In a corner of the mint, in the meeting hall, Yu Wen Wen was teaching his three sons a secret to the unscrupulous businessman... Economics knowledge, because it is of great importance, only four of him, father and son were present, and the rest were all avoided.

Before the lecture started, Yuwen Wen asked his sons to calculate the numbers.

The weight conversion system passed down from the Han Dynasty was that one pound was equal to sixteen taels, one pound was equal to twenty-four zhu, so one pound was equal to three hundred and eighty-four zhu. This is the conversion of weight unit pounds, liang, and casting.

Then there is the price.

The price of one kilogram of copper now fluctuates between 80 and 100 quins. Take the intermediate value, that is, the price of each kilogram of copper is 90 quins.

Similarly, one pound of copper (384 zhu) is used to cast Wuzhu coins. Considering the loss (i.e., fire consumption, measured at a 10% discount), it can be roughly 69 Wuzhu coins.

A pound of copper of the same weight is sold as copper material and can be sold for 90 cents. After making it into copper coins, the face value is 69 cents. With such an obvious price difference, no amount of copper coins are enough, because there will be illegal people who melt the money as copper materials to sell it for profit.

If the copper weight in this Wuzhu coin is only four zhu (80% of the copper content), it seems that it is not a loss to cast eighty-six Wuzhu coins if they are deducted. However, such Wuzhu coins will be considered inferior to the people.

If you use this kind of inferior money to buy copper, the originally sold for 90 cents per kilogram (based on good money), the vendor will charge at least 110 cents (based on bad money).

Eighty-six essays vs. one hundred and ten essays, but it still loses.

The demand for copper has always been strong in all parts of the world, and in order to mint coins, the imperial courts of all dynasties had to implement a copper ban of varying strength. This has led to a shortage of copper and a rise in copper prices.

Copper coins of good quality have become the most direct and easy-to-get copper source among the people. A large amount of good money has been melted into copper ware.

On the one hand, the court tried its best to mint coins, while on the other hand, the people tried their best to melt money. As one went up and down, the more copper coins the court issued, the more they lost.

This is a vicious cycle, and there is no solution for a thousand years, but what Yuwen Wen wants to talk about now is not this problem, just let his sons remember these few numbers.

Next, he still talked about prices, this time he talked about the price of silver.

It is usually believed that the price of silver is about one tael of silver and one thousand ci, that is, one tael of silver is exchanged for one thousand ci (constantly) copper coins, but in fact, because silver produces less than copper, the price of silver is priced at 1,000 ci but not at the market.

The silver prices vary from place to place. In general, the silver price (transaction price) on the market must be at least about 1,200 to 1,300 cents. For the sake of calculation, it is still calculated based on one or two silver taels of 1,000 cents (consistent).

Yuwen Wen asked his son to remember this number again, and then began to point out the "key".

Now, Mingde Tongbao coins are exchanged one to one for Wuzhu coins, that is, two to four silk coins are exchanged one to one for Wuzhu coins, and the imperial court has invisibly taken advantage of it.

Then, a "gold and silver mo" was exchanged for one hundred Mingde Tongbao, and another advantage was taken invisibly.

But the premise of taking advantage is that "gold and silver" can be circulated, and people are willing to use "gold and silver". However, for ordinary people, they do not need a large amount of money worth 100 cents in their daily lives.

Even if it involves transactions that are price-dependent, the people will inevitably tend to use "traditional" consistent money rather than "Ten Mo coins".

People will not be willing to use "gold and silver" if they cannot use it, so they have to find ways to make the rich use "gold and silver" money so that the court can really gain advantage.

To put it nicely, it is to find a way, but to put it bluntly, it is to put it in a trap, so that the rich can fall into the trap and be taken advantage of by the court.

There must be bait when you put the trap. The bait prepared by Yuwen Wen is silver, a trap called "Silver Exchange".

As the name suggests, the Silver Exchange is a trading place that specializes in buying and selling silver. In the Silver Exchange, people can use it and can only buy silver with coins.

This place is currently temporarily set up in Guangling, Yangzhou.

Why is it located in Guangling, Yangzhou?

Because the next European European region of Guangling is the estuary of the Yangtze River, which is convenient for sea and water transportation, sea ships returning from Japan can transport a large amount of Japanese silver to Guangling in great detail.

