Imperial Master of the Ming Dynasty

"The following 'offshore silver treasure system' and the domestic 'silver treasure system' are two parallel theories of internal and external systems."

"This is the most complicated course and also the most brain-burning."

When he heard this sentence, Zhu Gaoxu's head started to hurt.

Jiang Xinghuo said slowly: "But only if you understand how the internal and external systems operate can you understand the essence of designing silver banknotes."

Hearing this, everyone inside and outside the wall became serious.

If the previous content is all about principle explanation, substitute understanding, and prerequisite steps.

It was as if Prince Dan wanted to teach Jing Ke how to enter the palace and salute, how to speak, and how to unfold a map.

This is the last blow of Tu Qiong Dagger!

This is the ultimate secret of the ‘Silver Banknote’ ​​that Jiang Xinghuo wants to talk about.

Jiang Xinghuo glanced at the two of them and said, "If there is anything, even if it is something you think is insignificant, as long as you don't understand, you can interrupt me at any time."

Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu nodded at the same time.

"Okay, then let's start to explain the internal and external systems now."

“First, let’s talk about the domestic ‘silver banknote system’.”

“The domestic ‘silver banknote system’ was mentioned a few words in passing when talking about anchors before, but this is far from enough.”

As soon as Jiang Xinghuo started speaking, he was ruthlessly interrupted by Li Jinglong.

"Jiang Lang." Li Jinglong asked suddenly: "I have always had a doubt about the domestic silver treasure banknote system."

"Ask, feel free to ask."

Li Jinglong organized his language and asked.

"It was said before that the domestic silver banknotes are anchored by silver. The silver banknotes follow the anchor price of silver and change up and down. It is a one-way anchor. So, if the people use the silver banknotes in their hands to run on silver, the country will If there is not so much silver available for exchange, won’t this system collapse? Is it necessary to declare a ban on exchange? If this is the case, silver banknotes cannot be exchanged for silver, and there will be no credibility at all!”

Hearing this, Zhu Di in the secret room next door also nodded. He felt that what Li Jinglong wanted to ask was exactly what he wanted to ask.

Zhu Di didn't react before and was led away by Jiang Xinghuo's theory. Now that he thought about it carefully, he felt that this problem did exist.

Xia Yuanji was the one who really understood the meaning of the anchor. Seeing Zhu Di's thoughtful look, he wanted to say something, but finally kept his mouth shut.

Sometimes showing one's professional abilities can gain the emperor's recognition and trust.

But you'd better not appear smarter than the emperor all the time.

This is the survival philosophy of Xia Yuanji, an old bureaucrat.

Otherwise, why when Emperor Taizu Gao was still alive, everyone seemed so ignorant when asked in informal settings about how to manage the country and the people, and how to use magic.

It's not that the officials of the Ming Dynasty who managed the country and benefited the people were not as good as the self-taught Emperor Taizu Gao, it was just that there was no need to refute the emperor and cause trouble for himself in vain.

Bojun smiled.

Jiang Xinghuo was a little surprised: "Who told you that ordinary people can hold silver notes and exchange them for silver with the country?"

"Isn't that true?" Li Jinglong was stunned.

"Of course not!"

Jiang Xinghuo frowned. He didn't remember saying this, and he definitely wouldn't say it.

"The anchor is not what you understand." Jiang Xinghuo asked back: "If the silver banknotes are anchored to silver, it means that ordinary people can use the silver banknotes to find the country to exchange for silver anytime and anywhere. Then it will return to the gold and silver balance of the Yuan Dynasty. Are you on the same old road as Ku?"

Yes, isn’t that going back to the old path of the Yuan Dynasty?

Li Jinglong was completely confused. Judging from Jiang Xinghuo's reaction, he seemed to have misunderstood the concept of anchors, but he didn't know where his misunderstanding was.

An anchor means issuing banknotes at the price of silver. Can banknotes be exchanged for silver in proportion?

Is not it? ? ?

A gust of autumn wind blew by, and Li Jinglong's hair was flying and messy in the wind.

