prosperous age

Chapter 560 Chapter 559 "Money Law"

In the early morning of the next day, after Wei Guangde arranged for his servants to deliver letters to Nanjing and Jiujiang, he hurried to Prince Yu's Mansion, waiting for Xiyuan to return the redemption of memorials.

Not surprisingly, while waiting for someone to wait, Li Fang hurried into the house and sent the note copied from the cabinet to King Yu.

King Yu glanced at it, and said expressionlessly: "Father ordered Lin Run to arrest Yan Shifan and Luo Wenlong immediately and go to Beijing for questioning."

Hearing that it was a question, although there was the word "arrest", the corners of the mouths of Yin Shizhen, Zhang Juzheng, etc. twitched unconsciously.

Since it was an interrogation, it would naturally turn into an interrogation and a new case if the answer was unsatisfactory, but if Emperor Jiajing was satisfied, it seemed that it would not be a problem.

It can be seen that yesterday Wei Guangde said that Yan Shifan's high-profile words and deeds in Jiangxi at the beginning may not have intentionally lured Yushi Qingliu to impeach him.

Going back to the capital directly, I dare not borrow Yan Shifan's hundred guts without purpose.

But because of this decree, he can return to the capital in a grandiose manner.

"It seems that Yan Donglou's move was really intentional."

Yin Shizhen finally spoke, breaking the silence in the room.

Yan Shifan is very powerful and difficult to deal with. This is the consensus of everyone in the room, otherwise Yan Song would not be able to steal the position of the chief assistant of the cabinet at the age of eighty and not fall.

"I went to see the teacher last night, and the teacher regretted it a bit. He forgot that Yan Shifan was exiled to Guangdong. This matter should be dispatched to the Cantonese inspector."

Zhang Juzheng also followed suit.

"Shan Loan, after Yan Shifan is taken into the capital, you should go to the Ministry of Criminal Justice diligently, and be sure to read his confession first, and absolutely don't give him a chance."

King Yu spoke at this time, and said to Wei Guangde who had been silent all this time.

"Yes, Your Highness."

Wei Guangde answered very simply, there was no way for Yan Shifan to survive in his plan, so naturally he would not ignore this matter.

Moreover, according to Wei Guangde's vague impression, this time Yan Shifan entered the capital, the final outcome should be a dead end, but I don't know how Xu Jie and Gao Gong handled this matter at that time, and what crimes were laid against him.

At this time, apart from what Wei Guangde said at the beginning, it seems that there is no better way.

Even if you want to collect charges, you can only get closer to the charges mentioned in Lin Run's memorandum.

Escaping from exile without authorization is definitely not an option, but he will definitely talk about Yan Song's old age, and it is likely to become less important to Emperor Jiajing.

As for slandering the imperial court, feeding the dead, gathering people to plot rebellion, etc., after all, the incident happened in Jiangxi, so we can only see what evidence Lin Run can bring back at this time.

Even if they wanted to do something about it, it was too late in time.

"What else are you holding?"

At this time, King Yu saw that there was still a note in Li Fang's hand, so he asked.

What can be sent together with this note is probably something that the cabinet thinks is more important.

But in the past few days, apart from the turmoil caused by Lin Run's impeachment memorial, it seems that there is nothing else going on.

"This is His Majesty's decree to suspend the minting of coins by the Baoyuan Bureau."

Li Fang answered hurriedly, and at the same time raised her hands, and handed the note in her hand to King Yu.

"Suspend minting?"

Hearing Li Fang's words, several people in the room turned their attention to the note, wondering why Emperor Jiajing would issue such an order.

Coinage, of course, refers to the casting of copper coins.

However, there is a big difference between the minted copper coins of the Ming Dynasty and other dynasties in the past, that is, the minted copper coins were not for circulation, but for court rewards.

Although, these minted new money is actually used for circulation.

The root cause of this contradiction is that the "money law" enacted by the Ming Dynasty since the period of Zhu Yuanzhang did not include copper coins, and the "money law" was implemented in the Ming Dynasty from beginning to end.

Although some people in later generations called the Ming Dynasty's system related to copper coins "Qian Law" and the system related to treasure banknotes "Cao Law", but this and later generations of currency have already been the era of paper money, and coins have not been used for various reasons. qiut the market.

However, what has not been clarified in the Ming Dynasty is that the issue and recycling of treasure banknotes, the relationship between treasure banknotes and coins, often changes with changes in the market, and the imperial court intervened in the middle and late stages. Money laws are in a state of confusion.

Since Zhu Yuanzhang, Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty, ordered the creation of Daming banknotes, it had obvious effects on the Ming court to solve the domestic financial pressure, but the circulation of precious banknotes among the people was often not smooth.

The Ming court has also been committed to continuously making active adjustments and management on the issue of banknotes, but in the end it failed to escape the fate of depreciation and inflation of precious banknotes.

