Gold is Justice

"Why? Because you have endorsed the ten thousand gold coins. If others do not recognize that this piece of wood is worth ten thousand gold coins, then you will attack him with your army. Admit that the wood is worth ten thousand ducats, and you can put him in jail."

"Similarly, you also allow someone to use this piece of wood to pay you taxes. After you collect the tax on this piece of wood, you can throw it into the next record as firewood. In this way, you understand ?"

Meng Lang nodded lightly, and said, "I understand now, but...is it really all right?"

Connor said with a smile: "Before, the entire Golden Continent, including our empire, used gold, silver, copper, and iron as currency materials, because the amount of these metals was relatively rare. And gold, golden, everyone Everyone likes it, everyone wants it, and this precious metal will not fail to sell, so the empires on the mainland will use gold and other metals as currency on a large scale."

"And the reason why the national treasury is empty is largely due to the insufficient quantity of these precious metals, which leads to the fact that the royal family has no money, which now seems like a joke."

"So, as long as you open your heart and are willing to endorse a piece of paper like my student, then that piece of paper will naturally become a currency that can be used for transactions. From this, at least in theory, the national treasury There will be no possibility of emptiness anymore. Because no matter how huge the national treasury is, you can write a piece of paper, indicating that the paper is worth 100 million gold coins and put it in the treasury, and your treasury will instantly increase. One million gold coins were issued."

After thinking about it for a while, Meng Lang finally nodded and said, "I understand this temporarily. What about after that? I still can't understand what kind of state the state treasury is, even if it is in debt. If debt is fine, other countries Why did it crash? How does this relate to Ariel's financial attack on me?"

Connor looked at the emperor in front of him and listened to his questions, as if he was teaching a very studious student.

Such a student... There was one before.She always has all kinds of questions, and always wants to know all kinds of weird theories. The idea of ​​studying economics has far exceeded the stage where she wants to be a small boss and learn to calculate accounts. .

But now, Connor knew that the next student he wanted to teach was the emperor, and what the emperor wanted to do was start a financial fight with the student before him...

With a touch of distress, Connor continued to speak——

"As I said just now, money is not important. As an emperor, you can produce millions of gold coins anytime and anywhere. What really matters is the royal family's endorsement of this currency."

"So, why is it okay to be in debt? That has to do with the relationship between this endorsement and that non-metallic currency. Here, we actually need to understand another theory that may...still very counter-intuitive .That is... taxation, for a country, is actually not important.”

With the surprise just now, Meng Lang originally thought that he was fully mentally prepared.

But now, he was still shocked by the whimsical and unconstrained theory of the teacher in front of him.

However, he still maintained his self-restraint. After adjusting his breath a few times, Meng Lang regained that calm expression and asked——

"Tax...isn't that important either? Can you explain it in detail?"

Connor's eyes on Menglang recovered from the shock just now and calmed down in a very short period of time, and he couldn't help but sigh in his heart that this emperor is really a very studious emperor who is also very good at controlling his emotions.

If he was born in a period when the Blue Bay Empire was still developing steadily, this emperor would definitely lead the entire empire uphill, and forge a glorious era for the entire empire!

It's a pity that he was born in this era...

"Your Majesty, let's imagine such a scene first."

"You need to buy something worth a hundred gold coins, regardless of what that thing is, it can be anything. So, you wrote a piece of paper worth a hundred gold coins and handed it to the merchant, the merchant I gave you that thing."

"After that, the paper of one hundred gold coins was continuously circulated among the people. Merchants used this paper to trade with each other and circulated among each other."

"Then when it's time to collect taxes, you take back the paper of one hundred gold coins from the hands of the taxpayers to your hands again. Then at this time, think about it, during this whole process, you have obtained What? What was lost?"

Meng Lang thought about it carefully. He seemed to have his own understanding of this kind of uncommon sense thinking, and wanted to switch his thinking mode to that of an economist through this way of continuous thinking.

He tried hard to think about it, but after thinking for a long time, he finally had no choice but to give up, shook his head and said, "I... I'm afraid I still don't understand. I wrote a piece of paper with one hundred gold in exchange for the product, and finally This one hundred gold piece of paper came into my hands again. So, I have both the commodity and the one hundred gold piece of paper in my hands? In other words, I got the commodity without spending any money at all?"



