When Zhang Mingwei heard Emperor Chongzhen's question, he immediately replied: "The use of face value currency is to directly stipulate what the face value is, rather than to measure it by weight, fineness, etc.!" ”

As soon as he heard this, Emperor Chongzhen immediately thought of something, immediately smiled, and then shook his head and said: "Sir, this has already passed, and the Daming treasure banknote is!" It has been proven that it doesn't work. ”

The Ming treasure banknote was printed in the eighth year of Hongwu, Taizu of the Ming Dynasty. Due to the lack of copper at that time, so Ming Hongwu promulgated the "banknote law" in seven years, set up the treasure banknote lifting division, and then set up papermaking, banknote printing two bureaus and treasure banknotes, two libraries, and issued in the name of Nanjing in the following year.

However, by the Zhengde period, the treasure banknote had actually been abolished. After that, the Ming Dynasty no longer issued paper money.

For this, Zhang Mingwei wrote the Ming Dynasty crossing text, of course he knew, so he immediately replied: "I know the Ming Dynasty treasure banknote, this idea is right, but the practice is wrong, which led to the failure of this currency innovation!" ”

"Oh?" When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he couldn't help but stop, turned to look at Zhang Mingwei, and asked with great interest, "Sir, has a way to bring this Ming treasure back from the dead?" ”

In Emperor Chongzhen's opinion, if you can bring paper money back to life, then there will be no shortage of money in the future, just print it without thinking about it, it will be too easy to get money, of course he is very interested!

The senior officials of the Ming Dynasty who followed behind were also very interested in this topic, and immediately pricked up their ears and listened attentively.

In their minds, it seems impossible to bring paper money back to life. However, Xingguo Gong has done too many impossible things, which gives them confidence, and they want to hear what kind of trick Xingguo Gong has to bring the Daming treasure banknote back to life, which everyone is disgusted with?

I only heard Xingguo Gong reply to Emperor Chongzhen: "Let the Ming treasure money come back to life, this is impossible at least at this stage, at least in a few decades!" ”

"......" Emperor Chongzhen was speechless when he heard it, and he couldn't bring the dead back to life, so what else did he say?

However, he knew that Zhang Mingwei would not talk nonsense, that is, he had misunderstood, and Zhang Mingwei meant something else.

He was still interested in this, so he immediately asked, "What does that gentleman mean?" ”

When Zhang Mingwei heard the question, he glanced at Gu Yinxi and the others behind him, then turned his head to look at Emperor Chongzhen, and said seriously: "The way to use copper coins, silver coins, and gold coins is still metal currency, but it is imitated by the Daming treasure banknotes, and the value is measured by the value!" ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, his brows furrowed slightly, feeling that this was like taking off his pants and farting, was it too much?

However, before he could speak, Zhang Mingwei explained in detail: "This kind of currency is actually to make the people believe that the above value is indeed worth this money, which stems from whether the people believe in the court, that is, the credibility of the court!" However, because there have been Ming treasure banknotes before, because of the incorrect issuance mechanism, the depreciation is too great, which makes the people of Daming have a very big resistance to this currency! ”

Speaking of this, he sighed, if there was no Daming treasure banknote, it would be much easier to innovate the currency system.

However, Zhang Mingwei immediately cheered up and continued to say to Emperor Chongzhen: "Before the change, the imperial court had no reputation, and no matter what you did, the people would not believe it. However, in the past two years, the Ming Dynasty has regained peace and security, and I believe that the people have restored some confidence in the imperial court. On this basis, we need to use some means, and I think we can try the currency system reform again! ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he couldn't help but sigh in his heart, in the previous time, the wind and rain were ethereal, the Ming Dynasty was crumbling, and the will went down, and the bottom was all yang and yin, which was indeed difficult.

Thinking of the great changes in the past two years, he would be strange if he didn't sigh, looked at Zhang Mingwei's eyes, and was a little more grateful, and immediately said to Zhang Mingwei: "Sir, please continue!" ”

Zhang Mingwei listened, and then explained to them in detail: "If this kind of currency value is actually based on paper money, it is naturally the best, and the cost of the imperial court is the lowest. But based on the example of the Ming treasure banknote, it is estimated that it is impossible for the people to believe it. Therefore, the imperial court could take a step back and first use metal instead, and print the denominations of one, two, five, ten, twenty, fifty, and one hundred on gold, silver and copper coins, corresponding to different proportions of gold, silver and copper. This has a certain degree of continuity with the current copper coins and silver, which should reduce the resistance of the people. This is one of them! ”

Hearing this, Emperor Chongzhen felt that he had thought wrong before, this kind of practice could not be regarded as taking off his pants and farting, it was too much.

So, he immediately asked, "What about the second one?" ”

Zhang Mingwei listened, and then replied: "Second, although the reputation of the imperial court has recovered a lot because of the peace in the world, it is a matter of money bags, if you only rely on this, I am afraid that you will not be able to convince the people that this coin is really worth this money." To this end, it is necessary to revise the banknote law and strive for the people's trust in money. ”

"Oh? What do you think you should do? While Emperor Chongzhen asked, Du Yinxi and the others also looked at Xingguo Gong with a little curiosity.

