Wentang

Chapter 391 Yueshan's Business War
Please open a bank statement.

After Li Shimin saw the title of this booklet, he couldn't help but looked at Yue Shan suspiciously, but he didn't ask any questions, but lowered his head to read it again.

At the beginning, he watched relatively quickly, but gradually the speed became slower and slower. In some places, it took a long time to finish reading a section, and his brows became more and more wrinkled because of deep thinking.Until Zhao Meng came to remind him to eat lunch, it was less than half of the turn.

Originally, he was planning to drive Zhao Meng away and continue reading, because there were too many novel viewpoints in this booklet, which made him want to stop.

But Yue Shan here naturally wouldn't let him read the memorial on an empty stomach, so he asked Zhao Meng to go to the imperial dining room and make four dishes and one soup.The two just had a makeshift lunch.

Li Shimin read this memorial for about two and a half hours before finishing it, and after thinking for a long time, he said: "You asked Duan Lun to smelt and hoard silver. I guessed that you might have ideas about coins, but I didn't expect it to be so big. of an article."

"The small ones kill people, the big ones destroy the country. You are creating a beast."

"This beast has always existed, and now I'm just putting a rein on it so that it can be used by the country." Yue Shan shook his head.

"But no one knew that this beast could be used like this before. You taught them." Li Shimin said.

"This copybook is in your hands, and only the two of us have read it. Others don't know the content on it, they just think that Datang has an extra coin called silver." Yue Shan shrugged and said:
"Besides, since this beast already exists, someone will discover it sooner or later. It is better to take precautions in advance than to be discovered by ambitious people and bring disaster to the country and the people."

"What you said is indeed reasonable, but can you guarantee that you will never use this beast?" Li Shimin asked, staring at him.

"The reins are in your hands, you should ask yourself, not me." Yue Shan looked back at him and said.

Li Shimin's eyes flickered, and after a while, he suddenly changed the subject and said, "There are still many things in the notebook that I don't understand, please explain to me."

Yue Shan immediately understood Li Shimin's choice. As a talented person who dreamed of becoming the co-lord of the world, how could he not use the currency war as a sharp weapon.

What's more, it is unique to know the concept of currency war now. It can be said that Datang has the right time and place.

Of course, Yue Shan’s so-called currency war is not the same thing as the currency war mentioned by later generations. He has never read that book, and he doesn’t know anything about finance.

He just wrote this note based on his superficial knowledge and some historical facts, and proposed the concept of currency war.

And the example he gave is also very simple, and it cannot even be regarded as a currency war.For example, if you buy silk from a small country at a high price and sell grain at a low price, the small country will inevitably destroy the land to plant mulberry and produce more silk for profit, which will lead to a serious shortage of grain production.

When Datang stopped buying silk and selling grain one day, this small country would collapse.

Datang is not the only one that is short of money, all the powers in the world are short of money.At this time, the coins of some powerful countries will automatically become common currencies.

The most typical one is the Song Dynasty. The Liao, Jin, Xixia and other countries all used the copper coins of the Song Dynasty, and even the Japanese country used the copper coins of the Song Dynasty.

Datang's copper coins can naturally be accepted by other forces and become the common currency for international trade.Until then, as long as Datang keeps minting coins, it will be able to continuously plunder other countries' materials.

Such an example is a common plot in story clubs for later generations, but it was unconventional enough for people in the Tang Dynasty to make Li Shimin's eyes shine.

Yue Shan is not all nonsense. If he really wants to launch a commercial war, Datang can really be said to have the right time and place. As long as he doesn't mess around, he is almost invincible.

The national power is strong, the agricultural handicraft industry is developed, and there are many kinds of exclusive products, such as glass, silk, tea, soap, perfume, liquor and so on.

It doesn't even require any tricks to directly dump these goods at low prices to other countries, which can easily destroy the other's business and completely collapse the other's economic system.

Someone has to ask, what does this have to do with banks?
Yue Shan said that they were related, so they were related. Anyway, no one in the Tang Dynasty understood this.

In this booklet, he emphasized that only by perfecting his own economic system can he use this method to attack others, otherwise it may backfire.

And improving one's own economic system is inseparable from banks.

The bank mentioned by Yue Shan is not exactly the same as the "bank" of later generations. The bank he mentioned is an institution that manages money and does not handle deposits and loans for the time being.

He also described in detail the stage of currency development in the Central Plains. At the beginning, barter was used to replace coins with shells and other items.

Then came the period of metal currency, with gold and copper as coins.But metal currency can also be divided into two stages: one is before Kaiyuan Tongbao, when the copper content of the coin was equal to its actual purchasing power.

One is Kaiyuan Tongbao and later coins. Kaiyuan Tongbao is the first currency with copper content less than its actual purchasing power.To give a simple example, one tael of copper can buy ten catties of rice, but the copper coins used to buy ten catties of rice contain less than one tael of copper.

Most of the subsequent dynasties followed the example of Kaiyuan Tongbao, and in the Song Dynasty, Jiaozi purely guaranteed by credit appeared.

But even though Datang created credit currency and minted Kaiyuan Tongbao, the copper coins circulating in the market were still not enough, and the imperial court had to order that silk can also be used as currency.And part of the non-governmental transactions directly returned to barter.

Yue Shan made it clear that this status quo must be changed, otherwise it will harm the interests of the country and the people.

And his suggestion is to use silver as currency, and gold can also be used in transactions, but gold and silver must also be minted into coins for issuance.

The issuer is the bank.

"The quality of the cast coins is poor and it is easy for criminals to imitate and cast counterfeit coins. I thought of a way to cast a more exquisite coin that cannot be imitated. Please have a look at it." Take it out.

"Present." Li Shimin immediately asked for those coins and observed them carefully.

These coins are divided into five types, all of which are round, with Tang Tongbao written on one side and the word Zhenguan written on the other, but the sizes and colors are different.

"This is the sample coin I made. Please forgive me if it is inappropriate." Yue Shan first apologized.

Li Shimin's mind was all on these coins, he didn't speak at all, he just waved his hand to express his innocence.

He took these coins in his hand and looked at them carefully, and found that they were indeed much more exquisite than the copper coins on the market.And it feels delicate, smooth and textured, not as rough as other copper coins.

"How are these coins minted?" Li Shimin asked.

(End of this chapter)