The first thousand and 460 chapter four economic aggression

Connor nodded lightly, and said, "Your Majesty, this is a river. You are now standing at the source of the river, and you have seen the beginning of everything. That's right, you got a commodity out of thin air, and you didn't pay any monetary value. So now we might as well look at it from a different angle, for ordinary people, is it equivalent to paying for the same commodity and losing the same amount of money for the same commodity at the same time?" Meng Lang thought for a while and nodded.

Connor: "So what will happen if this happens?"

Meng Lang waved his hand: "I don't want to guess the riddle anymore, please tell me."

The emperor used the word "please", which made Connor a little excited and a little nervous.Although he knew that this kind of modesty in etiquette just came from the emperor's education, and it didn't mean how much respect he really had for himself.

After taking a breath, he continued: "The result is that since people pay for the same product and at the same time pay a share of money and wealth, it is equivalent to selling more and losing more. In this way, people It will spontaneously reduce trade, or even no trade at all. Everyone will stubbornly hold on to what they have, and will not exchange it. In this way, trade activities will stop. And according to our economic One of the principles is that wealth comes from trade. Only through frequent trade can people produce goods as much as possible. Stopping trade is equivalent to stopping the growth of wealth. In this way, even if you spend another hundred yuan next time Gold coins and scraps of paper to buy things, you may not be able to buy things.”

Meng Lang tapped on his forehead lightly, as if trying to digest this part of knowledge.After frowning and thinking for a long time, he asked, "You can continue talking. I'll wait for the moment when you finish everything and combine everything to give me an answer."

Connor knew that he needed to speed up a little.But knowledge in this area cannot be accelerated casually, it is a gradual process.

At the moment, he coughed slightly, and continued: "So, how to solve this problem? It's very simple, that is, after you pay 100 yuan of gold coins, in terms of tax, you can only recover 50 yuan, or even more A small amount, leave the rest of the wealth to the entire country, and let them continue to circulate.”

Hearing this, Meng Lang's eyes suddenly lit up!Obviously, it was only at this moment that he finally understood the meaning of this.

"Now, let's see what this river really looks like. You printed a piece of paper with 100 gold coins and gave it to the merchant, and bought some items from the merchant. Then, you collected 50 gold coins as a tax from the merchant, and left 50 gold coins. The gold coin was given to the merchant."

"We can look at this in a simpler form. You write an IOU of 100 gold coins to the merchant, and the merchant gives you goods based on your IOU, and then the merchant is willing to give you A protection fee of 50 gold coins, so from your point of view, you owe the merchant 50 gold coins, but the merchant will happily take your 100 gold coin IOU and continue to buy other products from other people."

"You see, as a country, the Blue Bay Empire owes money in its treasury, and its finances have become a deficit, but people are very happy, and transactions will become frequent. If your tax becomes lower, for example, 30 gold coins, 10 Gold coins, 5 gold coins, or even complete tax exemption in certain industries, then the corresponding industry will become extraordinarily prosperous.”

"In contrast, the country's debt has become 70 gold coins, 90 gold coins, 95 gold coins, or even 100 gold coins. This is a general concept. However, the country does owe money, but So what? You just need to find another piece of paper, write 100 gold coins on this piece of paper and sign it, and you can pay off this debt immediately. Now, you just need to put this piece of paper into your treasury Inside, your treasury becomes a breakeven. Of course, what's the point of that?"

Meng Lang finally understood it completely. He touched his chin and opened his eyes wide. Hearing this completely counter-intuitive thing, it was like a student who had just entered the martial arts school and suddenly saw two peerless masters in front of him. It's like a gorgeous showdown, it's an eye-opener!

At that moment, he nodded slightly, and said: "So that's how it is... The reason why the previous countries had an empty treasury and the reason for their subjugation was entirely because they didn't have enough precious metals and couldn't mint more gold coins? If If you use paper, then it can be solved..."

Connor continued: "It's a little bit close, but not quite close. As you just heard, a country's fiscal deficit is not really a big deal. But, I'm only talking about the concept of 'fiscal deficit' In itself."

"However, once the fiscal deficit is not well controlled, it will indeed become a flood monster that causes national turmoil. It does not mean that under any circumstances, you can print money at will to make the entire country's finances run normally. If you want to let This set of gameplay can be played well, and there is one most important factor that needs to be supported.”

