New Shun 1730

It would be fine if he didn't say this, but once he said this, the emperor became even more excited.

He thought that the trade was restricted everywhere, but he could still make so much money; if he could really break the British Navigation Regulations in the future, wouldn't it take off?

Now he received 360,000 taels of "benefits" from the merchants as a reward for increasing taxes on the Danish trading house.

It will become a routine in the future. The same method can also be used to deal with other companies.

Of course, the situation this year is indeed special, but even if there is a short-term decline in the future, it can be made up in the future.

"I know what you said. Don't worry, I won't use this year's number as a normal situation."

"I am most confident in you for overseas trade. I won't let others interfere."

The emperor said this mainly because of his experience of losing a lot of money when he made up his mind that "high-end porcelain makes a lot of money".

Foreign trade, of course, must be scientific.

In history, there are many such "funny" decisions made on a whim.

In 1843, the first opium ended, and British capitalists were very excited.

Then, a company in Westfield spent a huge amount of money and used a large amount of the company's working capital to ship a ship of "knives and forks" to China, preparing to make a fortune.

This is no longer a decision made on the spur of the moment, but a decision that was made by a high-pressure water gun.

Relying on this kind of decision-making on the spur of the moment and the suppression of the East India Company, which really understood the situation in the East, Britain "successfully" raised the export volume to China, excluding opium, from 2.5 million pounds at the peak of the first opium to 1.4 million pounds in 1852. And after the second opium, China, which created a magical world in 1876 with a 2.5% tariff on semi-colonies, once again had a surplus of 10.58 million taels of silver...

In the current situation, Liu Yu is not worried about the dumping of foreign goods at all, but is worried that the gradual increase in trade volume will cause many problems in the country.

In the case that the country cannot issue currency, tens of millions of taels of silver enter the country every year, which is dangerous enough.

Fortunately, Dashun's administrative capacity is not very strong, and it cannot collect large sums of money and then spend it, so the price revolution in Europe has not had a great impact on China so far.

However, even if the administrative capacity is not strong, the entry of a large amount of external silver will gradually affect the whole country as the emperor spends money.

For example, the repair of the Huai River this year is a fiscal transfer payment. Spending silver from all over the country in the Huaihe region, 30 to 40 million taels of silver poured in at once, the impact is somewhat huge.

The simplest point is that it will definitely create a silver-to-money price ratio problem in the Huaihe region.

And this is exactly what Liu Yu is worried about.

Dashun's monetary policy is neither silver standard nor copper standard, but a very peculiar monetary policy.

Dashun's legal currency is copper coins, but silver is collected for taxation. The legal one thousand copper coins can be exchanged for one tael of silver, which is simply a theoretical thing-Dashun does not even have an official bank or currency exchange office, and even such a large-scale foreign trade is directly weighed. How can the private exchange rate be based on the official one?

This is similar to the official issuance of legal tender, but the official collection of taxes is in pounds, francs, Dutch guilders and Spanish dollars.

Before, foreign trade was not very active, and the impact of currency silverization and silver tax reform came out.

Now the amount and quantity of foreign trade are increasing rapidly. If the currency issue is not considered under this circumstance, something will definitely happen.

In reality, this matter may not be a big deal.

But in the court, it may become a direction for people to criticize trade, so Liu Yu needs to mention it to the emperor in advance.

It is difficult for the literati of Dashun to understand the economy.

Many of them are based on feelings.

In history, starting from the 1810s, there was a sudden change in money cheapness and silver expensiveness. In some places, the price instantly rose to 1600 to 1700 per tael of silver. Many literati felt that it was caused by opium smuggling.

Although opium smuggling was indeed serious at the time, the problem is that even if opium smuggling is taken into account, the annual silver import surplus in those years still remained at around 6 million taels.

The literati would attribute it to the problem of opium smuggling.

From a standpoint, this is a good thing, as it has aroused vigilance against opium.

Putting the standpoint aside, the high price of silver since the 1910s was not mainly caused by opium smuggling. In fact, the actual export volume and silver inflow in those years increased.

This situation may be a bad thing for Dashun at this time: if there is a sharp fluctuation in the silver-to-money ratio, these literati in Dashun will also blame the problem on foreign trade based on their feelings.

When something really happened, the emperor was not vaccinated in advance by Liu Yu, and he might really be persuaded by the literati's imagination and think that it was all caused by foreign trade.

"Your Majesty, since we have opened up the Western trade, there is one thing I have to report to you. Your Majesty also knows that in the past, the annual tribute of the Danyuan Alliance was no more than 100,000 taels of silver. Nowadays, in places like Songjiang, the wealthy families can also take out millions."

"Since the beginning of trade in the late Ming Dynasty, the inflow of silver has been increasing day by day. The exchange of money and silver must be carefully observed."

"Unless paying taxes, the people usually use copper coins for their livelihood. Buying cloth and rice, which are necessities of life, rarely uses silver."

"I am worried that if the money policy is not changed, it may harm the livelihood of ordinary people in the future."

After listening to Liu Yu's words, the emperor couldn't help but laugh and said, "My dear minister, you are wrong. According to what you said, the silver inflow into this dynasty is increasing day by day. Doesn't that mean that originally one thousand coins could be exchanged for one tael of silver, but now one thousand coins can be exchanged for one tael, three or five coins of silver? In this way, the livelihood of the people should be getting better and better?"