In fact, the issuance of Daming Banknotes was not Zhu Yuanzhang's whim, but the inheritance of the Yuan Dynasty's system.

my country is the first country in the world to invent the use of banknotes. As early as the Tang Dynasty, "flying money" with the nature of modern bills of exchange appeared.

"Jiaozi" and "Huizi" in the Song Dynasty were relatively mature banknotes. The Jin Dynasty inherited the Song system and continued to use banknotes and developed.

In the Yuan Dynasty, it was more perfect on the basis of Song and Jin, and a pure paper currency system was implemented, and gold, silver and copper coins were not allowed to circulate.

Although the Song and Jin dynasties both issued banknotes, they were used together with copper coins as legal tender. In the last years of the Jin Dynasty, banknotes were issued indiscriminately to solve financial difficulties, which caused the banknotes to depreciate and lose credit.

Paper money replaces metal as a means of circulation, and there must be sufficient reserves.

The banknotes established in the Yuan Dynasty avoided the excessive issuance of banknotes systematically. In the early Yuan Dynasty, the reserve fund for banknotes was sufficient. When receiving new banknotes, all localities must first pay gold and silver as the basis, and concentrate the national cash in the treasury to calm people's hearts.

In addition, the political situation of the country that enforces the implementation of banknotes is relatively stable, which also makes the implementation of banknotes possible.

During this period, there was a period of chaos in the paper money of the Yuan Dynasty, and the reason was that all the gold and silver were shipped to the national treasury, resulting in gold and silver that had no paper money to be exchanged in various places, which actually became worthless banknotes.

The government of the Yuan Dynasty immediately rectified the banknote law, and stopped the shipment of silver from the warehouse, and the value of banknotes stabilized again.

However, since the depreciation of banknotes around the seventh year of Dade, after Emperor Wuzong ascended the throne, he abused rewards, spent a lot of money, and used banknotes at will, causing the value of banknotes to fall even further. However, subsequent policies failed to stabilize the value of banknotes.

After the outbreak of peasant uprisings in various places at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, the surge in military expenditure was even more incapable of controlling the value of banknotes. In the end, the paper currency system of the Yuan Dynasty collapsed completely along with the regime.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who personally experienced the chaos of the banknote law at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, was well aware of the pain and disasters brought to the people by the drawbacks of the banknote law at the end of the Yuan Dynasty.

Therefore, in terms of the design content of the Daming treasure banknote system, he made a different creation from the Song and Yuan Dynasties, that is, instead of setting up a reserve fund system, it was forcibly promoted by the authority of the government. This is a powerful political power over the government. And the monetary system highly dependent on the imperial power.

In fact, Daming Banknotes are already highly similar to the current currency system, a system that uses national credit as a guarantee.

In order to promote the Daming banknotes among the people, the Ming court clearly prohibited the use of gold and silver transactions among the people, otherwise they would be punished by the government.

People can exchange gold and silver to the government for precious banknotes, but they cannot exchange precious banknotes for gold and silver from the government.

In terms of taxation, both money and banknotes are collected, and treasure banknotes account for seven tenths of the proportion.

The one-way exchange system between precious banknotes and precious metal currencies embodies the policy characteristics of the Ming government's compulsory control of the national circulation currency system, and can wantonly plunder wealth from the people for the use of the court.

After the issuance of the treasure banknotes, the different usage status of the government and the private sector is the key reason for the many disadvantages and serious depreciation of the treasure banknotes in the later period.

Relying on the powerful and unified government power in its hands, the imperial court blindly printed and issued banknotes regardless of the laws of market circulation, only to meet the imperial court's own needs.

Although it played a key role in military expenditures, bureaucratic salaries, rewards, etc., due to the flaws in the design system of the treasure banknote itself, it is doomed that the treasure banknote is difficult to circulate among the people.

From the last years of Hongwu to the early days of orthodoxy, precious banknotes have been showing depreciation, and since the orthodox years, they have finally almost become waste paper.

Although the inner court still printed precious banknotes to offset official salaries and rewards, other than that, there was almost no circulation among the people, and the only few were only used to offset annual taxes.

This may also be the reason why the Ming Dynasty was still issuing banknotes until the end of the Ming Dynasty, because local officials could get huge profits from it.

That is to collect in kind and cash when collecting taxes, and to offset this part with Daming banknotes when paying taxes. The price difference between the two is huge, and the profit far exceeds the subsequent fire consumption.

It can only be said that the officials of Ming Dynasty are really good at making money.

In Wei Guangde's view, the failure of Daming banknotes, in addition to the depreciation factors caused by wanton issuance, the exchange between banknotes and gold and silver is also a very important link, a very important way to ensure the value of banknotes.

Let me ask, a considerable part of the banknotes issued by various sovereign countries in later generations did not have a margin system, but the currency at that time could still guarantee the currency value. Why is this?
Currency exchange rates in later generations are constantly changing, but except for extreme cases, the currencies of various countries are relatively stable.

There is a problem with the Daming treasure banknote system, and it will definitely not work if it continues, but Wei Guangde feels that referring to the monetary policy of later generations, there is still a chance to introduce a new Daming treasure banknote system after appropriate revisions.