Zhang Mingwei listened, and then talked eloquently: "Correct the reasons for the failure of the issuance of Daming treasure banknotes!" Before the issuance of Daming treasure banknotes, no banknotes, no limit, the circulation of Ming treasure banknotes is more, less return, the imperial court uses banknotes to pay official salaries, purchase people's things, and tax only a small amount of treasure banknotes, and refuse to recover faint banknotes in time, plus the production is poor, easy to forge, so the number of treasure banknotes on the market is too much, greatly exceeds the actual needs of the Ming Dynasty, and the reputation of the Ming treasure banknotes is ...... to be damaged"

Speaking of this, he paused, giving Emperor Chongzhen and the others time to think before continuing: "In addition, the banknote law lacks the necessary stability and continuity. For example, at the beginning of the implementation of the banknote law, it was forbidden for the people to buy and sell gold and silver, and in the second year, it was ordered that the tax grain could be lost in silver; In the ninth year of Hongwu, it was stipulated that the banknote was always folded into one stone, and in the eighteenth year, it was changed to one stone and two hundred yuan; Twenty-seven years of banning money, special banknotes, changing money and implementing the old law, after the ban on money has not been lifted, it has repeatedly minted copper coins. In this way, he backtracked and broke his trust with the people, so the money law was bad. ”

Since the last time Zhang Mingwei saw the unsmooth transaction when he was shopping, according to the memory of his previous life, he asked people to check the relevant records, so he could talk so eloquently.

After saying this, Emperor Chongzhen, Guan Yinxi and others really fell into contemplation and seriously thought about the reasons for the failure of the issuance of Daming treasure banknotes.

This time, after a long while, Emperor Chongzhen raised his head, looked at Zhang Mingwei and asked: "Therefore, the imperial court must implement the banknote law and maintain stability, whether it is issuing new coins or recovering new coins, the imperial court must first approve itself?" ”

"That's right!" When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he smiled and said, "That's what you want to do." Moreover, it is gold, silver and copper as the carrier, which can also make the people not distrust the treasure banknotes. In the future, when the people of the Ming Dynasty really have complete trust in the credibility of the imperial court, they can switch to paper money, which can be regarded as completing the transformation to a credible currency! ”

Speaking of this, he also pointed to the steam locomotive not far away, and then continued to Emperor Chongzhen: "Now the things that shock the world are happening one by one, which can also make the people broaden their horizons, and they believe that the imperial court can do what they thought the imperial court could not do before. ”

Emperor Chongzhen listened, looked up at the steam locomotive, and nodded thoughtfully.

There have been rumors among the people before that they do not believe in new learning, and they do not believe in clairvoyance, ears to the wind, and things that travel thousands of miles a day. But now, the advent of steam locomotives will definitely shock them. In their cognition, they can believe that the imperial court can indeed do things they can't think of, which increases their prestige.

Zhang Mingwei continued at this time: "Now that the steam engine has been made, it is equivalent to providing a stable power, for metal currency, it can be issued in a new way, and it can also effectively eliminate counterfeiting, and the issuance of coins will be taken back to the imperial court, and the imperial court will control the total number of coins in the Ming Dynasty, so as to control the stability of the value of coins!" ”

Speaking of this, Zhang Mingwei said to Emperor Chongzhen very seriously: "Currency issuance is a very rigorous science. If it is done well, it will greatly improve the people's peace and contentment, and it will have an unimaginable positive effect on Zhongxing Daming. And if there is a problem with currency issuance, it will seriously affect the stability of the Ming Dynasty! ”

When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he felt a little exaggerated, others might hesitate, but Emperor Chongzhen was the most unscrupulous, when he said to Zhang Mingwei: "What Mr. said, is it too exaggerated?" ”

"Not an exaggeration at all!" When Zhang Mingwei heard this, he immediately said solemnly, "After the Ming Dynasty whips the law, all taxes in the country will be converted into silver and collected. Although there are great benefits to doing so. But it is precisely this that has become one of the reasons why Daming was so chaotic before! ”

"Impossible, right?" When Emperor Chongzhen heard this, he couldn't help but be very surprised.

This time, including the first assistant of the cabinet, Du Yinxi, also echoed: "Guogong's words, I'm afraid it's alarmist, right?" It's just silver, how can it be messed up with the world? ”

The others didn't speak, but they all nodded. Even Zhu Yujiao frowned slightly, obviously unable to understand Zhang Mingwei's words.

Zhang Mingwei looked around at them and deeply felt that there is still a long way to go in popularizing economics.

So, he said seriously: "I'm not exaggerating at all, there is a lot of knowledge here, I can talk about it a little, and you will probably understand something!" ”

Hearing this, although Emperor Chongzhen still didn't believe it, based on Zhang Mingwei's past, he said suspiciously: "Sir, please speak!" ”

The others also listened attentively with their ears pricked up, wondering, isn't it just silver, how much knowledge can they have?