Chastity Layman

  Chapter 917 Master Shaoxing

   Government Office.

  When everyone saw Qin Lang coming in in the morning, they all greeted him with a meaningful smile. Several people who were close to each other started joking, "Mr. Wei is really alive and well, young and strong. A group of us were betting just now that Mr. Wei will definitely not be able to come this morning."

   "Who made the bet and how much was bet?"

   "Master Qian made a lot of bets, and most of them bet that you won't come this morning."

   "It's boring, but since so many people bet on me not coming, then the master won the bet today, and I have to find him to share the spoils."

  Qin Lang wasn't angry either, instead he started laughing and went directly to Master Qian who was in charge of money and food.

   "Old Qian, I heard that you are all starting to bet on me now? This time I made a lot of money, half of the meeting, 21 plus 5, cents!"

  Old Qian was dressed in a white shirt, complaining incessantly there, stroked his sparse beard and said, "Sir, do you even want this little money from us? We are just joking."

   "Don't talk about anything else, split it in half!"

   "Okay, okay, I only earned less than 3,000 yuan in total, so I'll share 1,500 yuan with you." Master Qian was also a straightforward person, and he really took out his money bag. "Does the proprietor want silver or banknotes?"

   "Anything works!"

  So Master Qian simply counted fifteen anonymous banker's notes with a denomination of 100 renminbi, and Qin Lang accepted them bluntly.

Master Qian was a little bit pained, but when he thought about it, these were all earned for nothing, so he didn't feel bad anymore, "I know the proprietor is a hardworking person, I adjusted the handicap specially, those guys really thought Dong The Lord will not come and try to make a fortune from me."

  Qin Lang glanced at the banknote in his hand. The special paper was also engraved and overprinted in color. In addition to the bank's banknote, denomination, etc., there were many anti-counterfeit seals and patterns on it.

  Hundred banknote banknotes are widely circulated in the market now, and all major banks are issuing this kind of unregistered banknotes that are redeemable at sight. Now that business is booming, banknotes are easy to carry and convenient.

  The earliest banknotes were generally registered, and even had to be cashed in person with tokens, and they were often of large denominations. Later, the denominations became smaller and smaller, and they became more and more commonly used.

   Banknotes below one penny are generally unregistered. If it is dropped, anyone can pick it up. If it is damaged, it will be gone.

  Although they are not named, each banknote is very careful about anti-counterfeiting. Each banknote has its own characteristics, and there are many special anti-counterfeiting marks, even more than one.

  Qin Lang put these relatively new banknotes into his pocket. These banknotes were indeed easier to carry than coins. Common people still used copper coins. A thousand copper coins weighed six catties and four taels, so they had to be carried on their shoulders. Although gold and silver coins are also in circulation nowadays, gold and silver coins are very valuable. A silver coin, made of silver and copper, is worth a thousand copper coins, and a gold coin is worth ten thousand.

   It is not convenient for ordinary people to use it in daily life. A gold coin may not be able to be saved in a year.

"Master Qian, you said that our mines in Lingnan are doing well now, and that gold and silver are prolific at first, but now the output has increased greatly. Do you think we can consider minting some gold and silver coins with smaller denominations, which will be more It is convenient for circulation and use.”

  Master Qian is a teacher, and his official name is a staff member. He is not an official official of the imperial court, but a staff member of Qin Lang's Xuanfu Jinglue envoy.

  During the Qin and Han Dynasties, it was generally called Menke, disciple, etc.

  The Economic and Strategic Envoy of the Nine Mansions in Lingnan is a temporary dispatch, and there is no permanent organization to organize officials. Therefore, Qin Lang can only rely on recruiting some staff to handle the affairs besides sending some from various yamen to help.

   These people don't receive imperial salaries, and they don't have ranks. They are completely Qin Lang's personal staff, equivalent to the personal assistants he hired.

  Qin Lang held multiple positions, and he was also the administrator of the Jiufu, the governor of Guangzhou, and the governor of Guangzhou.

These recruited people are called masters by him, and they handle various affairs for him, such as those who specialize in money and food, those who handle criminal names, and those who handle documents. Now they have recruited more than a hundred scholars to the curtain. work.

Some of these masters are official officials. Qin Lang asked them to come out of the mountain to help. These people naturally sold their face. Great benefit.