That's right, the silver sold on the Guangling Silver Exchange comes from Japan, and the price of silver is ten mo per catty (gold and silver mo) and you must pay the bill with gold and silver mo.

Silver is much more stimulating to people than copper. With a place where you can buy silver directly, you can imagine that there is no need to worry about selling silver here.

In this way, a strong demand for "gold and silver" was created artificially.

So where does "gold and silver road" come from?

Use "Mingde Tongbao" to exchange it for it.

The silver price of Guangling Silver Exchange is based on the "Mingde Tongbao" currency system, and the annual silver supply is more than one million taels, all of which are obtained from Beiyang Trading Company's transactions from Japan.

With the help of Beiyang Trading Company, Japan greatly improved its mining and smelting technology, so silver production increased greatly. Beiyang Trading Company earned a large amount of silver from Japan every year.

The average silver handed over to the state treasury is about 1.3 million taels per year, which greatly alleviates the tension in fiscal revenue and expenditure.

If the silver exchange system is implemented now, it means that the court has invested a lot and left a small part of the silver that has finally been earned. The remaining silver is sold in the Guangling Silver Trading.

One million taels of silver sounds like a lot, but there is no limit on the demand for silver among the people. One million taels of silver is "distributed" to the people every year, and it is not too much to say.

So the three brothers Yuwen didn't understand what this was.

The son couldn't understand, and Yuwen Wen was not in a hurry and began to patiently analyze how his "trap" worked:

The first step is that merchants need to exchange the "Mingde Tongbao" with a very good Wuzhu coins (good money). This step can be carried out all over the country.

The second step is to exchange "Mingde Tongbao" for "Gold and Yinmo". This step can only be carried out in a few large and commercial cities across the country, including Guangling.

After these two steps, the court actually took advantage of "one and three", that is, to exchange one portion of copper for three portions of copper from private people (merchants).

Third, folks use "gold and silver" to buy silver in Guangling.

The weight of a gold and silver mo is similar to that of "Mingde Tongbao", containing no more than two zhu copper, and ten "gold and silver mo" copper is not more than twenty zhu copper.

Ten "Gold and Silver Mo" are worth one thousand documents, and you can buy one or two silver taels.

If this silver is bought with five zhu coins (good coins), it will be one thousand ci, including at least 4,500 zhu copper.

In other words, with the help of the new currency system and the silver exchange, the imperial court used twenty parts of copper to exchange 4,500 parts of copper in the hands of private people, which was a one-to-two-five-year exchange ratio.

If it is exchanged for currency, it means issuing big money that is "one for two hundred and two".

If you directly issue big money "one to two hundred and two", Yuwen Wen will be cursed by the people of the world and will not die well. Such big money will have a short lifespan and will not last a few years.

But if you change the form, Yuwen Wen will not only not be cursed and will not die well, but also "gold and silver" will be in short supply, because the temptation of silver is too strong.

Yuwen Wen revealed to his son that the court had to rely on "gold and silver" to make profits. Now he introduced how to trap rich people.

After hearing this, the three brothers Yuwen seemed to understand, but they didn't seem to understand.

The part that I can understand is that the court (father) uses silver trading as bait and puts a Ming trap, so that the rich people can find ways to exchange for "Mingde Tongbao" in order to buy silver, and then use "Mingde Tongbao" to exchange for "Gold and Silver Mo", and are willing to be taken advantage of by the court (father).

This is an open conspiracy, a dignified trap, waiting for the "prey" to get in and willingly enter.

There are many parts that I can't understand. The biggest question is: One million taels of silver every year are nothing more than tempting merchants to exchange for the "gold and silver road" with a face value of one million coins. This is not much?

It is better to put more than one million taels of silver in the treasury every year than to sell it?

The imperial court has more than one million taels of silver placed in the tent every year, and everyone has a much stronger confidence in the imperial court.

Confidence is hard to buy. If the court has a lot of silver in its hands, it can make everyone have confidence in the court. As a result, some people want to sell the silver for money. Do you have a brain...uh...

The son cannot say that his father is not. The three brothers find it difficult to understand the father's approach of using silver as bait, but they cannot say it out, so they can only complain.

Yuwen Wen could guess what his son was thinking, but the mystery in his conception could not be explained clearly in just a few words.
Chapter completed!