Emperor Ming Dynasty

Chapter 597 Deflation
The next day, when Yu Chenglong and others came to the inner city, they were even more surprised.

The frighteningly wide streets are flat and tidy, and trees are planted on both sides of the road, which looks full of vitality.

"This road actually splits into two?"

Lu Zhuo was surprised. He pointed his finger at the middle of the road, and saw a long line made of black bricks there, which divided the whole road into two, like the Chu River and Han boundary.

"Didn't you realize that these carriages walk in the middle, while pedestrians walk on the path under the shade of trees?"

Jin Wen shook his head and said in amazement: "Pedestrians and vehicles are separated, and they walk on the right. It's strange."

"Beiming, do you know why it's not going to the left, but to the right?"

"That's right!" Lu Zhuo scrambled to say, "The Guochao respects the left, so why is it right?"

Seeing the puzzled looks of the two, Yu Chenglong fell into a dilemma, he struggled and said:
"The left is respectful and the right is humble. If you want to come to the court, you want me to be humble. If you walk on the left, everyone respects themselves, and there is no order in people and cars, how can there be peace?"

This explanation is well-founded and convincing.

"Brother Beiming's words are true!" The two nodded in praise, feeling extremely reasonable.

"That's reasonable. As expected of a scholar, you know the truth!"

The pedestrians behind him also nodded, this simple explanation was too appetizing.

After receiving the goods and praised him, Yu Chenglong was not proud, and walked out slowly, and after a while, he came to Jixian Road.

It seems that it is approaching Chunwei, and the crowd here is extremely crowded.

Lu Zhuo sighed: "If we go to the township examination in August, maybe we can come here to study and buy books."

"It's not that easy."

The golden text was silent, and said quietly: "According to the previous examinations, there are no more than ten people in each subject in Jin Province, and as few as three or five people. Can you and I win Jinshi?"

Hearing this, Yu Chenglong's impetuous heart settled down again.

The three of them came to a bookshop and began to browse around.

After some observation, Yu Chenglong found that there are many expensive official school books (official corrections) in Taiyuan, and the manuscripts of Jinshi in the first year of Shaowu, which are hard to find in Taiyuan, are also piled up like a mountain at this time.

Studying in the capital is really different from studying in a local area.

Suddenly, there was a sound at the checkout.

"Oops, the purse was touched."

"Brother Li, you are really careless..."

I saw a middle-aged man clutching a book lovingly, refusing to let go, but his face was full of sadness.

"Since I don't have any money, I'll buy it—" Suddenly, Cheng Yaojin appeared halfway.

Another scholar's eyes lit up instantly when he saw the book, and he took out his money bag directly, and the crisp and pleasant silver coins appeared in front of everyone's eyes.

The scholar surnamed Li must not give up, he said to the buddy: "I will send someone home to collect the money, just wait for me for an hour."

"Hey, who's waiting for you?" The scholar who took out his wallet said directly, "I don't have any money to buy any books, this book is mine!"

"First come, first arrived, don't you understand?"

Now, the book shop is full of excitement, you are fighting for it, it's really noisy.

The scholar touched his bosom, the jade pendant, it was given to me by my mother; the sachet, not worth much, and the fan is not worth much...

At this moment of stalemate, the scholar suddenly took out a stack of papers from his pocket, slapped them on the table, and shouted:

"Is this food stamp acceptable?"

"This book is only ten yuan, and I will give you eleven food stamps to make you a fortune."

Now, the whole library fell silent.

People stretched their heads, looking at the exquisite note on the table, all curious.

The buddy didn't dare to respond rashly, so he could only report to the shopkeeper.

The shopkeeper picked up the food stamp and looked at it carefully, as if he had made up his mind, he said: "Success, you are a regular customer, you should accept it!"

The scholar was overjoyed and put the book in his pocket, reluctant to take it out.

"Hey, shopkeeper, some paper can buy books? Are you fooling me? He's a regular customer, so I'm not?"

The one holding the money bag was instantly annoyed, furious and furious.

