Chapter 72 The right prime minister’s method!

Li Chong and Li Fei cheated in the examination room, and even falsely accused good people. They were punished twice as much as possible according to the law: they beat the eighty-year-old boards, wore shackles in front of the Ministry of Personnel for six days, and were not allowed to become officials in their lifetime.

The future of the two fat men was completely ruined and became a laughing stock for everyone.

At the same time, through word-of-mouth of candidates, everyone in Chang'an soon learned that a young genius who could become a poem in seven steps was created by the royal family. Li Zhao!

...

On the other hand, Li Shizhi and other examiners spent two days to judge the test papers of more than 900 candidates, and selected 120 excellent ones from them, preparing to submit them to the imperial court.

Of course, the emperor has a lot of things to do every day. It is impossible to read all 120 test papers, just look at the top ten.

But before Li Shizhi set off, the little eunuch from Xingqing Palace came: "The emperor has an order to entrust the left prime minister to enter the palace to discuss matters immediately!"

The emperor has an edict, but he dare not neglect it!

Li Shizhi immediately took the test paper, entered Xingqing Palace with the little eunuch, and headed straight to the Qinzhengwu Building...

"Long live my emperor, long live, long live!"

"Your dear is not given a favor, please sit down!"

"Long live thanks!"

On the main hall of the diligent government affairs building, Li Longji was sitting on the dragon bed, Gao Lishi stood beside him, and under the imperial steps, there were more than thirty high-ranking officials wearing red and purple court robes.

The first person on the right is a man who is nearly 60 years old. His face is as beautiful as a jade, beautiful beard, and extraordinary temperament. He gives people a sense of intimacy!

Who is this person?

He was either someone else, or Li Linfu, the right prime minister of the dynasty, the Duke of Jin, who was called "there is honey on the mouth and the sword on the belly"!

Haha, shocked, I didn’t expect that my chin fell off... The same sentence: There are also good-looking people among the bad guys!

The rest of the rest is the Shangshu’s Right Pushe—Chen Xilie!

Minister of the Ministry of Revenue—Yang Bo!

Minister of Works—Wei Jiansu!

The Censor of the Palace—Luo Xixue!

Jingzhao Yin-Jiwen!

...

There were more than 30 people in total, all of whom were important officials of the third and fourth ranks of the court, among which Li Linfu's party accounted for six or seventeen!

Today, Li Longji summoned his important officials to discuss a major event - money shortage.

Today, the Tang Empire has stable society, prosperous industries, and commerce is also booming. Take Chang'an City as an example. There are no less than 10,000 business and travelers gathered from all over the country. The east and west cities are in full swing every day, and countless goods are sold.

But with the prosperity of commercial activities, the problem of coin shortage has become more and more serious, and it has reached a point where it has to be solved. But how to solve it?

The court also issued some policies, but the results were minimal.

This made Li Longji very depressed, almost at the point where he couldn't sleep or eat. He thought about things every day and night. Therefore, the strategy topic appeared on the test paper for selecting talents.

Of course, Li Longji does not expect those inexperienced candidates to come up with any good solutions. To solve this problem, it must rely on the efforts of the monarch and ministers in this palace to work together!

"Right Prime Minister, you are the most important official of the dynasty. What are your opinions on money shortage?"

At the beginning of the meeting, Li Longji was the first to ask Li Linfu. The latter was obviously prepared. After saluting with his hands, he answered calmly: "Report to Your Majesty, if there is insufficient coins, business will be in a state of sanity, the people will be in peace, and the country will be in prosperity and strength. The old minister was worried about this and thought hard day and night, but he had a little experience.

Nowadays, the coins of our Tang Dynasty are mainly copper coins, so to solve the problem of money shortage, we must start with copper coins. The best way is to cast more coins. However, the number of copper ores in our Tang Dynasty is limited, and most of them are located in the deep mountains. It is extremely difficult to mine and the mining cost is high. Even if a large number of additional personnel are sent, it is difficult to increase the mining volume in a short period of time.

Without more copper ingots, more coins cannot be minted. However, the old minister thought that although the number of copper coins cannot be increased, the value of the currency can be increased. The old minister begged the emperor to issue an order to mint new coins in addition to Kaiyuan Tongbao to solve the problem of insufficient folk coins, and also increase the income of our Tang Dynasty treasury, which can be said to kill two birds with one stone!"

While speaking, Li Linfu took out a memorial and placed it by Gao Lishi on the Long Shu desk. The plan to cast new copper coins in detail was discussed, and several patterns were spent.

Today, Kaiyuan Tongbao is circulating, and the newly designed copper coins have basically not changed in size and weight, but they are five cents, ten cents... There are even fifty cents, one hundred cents, one hundred cents.

In this way, a copper coin from the past can now be used as a few or even dozens of coins, so there is no need to worry about insufficient amount of coins.

It is also beneficial to the country. In the past, 320,000 jin of coins were minted in a year, but now, it is equivalent to millions or tens of millions of coins a year. It invisibly increases the national treasury income. With money, the country can do more things.

"The right prime minister has a very good strategy, I will discuss it!"

"I'm going to discuss it!"

"I'm going to discuss it!"

...

Li Linfu's suggestion to increase the value of the currency was supported by a number of important officials. Even Li Longji nodded slightly, believing that this was a solution to the money shortage.

