back to ancient times to be emperor

Chapter 64 Money shortage (recommended for collection)

(Thanks to jjs45 for the reward of 588 starting coins, and at the same time the book ushered in the first apprentice! There is also a reward from book friend Yanyu Qingjiang)

Sure enough, after the release of the official salt price, those salt merchants who hoarded a large amount of well salt were completely panicked, and quickly lowered the salt price again and again, in order to catch up with a little more money before the salt price plummeted.

But everyone is not a fool. Knowing that the price of salt will drop sharply soon, how can they buy high-priced salt?The current market has become a buyer's market. The hoarded salt cannot be sold, and those salt merchants who hoard a large amount of well salt are anxious to stamp their feet.Lu Chengqi didn't sympathize with them at all. Salt is a strategic material, but it is also a necessary material. This is a double-edged sword, which hurts both the enemy and himself.These unscrupulous salt merchants have no conscience at all towards their compatriots. How can Lu Chengqi not be annoyed by controlling the price of salt and living with rare goods?What's even more irritating is that they would rather sell salt to the Khitans than to their own compatriots, which is a heinous crime.

It is no wonder that those salt merchants stomped their feet in a hurry. More than half of their net worth was on their goods. If the price of salt fell sharply, their net worth would shrink by at least half.Such a big loss, no wonder they were not in a hurry!

This imperial decree was issued so suddenly that no matter how tricky it was, the salt merchants who had connections were caught off guard.At this time, salt has become a slow-moving commodity, who is willing to take over, who has the ability to take over such a large amount of goods?As a last resort, these salt merchants also admit to failure. In order to avoid losing their money, they started a difficult retail pace. They lowered the price of salt to sell a little bit, but compared to their hoarding, But it's a drop in the bucket.God knows when these salts will be sold.

After the Supervision Department reported the salt price of Jingzhao Mansion to Lu Chengqi, Lu Chengqi sneered again, and said in his heart: "Although the government monitors the market as little as possible, necessary regulation is definitely needed. The control of salt and iron in the past dynasties is nothing more than trying to hold the lifeline of the people in their hands. But this kind of vision is too limited to see the harm inside. In this era, iron must be controlled, but salt is a necessity for the human body. How can it be controlled? If the price of salt is too high in a hundred years, it will cause social unrest.”

After solving the problem of people's livelihood, Lu Chengqi remembered that the supervisory department had arrested many illegal businessmen who sold refined iron to the Liao Kingdom. He ordered that these illegal businessmen ransack their homes and transfer their property to the national treasury.At the same time, let the "Dashun Minbao" publish this matter in the newspaper, to remind all businessmen that you can do business, but if you do business that endangers the country, you will end up raiding your home. The "Dashun Minbao" clearly pointed out that anyone who sold any metal to the Liao Kingdom was treason. In the lightest cases, the family property would be confiscated, and in the serious cases, the head would be beheaded as a public display.

After vigilance again and again, someone finally came to their senses. Lu Chengqi would not be soft on this kind of people. If someone defied the law and was discovered by the Supervision Department, he would definitely end up in jail.

Yelu Hongji, the emperor of Liao Kingdom, was also a little annoyed when he heard the news, and said, "This little emperor from the south is courageous enough to impose a trade blockade against our Liao Kingdom?"

The Liao Kingdom at this time was different from the Liao Kingdom in history. The Liao Kingdom in history had already loosened its armed forces at this time. The dynasty of Yelu Hongji was the decline of the Liao Kingdom.

But in the official history, the Song Dynasty was unable to counterattack the Liao Kingdom, and more energy was used to deal with Xixia. The Liao Kingdom sits on the sixteen prefectures of Youyun, and it is not afraid of the Song Dynasty. At that time, the Liao Kingdom could be said to be the most military in the Asian continent. strong country.Therefore, under such circumstances, the nobles of the Liao Kingdom began to degenerate, and the Liao Kingdom turned from prosperity to decline.

In this different time and space, the situation is different.Due to historical reasons, the Sixteen States of Youyun were firmly controlled by the Dashun Dynasty. This place was a place where horses were produced. Although there were not many horses produced, there was a horse farm after all.Coupled with the horse farms in Hetao of the Yellow River, there is no shortage of horses in the Dashun Dynasty.However, under the slack horse administration, the quality of horses is not as good as that of the Liao State, and the cavalry is also not as good as that of the Liao State, so naturally they dare not fight against the Liao State.Most of the horses produced by the Mumajian are rough horses, which cannot be used on the battlefield and can only be used as transportation horses.

