Baidu otaku as Chongzhen

Chapter 307 Good idea

This day was not a day to go to court, and Yang Reform's mouth sores gradually healed, he was no longer so anxious, and he already had an idea in his heart.

In Qianqing Palace, Yang Reform is summoning someone, and the person he is summoning is Bi Ziyan.

After much deliberation, Yang Reform felt that it would be better to get out the banknotes first and test the waters before saying, yes, that would be fine; It is tormenting, if it works, then thank God, if it doesn't work, don't waste your feelings anymore, do what you should do.

"Bi Aiqing, what happened to the banknotes?" Yang Reform first asked.

"Paper money? Are you talking about precious money?" Bi Ziyan looked at the emperor in surprise.

"Yes, Baochao, oh, no, it's the paper bill that I could only tell you about a while ago... I want to issue some paper bills now." Yang Reform decided to push out the paper money now. Now, whether it works or not, you have to try it.

"Your Majesty... it seems that the time is not yet ripe! Your Majesty is really in a hurry to issue the treasure notes at this time. Now, I am trying to connect with Li Ruolian's bank. The bills issued by him, Our household department can admit that we have just made some progress. Your Majesty, this matter must not be rushed. After the summer and autumn taxes have been paid several times in bills, the people and merchants have believed in the credibility of the bank, and it will not be too late to issue banknotes... ..." In Bi Ziyan's view, this banknote is a precious banknote, and this Daming banknote is a harmful term. The emperor wants to play with treasure banknotes. Although he has many preparations and countermeasures, Bi Ziyan still feels that the time is right now. immature.

"Well, the time is not yet ripe? Are there still immature places? I can't wait any longer!" Yang Reform asked.

"Your Majesty, this treasure banknote was issued in the early years of my reign. In the eyes of the people, it is a piece of useless paper! If Your Majesty has no money, you can think of other ways, and you must not make a fuss about it. Otherwise, His Majesty’s reputation will be spent on this..., I am gradually changing this view, it will take time, Your Majesty, don’t be in a hurry!” Bi Ziyan begged the emperor not to do this impatiently, he After finally making some achievements, if the emperor suddenly wants to issue treasure notes, his efforts will be in vain.

"If I say that I didn't do this because of lack of money, but just issued banknotes to facilitate people's lives, Bi Aiqing, do you think you believe it? Or, how reliable do you think this kind of thing is?" The various difficulties and setbacks that must be faced with banknotes have already been anticipated and prepared by Yang Reform. The first step in issuing banknotes is to persuade someone who can carry out his intentions, and it is best to manage the national households. For those who are in the Ministry, it is best to be someone who is familiar with money and numbers. Yang Reform counts and counts, so Bi Ziyan is suitable for this. Although he and Bi Ziyan have discussed the matter of banknotes before, but At that time, the discussion was about getting bills, and the gap between bills and banknotes was far away. Silver bills belonged to bills, and silver bills were recognized by everyone, but this treasure..., that was completely different.The banknotes that Yang Reform wants to get now are not bills or bills. They were just a blow to Bi Ziyan before, but now they are about to come true.

Hearing that the emperor issued banknotes not for making money, but for the convenience of the people, Bi Ziyan felt like laughing, but dared not laugh, and felt that the emperor was too naive. Either the emperor was too naive, or he was just a great sage.

"In short, Your Majesty, if His Majesty insists on doing this, I believe His Majesty. However, I am afraid that most of the people in the world will be skeptical. Back then, this precious banknote made the people miserable. As the saying goes 'One year I was bitten by a snake, and ten years I was afraid of well ropes'." Bi Ziyan thought for a while, and felt that he could only answer the emperor in this way.

"Well, I also expected this kind of situation, and I have a little prestige now, but if you want to say that issuing banknotes is not for making money, haha, I'm afraid there will not be too many people who believe in me." Yang Reform laughed at himself. Speaking of which, the Ming Dynasty is really a very advanced country. It has done such things as issuing banknotes, and it has been done for nearly a hundred years. Of course, it is meaningless to talk about such things as the successor is too bad.