   There are also some well-known local scholars who did not become officials due to various reasons, or were not recommended, or failed to pass the imperial examination. Qin Lang invited them, and of course they were willing to join.

   There are also some officials who were originally local officials, or some tycoons who were originally from the south of the Five Ridges. Qin Lang invited them here, not only to recruit helpers, but also to give them comfort.

  Although these people have no official salary behind the scenes, they have power. And power is valuable in any era, besides, Qin Lang is not a person short of money, he actually pays these masters very high rewards.

  He respects these people as masters or gentlemen, and they work together to handle various affairs for him.

In fact, Qin Lang can come to handle affairs by himself. The Qin family has a huge business group and a huge management team, but the recruitment of masters is not just to help with affairs. Most of the masters recruited are local scholars in Lingnan, and There are basically no poor people who can study these days.

  Most of them are local tyrants, from big clans, so when these people are recruited, they are actually recruiting these big and small powerful families in Lingnan.

   It is necessary to fight and pull, this is the way of balance.

Master Qian’s family lived in Nanhai County, Guangzhou. He studied for many years, and he also went to Chang’an to rush for the exam, but failed. Later, he also served as a guest of Chang’an’s family of honor and relatives. He returned to his hometown when he was old. , and a boat, in fact, life is not bad.

Qin Lang liked Master Qian's rich experience in money and food, so he sent someone to hire him. As soon as Lao Qian received the letter of appointment, he came without saying a word. Lang is satisfied.

Master Qian stroked his goatee, "Our Lingnan is indeed rich in gold and silver. The Central Plains used to be called Nanjin, and because of the coastal trade in Lingnan, there were many trade contacts with Hu merchants, and there were many gold and silver transactions. Therefore, in the early years, There is copper but Lingnan, and Lingnan uses the language of Nanjin.

In the past, when we traded with barbarians, we mostly traded directly with gold and silver. Gold and silver of different colors were mainly valued by weighing. There are also many famous gold and silver shops in Lingnan, and each shop often has its own logo. However, it is not as convenient and easy to use as the current gold and silver coins. The value is recorded directly at face value, which is convenient, and there is no need to look at the fineness, conversion, or cutting and weighing when using it. "

  In the past, when there was a money shortage in the Central Plains, the inflow of copper coins was prohibited for the Lingnan area, which was not a tax area. Therefore, people in Lingnan mainly traded with gold and silver, and they used to be the place where privately minted copper coins and counterfeit and shoddy copper coins were minted for a long time.

However, since Zhenguan, the imperial court has strengthened the control of currency unprecedentedly, and strengthened supervision from all aspects. It also cracked down on counterfeit money, prohibited private casting, prohibited private casting and selling of copper wares, prohibited melting and destroying copper coins, and prohibited hoarding copper coins, etc. .

On the other hand, money houses and banks appeared, so that merchants and landlords no longer kept their money at home, and there was interest in depositing money in banks and money houses. Circulation out, expanding the circulation.

  Not to mention, since Zhenguan, the policy on mining of minerals has been relaxed, mining fees have been reduced, mining revenue has increased, and the amount of mining has naturally increased. Moreover, Datang has been importing a large amount of copper materials from the outside world in recent years, and has flowed in a lot of real gold and silver through trade.

  The circulation of gold and silver coins also expanded the currency circulation.

   Later, banknotes, banknotes, silver notes, etc. began to be issued, which increased the circulation of currency even more. The problem of money shortage, which plagued countless monarchs and ministers of the Central Plains Dynasty, has been alleviated a lot.

  Nowadays, silk is rarely used in transactions, especially in small transactions, almost no one carries silk in transactions anymore.

  People in Lingnan prefer gold and silver coins, and don’t like copper coins. They use gold and silver coins for large amounts, and generally use banknotes for small amounts. Copper coins are used for daily petty expenses.

  However, in Lingnan, especially the major coastal ports, the business is extremely prosperous, so the demand for money is also greater.

  Although banknotes are convenient to transport and carry, ordinary people still prefer real money after all.

   It’s just that the imperial court has introduced a new policy, prohibiting ordinary merchants from weighing and circulating gold and silver directly when trading, and only allowing the use of gold and silver coins minted and issued by the imperial court.

The silver coins minted by the imperial court are all mixed with copper, and the gold coins are not pure gold, so these coins have a marked denomination and are used according to the denomination, not the gold content. In general, the face value of the coins minted by the imperial court is higher than the actual value The value of the gold and silver content is higher, which is also the minting profit deliberately reserved by the imperial court.

