As the supreme ruler of the race, Shi Rui certainly knew that the official currency was extremely low in silver.

This is also impossible.

Monetary reform is not as simple as saying it. This requires two requirements: one is sufficient supply of goods from the market, and the other is sufficient currency.

The commodity itself is not a big problem. The lions have two high-yield crops, potatoes and corn, which have already gained the upper hand when trading with other tribes. Although the fabric of the deer tribe is also an important strategic material, it must be placed behind the grain. The reason is very simple, people can not wear clothes but cannot eat.

Shi Rui spent many years to build a relatively wealthy class within the Lion Clan. As the number of businessmen continued to increase, he began to worry about another problem: currency.

The source of gold and silver is very single. Apart from searching for mineral veins within the territory or discovering a large amount of "ancient gold" in a special place, it can only be exchanged from other tribes in the form of commercial trade.

Many years ago, Shi Rui calculated that with the gold and silver reserves of the Lion clan at that time, it was impossible to create enough money to maintain a huge market.

Fortunately, he found a solution from the clay template of the royal archives.

That is to issue tokens.

Shi Rui's understanding of economics can only be considered ordinary. But he is very clear about the huge driving effect of tokens on the business atmosphere of the entire ethnic group. To put it bluntly, it is actually the issue of the trust of the middle and lower-level civilians in the upper-level rulers of the ethnic group. As long as they feel that tokens have the same status as gold and silver, they recognize and accept it, even if the token is a piece of shit, people will rush to put them in their pockets as treasures.

Shi Rui was very cautious and tried to issue some tokens. Considering the possible quantity and cost of issuance in the future, he asked the royal mint to minimize the silver content, mix a lot of lead, mix other metals, cast it in a template and cool it into molding, and then sand it and then put it on the market.

This token is novel in style, with a lion king's avatar carved on both sides. It is very popular among merchants. It has gradually entered other tribes with various business activities and has become an important basis for value for goods transactions.

Previously, some people have suggested that the token does not contain gold and silver may lead to market chaos. Shi Rui did not care about this. From the initial cautious use to now, the Lion currency has accumulated enough credit. It has the characteristics of stability and regularity, and may depreciate or appreciate with changes in the market economy, but it will never collapse.

The cruel reality is like an invisible weird hand, whipping Shi Rui's face hard.

Merchants flocked to the official store and the city lord's mansion, demanding that the tokens in their hands be exchanged for gold and silver.

The chaos quickly affected civilians. They were even more panicked than merchants, fearing that the money in their pockets would turn into scrap iron, so they desperately searched for goods to buy in the market. Even items that were not needed at all at all had to grit their teeth and forcefully buy them.

The Lion King and the National Master fell into silence for a long time.

They are the supreme rulers of the tribe, and they cannot be used to deal with other people... Looking at the entire lion clan, there are few smart people who understand the value relationship between tokens and gold and silver. Letting them deal with it will only make the situation worse.

After a long time, the national teacher made a stereotyped and hoarse voice: "This is a conspiracy against us. In fact, many people know that tokens do not contain silver. We have mentioned this more or less in various occasions before. Letting the public accept tokens is a long-term behavior, and it cannot be explained clearly in two or three sentences. In fact, even if we make everything public, not many people will care about the connection. Civilians... as long as tokens can be spent and can buy food and cloth, they will not object to this."

Shi Rui, who is 56 years old this year, swallowed his throat: "It should be done by the Dragon Clan. Someone has used the so-called "water detection method" before. I heard that it seems to be the lord of Panshi City, the current regent of the Dragon Clan."

Wu Kuan, who was the same age as the Lion King, frowned deeply: "It's meaningless to say this now. The time they chose was too good. It was impartial, just around the autumn harvest. According to previous practices, cities in various places had to collect autumn grain and put them into warehouses. Now, it was a mess in Liuyun City, and civilians from all over the country were unwilling to take out the grain to pay taxes, but instead used to replace them with tokens."

Shi Rui stared at the silver coin placed on the coffee table and said nothing.