Jiang Xinghuo explained patiently: "One-way anchoring of silver banknotes by the price of silver. This is value anchoring, or from the most superficial phenomenon, it is the anchoring of the price of silver banknotes to the price of silver."

"To put it more deeply, the so-called value anchoring means that silver banknotes reflect the true value of domestic silver in the Ming Dynasty."

"For the Ming Dynasty, silver banknotes are 'currency', and silver is not 'currency'."

"That is to say, you can buy silver with silver banknotes, but you cannot buy silver banknotes with silver!"

Hearing this, Zhu Gaoxu had begun to faint.

Li Jinglong can probably figure it out, but so far, Jiang Xinghuo's explanation still hasn't explained why silver banknotes cannot be directly exchanged for silver.

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "If ordinary people want to use silver banknotes to buy some silver to take home, make jewelry or save, they can do so. The state allows private private transactions of silver, and the price of silver is set by the court with reference to market prices."

"But this does not mean that the country will re-establish a silver balance bank so that people can exchange silver banknotes for physical silver anytime and anywhere."

"The country does not provide official silver exchange!"

Li Jinglong's brain could still keep up for the time being, and he continued to ask questions.

“What if private silver prices fluctuate violently?”

"You still don't understand. Now the silver in Ming Dynasty is already a near-perfect value anchor."

Jiang Xinghuo tried his best to explain in a language they could understand.

"The price of domestic silver in the Ming Dynasty is determined by the stock of private silver, right? As the stock of silver in the private sector increases, the price of silver decreases; if the silver is [hoarded] (the favorite thing of white silver holders) or Casting into jewelry will reduce the stock of silver among the people, and the price of silver will rise."

"No problem." This explanation was easily understood by Zhu Gaoxu and Li Jinglong.

"Then let me ask you, the silver mines in Ming Dynasty are almost exhausted, how can the stock be increased?"

Li Jinglong was stunned.

yes!

If there is no new silver added in the country or very little new silver is added, then the price of domestic silver will be close to constant.

No, it's not constant, but it will appreciate slowly.

Because the scarcity of silver will cause people who hold silver to "hoard" it, which will lead to smaller domestic silver stocks and higher prices.

“Is the price of silver really not going to fluctuate wildly?”

Faced with the same question from Zhu Di, Xia Yuanji remained silent for a few breaths.

"His Majesty."

Xia Yuanji tried his best to explain: "Master Jiang's design is no problem. The price of silver cannot fluctuate at all."

"Why?" Zhu Di was a little confused.

"Because in terms of volume, although the total amount of silver is much smaller than the total amount of copper coins, as long as the state does not intervene, no one can disturb the price of silver. The price of silver is just there, fluctuating a little up and down at most. If someone hoards goods and is not as stupid as a businessman, he is saving money for the national treasury."

Hearing Xia Yuanji's answer, Zhu Di felt relieved.

"You're right, I worry too much."

Zhu Di sighed softly.

As an emperor, what he was worried about was that the price of silver would disturb the price of goods. Now that he was sure there was no problem, Zhu Di himself breathed a sigh of relief.

And what Xia Yuanji said makes sense.

Under a system like the Ming Dynasty, if someone really wanted to hoard large sums of silver to drive up prices, Zhu Di wouldn't mind letting him experience what "it's all my money" means.

Zhu Di would never tolerate such things that would affect the stability of the entire Ming Dynasty's economy and people, even if it was done by a noble at the level of the Duke.

Besides, everyone is not that stupid. Do you do this kind of thing just to make money?

The Gonggun princes above the temple have the power, and they can have as much money as they want. Do they still have to waste time and effort and do such things with their own hands?

At the local level, who has the ability to drive up the price of silver across the country?

Of course, Zhu Di was not afraid of others doing this.

On the contrary, he also hopes to enrich the national treasury.

Just like Kublai Khan killing a fattened tea envoy or salt envoy when he had nothing to do.

Li Jinglong said: "Jiang Lang, I understand that as long as no external silver is imported, the domestic silver price will always be constant, forming a stable value anchor/price anchor."

