At the end of the Eastern Han Dynasty

Zhang Liao and Xin Pi brought the ships they had brought and more than 20 Roman merchant ships to form a considerable ocean-going merchant fleet, and it took them more than two months to return to China.

During the period, the fleet encountered a strong storm at sea and almost capsized, which can be described as thrilling.

Fortunately, it was not far from one of their army bases at that time, and they quickly rushed to seek refuge, but they escaped a catastrophe, and did not die in the sea and become food for big fish in the ocean.

The climate on the sea is changeable, sometimes the sky is clear, and sometimes the sea is stormy, and no one knows when the stormy sea will bury himself in the sea.

This is the biggest uncertainty. If it were not for this, ocean trade would have been born much earlier. It is indeed a great profit, but also a great risk. If you are not careful, you will lose all your money.

In August of the 11th year of Yande, Zhang Liao and Simpi fulfilled their mission and returned victoriously. They not only brought back wealth and good news, but also brought back the official Roman ambassador team to the Wei Empire, as well as a group of Roman businessmen with deep backgrounds.

Those who can follow them back to the Wei Empire are obviously from a deep background, behind them are some powerful figures, some forces that even the Roman emperors had to take into account, and so on.

They came here to drink the first soup, and to increase Rome's trade with Wei, so that they can take the lead in seizing the benefits without worrying about being contested by the latecomers.

Guo Peng was overjoyed after hearing the news, and ordered a banquet to entertain the Roman ambassador team and the official business team that came with them.

Guo Peng himself did not go out to greet them, but it has to be said that the Roman ambassador team did not expect Luoyang City to be so majestic and the soldiers of the Wei Army to be so majestic and awe-inspiring.

First of all, I lost in terms of momentum, and I naturally felt very small. I wanted to put on airs, but I failed, and I couldn't care about more aspects.

Along the way, he saw the buildings and pedestrians that were completely different from those in Rome, as well as the wide and neat streets, and the clean city without any peculiar smell. He felt very shocked.

The palace of the Roman emperor was not small, but also very large and luxurious, with all kinds of facilities, and one could see the atmosphere of wealth at a glance.

The palaces of the Wei Empire are just the opposite. They don't look luxurious, but the buildings are well-organized and full of majesty, and one can feel a wordless sense of oppression at a glance.

Just like the sense of oppression that the emperor brought to the courtiers of this country, it brought a completely different feeling to the ambassador.

The ritual system of the Wei Empire was standardized, which is another feeling of the Roman ambassador.

We greet officials layer by layer, report layer by layer, and enter layer by layer.

It made the ambassador feel that the person he was facing was becoming more and more sacred and inviolable, and he felt more and more oppressed.

Finally came to the end, in the Fengtian Palace, the political center of the Wei Empire, the Roman envoy felt that he had gone through untold hardships before he finally met the mysterious and inviolable master of the Wei Empire.

His majesty the emperor is high above the throne, full of majesty and majesty.

The high-ranking officials and dignitaries of the Wei Empire stood neatly on both sides of the hall, and they all looked at this group of envoys from the "Great Qin Kingdom" thousands of miles away with curious and sharp eyes.

Chapter 1389 One Thousand 290 Nine Emperors Are Pixiu?

The emperor sent people to sea to find out about Daqin. Not many people knew about it, and few people paid attention to it. The scale of this matter was not large.

There are several ships, and the scale of more than a thousand people.

The emperor did not use the treasury to go through official channels, but paid out of his own pocket and asked the inner court to provide money and materials. At most, the imperial court produced some interpreters, so this matter did not attract any attention.

Most people don't know where the Great Qin State is, how strong it is, and its importance to the Wei Empire. They don't care about these, they care more about the immediate interests and power.

The Great Qin Kingdom is really too far away from them, so far away that it is almost impossible to have conflicts and contacts, so everyone doesn't care.

Who would have thought that the emperor would actually send a big ship out to sea, sailing on the sea for more than two months, and then found the Great Qin State, met the Great Qin Emperor, and signed a package of trade agreements with the Great Qin State.

Ghosts can think of it!

But it happened like this, they couldn't help but not believe it.

The Great Qin Kingdom, which is thousands of miles away, will really send people here, and it will really make a bilateral partnership agreement with the Wei Empire, and everyone will really start doing business through the vast sea.

Such a thing, no matter how you think about it, you find it unbelievable, especially a considerable number of high-ranking officials in the Guo Wei Empire have never seen what Hai Chang looks like, and have no idea what the meaning of Hai is.

Perhaps for them, the meaning of the sea is to provide them with some delicious seafood dishes, nothing more.

But the meaning of the sea is not only these, the meaning of the sea lies more in money and wealth.