"That's... a commodity for exchange."

Meng Lang lowered his head slightly, looked straight at Connor, and waited patiently.

Connor also continued to talk——

"As you have just heard, Your Majesty, as the royal family, you can decide how many gold coins to issue to buy products on the market."

"However, if you make a banknote of [-] gold coins and want to buy food worth [-] gold coins to supplement the army, but there are only [-] gold coins worth of food in the market, then a problem arises "You want to buy it, but it is not available in the market, so the price of grain will naturally rise without considering foreign trade. The original grain price of [-] gold coins will continue to rise to [-] gold coins. Although the price has gone up, But the total amount of food has not changed. This means that even if you pay [-] gold coins to buy food, half of your army will still be hungry."

"Of course a hungry army can't fight a war. If the Murderous Seat Empire invades our country at this time, no matter how much you advertise that you have spent [-] gold coins to buy food, the hungry soldiers will not listen at all. If you can’t beat it, you still can’t beat it.”

"Similarly, because you have raised the price of grain, the price of grain among the people will also rise accordingly, making ordinary people unable to buy grain and starving. As a result, farmers who cannot eat enough to eat live If we don’t go on, of course we will do some things that are not good for the empire.”

After hearing this, Meng Lang frowned, and said: "Your words are completely unreasonable. Since I know that the price of food is only [-] gold coins, why should I buy it with [-] gold coins? I also use [-] gold coins." Wouldn’t it be enough to buy gold coins and banknotes?”

Connor smiled slightly, bowed slightly to the fierce waves, and said: "Of course, but merchants can calculate. The price of five thousand gold coins is just an estimate, and the real price will vary with the date and weather. The price of grain in the autumn harvest season is slightly cheaper, and the price of grain in winter will be slightly higher, and it is impossible to maintain an accurate figure.”

"Then if you want to buy food, there will be people who want to buy food elsewhere. If you are willing to let the soldiers in the army wait for a time when the price of food is the cheapest, then of course there is no problem. The fact is, sometimes You can't wait forever. Sometimes, in order to buy food as soon as possible, you are willing to pay a slightly higher price than the market price to buy food. Of course, you can't use [-] gold coins to buy [-] gold coins Food, but what about [-] gold coins? Or, what about [-] gold coins? Would you use such banknotes to buy food? In this way, the price of food will naturally increase.”

"Then next time, you will raise the price of [-] and keep raising it. In this way, it is not unimaginable to reach [-] gold coins. As long as the annual grain production does not increase, you Sooner or later, one day, [-] gold coins will be used to buy food that previously only needed [-] gold coins. In this way, the possible tragic situations I mentioned above will naturally happen."

Meng Lang finally nodded. He let out a breath, put down the pen in his hand, leaned back on the chair, closed his eyes, and thought for a moment.

Immediately, the emperor finally opened his mouth and said slowly——

"So... is this the process and result of that apprentice of yours attacking me?"

Connor bowed to the fierce waves again, and said in a relatively calm voice: "Exactly."

"Her Majesty the Queen proposed to make a large amount of counterfeit money to disrupt the economic situation of the marginal provinces. It seems to be very effective at first glance. A large number of counterfeit money naturally increases the prices in the entire marginal provinces, making the marginal provinces seem to be in inflation the edge of."

"However, there is one most critical problem with this method, which Her Majesty the Queen did not think of. That is to block the trade channels of the entire marginal province while adding a large number of counterfeit currency to increase inflation in the marginal province."

"If you just add counterfeit money without blocking the trade channel, then when Ariel Garcia understands that someone is making counterfeit money, I believe she will soon understand how to fight back."

"Here, I have to say that she is an excellent student, and she is also an excellent economist. After inputting the elimination of counterfeit currency, she has exchanged all the counterfeit currency in the marginal provinces for their genuine currency on a large scale. After the mermaid coin, her counterattack began."

"And this kind of counterattack is to use the huge goods produced by a large number of elemental machines in the marginal province to start dumping a large amount of goods on other identities, and to raise a crucial point, that is—"

"They no longer receive the currency of the Blue Bay Empire as the transaction currency, but only use mermaid coins...this kind of currency has become a bit huge due to the large number of His Majesty's distribution."