"Of course external silver must be imported, but the import can only be strictly controlled by the state. Otherwise, it will inevitably lead to a large inflow of silver, impacting the silver anchor, causing domestic silver banknotes to passively depreciate, and causing domestic inflation in the Ming Dynasty."

"Actually," Jiang Xinghuo said reluctantly, "there are two reasons why the country must import Japanese silver every year."

"The first point is to prevent the normal price increase of domestic silver in Ming Dynasty due to the phenomenon that 'things are rare and expensive'. It is necessary to import a certain amount of Japanese silver every year for balance, so as to keep the domestic silver price in Ming Dynasty within a very small fluctuation range. Thus stabilizing the silver anchor.”

"The second point is that the country should control the over-issuance or suspension of currency through the price of the silver anchor based on changes in Ming's ability to create real value."

Jiang Xinghuo explained in detail the second point, which is how the quantity of silver banknotes is controlled based on the price changes of the silver anchor.

"When the country analyzes and judges that the Ming Dynasty's domestic ability to create real value is growing rapidly, that is, when it is necessary to issue more banknotes. It only needs to increase the inflow of Japanese silver into the country. In this way, the value of domestic silver anchors will decrease, and the value of banknotes will decrease. Declining simultaneously, the additional issuance of banknotes at this time will achieve orderly and moderate inflation, which can effectively stimulate the economic and national development of the Ming Dynasty."

"On the contrary, if the Ming Dynasty's domestic ability to create real value no longer grows, or even falls into recession, and it comes time to control the amount of banknotes, it only needs to reduce or stop the inflow of Japanese silver into the country, and the value of the domestic silver anchor will naturally be due to [ As this feature of hoarding increases, the value of banknotes will also slowly rise simultaneously, which can achieve the purpose of raising the value of banknotes and reducing inflation."

"have you understood?"

"I understand." Li Jinglong breathed a sigh of relief.

The secret room next door.

Xia Yuanji looked stunned.

“What is Japanese silver?”

Xia Yuanji turned to look at Zhu Di, but found that Zhu Di didn't look surprised at all.

"Oh, I forgot to tell Xia Qing."

Zhu Di picked up the tea cup and sipped the tea, so that he could leisurely say: "Yesterday, I told the Ministry of Rites to send officials to form an envoy to Japan together with the inner court and Jin Yiwei. Does Xia Qing know?"

Xia Yuanji was frightened by the Jin Yiwei in the Hongwu Dynasty. At first glance, he thought Zhu Di was testing whether he would form a clique for personal gain.

But then I thought about it, and it seemed that there was no need for it. Xia Yuan Ji was a minister, the God of Wealth of the Ming Dynasty, and it was normal for him to know some news about the court.

"I have heard a little bit about it."

Xia Yuanji also picked up the tea cup and took a sip of tea to calm down his shock.

"Yes." Zhu Di put down the tea cup and said softly, "That is to say, Jiang Xinghuo said that there is a silver mine in Japan."

Xia Yuanji nodded and agreed vaguely: "That's it."

"Eight million taels of silver are produced per year."

"Oh, that's not it, pfft."

Xia Yuanji sprayed a sip of warm tea onto the ground, and some of it got on his beard and official robe.

Xia Yuanji didn't even bother to wipe it off and looked at Zhu Di in disbelief.

"Your Majesty, how much do you want to say?"

"Eight million taels. The map has been drawn. It's easy to find. Once we find the place and confirm it is correct, this land will belong to the Ming Dynasty from now on." Zhu Di took another sip of tea.

"Ahem!"

Xia Yuanji coughed violently, his eyes filled with disbelief.

Then, his eyelids started to twitch wildly.

As the Minister of Household Affairs of the Ming Dynasty, Xia Yuanji certainly knew that the silver could not suddenly flow into the country, otherwise it would have a more severe impact on the Ming Dynasty treasure banknotes in the country.

You can let the fleets that sail to the Western Ocean take them to foreign countries, and you can also buy countless good things!

Isn't this equivalent to picking it up for free?

"Your Majesty, you are not joking with me, are you?" Xia Yuanji still couldn't believe it.