The main purpose of this interview was to show the envoys of the Roman Empire the majesty, strength and wealth of the Wei Empire, so that the envoys of the Roman Empire could better understand what kind of existence the Wei Empire was.

It is undoubtedly the most direct to show them in the court.

Singing and dancing, music, dishes, drinks, tableware, and etiquette are the places that can most directly reflect the prosperity of a country.

Now, it is indeed reflected.

The envoys of the Roman Empire really knew how powerful and rich this silk-producing country was.

After drinking for three rounds, Guo Peng asked the Roman envoys to read out the agreement he had reached with the Roman Empire in front of all the dignitaries of the Wei Empire.

How much silk, porcelain, lacquerware, iron pots, tea and other special products of the Wei Empire were sold to the Roman Empire each quarter, and how much wine and slaves were imported from the Roman Empire each quarter.

The settlement of goods between the two parties uses gold and silver as currency, because both parties are willing to accept gold and silver for transactions.

And the huge inflow of gold and silver left the officials dumbfounded.

This is an official trade agreement between the inner court and the royal maritime team under the leadership of the emperor and the Roman Empire.

Part of the proceeds went to the inner court, and part of the proceeds was given to the state treasury by Guo Peng [Great Mercy], which was used for people's livelihood and improved the state of the state treasury, which was always in jeopardy.

So much gold and silver, to be honest, the officials who came from the Eastern Han Dynasty really only saw it in the history books.

Only in the history books can we see the gold and silver that was rewarded by the emperors of the Western Han Dynasty to tens of thousands of catties, but until now, it is basically not seen.

They rarely have gold and silver in their hands, and basically trade with copper coins, and even silk and silk cloth.

The emperor's reward is about tens of catties and one hundred catties. Compared with the emperor of the Western Han Dynasty, the emperor's hand is not generous.

Recently, it has been rumored that the emperor intends to establish an economic policy based on the gold and silver standard, and decided to turn gold and silver into legal tender in the true sense, so as to alleviate the problem of copper shortage in the Wei Empire and solve the problem that the value of copper coins is not enough to support large-scale trade.

If this is the case, it is indeed a good thing for the commodity economy of the Wei Empire.

At least you don't have to carry so much silk and silk as trade currency anymore.

Although five baht coins are legal tender and a currency recognized by everyone, they are of low value after all. Five baht coins are fine for small commodity transactions and daily necessities transactions, but five baht coins are not good when it comes to bulk commodity trade.

The face value is low, and a huge amount of copper coins is needed to engage in bulk trade, and the huge amount of copper coins is too heavy, inconvenient to transport, and the cost is too high, which is really not convenient for commercial trade.

For this reason, people even used high-value commodities such as Shu brocade and silk cloth as currency and exchanged them to trade bulk commodities.

Of course, in recent times, some people have gradually started to use gold and silver for bulk commodity transactions, but in addition to the need to weigh to determine the purity, there is another very intuitive problem, that is, the Wei Empire is not only short of copper, but also short of gold and silver .

Although everyone has a consensus in recent years that the extravagant burial system of the Western Han Dynasty buried a large amount of gold underground, no one can do the kind of thing that digs up people's graves to find gold.

So just let it go.

However, with the opening of the Silk Road, a large amount of gold and silver flowed into the Wei Empire along the Silk Road. There has been a certain scale of gold and silver transactions in the bulk goods trading field of the Wei Empire, not just copper coin transactions.

Based on this, the gold and silver in Guo Peng's hands gradually increased.

So he began to think about currency reform, and circulated gold and silver as currency to facilitate the trade of bulk commodities between the Wei Empire and the Central Asian countries and the Roman Empire.

As for whether to introduce the concept of banknotes, he thinks it is still open to discussion.

At present, the business of the Wei Empire has not developed to the point where it needs the introduction of banknotes. It has not reached the level of the highly developed commodity economy of the Song Dynasty. At present, the country is still under construction, mainly based on agricultural production.

Although this is definitely conducive to business development, it is just that paper money is conducive to forgery. Under the current environment, he feels that it is better to take it easy and not rush into it.

Otherwise, if the economic environment that was finally smoothed out is ruined, the problem will be serious.

Moreover, the amount of gold and silver does not seem to be large enough to reform the currency value.

However, once the trade with the Roman Empire was confirmed and circulated, and once the official and non-governmental trade between the two sides was opened up, the Wei Empire’s commodity advantages would inevitably be able to plunder the gold and silver of the Roman Empire on a large scale.

At that time, the gold and silver owned by the Wei Empire may be able to promote this round of currency reform.

In addition, Guo Peng did not forget to send people to explore the Japanese island.

The small archipelago is rich in gold and silver resources. Guo Peng doesn't know why, but this does not prevent him from sending people to explore and land on the Japanese island by boat.

