Chongzhen chat group

Chapter 214 Silver Standard System
Upon hearing this, Wen Tiren and the other three couldn't help being very surprised, and looked at each other with doubts in their eyes.

You know, everyone knows that if the imperial court can issue banknotes, then there is no need to worry about the problem of not being able to collect money and taxes. If there is no money, it will be issued, and if there is no money, it will be issued. How convenient!

For this reason, when the Daming Banknotes encountered problems during the Hongwu period, the monarchs and ministers thought of solutions together, and even made many regulations at the expense of the world, but in the end it was irreversible, and it was stopped during the Zhengde period. issued.

Such a difficult matter has become a very simple matter on the side of the young Emperor Chongzhen?Is this possible!

To be honest, Wen Tiren, Bi Ziyan and the others didn't believe it at all.However, they looked at the emperor's expression, but he was full of confidence, which made them a little puzzled.

Regarding the issue of banknotes, Hu Guang had already considered it. It happened that he also knew the history of currency and knew where the problems were, so he had already prepared for it.

The reaction of the three aborigines in front of him was also expected by Hu Guang. This was due to the limitations of the times and had nothing to do with whether they were smart or not.

Thinking of this, he said, "Compared to physical coins such as gold, silver and copper, precious banknotes are more convenient and practical. I don't need to talk about it anymore, do I?"

Seeing the three courtiers nodding, he continued: "But why the Daming Banknotes were not welcomed by the people, and finally had to stop printing and distributing them, just because too many were printed and distributed?"

Of course not, Bi Ziyan immediately replied in his heart.As the Minister of the Household Department, he must know more about Daming's finances than others.

When the Daming banknotes encountered a crisis of depreciation, the imperial court thought of various methods, including reducing the issuance and even reducing the imperial court's expenditure on the banknotes, but none of them worked.

Without waiting for someone to answer, Hu Guang continued: "No, the most fundamental reason is that the Daming Banknote is a credit currency, which depends on the credibility of the imperial court. Once there is a slight sign of distrust, even if it is just a rumor , then the credit will be destroyed, which will affect the value of the banknote, and this process is irreversible."

I heard the emperor talking eloquently, but what I said seemed to be a little unclear, and I didn't understand some words very well.In this way, the emperor's words gave the three of them a feeling of inscrutability. For a while, no one asked questions, and they all concentrated on listening and thinking.

Hu Guang didn’t adopt a way of speaking that they can understand immediately. One reason is that he doesn’t want to be so tired and wants him to adapt to them. .

I just heard him continue to say: "Since the reason is found, it will be easy to handle. It just so happens that at this time, there is enough silver in our Daming territory, so the newly issued banknotes adopt the silver standard system, which can solve the problem of Daming treasure banknotes in the past. problem."

At the beginning of the founding of the Ming Dynasty, there were not many gold and silver reserves in the country.Later, for hundreds of years, the trade between Daming and foreign countries has always been a trade surplus. As a result, most of the silver obtained by all countries in the world flowed into Daming.

In this way, there is silver as the basis of currency, and there is a whip method by Zhang Juzheng in the Wanli period to establish silver as the official currency.

It is also under the premise of these two that the people of Ming Dynasty already have enough understanding of silver.If the silver standard is adopted, there will be no difficulty.Before the change, even if the silver standard was adopted at the beginning of the founding of the country, it would encounter great difficulties sooner or later.

When the three courtiers heard this, Bi Ziyan couldn't bear it anymore, and asked first, "Your Majesty, my humble minister is dull, I don't know what this silver standard system means?"

Hearing this, the other two couldn't help but nodded.According to what the emperor said, the key is the silver standard system, but they don't understand the meaning of the silver standard system, so their minds are further attracted.

After hearing this, Hu Guang smiled slightly and said: "The so-called silver standard system means that the imperial court will print and distribute banknotes of as many silver taels as there are. After the banknotes are issued, the imperial court allows the people to exchange the banknotes for real silver taels. In this way, the Solve the problem that the banknotes may depreciate well, because the imperial court will cover the value of the banknotes!"

After a pause, seeing the three courtiers thinking, he said with emotion: "Actually, this is not a real banknote, it's just a bank note. Oh, there is no bank yet, it's just a voucher. But it's also Don’t rush, just take it one step at a time.”

After he finished speaking, the three subordinates came back to their senses.For matters related to money, Bi Ziyan should speak first.He frowned and said, "What Your Majesty said can indeed prevent the depreciation of the banknotes, but right now the imperial court has no money!"

Thinking of this, he felt something was wrong, so he immediately corrected: "The household department only has 62 taels!"

This is the income from seizing Cao Yubian, the former censor of Zuodu, especially the Yongchang bank.At this time, Bi Ziyan already understood why the emperor had requested that this money should not be used by anyone, but it was supposed to be used here.

"That's right, Your Majesty, it's only 62 taels, it's useless!" Xu Guangqi was the most sensitive to numbers among the three, and immediately followed up with a frown.

At this time, Wen Tiren has confirmed that the emperor is still the emperor, and there is no possibility of being possessed by the Taizu before.With the way the emperor did things before, there must be his reasons.Thinking about it this way, he didn't say anything this time.

After hearing this, Hu Guang didn't take it seriously, and immediately smiled and said: "It's okay, there will definitely be money. Now we only need to take the first step, and we will print and distribute the money later."

The inspection of Shanxi merchants is a major factor in the success of banknote issuance.Because in his estimation, most of the first batch of printed banknotes will be exchanged immediately, and eventually these banknotes will be returned to the imperial court, and there will be very little silver left in the household department.

But with this good start, seeing that the imperial court did not break its promise and could indeed exchange banknotes for silver taels, the confidence of the common people in using banknotes would increase greatly, which would effectively guarantee the value of banknotes.

After the Shanxi merchants are inspected and tens of millions of taels of silver are added to the imperial treasury, even if there are still people who will exchange the silver taels back, it is absolutely impossible to exchange them all.With such a huge buffer, the promotion of banknotes will be much easier.

Bi Ziyan naturally didn't know about the Shanxi merchants, but he didn't think too far. He thought that in this case, if the emperor wanted to issue paper money, it would be just a trial. After all, it is really troublesome to use gold and silver.

Thinking of this, he turned his mind to other aspects, and asked a little curiously: "Your Majesty, what do these notes on this banknote mean?"

　I had something to do in the afternoon, and I didn't know when I would go home, so I woke up early on purpose to pay back the six chapters owed as planned.There is pressure to be motivated, sure enough!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)