"It's good that your majesty can understand. It's better for your majesty to rely less on the issue of treasure banknotes. If it's some bills, banknotes or something, that's feasible. Wait for Li Ruolian to make the silver bills and bills, and make them out." Reputation comes, and then His Majesty asks Li Ruolian to issue some small-amount, universal deposit, universal exchange, and general-purpose bills to serve as treasure notes, so that people will not feel that His Majesty is reissuing treasure notes. It is a feasible way, Your Majesty!" Bi Ziyan also looked helpless, the reputation of Baochao is really not very good, this thing has existed for decades in history, too many people have suffered from him, It is very difficult to change everyone's thinking in time. According to Bi Ziyan's idea, let Li Ruolian's bank first make bank notes, and then gradually issue some small-amount notes when there is enough credit. The bills that are widely accepted, that is, the precious banknotes in disguise, can only be successful in this way. There, like the emperor, they have to buy banknotes as soon as they come up. Those who buy banknotes just use the name of treasure banknotes. The emperor will definitely fail. And to be nailed to the pillar of shame in history, look: this is another emperor who racked his brains to defraud the common people of their money.

"Hehe, I listened to what Bi Aiqing said, and I have a lot of research on this treasure banknote!" Yang Reform was not in a hurry. Today, he prepared a lot of things. This banknote was determined to be played, and he began to persuade Bi Ziyan patiently. .

"Returning to Your Majesty, since I received His Majesty's order, I have also studied the treasure banknotes. I can say that I know the weaknesses and strengths of this treasure banknote. If Your Majesty wants to listen to my opinions, I know everything." Bi Zi Yan saw that the emperor wanted to reissue the treasure notes, and he seemed to be very determined, and he was ready to say some heartfelt words. As for the result, he was helpless. He didn't have the ability to manage what the emperor wanted to do.

"Okay!" Yang Reform was planning to trick Bi Ziyan into issuing banknotes for himself.Seeing that Bi Ziyan was still willing to exchange this precious banknote with himself, he was also in the middle of his heart. Some things, the plan could not keep up with the changes. According to the previous discussion, it is indeed a good way to do it step by step. Unfortunately, now, Yang Reform is preparing to Take a chance.

"Your Majesty, in fact, the treasured banknote is a good thing. Although it has many shortcomings, it also has many advantages. If your majesty can make up for the weakness of the treasured banknote, it may not be impossible to issue this treasured banknote." Bi Ziyan said I'm an expert tone.

"Well, let's talk about it carefully." Yang Reform felt that Bi Ziyan seemed to know more about the issuance of banknotes than he did. It seemed that Bi Ziyan had really put in a lot of effort.

"Your Majesty, the first disadvantage of this precious banknote is that the imperial court was only responsible for distributing banknotes in the past, not recycling them. Even with recycling, there were many problems. Among them was the issue of the banknote dumping method. In fact, when the imperial court uses precious banknotes to offset taxes, it only accepts new banknotes, while the old banknotes are often not used. Therefore, the old banknotes can only rot in the hands of the people, but some people with connections can use their connections to take advantage of the low price. Buying old banknotes and colluding with the government to offset the tax in full with the old banknotes. The price difference is huge. Over the years, the value of this precious banknotes has become less and less valuable. This is one of them..., Your Majesty If you want to issue banknotes, you have to solve this problem. Of course, if Your Majesty uses Li Ruolian's bank to issue and recycle banknotes, and operate independently from the government, this will prevent the local government from reselling them for profit..." Bi Ziyan Speaking of this precious banknote, it is transparent. As an official in the imperial party who has studied the economy to a certain extent, he is naturally very careful about this aspect.

"Well, not bad, not bad, let's continue." Yang Reform nodded. He didn't expect that this precious banknote has so much attention. The old banknotes are tax-deductible, and the backstage accepts other people's old banknotes at a low price. This approach is really sharp. Sure enough, there are policies on the top and countermeasures on the bottom.