In the past, there was a practice of civilians using tokens to replace grain tax. But that was based on the strong credit of tokens. Now, almost everyone in the entire Lion Clan has lost confidence in tokens. It is just a piece of exquisitely minted scrap iron, which cannot be eaten or worn.

The chaos has affected Roaring City. Many merchants refuse to accept tokens, and existing transactions on the market use gold and silver, and many people even return to decades ago to barter.

Wukuan raised his head and looked at Shi Rui with a tentative look: "Your Majesty, why don't we release some of the reserved gold and silver first to meet the merchant's requirements and repay the tokens in their hands?"

Shi Rui sat there motionless, his dull voice mixed with sarcasm: "You can say such things. Once you announce the repayment of gold and silver, they will squeeze through the gate of the palace. There have been too many tokens issued in recent years, at least seven times the existing gold and silver reserves. In addition, even if the merchants' requirements are met, what should the civilians do? They have more people and hold much more tokens than merchants."

"It's easy to deal with civilians." Wu Kuan had already considered this issue, and he smiled slightly: "We have sufficient food reserves, and no matter how messed up below, it will not affect the ethnic base. Just use grain instead of gold and silver to exchange it! This will also allow the old grain of previous years to be exchanged. As long as we recognize the circulation of tokens, civilians will not complain."

"This is not as simple as you thought." Shi Rui sneered: "I have thought about the method you said before. To be honest, it may not work, and it has big loopholes."

Wu Kuan was stunned for a moment and asked hurriedly: "Why?"

Shi Rui sighed: "We can collect sufficient grain tax every year because of corn and potatoes. You should know that the prices of grain from both internal and external are different. The prices we collect from civilians are very cheap, but they are very high to sell to other tribes. Especially in winter, it is the best trading season of the year."

After all, Wu Kuan was the national teacher, and he immediately understood: "Your Majesty, what do you mean is that civilians only recognize the price of food they usually purchase?"

Shi Rui nodded heavily: "We are the only tribe on the northern continent that is not affected by food. The deer tribe buys a large amount of grain from us every year. The deer king is an old slippery man. He insists on using cotton and linen to trade and refuses to accept our practice of judging the price of tokens. Since he doesn't want to, I can't help it. Then raise the price of grain sold to the outside world, and it must be sold by the official. In short, the deer tribe has not been able to take advantage of this business, and we can also digest the excess grain and exchange it for the fabric needed every year."

"There are also pigs. It's a good deal to hire them to help fight with food! Although these guys are a little ugly, they are indeed good at fighting. They are tall and big, and they are simple-minded. They dare to fight and fight. They dare to rush to the arrow formation of the Eagle tribe with wooden shields... To be honest, if they were not concerned about the feelings of other people in the tribe, and as the buffer between the Cattle, Tiger, Deer and Eagle tribes, I would have pulled the Pig tribe in and become a part of our lion tribe."

Wu Kuan curled his lips and said nothing.

He and Shi Rui were old friends of the same year, which is also the standard rule model of "tribe leader and national teacher" common in many tribes. Only by being familiar with each other can we reach a consensus on many issues. However, what Shi Rui said just now can only make the wizard laugh at the sparse population of the Pig tribe, with only a few hundred thousand people. This kind of small tribe has no advantage in the chaotic tribe war. The reason why the Pig tribe has been stuck in various tribes for a long time remains relatively stable, on the one hand, it is because of the Pig people themselves.

They are very edible. All pigs are big eaters, whether they are elderly or children, women or patients, and their huge appetite is amazing. If you didn't see it with your own eyes, you would never have imagined that so much food would disappear in the middle of some open and closed lips in just a few minutes, and be tightly packed into it by something called "belly".

They are irritable and start fighting whenever they have disagreements. Even within the Pig tribe, gathering armed forces is common. There is an old saying that goes crazy and even I feel scared. Pig people are like this. They only recognize their fists, and those who can beat them deserve respect.

The other is the extremely bad hygiene habits and the rude and ignorant that cannot be described in words. The pig village is probably the dirtiest place in the world, with sewage flowing everywhere and feces everywhere. In addition, their rude nature makes it feel like a group of uncivilized savages.

