Chang'an East City, not because it is located in the east of Chang'an City, but is connected to the West City, and is also located in the northwest corner of Chang'an; Because the two cities face each other from east to west, they are called the West City and the East City.

For the people living in Chang'an, and even in the entire radiation range of Chang'an City, counties, townships and villages, the two cities of Chang'an are the main points for obtaining daily necessities.

Guy is a Han law that all commercial activities involving the transaction of money and goods must be carried out in the market, which is a place designated by the government.

In other words, even if a farmer wants to sell the eggs laid by his hens, he must obediently report to the market official and obtain a trading permit before he can sell the eggs in the market.

Just like the scene Liu Hong saw at this time: in addition to the shops established in the market with the long-term permission of the government, the streets of the East City can be seen everywhere with a vegetable basket or a few bundles of dry firewood in front of them.

In such a mixed market, Liu Hong and his entourage suddenly appeared and undoubtedly became the focus of people's attention.

In order to hide his identity, Liu Hong walked into a shop selling cloth without a trace, and looked at the various fabrics displayed in the shop.

Watching Liu Hong and his entourage walk into the shop, which is known for the quality of Shu brocade, the people in the East Market retracted their attention and continued to sell their goods, or choose the daily necessities they wanted to buy.

"Yo! Distinguished guests! ”

As soon as Liu Hong stepped into the threshold, a middle-aged man dressed in a brocade robe, slightly rich, and full of jade wrenches walked in front of him, and said with a sneer: "Shaojun has come to the right place!" ”

"My Shu brocade, in the entire Chang'an City, is also a little famous~"

As he spoke, the man followed Liu Hongdi's footsteps and introduced the cloth in the store in turn.

But after a while, the man's words changed, and he pretended to be mysterious: "These in the store, the young gentleman should not look down on them, why don't you follow the little one to the back of the hall and take a look at Shangjin?" ”

Liu Hong waved his hand with little interest, touched it here, looked there, and asked about the price of various fabrics from time to time.

——In the feudal era when precious metals were the raw materials of currency, cloth was the hard currency that would never depreciate.

Grain will fluctuate with the world, harvest and other factors, just like corn, the Western Han Dynasty could skyrocket to 8,000 yuan at the beginning of the founding of the country, and now it can be sold for 80 yuan; At the end of the reign of Wenjing in history, it fell below 45 yuan.

Even coins have a lot to do – they can be mixed with lead, they can be made smaller, they can be thinner.

Only for cloth, since production does not fluctuate much, its demand will hardly decline.

Therefore, if you want to understand the social situation at a certain point in time in the feudal era, cloth is undoubtedly an important reference.

"How much does this cloth cost eight baht?"

Pointing to the door, the slightly plain yellow burlap, Liu Hong turned his head and looked at the man who was still chattering.

Liu Hong was dressed as a nobleman, and the guards behind him were not like ordinary people, and the man thought that he was the son of a noble family; Seeing that Liu Hong was not interested in Shu brocade embroidered with gorgeous patterns, but asked about the cheapest burlap, the man couldn't help muttering in his heart.

"Shaojun, this coarse linen is used by the countryside to make clothes..."

Before he finished speaking, the man saw Liu Hong's eyes faintly with a fierce light, so he hurriedly changed his words: "Coarse linen, eleven feet and eleven dollars; If you take eight baht, you will have one hundred and forty-two coins..."

The cloth of the Han Dynasty is usually measured in 'horse', and a piece of cloth refers to a strip of cloth that is six feet wide (139cm) and ten zhang long (23.1m).

And the price of cloth, for a long time after Qin Shi Huang unified weights and measures, was very strangely maintained at the price of one foot eleven coins.

Regardless of the rise or fall of other equivalents such as grain and land, cloth stands at the price line of 11 cents per foot as if there would be no inflation.

But anyone with some economic acumen will have doubts about this situation: if prices rise, won't cloth, as an equivalent, be worthless?

Or is it when materials are abundant and prices are falling, and cloth is more expensive?

This is the second purpose of Liu Hong's visit to Dongshi - to understand how the pre-AD financial standard: the 'cloth standard' ensures that its financial status is tougher than the dollar and gold in later generations.

If you don't come to the market today and take a look for yourself, Liu Hong is working behind closed doors in the deep palace, and all he can think of is nothing more than two things: no matter how much changes occur in the world, the output of cloth will never be able to catch up with the demand!

In the war-torn years, the population was naturally smaller, and the number of people with the energy and patience to weave cloth was also reduced, and prices skyrocketed, but the price of cloth could be maintained at 11 yuan per foot when the supply exceeded demand, and the price did not rise.

This is because: when everyone can't eat enough, a piece of cloth is far less expensive than a bowl of rice!

There is no cloth, no clothes to wear, and the left and right are only worn in tattered or cold; If you don't eat, you will lose your life!

In the Taiping era, the people lived and worked in peace and contentment, although not every household had surplus food, but most people could still eat food; Women in their spare time can also spare time to weave and sell cloth to subsidize their families.

At this time, relative to the gradual decline in the price of the rest of the equivalents, the price of cloth is not reduced while the output is rising?