"You also said that Sweden used to maintain in-kind rent, so the amount of silver in Europe increased day by day. When it collected in-kind rent, the money entering the treasury increased. Since this dynasty collects monetary rent and silver is getting cheaper day by day, doesn't it mean that the burden on the people is reduced? Originally, one thousand coins had to be exchanged for one tael of silver to pay taxes. In the future, won't it only take 800 coins or 500 coins to pay taxes for one tael of silver?"

What Liu Yu was afraid of was that the emperor thought so. The reason seemed to be right, but he must have considered fewer variables. At least history has proved that there must be some places that he didn't think clearly about.

Otherwise, it is impossible to explain that foreign trade has been in deficit throughout the 18th century, with a large amount of silver flowing in, but the exchange rate between silver and copper coins has gradually increased from 700 to 1100.

There is no way to explain why the exchange rate went from a high of 2,600 after the second crow, and then gradually dropped to 1,000 after the second crow.

Liu Yu himself could not explain it clearly, so he had to say: "Your Majesty, if the price of money and silver changes, there will be illegal people who get the difference. It is not good to accumulate copper coins or silver. No matter what you accumulate, it is not good. Not spending money is not a good thing."

"I think, can we set a standard for one thing? If we set a standard for copper and silver, then nothing is set. Since the court's taxes, expenditures, military expenses, etc. are all in silver, why not use silver as the price?"

"You can print small paper, one piece for one cent, and a thousand pieces can be exchanged for one tael of silver. In this way, no matter how much copper there is, the people will not complain about the exchange."

"This matter is very important, and I dare not do it lightly. After all, the bank I run is just a money house and has no right to issue banknotes. It is just to facilitate the use of silver. But if small banknotes are issued, it is the business of the court's minting bureau. If I do it, it will be beyond my authority."

The emperor nodded. He agreed with Liu Yu's words that "no matter whether it is high or low", it is not good. It is best to maintain a stable exchange rate.

The current exchange rate between copper coins and silver stipulated by the imperial court is 1000, but in fact, it is basically free exchange everywhere. After all, the imperial court does not allow exchange, and it depends on merchants to exchange on their own, which will definitely cause many problems.

Moreover, the emperor knows that taxes must be paid in silver. Before collecting taxes every year, there must be merchants who exchange silver to suppress the price.

If a small banknote with a fixed value of 1000 Wen equal to one tael of silver can really be used, it can indeed solve many troubles.

It's just...

"My dear minister, you also know about the paper money of the Yuan Dynasty and the former Ming Dynasty. I'm afraid that the people will not believe it for a while. If we don't force them to exchange, the people will still prefer copper coins; but if we force them to exchange, I'm afraid there will be a lot of trouble."

Seeing that the emperor was still hesitant, Liu Yu hurriedly said: "Your Majesty, this is not a trivial matter. In the future, trade will increase, and the daily income of silver will be more than 100,000 taels, but the exchange of money and silver is still rising every year. It is said that the more silver is earned, the more expensive the money should be, but it is just the opposite."

"There is a philosopher in the West who said: The growth of wealth makes more precious metals replace less precious metals to perform the function of value standards. Copper was replaced by silver, and silver was eventually replaced by gold, although this order is inconsistent with the chronological order imagined by the poet."

"Some people also say that in the world market, all currencies lose their coinage. state, and directly appear as precious metals... The copper coins of this dynasty cannot be used as money in overseas trade. "

"This money is of varying quality, and its value often changes. If it was not so in the past, it would be fine, but now that foreign trade is increasing, the impact is huge. If we don't prepare for it, there may be chaos."

"The Potosi silver mine in the West can easily mine more than 10 billion taels of silver. More silver means more coming to our dynasty."

"But what if Westerners go to war with each other and buy less goods from our dynasty? Silver will be cut off all of a sudden."

"Silver is easy to say, but I'm afraid that exchanging money for silver will cause big problems. Changes in the world market's silver affect foreign trade, which is a big deal, so it's easy to say. But exchanging money for silver involves the common people, which is a big deal."

Liu Yu often quoted the words of the Westerner Ma, and the emperor had heard it more than once, and he didn't know who this Ma was.

But the emperor could easily understand these words, because Dashun had a ready-made example.

That was Japan's Kanei coins.

As long as it came to Dashun, it was melted because of its high copper content. As a coin, it can only be used as precious metals, not money, when the two countries trade.

Liu Yu's quote is nothing more than saying that whether it is the people or the merchants, they prefer silver to copper and have to use it.

But this mentality will gradually increase the price of silver. Everyone likes silver and dislikes copper, which leads to so much silver pouring in every year. The silver-to-money exchange rate in Dashun is still rising slowly, not simply because there is more silver and copper coins are more expensive.

Since the country has opened its doors to do business, it has to consider the impact of the influx of silver. Liu Yu said to prepare for a rainy day, which means that if you really have to wait until something happens to solve it, it may be difficult to solve it. Once the money exchange rate changes, it is not something that can be solved in a short time - at least for Dashun, it is not something that can be solved in a short time. The administrative efficiency is too low, and the imperial power does not go down to the county at all. It takes a long time to implement it and see results.