Unexpectedly, the left prime minister Li Shizhi stood up: "I objected to using the method of increasing the value of the currency to solve the money shortage. This is tantamount to drinking poison to quench thirst. Although it solved the trouble for a while, it would hurt my century-old foundation in the Tang Dynasty. Have you forgotten that during the Three Kingdoms, Shu and Wu minted big money, so that prices soared, public resentment boiled, and eventually led to the demise of the country?"

Li Shizhi not only opposed it, but also listed examples. It turned out that this method of minting large amounts of coins was not the first of Li Linfu's ideas, and someone had done it in history.

In the early years of the Eastern Han Dynasty, during the Three Kingdoms period, after Liu Bei occupied Yizhou, in order to raise money and expand his army to prepare for war, he ordered the minting of a "Zhi Hundred Coins", that is, a copper coin of 100 cents, to replace the previous Wuzhu coins!

Sun Quan of the Eastern Wu was even more powerful and ordered the minting of five hundred big springs, one thousand big springs, two thousand big springs, and five thousand big springs, and was forcibly circulated among the people.

On the contrary, the Cao Wei regime in the north was working hard to restore the Wuzhu coins to stabilize the financial order. Unfortunately, it failed in less than a year and the Wuzhu coins were dismissed again.

Next, Cao Wei started to use grains and brocade as the currency for trading. He would rather let the business state go back hundreds of years than mint large amounts of money. Is it a fool for Cao Wei's monarch and minister? Is it not necessary to put a ready-made method?

No, the monarch and ministers of Cao Wei are not stupid at all, on the contrary, they are even more likely to be a long-term big account!

Crising large coins has advantages and disadvantages, and in the long run, the disadvantages far outweigh the advantages.

For example, when the imperial court bought a cow from the people, the market price was ten cents of coins, that is, ten thousand copper coins.

If you mint a currency like Daquan 5,000, the court would also buy a cow and only pay the people two copper coins.

The question is, can the actual value of two copper coins be truly equivalent to a cow?... This is a disguised economic exploitation. Over time, it will inevitably lead to soaring prices, public resentment, and losing the support of the people. How can such a regime last for a long time?

Historically, the Wu and Shu countries were destroyed by the Wei and Jin dynasties in the north, and the failed monetary policy was one of the important reasons!

"The Left Prime Minister is exaggerating. I suggest that the new coins are not worth much. As long as you are cautious and minting them in moderation, it will only be beneficial to the country and not harmful to it!"

"Hmph, what is the appropriate amount? Craft a little today and another one tomorrow. The number will only increase. Sooner or later, the country will be in crisis. You must know that a thousand-mile dike collapses into an ant hole!"

"The Left Prime Minister is exaggerating. My lord, sages, ministers and wise men of the Tang Dynasty are all polite to govern the country and will never mint coins indiscriminately and harm the people."

"Hmph, the lord is not fake, but the wise may not be. Besides, who can guarantee that the kings of later generations are as wise as the saints?"

...

In the hall, Li Shizhi and Li Linfu quarreled. One firmly opposed the minting of large amounts of currency, and the other believed that the minting of large amounts of currency would not be harmful to the country and could also solve the problem of money shortage.

Everyone has their own opinions and argues endlessly!

On the dragon bed, Li Longji closed his eyes slightly, without saying a word, but he weighed the opinions of the two prime ministers on the left and right in his heart. Who is more favorable?

The money shortage problem is getting worse and worse, and it is impossible not to solve it as soon as possible. Crushing large amounts of coins is a way, but Li Shizhi's worries are not redundant. Is there no way to get the best of both worlds?

On the other hand, it was impossible to refute Li Shizhi, Li Linfu and his followers changed their tactics.

"The left prime minister firmly opposes the minting of new coins. Is there a better way?"

"That's right, I can't think of a solution and I'm unwilling to accept other people's solutions. Could it be that I just watched the money shortage become more and more serious and endanger my Tang Dynasty?"

...

"Hmph, I'm not talented, but there are several ways to alleviate the money shortage!"

"Oh, what good advice does the Left Prime Minister have? I'll listen carefully!"

When Li Shizhi heard that he had a solution to the shortage of money, Li Longji immediately opened his eyes.

"Report to Your Majesty, solving the money shortage is like controlling water. Blocking and blocking is the best strategy, and guiding is the best strategy. I have four ways to help:

First, the gold, silver and copper mines in our Tang Dynasty were scattered all over the country. Some were responsible for local governments, while others were excavated by private parties, and there was no law. Theft was very rampant. Therefore, the old minister suggested that the mining supervision office was set up under the Ministry of Works to be responsible for the country's mineral affairs, and appoint several people from the mining supervisors to divide the localities and supervise mining.

The old minister has repeatedly calculated that if the management is done properly and additional personnel are sent at the same time, the amount of gold, silver and copper mining in the country will increase by more than 30% every year."

Increasing 30% of minerals means increasing the amount of coins minting by 30%. It seems not a lot, but it is not a small number in the country.

"Okay, okay, the Zuo Prime Minister's method is very good. It is time to manage the mineral affairs in various places." Li Longji nodded and was very satisfied with Li Shizhi's first method.

(End of this chapter)
Chapter completed!