Zhu Di asked back: "Do you believe what Jiang Xinghuo said?"

Xia Yuanji admitted honestly: "I believe it now."

"I think it's credible, it's that simple."

After Zhu Gaoxu asked a few more questions, he also said that he understood it.

Seeing that Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu finally understood the operating logic of domestic silver notes with great difficulty, Jiang Xinghuo continued.

"The operating logic of the domestic silver banknote system has been explained."

Jiang Xinghuo paused and said: "Next, let's talk about the operating logic of the foreign 'offshore silver banknote system'."

"Mr. Jiang, what are 'offshore silver notes'?"

Li Jinglong played the role assigned to him by Zhu Di conscientiously.

"It means that silver banknotes should be divided into two types, one is for domestic use, and the other has a special mark on the page and is only used for international trade settlement. In other words, it can only be used as a general equivalent for trade exchange and cannot become a Currency circulating in the country.”

".Can't understand."

Zhu Gaoxu said honestly.

"Mr. Jiang, can you put it in a more understandable way?"

"Can."

Jiang Xinghuo thought for a while and then said: "To put it simply, 'offshore silver notes' are the wooden chips you use to represent money in gambling stalls!"

Then Jiang Xinghuo gave them another metaphor.

With this explanation, Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu probably understood.

To put it bluntly, different people (countries) in the gambling stall (trading place) all exchanged the money they brought (gold, silver, copper) into the same wooden chips (offshore silver banknotes) to talk to the shopkeeper (Da Ming) proceed to checkout.

The shopkeeper collects money from customers and gives out wooden chips. The ratio between money and wooden chips in the gambling stall is different from outside (in the Ming Dynasty).

The proportions in the gambling stalls are the rules set by the shopkeeper himself, and this wooden chip cannot be exchanged for banknotes used outside.

Similarly, the money used to exchange wooden chips will not circulate outside, but will only circulate inside the gambling stalls.

After explaining it to the two gamblers in a familiar way, Li Jinglong asked again: "Then why are there two such complicated systems? Can't one be used universally?"

"Not for now."

Jiang Xinghuo continued: "The reason why two systems need to be established is because domestic silver banknotes are issued anchored at the price of domestic silver anchors. And if there are no restrictions on the silver brought by normal foreign trade, there will inevitably be As a result, a large amount of silver brought by normal trade poured into the Ming Dynasty due to the price difference between domestic and foreign countries."

"The reason is that in order to maintain the stability of the current domestic silver anchor, domestic silver prices will be significantly higher than foreign silver, and there is a lot of room for arbitrage."

"Foreign merchants will use silver that is very cheap for them to buy goods that are very expensive in Ming Dynasty. This will lead to inflation and trade deficit, which is absolutely not allowed."

“Therefore, a silver barrier must be established, and all trade settlements must be settled in the ‘offshore silver banknote currency pool’.”

Xia Yuanji, who was next door, was listening attentively.

Xia Yuanji subconsciously murmured to himself: "Offshore silver treasure currency pool? Is it forming an independent bank for settlement?"

Xia Yuanji swallowed. At this moment, he suddenly felt as if he had touched the door of a new world under Jiang Xinghuo's guidance.

Whether it is the Ming Dynasty's national debt or the inversion of national debt interest rates, or this new set of offshore silver currency pools, the significance to Xia Yuanji is no less than a new life.

——This is a new way of playing ships that has never been seen in the history of China’s economy.

Because Xia Yuanji clearly knows the value of these things and their epoch-making significance.

Xia Yuanji looked at the wall as if he wanted to see Jiang Xinghuo opposite.

Xia Yuanji's heart was filled with strong gratitude and awe.

You must know that Xia Yuanji has received the highest level of education in managing the country and benefiting the people since he was a child. It was just the way of running the country and benefiting the people that Yu Xin taught him, which was inherited from the Song and Yuan Dynasties.

And among those things, there are no new things like Jiang Xinghuo talked about.

Jiang Xinghuo's explanation continued.

"Offshore silver banknotes only play the role of general equivalents. They do not enter the country and become circulating currency. They fluctuate based on the value of international silver."