"...Actually, it is also a matter of recycling. Your Majesty has also seen the treasure banknotes before. The paper used to print and issue treasure banknotes is really quite poor. The handwriting is blurred and difficult to read. I will not talk about it. This paper is easy to faint and cannot see the tide. , not to mention being unable to see water, and not being durable, it all determines that the treasure banknotes issued by the imperial court are easily damaged, and all the treasure banknotes issued by the imperial court will have to be taken back and reissued in a short time. Banknotes colluded with the government middleman who used old banknotes to offset taxes, and the problem of depreciation of precious banknotes became more and more apparent. As soon as the precious banknotes were in the hands of the people, the price immediately dropped by more than [-]%. You said, how could the common people like this kind of money? Therefore, Your Majesty must prepare paper that is durable, not afraid of moisture, and not easily damaged..." Bi Ziyan mentioned all kinds of difficulties in order to prevent the emperor from distributing precious banknotes.

"...there is also the problem of indiscriminate issuance. In fact, the previous problems are still minor problems. Uncontrolled indiscriminate issuance is the reason why the issuance of precious banknotes cannot continue. This precious banknote is not like gold and silver. It is always limited. This paper can be printed as much as it wants. Whenever the court has no money, it will be printed and issued if it has something to do. And the recycling is extremely limited. Paper? The common people work hard all year round, but the court casually uses a piece of rotten paper to take away other people’s harvest for a year. Your Majesty, do you think the common people are fools? Of course, if your Majesty uses a bank to operate this matter alone, there will be There is enough reserve silver for the people to exchange. Even if the local government does not collect paper money for taxes, it is no problem. The people can go to the bank to exchange it before paying taxes. However, the number of banks is quite large. , there must be enough reserve silver to deal with the people's exchange... so many banks, Your Majesty, but there are so many people? So, even now it is impossible to spread it out on a large scale, at most it will be within a few days It's just a trial in a limited place..." Bi Ziyan said a lot, just to persuade the emperor not to be reckless, take his time, and he talked about practical issues.

"Well, this is a problem! I know about this problem. I don't plan to spread it all over the country now, so I plan to try to issue some in Beijing. Besides, I only plan to issue one or two million taels of silver. Banknotes, twice the amount of banknotes issued for one silver..." Of course Yang Reform knew this problem, so he didn't want to eat a fat man, and planned to change one or two million taels of silver for emergency.

Seeing what the emperor said, Bi Ziyan heaved a sigh of relief. At least, the emperor's idea is more or less reliable, and he doesn't have the idea of ​​becoming fat in one go. If that is the case, Bi Ziyan will have nowhere to go except to resign up.

For this matter, Bi Ziyan usually made various assumptions and possibilities. Hearing that the emperor's request was nothing more than this, he referred to the countermeasures he had thought before and said: "Your Majesty, if it is only like this, I have a policy, I don’t know if it’s feasible or not.”

"Well, go ahead." Yang Reform now opened his mouth and waited for Bi Ziyan to turn one money into two for himself. He was very happy to hear that Bi Ziyan had an idea.

"His Majesty, since His Majesty's circulation is only one or two million taels, it is not difficult to operate this matter. Has Your Majesty thought about issuing military tickets in the army?" Bi Ziyan said after thinking for a while.

"Military ticket?" Yang Reform asked rhetorically.

"Yes, Your Majesty, military tickets, nowadays, paper money, precious banknotes, and paper money cannot be linked together. They can only be linked with silver notes and bills. When people hear it, they won't think Your Majesty is defrauding them of their money, and only by relying on things with a relatively reliable reputation such as bank notes can the chances of winning be great." Bi Ziyan explained.

"Well, okay, let's continue." Yang Reform began to feel that it was a bit of a joke. Sure enough, this Bi Ziyan was a good hand in economics. If he asked him a question, he would think for himself.

"His Majesty, the military expenses that His Majesty needs to spend every month is probably not a small amount." Bi Ziyan asked, as an imperial party, he knew some things about the emperor.

"This is true. With the military expenses everywhere plus the extra money from Master Xu, I don't have 100 million taels per month. I can't get away with it." Yang Reform told the truth.If I hadn't been so short of money, I wouldn't have rushed to buy banknotes.According to my previous practice, it is very stable.

