When Zhang Xun walked in and sat in the corner of the public hall with a thoughtful expression, spread out the paper, and lifted the pen, the noise and laughter in the room could be regarded as the prelude, and the meeting really began.

Li Ze looked at everyone and said: "Today's first topic is to talk about the general equivalents of our Wuyi, in the past, we have been implementing that all prices are linked to grain, this is because when we were just established, there was a shortage of grain, and we had to take measures in order to ensure grain prices and maintain stability, but now, time has passed, and under our rule, a large amount of land has been reclaimed, and grain has basically achieved self-sufficiency, and then we have adopted grain price subsidies to maintain low grain prices. First, it is a lot of consumption on top of financial resources, and secondly, the grain is cheap and hurts the peasants, how is the investigation done by the household department in this regard? ”

Xia He opened the file in front of him and said, "Childe, after investigating all the areas under our rule, the household department has learned that now except for places such as Monan Mobei and Lingzhou, grain has basically become self-sufficient, and the real food import places are only a very small number of places such as Wuyi, Dezhou, and Cangzhou. In these places, some are political, economic and cultural centers, some are places where maritime wharves gather, and some are places where workshops, factories and mines are concentrated, and the income of the people is actually higher than that of other places. Therefore, we believe that it is time to abolish food price subsidies and let the market regulate food prices freely. ”

"Will the price of food rise?"

"In the net grain importing areas, there will definitely be price increases, but after our investigation, we have come to the conclusion that the impact on the people is not negligible." Xia Ho Road.

In other words, the policy can be lifted. How to regulate the price of food in the future? ”

"Grain is a bulk commodity, in the future, we just no longer take it as a general equivalent, but it is not to completely withdraw from this mechanism, we will just introduce more bulk traders into this mechanism, such as salt, steel, sugar, silk, etc., to establish a more balanced price control mechanism, so that the impact of a single commodity on prices is minimized."

"In this way, the household department has already established this model of price control, right?" Li Ze asked with a smile.

Xia He nodded: "Yes, since last year, the household department has been doing this, and now we dare to say that it will definitely allow us to smoothly transition to the next stage." Finally, there is a complete transition to precious metals as general equivalents. As Childe said, after building up the country's credit step by step, then even if we take out a piece of paper, we can use it as money. ”

"In that case, then when the next big court meeting is held, let's take out what you have researched for everyone to discuss!" Li Zedao.

"Yes!" Xia He said: "The second thing is the issue of currency, this matter will be reported to you by Wang Mingyi and Sun Lei!" ”

Li Ze nodded, and his gaze turned to Wang Mingyi.

Wang Mingyi cleared his throat and said: "Li Xiang, in addition to the trading of bulk commodities, the supply and marketing cooperatives also have small service cooperatives all over the country. The first is that money is expensive. ”

Li Ze frowned slightly, and turned his head to look at Sun Lei: "What's the problem with the Money Casting Division?" ”

"Li Xiang, the money division has done its best, but there are many problems, one is the problem of the output of copper mines, and now we use more and more places where copper, especially in many ordnance, the copper elements used are more than a year old, and this is on the record of the superintendent. Second, the people still have the habit of collecting money, and a considerable number of people only get money in but not out, which greatly reduces the circulation in the market. A variety of factors are superimposed, so that the speed of our coinage has never kept up with the speed of economic development, and there is less and less money that can be circulated in the market. But we collect taxes and trade in the market, and we only collect money, which makes copper coins more and more expensive. Now in Wuyi, Zhenzhou and other places, the consistent money is only 600 to 700 Wen. ”

"Such a big spread?" Li Ze was taken aback: "This is not a small problem. ”

"The problem is really serious. This made us suffer a lot of losses when we traded with the south and even with pseudo-beams. Wang Mingyi said: "This problem must be solved at the right time." Otherwise, the further back you go, the more big problems will be. In addition, the disadvantages of copper money trading are now more and more reflected, the big merchants have now begun to go through the money village system, by the money bank to issue tickets to trade, but many small merchants are not used to this, they are not willing to pay the money bank handling fee, so they solve their own problems, I have seen the merchants who use horse-drawn carts to drag a whole cart of money to trade goods. Even ordinary people want to buy something and bring a few pieces of money, which is still a bit of weight. ”

Li Ze nodded and said, "In addition to asking the Ministry of Industry to increase the mining and smelting of copper ore, how are you going to deal with it?" ”

Xia He said: "We are ready to rebuild a monetary system. ”

"How?"

