Chapter 67 The two-tier system of silver and copper coins

How many silver taels are in circulation in the Ming Dynasty.

Some estimate that there are 800 million taels.

Of course, this figure is not necessarily correct.

Even Zhu Qizhen didn't know how much silver taels were circulating in the Daming market.

But it didn't hinder it, Zhu Qizhen felt that the time had come to abolish the two yuan.

After all, the Ming Dynasty has minted 40 million silver coins, and a considerable part of them have already been circulated, and with the circulation, it has become common near Beijing.

At this time, with the help of the administrative power of the imperial court, the silver was banned little by little. Complete Zhu Qizhen's long-standing idea of formalizing money.

Zhu Qizhen said: "How much money and interest can you get every year?" ”

Liu Dingzhi's face was embarrassed, and he said: "At most, it's only two million yuan." The interest of the money minted by the imperial court is 20%, but the annual income of the imperial court is 15 million taels of silver, but there are a lot of silver coins, and 10 million silver coins can be minted every year, also thanks to the Sado silver mine. ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Two million taels is two million taels." ”

Liu Dingzhi said: "Your Majesty, if you only need to pass silver coins, there is one thing that you have to think about, that is, the face value of silver coins is too large, and it is inconvenient for the people to use them daily. ”

Zhu Qizhen also knows this.

The monthly salary of a soldier in Beijing is only one tael of silver, and one silver dollar is worth one tael.

The monthly salary of a soldier in Beijing cannot be regarded as a low income in Beijing on the whole, after all, it is too low, who is willing to work for the imperial court, that is, most ordinary people, the money they earn a year is only three or five taels of silver.

Think about your salary for a year, but a few coins, you spend, and most of the time you need change.

But what is the currency that undertakes this change function in Daming?

One is the traditional copper coin, and the other is broken silver.

You must know that the Ming Dynasty is not active in minting money, and the copper coins minted by the Ming generation are not as good as the Song Dynasty.

Although Zhu Qizhen valued the minting of money during the Zhou Chen period, the Ming Dynasty lacked copper, although it was made of local materials in Yunnan, and the annual minting was only a few hundred thousand.

for a tael of silver and a thousand copper coins.

Even if the price fluctuates, it will only fluctuate between 1,100 and 900 yuan.

Such a quantity of copper coins is simply not enough for the needs of the people of the Ming Dynasty. In addition, there were not many copper coins minted before the Ming Dynasty, which was completely insufficient for the daily use of the people.

Therefore, broken silver has become the other most circulating money.

In fact, most of the people rarely saw a single ingot of silver, and all they saw was broken silver.

It's not easy to just increase the production of copper coins. The lack of copper in the Ming Dynasty is well known.

Zhu Qizhen has more than once, and ordered Shaofu to prospect for mines in various places, and the requirements for copper ore are also very high.

Zhu Qizhen said: "In Qing's opinion, dang."

How to dispose of it? ”

Liu Dingzhi said: "In the opinion of the minister, why don't you use silver to cast a small coin, as a hundred Wen, or as a five hundred Wen?" ”

Zhu Qizhen pondered for a while and said: "Let's put this matter aside for a while, first start minting a large number of silver coins, and mint all the silver taels in the imperial court into silver coins, and from now on, the imperial court will not collect silver taels." ”

Before Zhu Qizhen only dared to advocate the use of silver coins, after all, there were not many private silver coins in the Ming Dynasty, and even the first batch of silver coins created by the imperial court were collected by most people because of their exquisite casting and water conservancy forging.

Even now, there are more silver taels in circulation in the Ming market than silver coins.

But after all, with a casting volume of 40 million taels, there is naturally something that cannot be hidden.

Zhu Qizhen discussed other small matters with you. Li Shi said: "Your Majesty, the minister has just received news from the Ministry of Rites that there is turmoil in Japan. ”

"Oh?" Zhu Qizhen raised his eyebrows, somewhat expected, and beyond expectations. said: "What is the specific situation? ”

Li Shi said: "The minister doesn't know, it's just that the Japanese envoy has arrived in Beijing and seems to have asked the court for help." ”

Zhu Qizhen said: "Spread the clouds and thunder. ”

The Jinyi guard commanded Yun Lei to immediately go to the palace. Zhu Qizhen saw Yun Lei and asked directly about the situation in Japan.