"If a foreign businessman comes to Ming Dynasty to trade, what he gets after selling his goods is this special offshore silver banknote. Then he can go to the Shipping Department to exchange for silver at the international silver rate. What he gets is not domestic silver. , but the silver that exists in the 'offshore silver currency pool'."

"That is to say, in theory, the trade was completed through the exchange of silver for offshore silver banknotes, but no silver entered the Ming Dynasty. It was all intercepted by the 'offshore silver banknote currency pool' and settled in the pool. Or pay out of the pool.”

"Due to the dominant trade position of the Ming Dynasty, the Ming Dynasty's exports must be far more than its imports. Therefore, the Ming Dynasty's specialty goods, such as porcelain, silk, etc., will be used to continuously obtain silver from foreign countries, and the 'offshore silver treasure currency pool' It must be getting fuller.”

After a series of vivid metaphors about gambling stalls and wooden chips above, Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu have understood what this "offshore silver currency pool" is all about.

Therefore, the two stopped asking stupid questions.

Zhu Gaoxu just asked: "Does it need to maintain the 'offshore silver currency pool' as an independent 'gambling stall'?"

"No need." Jiang Xinghuo shook his head.

"How long will it last?"

"It lasts until the gamblers lose all their money. At that time, the shopkeeper controls most of the money. Even if the overlord clause is changed, the gamblers will be unable to resist."

Jiang Xinghuo said seriously: "In this era, Western countries do not have much silver (the Age of Discovery has not yet begun, and American silver cannot be obtained). Then once the Ming Dynasty uses the 'offshore silver currency pool' to drain the existing silver in Western countries, of silver, Ming Dynasty has completely mastered the world’s silver pricing power, and can take this final step.”

"That is to say, we have signed an agreement with all countries in the Ming Dynasty's trading system. Trade will be settled from 'silver as the actual settlement unit and offshore silver banknotes as the general equivalent' to settlement in silver banknotes."

Hiss~

Li Jinglong and Zhu Gaoxu looked at each other.

Of course they both understand how terrifying this conspiracy is!

What a ruthless gambling stall owner!

Not only must all the money from the gamblers' hands be taken away, but they must also sign a deed of betrayal, and they will not be able to turn around for the rest of their lives!

The two couldn't help but feel lucky for a moment. Fortunately, it was Daming who led this system!

Otherwise, if you have to use other countries' currencies to buy and sell things, and act based on other people's faces, how frustrating it would be!

Jiang Xinghuo looked into the distance.

"From now on, silver banknotes will become the world's currency."

"The inflation of the Ming Dynasty will be transmitted to every country in the world that is within the Ming Dynasty's trade system through the depreciation of silver banknotes, thereby diluting and easing domestic inflationary pressure. It can also allow the economy and people of the Ming Dynasty to use trade Develop handicraft manufacturing and realize a new tax revenue cycle."

The Ba Si Ba Wen silver coin in Jiang Xinghuo's hand rose into the air again.

"Zheng!"

The silver coin bounced into the air, shining with a cold luster in the sunlight.

"With the right to mint the world's currency, the king of any country must rely on the Ming Dynasty to survive. This is the true meaning of what I said before class."

"get out of class is over."

In the secret room next door, Xia Yuanji was stunned for a long time, and he just came out of the new world.

Seeing Zhu Di looking at him, Xia Yuanji said calmly: "I was distracted for a moment, which made Your Majesty laugh."

"How do you feel after listening to this lesson?"

Zhu Di was still drinking tea leisurely. In fact, his knowledge of the economy of the country and the people was not very limited, so he didn't understand many parts and was not so shocked.

Jiang Xinghuo didn't cause any mood swings in him.

Xia Yuanji's answer made ripples appear on the tea cup in Zhu Di's hand.

".I would like to be Master Jiang's lackey in this life."

18,000 words are presented today. Let me repeat the update time again. From now on, it will be fixed at 8pm every night~ I’m afraid some people didn’t see the update instructions. By the way, please give me a monthly ticket! ! !