Han Dynasty can only trade goods, or use our goods to exchange for silver and money from the Western Regions, this foreign trade method may be profitable for the merchants involved, but for our Han Dynasty, it is a hundred harms and no benefit. It is equivalent to giving up the most profitable coinage right."

“I have also thought of other ideas.”

"For example, we could set up a foreign currency exchange office at the border to realize barrier-free exchange of our Han currency with foreign currencies. But there is still a problem with this, because copper and silver are not equal in value. Unless copper is inferior and silver is superior, exchange can only be realized at a certain ratio."

"But this will only cause greater damage to our Han Dynasty. It will cause the Western Regions to use less currency to obtain more Han goods, resulting in a large outflow of Han Dynasty's actual wealth. This is absolutely unacceptable."

Hearing this, Liu Ju's eyes began to roll, and he savored Sang Hongyang's words carefully.

There was no paper money in this era. Even if paper was invented and paper money was produced, it could not be used for foreign trade. Forcing it to be promoted domestically would cause greater damage to the country's economy, just like the white deerskin that Liu Che played with.

Therefore, even currency exchange is actually a form of barter, and the Han Dynasty's copper coins are indeed at a disadvantage.

Gold, which is more valuable than silver, is very limited even in later generations and is still an important reserve for countries. The Han Dynasty's reserves are not large, so it cannot be used as currency, let alone outflow.

That leaves only silver...

The silver reserves of the Celestial Empire were not too high, and were mainly distributed in the Lingnan area...

and many more!

Liu Ju suddenly thought of a place where there was a large silver mine whose output once reached about one-third of the world's total!

(End of this chapter)