"It's really surprising! Dragon clan... He was a member of the Niu clan at that time, and was just a mere city lord. He actually had the courage to use food to buy traitors among the pig clan, and then launched a full-scale war against the entire pig clan. To be honest, I didn't understand at first, until the Fangya City was in a hurry, and I finally understood the importance of the pig clan. But it was too late at that time. He killed the Pig King, fought a beautiful ambush, and captured a large number of prisoners."

Wu Kuan knew that Shi Rui was talking about the regent of the Dragon Clan, and also knew that Shi Rui's feelings had not yet ended, so there was still some information.

"The reason why I didn't send a large army to attack the territory of the Niu tribe was due to several considerations. First, the relationship with the Niu tribe is not worth turning against the pig people. We need their armor and weapons, and they also need our food. Secondly... I think the pig people are an unstable factor. It is definitely difficult to digest if the cattle tribe swallows so much at one time. Just feeding them is a problem, let alone transforming them into the same tribe."

Wu Kuan was deeply touched by this and agreed very much: "The pigs eat a lot and are rough-minded. If it weren't for this, they would have been destroyed by other tribes long ago, and it would have been impossible for that long."

"Yes..." Shi Rui sighed a long sigh, with a little regretful expression, and a little envious: "After that, the reaction of the Cow tribe people was similar to what I thought. They bought a large amount of grain and transported it back to Panshi City to support those pig people. We also made a lot of money through this kind of business. Panshi City does have many good things: cider, cheese, salt, dried fish, pickled venison... In addition, it is peat."

The wizard suddenly became serious. As the national teacher of the lion clan, he knew very well the meaning of the word "peat".

In the past few years, a large amount of peat from the cattle tribe has poured into the cities of the Lion tribe. From being initially refused to be accepted by the general public, every household has to use peat and spend money to buy it every month. Even the situation is surprising to the changes.

The initial business was "Shengxinglong". However, the owner of the business was very clear. He did not have this unique piece of fat meat, but instead brought more people in to help contact the supply from Panshi City. In this process, many of the Lion Clan's powerful people were brought in, including several cousins ​​of the Wuqun and two uncles of the Lion King.

"I'm not saying peat is bad." Shi Rui said seriously: "This thing is indeed very useful, and it's more resistant to burning than firewood. Although "Shengxinglong" is an industry of the Dragon tribe, it abides by the law and has never lost any taxes it should pay. I always thought that the Lord of Panshi... Well, the current Regent of the Dragon tribe is the same as mine. He thought that his idea was the same as that of me, and he wanted to fully implement the monetary system, so he sent a special person to form "Shengxinglong" and exchange peat for our food."

A trace of doubt appeared in Wukuan's eyes: "Your Majesty, you just mentioned the pig man, and now you talk about peat again. Could it be..."

Shi Rui nodded slowly: "You are right, there is a necessary connection between the pig man and peat. In our opinion, the pig man is full of shortcomings, and only the young dragon regent would treat them as treasures. I also discovered later that this is indeed his reason. He only left a small number of pig man plowing the fields and farming, and most of the pig man were sent to work in the mountains. He either dig stones or peat, and he had to build roads... In this way, the time for transporting peat from Panshi City was shortened, the commodity trading speed was faster, and the pig man could be managed most effectively."

Wukuan took a deep breath and said with emotion: "Double squeeze on pigs from the mental and physical aspects. Through heavy physical labor, they are tired and have no intention of going to other things. Anyway, there is no need to worry about selling peat. When the cattle people trade with us, they only need food. In this way, it is equivalent to feeding the entire pigs for them with our food."

Shi Rui turned his body, covered his chin with his left hand, stroked his cheeks back and forth, and looked back and forth on both sides of his rough cheeks, and his face showed deep thoughts: "In the past, my focus was only on currency itself. The Regent of the Dragon Tribe taught me a lesson. If we could change our minds at that time and look at the Pig Tribe from a different perspective, we would now have the advantage and we could still get the best heavy infantry in the world."
Chapter completed!