  So if the people cut and weigh the gold and silver coins of the imperial court, it is actually not worth it, it will depreciate, and it is also illegal.

   "We can mint some gold and silver coins that are lighter in weight and smaller in denomination, which is convenient for transactions, or we can also issue and mint a batch of copper coins, which are larger than ordinary copper coins, as big as gold and silver coins, but more valuable."

  Master Qian immediately understood, "Could it be that the copper coins mentioned by Duke Wei are meant to be treasure springs, with one worth ten?"

   "It's almost like that."

"This is not a trivial matter." Master Qian immediately said that treasure springs generally refer to those that are worth ten dollars, even twenty, or hundreds of dollars. To cast big money, two or three copper coins are used to cast the money, but ten coins are used as hundreds of coins. This kind of money is also called Chongbao, Baoquan, Daquan and so on.

  Generally speaking, this kind of big money will only be made after the financial collapse. This is actually robbing money and harvesting the wealth of the people.

  The reason is actually very simple. Copper coins are used as currency, but they are actually pledged with his own copper coins. The copper content in copper coins is very valuable in itself.

   This itself is a physical currency and a valuable currency.

   But what is big money? The big money worth one penny is now worth ten pennies. The imperial court holds the right to mint coins, so a large amount of these big coins are minted. Originally, the people had one penny in their hands, and the imperial court had one penny. Now the imperial court’s penny has become ten pennies. , It was used to distribute official salaries, buy food and cloth to support soldiers, courts, etc., and the money finally flowed into the people, diluting the money in the hands of the people.

  The people were plundered.

  This is over-issuing currency, releasing water, and robbing.

  So in history, whether it was Wang Mang’s currency reform, or the economic war between Shu Han, Dong Wu, Cao Wei during the Three Kingdoms period, the consequence of the random issuance of large amounts of money was the collapse of the economic order.

"Actually, that's not all the case. Look at this banknote. Do you think it is worth money? It's just a piece of paper, right? But it can be exchanged for real gold and silver. If we Why can’t it be possible to mint copper coins with denominations of ten and one hundred?”

   Master Qian was stunned.

   It seems to be the case.

  Why didn’t it work before, how can it work now?

"Because of credit, these banknotes issued by major banks and banks are not currency in essence, but some vouchers. With these banknotes, they can be exchanged for corresponding money at any time, so they can be accepted and circulated by everyone. So if we change our thinking , For example, I minted a large copper coin with a denomination of ten coins, and announced that this coin is worth ten coins, and can be exchanged for ten coins Kaiyuan Tongbao at any time?"

   "Can you really redeem it?"

  Master Qian asked earnestly, how many of those heavy treasures and big springs in the past were worth ten or a hundred or a thousand? The things you buy are worth tens of hundreds, but it is difficult to spend them again when they are in your hands. Therefore, after the money reaches the people, it depreciates. so stolen.

   "I think it's okay, not only the big copper coins, but even gold coins and silver coins, we can do the same. It is enough to stipulate the exchange rate for each gold coin, silver coin or copper dollar to be exchanged for copper coins, which can be cashed at any time."

  This is actually a little concept of gold standard or copper standard.

Qin Lang also knew that it was actually not easy to achieve this step. It involved very complicated things, but to put it bluntly, first of all, the imperial court had to use credit. How can the national treasury be guaranteed to be cashed?

  Failure to honor, it will trigger a credit crisis.

In the final analysis, it is actually a question of whether to issue indiscriminately or not. If there is enough gold, silver and copper as reserves, and the issuance is strictly in accordance with the reserve, and there is no excessive issuance, it is impossible to face the exchange problem, and the credit of the currency can be obtained. ensure.

  Master Qian shook his head, "Mr. Wei, if we want to handle this matter, it is also a matter of the Transshipment Department or the Household Department. Although our Economic and Strategy Office is in charge of the three Lingnan departments, we can't handle such a big matter."

Qin Lang chuckled, but planned to give a memorial to Li Shimin. He planned to try out large denominations worth ten to twenty copper dollars, and small denominations worth fifty coins, and hundreds of silver coins. Lingnan has more gold and silver and less copper coins. It is true that money is tight in market circulation, and since problems are found, they should be resolved.

  (end of this chapter)