Tai Shici's subordinates, the admirals Huang Tao and Zhou Wei, were ordered by Guo Peng to lead five large ships and one thousand soldiers to explore the Japanese island from the sixth year of Yande.

At present, Shikoku and Kyushu have been explored, and they are entering the Honshu area of ​​the Japanese archipelago, and have actually come into contact with the regime that actually exists on the Japanese archipelago.

Then there was an engagement.

Guo Peng asked the army not to do charity, but to find gold, silver, and capture slaves. Of course, this will arouse resistance from the indigenous residents of the other side.

Of course the result is the same.

The opponent was not an opponent at all, and was completely defeated as soon as the battle was fought. The soldiers died miserably, and several [small countries] of a certain size were destroyed. The Wei army opened up a large and reliable forward base, stationed troops, and reclaimed land for farming.

This route has also matured.

Now four years have passed, but not much gold and silver have been found, but quite a few slaves have been captured.

On the limited silver and gold mines found so far, these local slaves have already started mining, and they can bring a certain amount of gold and silver to Guo Peng every year.

Although not a lot, it's better than nothing.

Someone from Iwami Yinshan Guo only knew it existed, but he didn't know where it was, let alone whether Japanese ancestors had started mining it in this era.

Anyway, he sent the mining exploration team trained by the inner court to see if they could find it.

As for the others, he wasn't too worried. Anyway, there was plenty of time, and it was not difficult for them to catch slaves and mine mines at the same time.

As for the small tribes, small countries, and small settlements on the Japanese archipelago, a thousand Wei troops are enough to destroy their existence.

Moreover, Japan does not have a unified regime now, and even the regime structure is quite primitive. Bullying them is like fat tiger bullying Nobita, and there is no need to worry about Doraemon.

But before finding Iwami Yinshan, Guo Peng wanted to establish the gold standard and silver standard, which was dangerous. Without a stable long-term source of gold and silver, it would be difficult to carry out currency reform and issue metal currency on a large scale.

Trade with the Roman Empire is one side, and on the other side, Iwami Ginzan must also be found.

Then link gold and silver to grain to determine a new currency system.

Instead of talking about the gold standard and the silver standard, it is better to say that Mr. Guo has always insisted on the food standard. For people, food is the most important lifeline. Without food, no matter how much gold and silver there is, it is worthless.

For now, trade with the Roman Empire has begun.

The huge benefits brought by maritime trade have already shocked people's hearts. The high-ranking officials and dignitaries in the court were all terrified. They never thought that maritime trade, which sounds like a fantasy, could bring such huge benefits to the empire.

Wang Can, Shangshu of the Ministry of Finance, immediately began to calculate, and found that the problem of excessive cost of the Grand Canal project that he had been worried about had been solved.

The emperor launched large-scale infrastructure projects everywhere, and every major project cost money. The same is true for road construction. Roads are built on flat ground, and roads are also built in mountainous and hilly areas. In some places, mountains are even cut to open roads. Not to mention how old it is.

Money, it's all money.

Thanks to the gunpowder, otherwise it would cost more.

But even so, the fiscal revenue of the Wei Empire basically went into it.

For the Emperor's Grand Chi Road Project and the Grand Canal Project, these two major projects were like bottomless gold swallowing beasts, devouring a lot of money from the Wei Empire.

But the Wei Empire always had money to invest in it.

The emperor can always get more money from strange places, more open source, and make the plate of the Wei Empire bigger and bigger.

It was so big that everyone felt terrified.

The emperor is really a rare genius in the world.

All the officials in the empire who are engaged in economics regard the emperor in this way.

There have been many people who can fight since ancient times, and the emperor is not the strongest.

There have been many masters of politics since ancient times, and the emperor is not the strongest.

But since ancient times, there have been really few good players in economics, and the emperor can be ranked among the top three in history.

With the money-spending pattern of the Wei Empire, the emperor was able to maintain a balance of payments and a slight surplus for ten years. The treasury was always full, and his internal treasury was full of wealth.

Is the emperor a Pixiu?

No one knows where the emperor came from, but the emperor really did it.

He really grasped those unexpected things in his hands.

The officials couldn't understand how the emperor did it.

But Guo Peng himself knew that he had to do this, otherwise the Wei Empire would go into a dead end.

The potential of this land is limited.

Continuous intensive cultivation does not bring much benefit, it can only go narrower and narrower, and finally reach a dead end.

The only way to survive is to go out and make the cake bigger for all the people in the country to see.

Go out, set sail, and when you return, you must be full of gold and silver treasures.

In this way, China will not be trapped on this land by its own official guiding ideology and lose the opportunity to dominate the world.

Among them, Guo Peng felt that he especially had to learn from the experience of the Ming Dynasty.