Those who joined in the fun didn't want to see this injustice, and they also started to shout, and the scene looked out of control.

"Guest officer, calm down!" The shopkeeper didn't dare to offend anyone, so he could only hold up the food coupons and said:

"This is a food stamp. The imperial court has issued something. With one ticket, you can go to the granary to get a stone of grain."

As he said that, the shopkeeper said in shame: "Originally, it was a piece of stone grain from the capital, but now I have taken advantage of it. This food stamp can indeed be used to pay for the money."

Now, the scene is under control.

Seeing this, Lu Zhuo felt more and more unbelievable: "This capital city is strange. Some paper can be used as money. This world is really different."

"The Shaowu Dynasty is naturally different from the Chongzhen Dynasty, so it's good to get used to it."

Yu Chenglong could only nod his head, showing a helpless expression.

After leaving the book shop, they went to the Confucian Temple to visit the incense, and then they went back.

Unexpectedly, on the way, a few dark-haired, blue-eyed, hook-nosed, weird-looking, six-foot-tall monsters in long robes walked towards us talking and laughing.

"This, this, this..." Lu Zhuo was trembling, where did such weird people come from?
Yu Chenglong held the hands of the two of them tightly. Seeing that the faces of the passers-by were the same, he braced his legs softly:

"Shaowu Chao, it's a new dynasty and a new atmosphere, just get used to it—"

After saying that, the three of them wrapped their books tightly and fled in despair.

In addition to this group of reserve magistrates, a major event also happened in Beijing, the Imperial College was restarted.

Sui Gongsheng (scholars elected by localities) from various provinces also arrived in Beijing one after another, which made the long-awaited Guozijian shine again.

At this time, the number of students in Guozijian had reached nearly 700, of which there were more than [-] in Suigong, and about [-] people in Engong and Yingong. This was a rare event since Zhengde.

The so-called Yingong refers to the official shade of the father and grandparents, and one son was admitted to the Guozijian to study.

According to the Ming system, officials of the third rank and above in the capital can enroll their sons in the Guozijian, while the emperor, in order to show his favor, nobles and vassal kings can enroll their sons in the imperial court.

As for Ngong, he was a loyal and sacrificial person, and his son was admitted to school, the so-called Ngong.

As a result, a grand occasion of 700 people was created.

The emperor wanted to participate in this large-scale opening ceremony, but it was canceled in the end.

It's too cold to bother to go out.

For the emperor, what he liked the most was to see the smooth circulation of food stamps.

In just ten days, the value of food stamps was discovered by shrewd businessmen, especially the fact that food can be taken at any time as a guarantee, which made it widely accepted by many people.

It is conservatively estimated that there are more than 200,000 food stamps in circulation in Beijing and Tianjin, that is, 200,000 shi of grain.

Obviously, the treasure banknotes guaranteed by the national reputation are far inferior to the food coupons linked to food. People are too realistic.

However, Zhu Yixi was not so optimistic. He was surprised by the rapid circulation of food stamps, and immediately began to investigate.

After various inquiries and analysis, he gritted his teeth and came to a conclusion: "Deflation——"

Zhu Yixi did not expect that copper coins and silver coins were manufactured, but they were far from satisfying the appetite of the market.

The output of China's local silver and copper mines is negligible, and the speed of inward flow is far behind the prosperous demand of the market.

With a population of nearly [-] million, the amount of currency needed is an astonishing number.

However, with the peace of the world, the commodity economy and population continued to grow, especially the inclusion of the northern grasslands, and many cattle and sheep were exchanged for silver coins.

Mongolians also like light and simple silver coins, which are more valuable than sheep.

The growth of trade between the two parties led to a large outflow of silver dollars.

As the market becomes bigger and bigger, so that the demand for currency is getting stronger and stronger.

And the key point is that the silver coins are habitually stored, just like the silver collected in the past, so that the silver coins circulating in the market are far from enough.

Deflation, like a curse, has remained unchanged for 2000 years from Qin to Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)