Northern Dynasties Imperial Industry

After listening to Li Bing's words, Li Tai's thoughts were immediately drawn back to his shopping experience many years ago when he first came to Tongzhou. At that time, he was deeply disgusted with the chaotic currency circulation situation in the Western Wei Dynasty, and he also made up his mind to clean up and reform after he came to power in the future.

However, as his career grew bigger and bigger in the future, he himself gradually separated from the front-line market transactions, and his feelings about the shortcomings of Guanzhong coins were no longer as strong as before.

Of course, the most important thing is that the large hydraulic spinning wheel he promoted greatly improved the textile efficiency, so that the silk cloth produced by his industry can enjoy the same purchasing power due to the reduction of labor costs and improvement of efficiency. Therefore, Li Tai's idea of ​​​​currency reform is becoming less urgent than before.

After all, the same goods can be bought with silk, but the cost of his silk cloth is far lower than the market average. This difference alone can make him huge profits in market trade. The reason why Shannan Road's industrial and commercial trade develops so rapidly is closely related to this point.

Now Li Bing is bringing up this old matter again, and Li Tai is no longer the leader of the previous regional forces. He needs to look at this issue based on the entire Western Wei regime and society. The perspective and mentality are different, so he can no longer act like before. Because of the profits from silk trading, real social problems are ignored.

In addition to making ends meet, the imperial soldiers also had to purchase a lot of military supplies. For example, as described in "Mulan Ci", "You can buy horses in the east market, saddles and saddles in the west market, bridles in the south market, and long whips in the north market." This makes the demand for these soldiers to enter the market for trading. The current poor currency trading situation in the Western Wei Dynasty is a great trouble for them.

After all, the individual market transactions of these soldiers are different from bulk commodity sales. They can make up for the currency barrier through physical settlement. Their transaction needs are frequent and their value is usually not too large, so they require extremely high convenience.

Using physical objects as currency is a transaction method. As the saying goes, cloth cannot be torn due to size, and grain cannot be carried. Only when money circulates in the world can it be beneficial to the world.

When talking about the currency reforms of the Southern and Northern Dynasties, especially the latter three countries, one has to mention Gao Cheng. Gao Cheng presided over the currency reform during the Wuding period of the Eastern Wei Dynasty and recast the Yong'an five baht minted during the Emperor Xiaozhuang period of the Northern Wei Dynasty. This currency was as heavy as a piece of writing and was widely used in the world.

However, Gao Cheng's currency reform not only re-minted a sufficient amount of money, but also stipulated that all market gates should hang scales to measure the weight of the money entering the market. When issuing new money, it did not prohibit the use of old money. As long as the old money was sufficient, it could still be used. Trading in the market greatly reduces the probability of weight loss money and bad money filled with lead and iron entering the market.

This method of coining large amounts of money in parallel with market control made the Eastern Wei and Northern Qi the most stable monetary policy in the last three countries for a long period of time, so much so that in the later period of the Northern Qi, even rent transfers had to be paid at a discount.

Of course, when the currency system collapsed during the period of Gao Zhan and his son, that would be another story. With the efforts of these two fathers, even the family fortune of Emperor Wen of the Sui Dynasty could not withstand the messy efforts of the two men.

The Hebei region under the rule of the Northern Qi Dynasty also became one of the most prosperous areas for commercial development in the world at that time. Gao Cheng's idea of ​​​​currency reform was also learned and followed by later rulers.

From a class perspective, coinage is undoubtedly a plunder and looting of private wealth. But from a monetary and financial perspective, it is to add support to the economy and make social development more dynamic.

After Li Tai inspected the Xianyang Husbandry Mansion, he returned to Chang'an with the two issues of people and money.

After returning to Chang'an, he first summoned Duzhi Shangshu Pei Hong and several other financial-related officials to the Zhitang to discuss a feasible plan for currency reform.

It was not that there was no money in Guanzhong. During the Datong period, money was even minted two or three times. However, because the quality of the coins was too poor, it was never promoted. In big cities like Chang'an where there is a strong demand for transactions, there are coins circulating in the world. However, due to various reasons such as the quality and style of the coins, whether the transaction can be concluded depends on fate, and disputes caused by money and goods also occur from time to time. occur.

Currently, there are a large number of coins stored in Chang'an's treasury, mainly minted after the twelfth year of Datong.

In the twelfth year of the reign of Emperor Tong, Dugu Xin pacified the Liangzhou rebellion. After that, the Hexi Corridor was reopened. At about the same time, Gaocheng of the Eastern Wei Dynasty also promoted currency reform in the Eastern Wei Dynasty. Therefore, this batch of coins was mainly minted to cope with the new growth. For trade needs, there is also the need to go to the Eastern Wei Dynasty to buy supplies.

However, the Hu merchants were not fools. At that time, the Western Wei Dynasty had not yet established a high say in the Silk Road trade, and they were unable to use this wave of coinage to rob them. The Hou Jing Rebellion broke out in the Eastern Wei Dynasty shortly after Gao Huan's death. The whole of Henan was in chaos, which also brought the commercial interaction between the East and the West to a standstill.

