Before Zhenguan, production levels were low, commercial activities were depressed, and wars continued, so it became even more chaotic.

There is a saying in the Han Dynasty that if a man does not farm or suffers from hunger, if a woman does not weave or suffers from cold, this is a manifestation of low productivity. Most people in the country farm at home, and women have to weave cloth and make clothes for the whole family. It is basically a society where men farm and women weave, and they are self-sufficient.

Because of poverty, there is no surplus. Without surplus, it has nothing to do with money.

In the Southern and Northern Dynasties, wars and chaos were rampant, and the people became even more poor. Everyone was forced to eat and clothing, and they exchanged some necessary goods without money. Sporadic transactions among the people were all bartered.

Chicken and duck, I sent it to the entrance of the village to exchange for large grain. I bought a few kilograms of pork and some needlework, and I also used wheat grain directly.

After Cao Pi took office during the Three Kingdoms period, he even simply abandoned the money. In the second year of Huangchu of Wei, he openly ordered the Wuzhu coins to be abolished, so that the people could use grain and silk as a market. In the south, they still used grain more in the Jin Dynasty.

During the Southern and Northern Dynasties, the use of cloth in the south was even more prominent. In the north, the use of silk gained an absolute advantage, replacing grain and becoming the first trading currency.

When they entered the Tang Dynasty, they all traded both money and silk.

The people barter from goods, while the court imposes in-kind taxes, and collects whatever they plant. There are very few times when using money. Although all the money shortage is serious, life can still be lived.

But after Zhenguan, the currency system was reformed and the industry and commerce were promoted. Later, the tax was not even collected in-kind taxes but money was collected.

The volume of commodity trading has increased significantly, the economic volume has increased greatly, and the demand for money has naturally increased greatly.

The imperial court did not have enough money and copper, so paper money appeared.

When the credit of paper money was in crisis, the court began to mint copper coins again, and even began to mint gold and silver coins.

The current set of metal coins and paper money systems replaced the past strategy of silk and grain and money and silk, and made great contributions to the development of the Tang Dynasty.

Gold coins are used directly for bulk transactions and silver coins are used normally. Ordinary people buy groceries and shopping to get copper coins. Merchants prefer to use money directly, which is convenient to carry and trade.

During the morning court, Changsun Wuji proposed that minting coins belongs to the power of the court, and private coins should be prohibited. It is also stipulated that gold, silver and copper belong to national strategic materials and hushing is prohibited.

When Changsun Wuji said this, Fang Xuanling and other prime ministers were surprised.

Such an important matter should be communicated in the cabinet first, but it is too unruly to raise it directly at the court meeting.

Sudden attack.

"I object!"

Chu Suiliang stepped out of the line directly and opposed it loudly.

Chu Suiliang was once called Youjizhi by Zhang Chao. As soon as Changsun Wuji proposed to take back the right to mint coins, he immediately realized what he wanted to do.

In one aspect, it is certainly a good thing to belong to the court, but on the other hand, Changsun Wuji is about to declare war, and he is going directly towards Zhang Chao.

Besides, the Yuanbao currency that I made was just a transitional currency.

These gold, silver and copper ingots will not be issued all the time.

If the court takes back the right to mint coins, I am afraid that the emperor will not necessarily issue new coins.

"Chu Suiliang, it is my intention to take back the right to mint coins. Tell me, what's wrong with me? What's wrong with it?"

Seeing that Chu Suiliang was the first to jump out to object, Cheng Qian felt disgusting. Seeing that no one helped Changsun, he had to stand up in person.

"Minning coins is the power of the state, how can we make a long-term payment with private individuals?"

All officials were surprised.

It has been a long time since everyone seemed to have gotten used to the ceremony every day. Everyone came and walked around and then went back to their respective yamen.

Everyone was used to the decision of major affairs in the court by the cabinet. Unexpectedly, the emperor stood up in person today.

At first, that's such a big deal.

Who doesn’t know that although there are several coins nowadays, the largest one is Zhang Chao.

Is the emperor going to attack the Zhang family directly?

It seems that there is a lot of fun to watch.

Some of the sleepy officials suddenly became energetic.

Chu Suiliang couldn't find a reason to refute for the moment.

Not to mention that since ancient times, the power of minting has been mostly in the hands of the court. Even if it is not in the hands of the court, what can others say if the emperor really wants to get it. It is like a salt monopoly. From the Sui Dynasty to the early Tang Dynasty, salt was allowed to be mined and sold by the people, and there is no salt tax added.

But later, the court said that it would be a specialty for salt. If the people wanted to dry salt, they had to apply for a license at the court's office, and they had to pay a contract fee. If they dried salt, they had to pay business income tax or something.

Then the salt that was exposed cannot be sold by itself, and must be handed over to the court to purchase it uniformly. The court purchased the salt and then sold it to the salt merchant.

The salt merchants could only buy salt from the court. The salt they bought was directly taxed. If they bought salt, it would be equivalent to paying the salt tax on their behalf. If the salt could not be sold, it would be a big loss.

The court collected salt from the salt people at a low price, then increased the price, and sold it to the salt merchants with a tenfold tax, which directly made huge profits. With this, just one salt alone, the court now earns 40 million salt tax a year.

People spend more than ten times more money a year when they eat salt.

Now the emperor is interested in the huge profits of coin minting and wants to take back the right to coin. What can you refute?

Cen Wenben stood up at the right time.

If you can't directly object, then just go around.

"Your Majesty, the imperial court issued ingot money as a transitional currency. Now the situation in various places has improved, the credit of paper money has increased greatly, and the market has stabilized. I think the imperial court can start issuing new coins."