Yun Lei said: "Your Majesty, at the end of the thirty-first year of orthodoxy, that is, last winter, the Japanese lord Ashikaga Yoshimasa changed one of the three rulers and intervened in one of the successions. I wanted to remove the power of the Ashikaga Yoshimi faction, but the Hosokawa family sided with Ashikaga Yoshiko. ”

"It's been officially broken."

"With the support of the Hosokawa family, the Hatakeyama family officially sent troops to Joraku, and Japan has been divided."

Zhu Qizhen said: "Why don't you report it? ”

Yun Lei said: "Please forgive Your Majesty, Jinyiwei has too few people in Japan, and after the chaos, traffic has also been restricted, and the news has just been sent back." ”

Zhu Qizhen also knows the speed of intelligence dissemination in this era, which is what it is.

Jinyiwei's intelligence is not as good as that of Japan's envoys asking for help, which is also a normal thing.

A burst of joy in Zhu Qizhen's heart was about to explode.

China lacks gold and silver, Japan does not lack, China lacks copper, Japan does not lack. If all this can be obtained from Japan, it will be an excellent benefit to Zhu Qizhen's change.

In modern times money is nothing more than a piece of paper and is likely to be at risk of depreciation, but in ancient times gold and silver were symbols of wealth.

The continuous inflow of gold and silver will naturally lead to economic development.

It seems that in the late Ming Dynasty, the inflow of silver from South America made the rich people in Jiangnan rise up.

The economy is improving, to a certain extent, it can alleviate the internal contradictions of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Qizhen started to move, and there were many fewer people who resolutely opposed it.

Therefore, Zhu Qizhen's mind could not be clearer, that is, to insert into the Japanese Civil War.

Zhu Qizhen said

"Let's discuss it, what should Japan do?" ”

"Your Majesty, Japan is a small country, a desert island, and it is not enough to get a rich country, and the soldiers are light once something happens. I am afraid that it will affect the current government and government, please Your Majesty take the overall situation first, and the Japanese envoys only need to send one envoy to reprimand one or two. Wang Yonghe said.

Although Wang Yonghe didn't speak a lot of the time, he couldn't stop talking now.

Quite simply, it's a budget battle.

As soon as Yu Qian entered Beijing, he suggested that Zhu Qizhen repair the gallop road from Xi'an to Yili. Whether or not you can overcome the difficulties and obstacles along the way is one thing, but whether you can repair it is another.

And the route from Beijing to Nanjing has already begun construction.

This route must not be abolished.

So under the auspices of Wang Yonghe, the Ming Dynasty was building two gallop roads at the same time, which can also be said to be one, because the route changed by the imperial court did not allow the one from Beijing to Nanjing to reach the south directly, but from Henan to Shaanxi, after all, together with the gallop road, it was much simpler to transport things from Beijing to the northwest.

Take the pressure off the Northwest route.

But it's all on one dollar.

How much grain there is in the Ming Dynasty now, Liu Dingzhi knows, and Wang Yonghe also knows. In this case, it is enough. But if you add an additional war, it may not be enough.

After all, how much the war will cost is never an unknown.

No matter how much budget is set directly, most of the time it is overspending.

However, the imperial court did not have this money, so it had to pay for the war, so it naturally had to embezzle the funds of other departments, and the most likely misappropriation was that of the Ministry of Industry.

It was precisely when Wang Yonghe saw this that he tried his best to oppose it.

And what he said is not without reason.

Japan is a small country, the imperial army is involved, if it wins, everyone is not surprised, in most people's minds, the Ming army that can sweep the world, fighting a Japan is naturally handy.

But once defeated, it's a big problem.

Although it will not shake Zhu Qizhen's position, if he loses a point here, Zhu Qizhen's authority above the court will be one point less.

If Zhu Qizhen wants to change the law, it will be a little more difficult.

When Wang Yonghe said this, the other cabinet ministers thought about it and divided them into columns and said, "The ministers seconded the proposal." ”

Only Guo Deng stood motionless.

Behind Guo Deng, the prince of the country, there are many young generals who want to go crazy if they want to fight. So he can't oppose the war, and at the same time Guo Deng is not a person without political sense.

In his opinion, if His Majesty hadn't pushed the matter of changing the law so much, Japan would have fought it. But now the court is in turmoil.

There are various opinions, and you don't need to read other major newspapers in Beijing to see the trajectory of turmoil in the government and the opposition.