And the Liao Kingdom has such a relatively strong opponent by its side, and they dare not relax, so in this time and space, the Liao Kingdom is still very strong.No, when Yelu Hongji saw Lu Chengqi's decree strictly prohibiting the trading of ironware, he immediately became angry and ordered to mobilize [-] troops to attack Dashun.

But Yelu Hongji forgot one thing, which led to his disastrous defeat at the city of Youzhou.Of course, this is an afterthought, so I won't show it for the time being.

This day was the regular court, Lu Chengqi was wearing dragon gun, sitting on the dragon chair, listening to the court discussion in the court hall.This court discussion is a bit interesting, but it is that the Minister of the Household Department Lin Zhenzhong came to a conclusion through the reports of the Household Departments of various states, that is, the money is not enough.

This surprised Lu Chengqi, as far as he knew, the Dashun Dynasty minted money every year, how could there be not enough money?The Song Dynasty in history also faced this dilemma. Lu Chengqi vaguely remembered that most of the money shortage in the Song Dynasty was due to the circulation of coins to foreign countries, which was one of the main reasons.More reasons are due to the depreciation of copper coins.Take the present as an example, as usual, the money is a thousand cash, but now it is only more than 800 cash.What's more terrible is that the big money minted in the previous dynasty was equivalent to one hundred coins, but now the consistent money is only equal to eight big coins.

Some banks use the price difference between big money and copper coins to make money, and they can usually earn tens of pennies.In the case of a large amount, you can also earn a lot.

But does Da Shunchao really have no money? Is it really not enough money?From Lu Chengqi's point of view, that is impossible.During the Dashun Dynasty, 300 million guan coins were minted every year. Note that this is a full exchange of thousands of coins.And ten for the consistent big bucks.In the most year, 500 million pieces were cast.But so much money is still not enough, why?
That’s because the copper coins of the Dashun Dynasty entered the lives of all the people like never before. Copper coins were needed to buy things in the market, common people needed copper coins to pay taxes, and part of the official salaries and soldiers’ salaries issued by the imperial court were also copper coins.After seeing this situation, the wealthy people naturally refused to use the money, and would rather hoard the money.The word coiling came into being in the age when copper coins were used.At this time, when people went out to do errands and visit relatives, they could only take bunches of heavy copper coins and coil them around their waists. The travel expenses are called "package".

The copper coins of the Dashun Dynasty were not only used by Dashun, Liao, Koryo, Japan, Uighur and other countries, as well as small countries such as Annan, were also using Dashun’s copper coins. , as stiff as the dollar of later generations.The purchasing power of Dashun copper coins abroad is far better than that at home.There are many unscrupulous businessmen who try to bypass the sea ban and bring copper coins to foreign countries for use.

However, the Dashun Dynasty strictly enforced the copper ban and strictly prohibited the private casting of copper coins, which also led to a copper shortage and exacerbated the money shortage.Because this makes Dashun's copper coins under the monopoly of the state, the nominal value of the coins has been lower than the actual value of the coins for a long time.If there is no huge price difference and copper coins are in short supply, private copper coin holders will not choose to hold coins, but will put them into circulation for profit.When the value of the currency decreases, some copper coins will withdraw from the market and be cast into copperware, thus forming a balance spontaneously.However, under the current policy, the copper coins that have been artificially depressed are actually constantly withdrawing from circulation and settling down among the people.Because copper coins are no longer a simple means of payment, but have become wealth that can preserve value, just like accumulating gold and silver, the wealthy families of the Dashun Dynasty hoarded copper coins one after another.And Dashun also has silver taels. At the beginning of the founding of the country, silver taels were circulated among high-ranking officials and nobles, and silver taels were cast into the shape of small ingots, called official silver.However, with the development of the economy, silver taels have also begun to circulate among the people, but the weight of silver taels has begun to be insufficient.When people use silver taels as payment currency, they have to evaluate the silver content, weigh it, and then convert it into copper coins, which is quite troublesome.

The reason is that money shortage is at play.Although Lu Chengqi was a finance student, it was the first time he encountered this problem, and he felt confused and dizzy.

(End of this chapter)