The so-called new coins are to increase the quality of the currency and reduce the denomination.

It turned out that a gold ingot containing only eight coins of gold was worth one hundred jin of copper coins.

The new gold coins are still heavy, but the gold content will reach 88% of the gold content, and the face value will be reduced. A gold coins will be worth twenty stagnant of copper coins. Compared with the gold ingots before the issuance of gold ingots, gold and copper coins still appreciate by two and a half times, but it is no longer as terrifying as gold ingots. A gold coin is equal to 100,000 copper coins, which is indeed too exaggerated. Even if it is a twenty-year-old copper coins, it is equivalent to five thousand copper coins.

The face value of the new silver coins will also decrease, and the quality will be changed to 88%, one ounce weighs one, and one gold is five silver. Compared with the past, gold and silver are 1 to five to eight, the gold and silver ratio has not changed, but one silver value is 4 slabs of copper, and silver and copper have increased by about three times.

Gold and silver to copper both rose by about three times, and the gold-silver ratio did not change.

In the new coins, copper coins will be cancelled as twenty and ten cents, and reserve as two and five cents.

In this way, apart from the depreciation of copper coins, gold, silver and copper have basically returned to the exchange rate at the beginning of Zhenguan.

The advantage of doing this is to prevent the court from squeezing large amounts of wealth from the people by minting coins.

Restoring to the original exchange rate also makes the credit of banknotes more reliable, and it has an important guarantee for the entire Tang Dynasty economy.

Recycling old gold, silver and copper ingots and renamed gold, silver and copper ingots, the profits of coins are no longer so high, and the credit of the currency is stronger.

Seeing that the emperor was determined, Cen Wenben directly used his trump card. He originally planned to implement the new currency system, but now he is a little ahead of time.

Cheng Qian also thought that by recycling the coin rights, he could increase the coin income of 30 million yuan a year. As a result, he was mixed up by Chu Suiliang and Cen Wenben. Even if he recovered it smoothly, the income of 30 million yuan would drop to 5 or 6 million.

This is simply a deliberate attempt to get along with him, the emperor.

When the Zhang family made a lot of money in minting coins before, why didn’t you say that? Now I want to take back the right to mint coins, so you say you want to change the coins.

The gold ingots were changed to gold ingots, the silver ingots were changed to silver ingots, and the copper ingots were changed to copper ingots. Change one word, and all the issued ingots were recycled and recast. After a while, the profit of the coins was reduced by almost 90%.

It's good not to see me.

If you really want to calculate, it would be better not to recycle it. At least the Zhang family made a lot of money and the imperial court collected a lot of money. They could receive 40% of the tax, and they could receive more than 8 million taxes from the Zhang family alone.

It's not what the court earns.

Now, if you take back the coin rights, the amount of coins in a year will remain unchanged, but even if there is no additional tax deduction, you can only make a total of 6 million jin, which will make more than half of the profit a year.

How come this fucking profitable business was made into a loss-making business?

Chengqian couldn't figure it out.

All these prime ministers are fucking hard that they can't get along with me.

He is really in a difficult situation now.

The harsh words about the right to collect coins have been released, and it is not enough not to be taken back at this time. But once it is taken back, it will lose 6 million a year. Isn’t this a ghost?

But Chu Suiliang and Cen Wenben sang together and said that the ingot was changed to Yuan, which had been decided long ago.

It’s all a bunch of ancestors, and they don’t worry about anything.

I'm not for the world.

By the way, it seems that there are also members of Chu Suiliang, Cen Wenben and others in the Zhang family's mint. This is because they cannot get the benefits, and they will not let me get them.

In the end, they gained a good reputation.

Chengqian felt that he underestimated these people, and Jiang was still so hot.

He quickly thought about countermeasures, and he couldn't just forget it, and he couldn't do a loss-making business.

If you want to lose, everyone will lose together.

He was calculating some calculations. After studying with Zhang Chao for many years, he was very good at math and could directly perform mental arithmetic.

If the court does not revoke the right to mint coins and allows private coins, these private people need to obtain a special operating license first and then impose heavy taxes on the mint.

So, isn't it more cost-effective?

If the New Coin can make a profit of 6 million yuan in total in a year, the court will impose a tax on the high point, such as first 50% of his special seigniorage tax, and then 20% of his business income tax, with an annual income tax of 4.2 million yuan.

It seems to be quite good if you don’t have to manage and manage it yourself. If you manage it in gold, silver and copper, you may still make some money.

The court made five million jin a year, and the mint made one million.

Although the court made a million less money, it saved the troubles of management and management. Another advantage was that it had to avoid private casting.

After all the calculations, it’s still a loss.

At least the imperial court could collect more than 10 million taxes and profits a year, but now it has become five million. This is not a loss.

I was unwilling to accept it. I finally thought I had found a breakthrough, but it was a loss-making situation?

He lost tens of millions a year, and Zhang Chao lost twenty million a year, one by one, and it was a way to die together.

After thinking about it, Cheng Qian still felt that at least Zhang Chao was losing more than him. He lost 10 million a year, but Zhang Chao lost 20 million a year.

Besides, if the prime ministers are so determined, the currency will definitely need to be changed. Anyway, if you want to lose money, at least it will make Zhang Chao lose a little.

"Since Chu Xiang Cen is so opposed to the court's withdrawal of the right to mint coins, I will not withdraw the right to mint coins for the time being according to the words of the two prime ministers. In addition, regarding the issuance of new currencies, I also believe that the time has come. The cabinet, Taifu Temple, Shaofu Supervisor, and the Central Bank will discuss the matter of new coins together."
Chapter completed!