This is because: the goal of having a full stomach is achieved, and the next pursuit of the people is to dress warmly, and even dress well and dress decently.

And the world is too peaceful, without the containment of family planning, the population will inevitably rise exponentially; And the output of cloth has broken through the sky, and it is only half a month of busy work for every skilled woman to weave a horse.

What's more, the raw material of linen: ramie, needs to be planted and occupy the cultivated area!

Therefore, no matter how large or small the population of the world is, before the advent of mechanized textiles, the output of cloth will always be maintained at the subtle point of 'just not being able to meet the demand'.

Therefore, the cloth will be manipulated by manipulation, strangely maintaining a price; The common people are also accustomed to selling every foot of burlap for eleven dollars.

Based on this, cloth can become the equivalent of the feudal era.

Even in times of war, or in remote places, the credibility of cloth will be higher than that of copper coins, second only to gold!

In this regard, Liu Hong naturally does not look at it with an appreciative attitude - in Liu Hong's planning, agricultural development is the first thing to be done in the future; With the steady improvement of the level of agriculture, the textile industry will inevitably develop passively.

The output of cloth will also increase with the development of manufacturing technology; One day, the 'short supply' of cloth will be broken.

When cloth can no longer serve as a stable financial standard, the country's economic order will become extremely fragile; Any gossip, or natural or man-made disasters, is likely to destroy the financial order and return the world to the ancient era of barter.

Therefore, Liu Hong needs to start planning now, find a substitute for the cloth, to serve as a reference for financial equivalence, and insert a needle for the financial order.

In the vast majority of feudal dynasties, and even in modern times, precious metals were used as equivalents.

Such as the copper from the Warring States period to the Han Dynasty, the silver after that, and the gold that will never depreciate.

Liu Hong could only choose a sufficient amount of copper from the precious metals possessed by the Han Dynasty.

This may be strange: the coins of the Han Dynasty, originally made of copper, were not enough to serve as currency or equivalent references?

Originally, yes.

But since the grandfather of the original owner, Emperor Liu Bang of the Han Dynasty, patted his head and implemented the three-baht coin, the credibility of the copper coin has been completely damaged.

——Just as Fang Cai, the shopkeeper of the cloth shop said, eight baht coins are 'eight coins', and the reason why the shopkeeper recognizes an eight-baht coin refers to 'eight coins' is because eight baht coins are indeed as heavy as eight baht!

Eight baht coins are eight baht copper!

Although it may actually contain impurities, at least more than half of the copper content is guaranteed.

Then why can't the three-baht money issued by Liu Bang be recognized by the market, and even mess up the financial order of the Han family, and even the emperor can't find eight horses of the same color, and the prime minister can only take an ox cart to the court?

Because Liu Bang stipulated: The purchasing power of a three-baht coin is equivalent to the popular Qin half tael coin at that time!

And Qin's half a tael weighs a full twelve baht!

What's even more speechless is that the three-baht coin issued by Liu Bang, not to mention half of the copper content, can't be seen to be a copper coin at a glance - copper, how can there be silver-white?

It's clearly lead!

Regardless of the quality, Liu Bang said that the money weighing three baht has a face value of twelve baht, and the people dare not disobey, what should I do?

It's simple, what was originally sold for one dollar, now it's good to sell for four dollars.

In this way, there will be no losses.

In this way, the Han family has quadrupled inflation overnight! Copper, on the other hand, depreciated to a quarter of its original value overnight.

The people, who felt that copper was worthless, hurriedly threw the copper coins in their hands into the market in exchange for more valuable cloth, grain, livestock and other materials to avoid the depreciation of property.

A few days later, except for Liu Bang's three-baht coin, there was no more goods in circulation...

In private, the people were reluctant to exchange the cloth, grain and other hard currency in their hands for three baht coins made of lead with a silvery-white luster; In this way, the monetary system, which began to appear in the Zhou Dynasty and gradually developed after that, was replaced by the 'barter' of ancient times after a lapse of 400 years.

After Liu Bang's death, Empress Lu came to power and felt that the country was poor and weak, so he carried out a correction of the financial order - deposing the money of three baht and the bank of eight baht.

Compared with the weight of three baht, the appearance of three baht with a face value of 12 baht and eight baht is undoubtedly more acceptable to the market; Lu Hou didn't play hooligan - the face value of eight baht is eight baht, and the weight determines the face value.

However, in order to wipe Liu Bang's buttocks, Empress Lu could only reluctantly add a supplementary regulation - as long as it is not completely broken, the inscription on it can still be seen clearly, and it is not completely a lead coin, which has a face value corresponding to its weight; If you refuse to accept it, you will be fined four taels.

Generally speaking, the state no longer mints three-baht coins, and three-baht coins no longer have a face value of twelve baht, but the existing three-baht coins still have a face value of three baht.

This made the currency market of the Han dynasty unable to be unified for a long time, and the market was flooded with eight baht coins of Lu Hou, three baht coins of Emperor Gao, and half two coins of Qin; Even the more distant Warring States sword coins are still circulating in the market.

Historically, this situation continued until the reign of Emperor Wu, when the Han currency was unified with the appearance of the five-baht coin, which was full of color and weight, and had no 'attached' denomination.