Although some of this batch of coins were scattered, most of them were still squeezed into the treasury and occasionally used to buy supplies in Bafu City or reward meritorious men, but they were not really circulated in the market.

This is the current currency situation in the Western Wei Dynasty. The people are short of money, mainly due to the lack of good money that is highly recognized by the market. There is a large amount of bad money piled up in the government's warehouse, and it is difficult to use it to loot people's wealth.

Of course, Li Tai did not want to mint coins to plunder people's wealth, but to solve real social problems. Therefore, since he wants to mint new money, he must mint sufficient good money. Only in this way can market confidence be reshaped and currency usage habits cultivated.

Nowadays, the imperial court has accumulated a lot of copper materials, and it can cast money at any time. Only the subsequent issuance and standardized use of coins, as well as the supervision of private coining and counterfeiting, are the top priorities for the implementation of new money.

Bad money has been around in Guanzhong for a long time. Once such good money of high quality and beauty appears, it will first lead to hoarding and collection, and second, it will lead to illegal casting. The circulation of new bank coins in the market has been insufficient for a long time. If they are issued, they are not issued. Instead, it will consume the court's manpower, material resources and law enforcement costs, and damage the credibility of new coins.

After discussing this with his subordinates, Li Tai decided not to release the newly minted coins directly to the civilian population, but to give priority to the military market transactions, first providing credit to the sergeants, and forming a network in the military market. reflow, and then gradually expand the scale and scope of investment.

The reason for such cautious attempts and restrictions is that the economic size of Guanzhong is still small compared with Hebei, and the tax level is also relatively heavy. Once the value of small people's wealth fluctuates greatly due to currency reform, there may even be Possibly destitute and bankrupt. In the final analysis, the ability of Guanzhong's society and people's livelihood to resist risks is still relatively weak.

A trading system like currency that has been in a disordered state for many years has been reactivated. While currency is linked to commodities, it will fluctuate with changes in market confidence. This kind of fluctuation is difficult for the government to predict and control. It can only be gradually stabilized through frequent market transactions over time.

This process will inevitably lead to some speculative behavior. Money will rise as high as copper and grain will fall like dust. If you bet correctly, you will be happy, but if you bet wrong, you will inevitably lose everything.

As a policy maker, Li Tai cannot control everyone's thoughts and behaviors. What he can do is to promote it gradually with a cautious attitude, leaving enough time for society to react and digest, and minimizing the impact of currency reform on society. The onslaught of wealth.

After some discussions, the issue of minting new coins was established and added to the next government agenda, and the new currency was drafted as the "Tongzhi Five Baht".

The Tongzhi five baht was minted to meet domestic market transaction needs, but today's Western Wei Dynasty also has a large amount of foreign trade. For example, Longyou, Shuzhong, Shannan, and northern Shaanxi are all carrying out many foreign trade activities. Moreover, Huainan will also establish a free trade zone with Nanliang for trade with Jiangdong.

The Lingzhou General Administration Office established in the Hetao area and the Wuyuan Ding border town under its jurisdiction also have the function of conducting mutual trade with the Hu tribe outside the Great Wall, thus strengthening the penetration and influence on the entire Monan area.

Li Tai's current domestic monetary policy is to stimulate social vitality, so he will not consider promoting Tongzhi's five-baht currency outward until the domestic currency supply is sufficient. Although money doesn't grow legs, people do.

In order to prevent a large amount of Tongzhi five baht from flowing out of the country through foreign trade, in addition to restricting the use scenarios of Tongzhi five baht, Li Tai also plans to mint a new currency specifically for foreign trade, which is temporarily planned to be Tongzhi Wanguo. The exchange relationship between money and Tongzhi five baht is one for ten.

This kind of ten coins can only be used for foreign trade and is not allowed to circulate within the country. This is naturally for the purpose of plundering the profits of overseas merchants. As long as these foreign trade merchants want to do business, they need to sell their goods in exchange for tens of thousands of dollars, otherwise they cannot enter the market for trading. As for what provided Li Tai with confidence, in addition to the increasingly powerful military strength of the Western Wei Dynasty, there were also absolutely powerful and incomparable commodities like Shu brocade and sugar!

However, before these two new currencies are officially minted and launched into the market, there is still some preventive work to be carried out, that is, trying to clear away the existing copper materials in the market and controlling a large number of large copper hoarders.

The Tongzhi Five Baht Coin's heavy weight has reduced the profits of private minting. You only need to be careful about withdrawing from the circulation market through various channels. Tongzhi Wanguo Qian is an out-and-out high-profit foreign trade currency. Once a large number of people privately create a bad market, the impact will be very bad.

Money in Guanzhong is cheap, and the price of copper is not very high either. It is not a commodity with strong performance, so under normal circumstances, people will not store large amounts. And those with large amounts of copper materials are often Salmon Buddhist temples.

Due to the accumulation of various factors, Li Tai also felt that the big debate in Chang'an that lasted for more than two months should be over.