Under this new system, the treasure banknotes issued before must not be recognized, but this is too complicated, and he didn't fully think it through, but he just had such a concept.

But at this time, Li Fang's suspension of casting money became interesting. Could it be that the inner court is going to stop the rewards?

Whether it is Yin Shizhen, Zhang Juzheng, or Wei Guangde, they are very worried that Emperor Jiajing will have a seizure this year and change all the yearly gifts into Daming treasure banknotes. I am afraid that the officials in the entire capital will go on strike collectively.

However, it was different from what they thought. After Yu Wang took the note and looked at it carefully, his brows gradually relaxed from the initial frown. Obviously things did not develop in the direction he thought.

"Look at it too."

While speaking, King Yu handed the note to Yin Shizhen.

After Yin Shizhen read it, he quickly handed it to Wei Guangde.

Wei Guangde lowered his head and looked, "Sent to the Ministry of Industry: Recently, the money law has been blocked, and due to private casting and prestige, it ordered the internal and external ministers to follow the previous order and strictly visit and govern.

The money minted by the Baoyuan Bureau was infringed by craftsmen and servants of all kinds, and the work was reduced. As a result, it was turned into a petty crime and unbearable to use. Among them, they were taken one by one and sent to the judicial department for serious punishment, and the admirals and other officials were investigated.

After being known for its professional reputation, the Bureau suspended casting, and the Ministry of Households sent 1000 million yuan of good money collected by Nanjing, Yunnan and Taxation Divisions to the Ministry of Documents every year, and transferred them to the Secretary's Key Bank for rewards. "

After reading the contents of the note, Wei Guangde let out a sigh of relief. It turned out that he disliked the too much rotten money minted by Baoyuan Bureau.

In fact, all the civil and military officials in Beijing have noticed in the past few years that the old gifts received from the key bank are poor and unusable. Not only are they light and thin, they can even be broken with a little force. How can such coins be used? The private money in the market.

Handing the note to Zhang Juzheng, Wei Guangde could only find it funny.

Emperor Jiajing should have never been to the market at all, so he didn't know at all, not to mention other state capitals, even in the capital, it is almost impossible to find much good money for circulation.

The good money in circulation will be thrown into the furnace to be refined into bad money after being taken away. After all, Daming is really short of copper.

The root cause of all this is Emperor Jiajing's intervention in currency value.

During the Jiajing period, the price ratio of copper coins to silver changed many times. In the third year of Jiajing, Hongwu and other dynasties were ordered to make money in the same dynasty as the old good coins of the past dynasties. Every [-] ren was converted into one coin of silver. Privately minted and forged coins were prohibited from circulation .

In the 18th year of Jiajing, it was stipulated that no matter whether the money was made or the old money of the past dynasties was used concurrently, 140 Wen of high-quality copper coins would be converted into one coin of silver, and [-] Wen of lower-quality copper coins would be converted into one coin of silver.

In the 32nd year of Jiajing, it was stipulated that only Jiajing Tongbao coins were allowed to be converted into one penny of seven coins.

In the 33rd year of Jiajing, it was stipulated that Jiajing Tongbao money should be converted into one cent of silver for seven cents, and Hongwu and others who made money and top-grade miscellaneous coins of the previous generation would also be converted into silver cents for seven cents. Ten coins were converted into one point of silver, and soon after, an order was issued to use Jiajing Tongbao Qian Qiwen and Hongwu to make ten coins, and thirty coins of the previous generation to be converted into one point of silver.

The root cause of the proliferation of private money among the people is actually that the exchange rate between Jiajing Tongbao money and ancient coins of past dynasties is too high, and the people are competing to make this money privately for profit.

Although the government has strictly prohibited private casting for many times, private private casting activities have not been effectively curbed, and now it is even used in the capital's market, which is out of the situation of private casting.

"Light, thin and small, fragile to the touch. Although the writing is preserved, the stippling is indistinguishable. It does not use copper, but uses lead and iron instead of casting, but tailoring, thick and fleshy. It is called money, and every three hundred Literary talents are worth a penny ear. Those who make money have no doubts about using it, but making money and returning old money is a hindrance."

This is a true portrayal of the copper coins circulating in the capital city during this period.

Wei Guangde still remembers that his family participated in the exchange of iron cannons for copper cannons, and all the copper materials obtained were used to cast "Jiajing Tongbao".

Last time he received a letter from his family, saying that all guards in the south of the Yangtze River are doing this now, even if they are found out in the future, they will not be afraid, and the law will not punish the public.

Wei Guangde is not concerned about how many people in the Ministry of Industry will be killed in this incident, but although his family has made a profit from it, it has also strengthened his plan to rebuild the Qianfa in the future.

Zhu Yuanzhang's "banknote method" should not just be buried and misunderstood by future generations. The lack of a reserve fund system is not the root cause of the failure of precious banknotes.

(End of this chapter)