Meng Lang looked at the report in his hand, which described in detail the marginal provinces' continuous trade dumping to several provinces within his own territory, even at a price that was almost at a loss.

Not just dumping, it also said that Song of Mermaid began to declare to a large number of cities in these provinces in the name of Pelican City. If you still want to do business with marginal provinces, you can only use Mermaid Coins to purchase.

However, cities in other provinces do not have mermaid coins themselves, so what should I do?

It's ok!Mermaid Song is willing to provide these cities with a large amount of low-interest or even interest-free loans, and directly inject a large amount of Mermaid Coins into the financial systems of these towns in the name of loans.

Although, this kind of thing seems to have just begun, and it is written on the report that only a few small towns have accepted this kind of measure.

But Meng Lang knew that it would take at least 20 days for this report to be sent back from the marginal province. In other words, this was already 20 days ago.In order to compromise with the Magic Association and the Holy See, I did not allow other regions to use elemental vehicles, which can move quickly.In other words, during these 20 days, God knows how many towns the Song of the Mermaid with faster mobility has traded with.

When receiving this report, Meng Lang did not understand economics.

But after seeing that Song of the Mermaid had begun to wipe out counterfeit money, he instinctively felt the danger.

This danger comes from the fact that he doesn't know how to deal with it, let alone how to solve it.Although force can be used, in essence, he does not want to completely destroy the elemental machine. This will further expand the power of the Magic Association and the Holy See, and will turn his words of encouraging the elemental machine last year into empty talk .

At this point, Connor continued to speak——

"Through this kind of behavior of constantly binding trade with other towns, Your Majesty, I can only say... this is indeed very dangerous. Because, Ariel Garcia is making those towns her allies through the economic alliance After all, as time goes by, I am afraid that more and more towns will use mermaid coins. Once the number of mermaid coins used in a certain area exceeds the metal currency of the Blue Bay Empire, then that area is equivalent to no longer belonging to Yours is over."

"Economic ties will allow Ariel Garcia's rebellion to gain support from more towns. If you plan to send troops to wipe out the rebels in the border provinces at this time, other towns will maintain the price and goods of these mermaid coins in their hands. , presumably will have to fight against you."

"This is undoubtedly a kind of economic aggression. That child... that woman, she is using her own means to retaliate against you. At the same time, this is also a signal to attack you."

After listening to the whole process of Ariel's attack, Meng Lang suddenly felt that he didn't seem to be very angry anymore.

Is it because you are so angry that you are not angry?

Maybe, but the fact that he felt the peace in his heart at this moment was genuine.

That's right, Ariel Garcia, the earl whom she personally enshrined and the mistress of her younger brother, has now become a very embarrassing existence for herself.

Of course, on the surface, she is not the biggest problem of the Blue Bay Empire right now.

A peace agreement was signed with the Hunting Seat Empire before, and it seemed that there was a little peace between the two countries, but the emperor knew that such peace could not last forever.

In addition, there are almost countless rebels in the entire empire due to large areas of famine. Although these sporadic flames seem to be easily extinguished, there are still rebels in several areas that have gradually formed momentum. This emperor had a tendency to fight against each other.Among these problems, the problem of marginal provinces is far from the biggest one, at least... not on the surface.

However, Menglang knew.

He really knew that the root cause of the empire was the lack of money...or, in other words, the lack of sufficient supplies to supply those civilians.

Those aristocrats who know how to enjoy themselves after eating and drinking all day long have used various excuses to delay their collection requirements, crying poor in front of themselves one by one, saying that they have no money.

But considering the power of these nobles, once he really finds someone to do the surgery, God knows what these nobles will do.

At this time, the marginal province that can provide a large amount of supplies is undoubtedly its trump card!

Marginal provinces can produce a large amount of food and cloth by using element machines, so as long as they can solve the "clothing" and "food" problems of those civilians, of course they can buy themselves a lot of time to solve other problems!

Therefore, Menglang knew that he had to get enough money...or in other words, get enough supplies.And at this moment, the girl Ariel, the slave girl who betrayed her on the surface but did nothing to her secretly, started to launch this economic war against the Blue Bay Empire!

Use her supplies to plunder her own territory economically, and shake the unshakable position of the Blue Royal Family in the entire Blue Bay Empire.

Should he kill that girl?

Maybe it should.

Or maybe... it shouldn't.