Reborn Ming Dynasty as Emperor

Chapter 165 Currency Reform
One early morning in early May of the eighth year of Tianqi, the weather finally started to warm up. Numerous peaches and plums began to sprout in the palace gardens of the Forbidden City.

Because Queen Zhang Yan occasionally felt cold, Yao Xuan waited on Zhu Youxiao's bed yesterday.

Xiaojia Biyu, Yao Xuan's waiter, is gentle and charming, and he serves Zhu Youxiao like a spring breeze a few times a night.

When he got up this morning, Zhu Youxiao still felt sleepy and tired. This time he did not choose to walk to the West Nuan Pavilion of Qianqing Palace, but chose to sit on a dragon chariot and squint his eyes for a nap.

When we arrived at the Xinuang Pavilion, it was already a warm spring day, and the sun came from the Hall of Supreme Harmony and sprinkled on Zhu Youxiao's feet. Zhu Youxiao couldn't help but glanced back, and then asked Wang Chengen, the supervisor of ceremonies, "people from the household department Is it all here?"

"Report to Your Majesty, it's all here," Wang Chengen, the chief inspector of ceremonies, replied.

Although Wang Chengen was a little old because he was working as a supervisor of ceremonies and became overworked with paperwork, but he did not see the slightest negligence when serving Zhu Youxiao. And shouted loudly in person: "Your Majesty is here!"

Qian Qianyi, a scholar of the cabinet, Guo Yunhou, secretary of the household department, Li Mingrui, the right servant of the Ministry of rites, Song Yingxing, a doctor of the Ministry of construction and repairs of the Ministry of Industry and judge of the Royal Academy of Engineering, and Hu Shouchun, head of the household department and president of the Royal Bank, stood up and bowed to greet them.

Because of Wei Guangwei's downfall, Zhu Youxiao asked Qian Qianyi to take care of the cabinet affairs temporarily, so it was Qian Qianyi who had the right to draft the ticket for Xinuang Pavilion this time.

He has to be busy with starting a company and opening a bank, and he is also busy expanding the imperial guards, so that Zhu Youxiao has not yet found time to add new cabinet members.

But Baiguan is obviously more concerned about this, and many censor officials have written a book, urging themselves to quickly add cabinet ministers, so as not to leave the center empty for a long time.

Zhu Youxiao understands that joining the cabinet has always been the ideal of many civil servants. The reason why some "rebellious" major events he can do during this period of time is carried out so smoothly is that many senior civil servants are unwilling to do so because of these Things against him caused dissatisfaction with his majesty, the emperor, and he missed the chance to join the cabinet.

In fact, Zhu Youxiao never thought of preventing important ministers from joining the cabinet. Since Xinuang Pavilion has unified the power of the Secretary of Rites and the cabinet in disguise, the cabinet's restrictions on Zhu Youxiao have become smaller and smaller. Zhu Youxiao doesn't mind. Don't invite a few cabinet ministers to win over hundreds of officials, but now the more important thing is not who to join the cabinet, but how to more effectively control the economic lifeline of Ming Dynasty.

How to improve Ming's monetary policy is undoubtedly one of the most urgent reform measures.

To this end, Zhu Youxiao summoned several officials from the financial system to discuss the reform of legal tender.

The current monetary policy of the Ming Dynasty can be said to be very chaotic. No matter whether it is treasure banknotes or copper coins, their credibility continues to decline because they are not linked to gold and silver. Even the imperial court’s taxes have always been in kind. Although it is discounting silver, it has never rectified the ruined financial order from the beginning to the end.

For example, what should be done with a large amount of copper coins and banknotes that are still in circulation among the people? When silver is expensive and money is cheap, will it become further exploitation of the common people? The currency in circulation in the market is reduced, so that it forms an obstacle to economic development.

In the era of small-scale peasant economy, these can be ignored, because both the country and ordinary households are almost self-sufficient, and there may not be much commodity economic activities in 360 days a year. Whether the currency is stable or unstable, it does not matter to them. No influence, if it's really not a big deal, just barter.

However, if Zhu Youxiao wants to break this stable small-scale peasant economic model, he must rectify the financial order, and he must choose a general equivalent that can replace gold and silver, and let the country control the amount of gold and silver savings through this currency. achieve control over the national economy

Zhu Youxiao planned to issue banknotes directly, but as soon as he put forward his idea, he was strongly opposed by Guo Yunhou, Minister of the Ministry of Household Affairs. After listening to Zhu Youxiao's words, Guo Yunhou did not fully understand Zhu Youxiao's concept, but took it for granted Your Majesty is trying to issue precious banknotes in a disguised form, so as to achieve the purpose of making money
Issuing treasure banknotes has always been considered to be harmful to the people, and Guo Yunhou, who is in charge of the household department, is well aware of this, and Li Mingrui and Wang Chengen also euphemistically expressed their opposition. In their opinion, even sending eunuchs to various places to collect Taxes are also better than issuing banknotes and banknotes. After all, the former harms the interests of merchants, but the latter is fundamentally harmful to the people.

Zhu Youxiao understands their point of view, and also knows that the excessive issuance of precious banknotes has reduced the public's trust in banknotes to an extremely low level. He does not dare to issue banknotes directly at the risk of taking risks, but he thinks he can take discounts. The method is to issue silver dollars that can replace copper coins and treasure banknotes, and gradually make silver dollars the main legal tender of Ming Dynasty.

Since Zhu Youxiao chose to compromise, Guo Yunhou and others could no longer object, but also chose to make concessions and agreed to cooperate with Zhu Youxiao to implement currency reform.

With the support of the cabinet and the Ministry of Household Affairs, there will be no hindrance to this matter. The officials of the Six Branches and the imperial censors of the Metropolitan Procuratorate are no longer able to pose a threat to Zhu Youxiao. It is also deeply imprinted in the minds of the officials. If anyone really has a brain twitch and opposes Zhu Youxiao at this time to gain fame, then Zhu Youxiao does not mind torture him physically and mentally.

According to Zhu Youxiao's will, the Ministry of Accounts and the Royal Academy of Engineering will jointly undertake this matter. The Ministry of Accounts will first make a rough estimate based on the amount of silver in circulation nationwide, and then determine how many silver dollars will be produced, and determine the denomination classification of silver dollars through market research. And the exchange ratio with gold and silver, treasure banknotes, copper coins, etc.

This process is not easy, but fortunately, Zhu Youxiao can be regarded as a half-finance expert after studying the materials provided by the system, and with the help of Hu Shouchun and other financial talents with practical experience in Ming Dynasty, these problems can be solved.

The Royal Academy of Engineering needs to determine the ratio of silver to other metals in the silver dollar. Doping other metals in the silver dollar is to use the difference between the actual value of the silver dollar and silver to make money, and the second is to prevent others from counterfeiting through this method.

Prior to this, private money casting was repeatedly prohibited. Now Zhu Youxiao wants to prevent this kind of behavior that disrupts the financial order by making silver dollars that are difficult to imitate.

In the end, Song Yingxing determined the metal ratio of various elements of silver, tin and copper to the silver dollar. Each silver dollar contained six cents and five cents of pure silver, and the silver content was about [-]%, basically the difference with pure silver. Not too big, so it is easier to be accepted by the market.

Of course, the specific formula and manufacturing method became top secret after being confirmed by Song Yingxing. Zhu Youxiao even directly issued a strict order that if there was any leak, all craftsmen responsible for making silver dollars would be executed once they were found out, including Song Yingxing.

(End of this chapter)