In the Song Dynasty, there was no law or order.

Knowledge about Jiaozi has been taught in junior high school history.

But for the people of the Song Dynasty, this thing was still a bit unfamiliar, and they still didn't even pay enough attention to it.

Because it was only circulated in Sichuan Prefecture, the entire Song Dynasty bank system was not born because of the emergence of paper money.

Many people don’t know how important banks are.

In fact, without banks, the productivity and production system of the entire world would be far behind.

Although the financial industry is hated by the world, its existence has indeed helped the country's stable development.

Including Wang Anshi’s Qingmiao method, it is also essentially a loan in the financial market.

Therefore, if Jiaozi can be used rationally and allow it to bear a certain value in the monetary system, then the poor financial situation of the Song Dynasty will definitely be solved.

“Why can Jiaozi alleviate the problem of empty national treasury?”

Yan Shu asked.

Zhao Jun turned his head and glanced at Yan Shu strangely. Although he was covered with gauze and could not see his eyes clearly, Yan Shu seemed to be able to detect the strange expression on the other side.

This made Yan Shu feel a little uncomfortable. He was afraid that this might be something that everyone in the future would know, and asking this made him appear a little ignorant.

Fortunately, Zhao Jun did not become suspicious, but said: "Uncle Lari, our village still mainly uses banknotes, and digital payment should not be popular yet."

"yes."

Naturally, Yan Shu didn't know what digital payment was, so he could only echo Zhao Jun's words vaguely.

Zhao Jun said: "Then let me ask you a question. A family in the village earned tens of thousands of yuan when they went out to work. Is it safe for him to keep the money at home, or is it safe to deposit it in a rural credit cooperative?"

What is a rural credit cooperative?

Yan Shu was stunned.

But he quickly realized that Zhao Jun had a reason for asking, and immediately said: "It must be the Rural Credit Cooperative."

"Yes."

Zhao Jun nodded: "Although there have been many problems in credit unions in recent years, they cannot erase the help and contributions of so many rural credit unions across the country to countless farmers over the years."

“What does this have to do with rural credit cooperatives?”

Yan Shu asked again.

Zhao Jun continued: "Ask Uncle Lari another question, which one do you choose, 10,000 yuan banknotes or 10,000 yuan worth of copper coins?"

"Paper money."

Yan Shu answered without hesitation.

Although he didn't understand the meaning of rural credit cooperatives and banknotes that Zhao Jun mentioned, he knew that the correct answer must be something he didn't know.

Otherwise, what is the meaning of Zhao Jun's question?

It has to be said that Lu Yijian made the right choice to find Yan Shu. He has quick thinking and quick reactions. For ordinary people, he would have been involved in the gang long ago, and Zhao Jun would know that he had traveled to the Song Dynasty.

"Yes, although the value of the copper coin is 10,000 yuan, it cannot be spent. Secondly, even if it can be spent, it is very inconvenient to carry, which is far inferior to paper money."

Zhao Jun said: "Currency has been an upgrading process since ancient times. From the shell currency in ancient times, to the Shang, Zhou, Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods, iron and bronze were used as raw materials for knife coins, shovel coins, etc., and then the Han Dynasty began to formally cast copper coins. They The functions are practical, scarce and circulated.”

"In ancient times, shells were only found at the seaside and were scarce inland. Moreover, shells were very beautiful and became the jewelry decoration of ancient tribesmen, so they could become a measure of value. Later, during the Shang and Zhou dynasties, bronze and iron were scarce metals, and they could also be used in "Public circulation."

"After the Warring States Period, when there were more iron tools, their value was not as good as copper, so copper coins became the currency in circulation in ancient my country. Silk, silk, gold and silver, and even grain could become currency because of their practicality and scarcity."

"So we can see that the significance of currency is that it has a certain value in itself, so that it can assume the function of currency and conduct market transactions."

"The Jiaozi that appeared in Sichuan during the Song Dynasty became the first paper currency in the world."

"There are so many benefits of paper money, such as being easy to store and carry, low in manufacturing costs, avoiding wear and tear of metal currency during circulation, etc. But why were paper money not completely popular until the Ming and Qing Dynasties, when feudal society was extremely high?"

"There is only one reason, and that is that it is not practical and scarce. No matter how much is written on its face value, banknotes are essentially a piece of paper. It can undertake the function of transaction, and the country has given it value, and Not owning the same value as the goods.”

"In ancient times, if you wanted to issue banknotes, the country needed to store gold, silver, and copper coins equivalent to the banknotes, so that when the banknotes were exchanged, the people could exchange them for enough coins. But once excessive issuance was issued, the people would not be able to exchange for the full amount of coins, and the country The credit system will collapse, resulting in rapid devaluation of banknotes and skyrocketing prices.”

"So after the emergence of Jiaozi in the Song Dynasty, during the Huizong period of the Song Dynasty, as the war was corrupted, the court issued Jiaozi widely, which caused the serious devaluation of Jiaozi and inflation. In the early Ming Dynasty, Zhu Yuanzhang formulated the policy of treasure banknotes and also issued them in large quantities, resulting in Nationwide inflation has made people miserable.”

"In the final analysis, Jiaozi is actually just a kind of credit currency. It is guaranteed by the credibility of the country to make it circulated. No matter how much gold, silver, copper and other metal currencies are, it can also be used to make jewelry and decorations. It will reduce its practicality and circulation value. If there are too many banknotes, it will make you feel uncomfortable.”

"Moreover, the rule of ancient feudal society was unstable, and the small peasant economy was fragile. If there was a natural disaster or man-made disaster, the government's credibility might go bankrupt. If the credit currency was printed too much, it would lose its credibility."