Hearing that the emperor spent more than 100 million taels a month, Bi Ziyan stared and smacked his lips. This emperor is really not an ordinary person. The previous emperors only had an annual income of about 100 million taels. Now, this Master Wei spends 100 million taels a month...unbelievable...I also understand why the emperor is so persistent in making treasures and banknotes.

"My Majesty, since this is the case, His Majesty only needs to issue military tickets in the army, and other officers and troops may not be able to do so, but the officers and troops in the Chenguan Jingying and His Majesty's salaries, such as the New Army, such as Mao Wenlong, For example, Master Yuan is paid by His Majesty's internal funds, so that's no problem. In the future, all businessmen who supply these military supplies and consume them can only receive military tickets from the military. After receiving the military tickets, the merchants can exchange the military tickets into silver coins in His Majesty's bank when they return to big cities, such as Jingshi and Datong. In this way, His Majesty only needs to prepare banks in a limited number of places. It saves a lot of manpower, and you can also issue military tickets directly to the officers and soldiers, and let them buy things with military tickets, or exchange them for silver at the bank. In this way, Your Majesty, there will be a time difference between entering and exiting. Your Majesty is going to I have prepared 100 million taels of silver, but actually, I can print 200 million taels of military tickets, which can completely achieve your majesty's purpose, not to mention the issuance of banknotes and banknotes. These places are all provided by His Majesty’s internal funds. Even if the officials have opinions on this, they can’t say anything. Do all the officials dare to point fingers at His Majesty’s internal funds? Your Majesty can decide without discussing with the ministers. Do it directly, and when the people see that the military ticket is guaranteed and can be exchanged for the full amount of silver, the reputation of the military ticket must be greatly improved, and it will gradually be accepted by more people and businesses. It is a good way to gradually increase the supply of military tickets, gradually expand the military ticket system to a wider range, and completely bypass the treasure banknotes and banknotes..." Bi Ziyan racked his brains and gave The emperor came up with such a way.

"Okay! Very good! It's really good." Yang Reform heard it clearly. This is a very good idea. To make a time difference, to issue military tickets to his new army and those troops who rely on their own internal funds. It’s definitely a good idea, and even better, you don’t need to discuss this matter with the ministers. Those troops are paid out of their own money, and you can spend it as you want, as long as the troops don’t make trouble or rebel. Still not just yourself?

Yang Reform almost danced around. His monthly additional military expenditure was more than 10 taels. If he added the Jingying, Jinyiwei, and eunuchs to his hard-core supporters, if they all issued military tickets, hehe, let alone, It is really not difficult to issue one or two million taels. The circulation speed of this military ticket is quite fast. The army is a pure consumer unit. It will not take long for the reputation of the military ticket to be established. It is good to have a reputation. It's done, it's much better than the idea I thought before.

"This method is good, Bi Aiqing. I have already made the kind of durable paper that you said is not afraid of water. You can check it for me to see if there are any mistakes. I will issue banknotes immediately, no, I will issue military tickets. "Yang Reform couldn't wait, and he was about to issue banknotes, no, military tickets.

"...Ah! Your Majesty...this..." Bi Ziyan stared at the emperor dumbfounded. It turned out that the emperor had already made preparations.

"About the problem that Bi Aiqing mentioned that the precious banknotes are easy to fade, the paper is not good, not durable, and afraid of water, I have thought of a lot of ways, Bi Aiqing, come and take a look at this kind of paper, no, this kind of military ticket, How about it?" Yang Reform didn't wait for Bi Ziyan to sigh, and directly said his own.

After finishing speaking, Yang Reform took out some things from a box. These were some white papers, which were very different from the papers commonly used today. This kind of paper was thicker and looked better.

While asking Bi Ziyan to come to his desk, Yang Reform took out a piece of paper and threw it into a teacup.

Bi Ziyan also curiously took the paper given by the emperor, and then watched the emperor put the paper into the teacup suspiciously. [Teacup: I want to protest the protagonist, this is the first time I have thrown paper at my place, my place is not a trash can. 】

(End of this chapter)