Zhao Jun thought of Zimbabwe. It was already the 21st century, and this strange country could still print countless zeros on its credit currency, causing the direct collapse of the currency trading market. To buy a roll of toilet paper, you had to take a car to carry paper money.

Even in the morning, I took tens of billions of Zimbabwean dollars to buy paper. After walking for a few minutes, the price of a roll of paper went from 10 billion to 20 billion. It was also a weird one among the weird ones.

"Yeah."

Yan Shu, Lu Yijian and others looked at each other and nodded slightly.

In fact, they all knew about Jiaozi, because this thing was born in the Zhenzong Dynasty, and sixteen officials and merchants in Chengdu Prefecture jointly printed certificates on paper mulberry bark paper.

It's just that in the early days, it was a private deposit certificate, not an official issue. If the "Jiaozi shop" responsible for keeping the currency went bankrupt, then it would lose its function because it could not be redeemed.

Therefore, in the first year of Emperor Renzong's Tiansheng reign, the imperial court set up the Yizhou Jiaozi Office in Chengdu, with one or two officials from the capital serving as supervisors to preside over the issuance of Jiaozi, and "set up a paper copying office to eliminate the malpractice of counterfeiting" to strictly control the printing process. This was the earliest paper currency officially issued by the government in my country - "official Jiaozi".

But what does this have to do with expanding the national treasury?

Then Zhao Jun continued to say: "I said so much to tell you that the monetary system is responsible for the circulation of goods transactions. The Song Dynasty's commerce was already very developed, and a market suitable for the circulation of paper money appeared. If Jiaozi could be used, the problem of an empty treasury could be solved."

"What is the solution?"

Yan Shu asked.

Zhao Jun smiled and said, "That's easy. First, investigate the main commercial cities of the Song Dynasty, open Jiaozi offices there, and attract those big merchants to deposit their money in the Jiaozi shops opened by the government. With the government's endorsement, merchants don't have to worry about private Jiaozi shops going bankrupt and unable to redeem."

"These big merchants travel north and south to buy and sell goods. Compared with carrying a large amount of copper coins, gold and silver, it is definitely more convenient for them to carry Jiaozi silver notes. The banks opened by the government will definitely attract a large number of merchants to deposit money."

"The Song Dynasty will be able to absorb countless coins in a short period of time, and those merchants will not immediately run a run in a short period of time, so these coins can be diverted by the Song Dynasty Treasury and used to temporarily fill the deficit of the treasury, and then fill it up later. . "

"As long as the merchants deposit as much money as they want, the amount of Jiaozi issued should not exceed the total value of the goods in circulation on the market or several times the amount of the stored coins. The Song Dynasty had a developed handicraft industry and a relatively fast economic circulation. If Jiaozi was only issued to big merchants and not to ordinary people, it should not cause inflation. "

"And I remember that when depositing money in Jiaozi shops in the Song Dynasty, it was not the bank that gave interest to the depositors, but the depositors spent money to deposit money in the bank. Jiaozi shops were not only profitable, but even those big merchants had to thank the Song Dynasty court for helping them solve the inconvenience of trading between the north and the south. It can be said that they killed two birds with one stone. "

After the speech, the emperors and ministers of the Song Dynasty could not calm down for a long time, and they were quietly digesting the content of this information.

This is actually the essence of banks.

It needs to circulate currency to promote the circulation of the entire economy and social resources.

So even banks in the new era absorb the idle money of depositors through interest, and then lend it out to enterprises, merchants and individuals, indirectly promoting social development.

Although the productivity of the Song Dynasty was relatively backward, in the feudal period, both productivity and economic construction had reached their peak.

Therefore, the emergence of banks will not cause too much negative effect. After all, banks have already appeared in the Song Dynasty, which greatly promoted economic development. The money houses in the Ming and Qing Dynasties were the extension of the Jiaozi shops in the Song Dynasty.

It’s just that the emperors of the Song Dynasty were stupid and did not make good use of the Jiaozi shops. Later, due to the large-scale printing of Jiaozi, inflation occurred. Since then, the issuance of Jiaozi was completely stopped and this opportunity was abandoned.

Otherwise, if it is used reasonably, it is entirely possible to use the Jiaozi shop, the earliest bank and money house system in the world, to temporarily solve the problem of the empty treasury, and even enable the country to better control the money bag and grasp the lifeline of the economy.

"What, is there a problem?"

Zhao Jun saw that after he finished speaking, there was silence around him, and no one responded, which made him very embarrassed.

Is it because he said it too superficially?

That’s not right.

The people in Nini Village should not have high education, so they should not understand even if he said it superficially.

Even if they like history, do they still understand the financial system?

It doesn’t make sense.

So there is only one possibility.

It’s because he said it too profoundly, and they don’t understand.

"No problem."

Yan Shu hurriedly responded, and then praised: "Teacher Zhao is indeed a genius in the history department. We are all stunned. If you were born in the Song Dynasty, you would definitely be the top scholar! Lü Yijian and Fan Zhongyan are not as good as you."

"Of course."

Zhao Jun heard that the village head, the party secretary and the villagers were stunned by him, and said proudly: "If I traveled back to the past and returned to the Song Dynasty, people like Lü Yijian and Fan Zhongyan are all a bunch of losers, not even one ten-thousandth of my ability. And Su Shi, I will definitely beat him up and let him write lyrics every day to disgust me."

Fan Zhongyan had a dark face.

Lü Yijian clenched his fists, puffed his beard and glared at Zhao Jun.

Damn, you little bastard, you started to scold me.

Wang Zeng, Wang Sui and others covered their mouths and laughed secretly. Although Zhao Jun mentioned these people, he didn't say their names after all.

Zhao Zhen was even more grinning.

In the past, he was the only one who was scolded, but now there is finally someone to share his burden, and he feels very happy.