"Here's the plan." Xia He pushed the document in front of him in front of Li Ze: "Minting gold coins, a gold coin, can be used as ten copper coins, minting silver coins, a silver coin, can be used as a consistent copper coin, minting copper coins, a copper coin can be used as ten Wen, supplemented by the original money, in this way, the use of money can be greatly reduced, which is convenient for the people, and allows us to greatly alleviate the problem of money shortage." ”

Li Ze opened the paperwork in front of him, and inside was the appearance of new coins drawn.

"Two questions, first, are there enough reserves of gold and silver? Second, the establishment of a new currency, how to establish its credit, if the people do not believe you, no one will want your money, that will cause new problems. ”

Xia He said: "We have already considered these issues. With regard to gold and silver, we are sufficient. Over the years, we have not allowed gold and silver to circulate in the market, and the treasury has deposited a large amount of gold and silver, and the domestic gold mines, silver mines, have also produced ample output. Second, after the new currency is put into use, as long as the imperial court clearly decrees, such as the supply and marketing cooperatives all over the world, it must not be refused, and the money bank, whether it is Wuwei money or private money, must be paid in full, collect taxes, and also use the new currency as the mainstay, so it is not a problem to gain a foothold. ”

"I think that when the first step is implemented, it will be used by the officials, the army, and the salaries of the officials and the salaries of the soldiers will be paid by the new currency, which is a huge group, and it has a demonstration effect among the people." Wang Mingyi said.

"Looks like you've thought it through." Li Ze smiled: "What, what is the cost of minting these gold, silver, and copper coins?" ”

Everyone's eyes turned to Sun Lei.

Sun Lei said with a smile: "Li Xiang, according to Xia Shangshu's instructions, we have minted the first batch of samples. Standing up, he put a small box he carried in front of Li Ze: "This is the first batch of pattern coins we have minted, among which gold coins can be used as ten yuan, but the cost is only two times, silver coins should be consistent, and its cost is less than two hundred yuan, and copper coins should be ten yuan, and the cost is only three yuan." If this set of currencies can be implemented smoothly, it will be of great benefit to the imperial court. ”

"With such a big price difference, can you see what you have cast? The quality is too poor and no one will use it. The common people are not stupid, and they should not ruin the credit of the entire currency because of these small profits. Li Ze frowned and opened the box.

Sun Lei said: "Li Xiang can rest assured. The minting of these coins, we have invited the craftsmen of the Chemical Industry Institute of Wuwei Academy, and studied for a long time, although the pure gold and silver content is not much, but the quality is absolutely no problem, and the casting is quite exquisite. ”

Li Ze took out the gold and silver coins in the box and placed them on the table.

"Childe, I remember you said earlier that the credit of money is actually the credit of the country and the court, as long as the credit of the court is there, then even a piece of paper can be used as money, right?" Xia He said with a smile.

"That's true, but I don't think we're at that level right now." Li Ze smiled, picked up the gold coin and looked at it carefully, this gold coin was indeed very exquisite, in the middle of the complicated pattern, was a person's side face, the more he looked at it, the more familiar he felt.

"Who does this face look like?"

Everyone in the room laughed.

"Childe, this is a profile portrait of you!" Xia He said with a smile.

Li Ze raised his eyebrows, dropped the gold coin, and picked up the silver coin and the copper coin, the patterns on them were different, but they were all used in the same profile portrait.

"No, it's changed!" Li Ze shook his head and said. "Isn't this a matter of authority?"

"Childe, but everyone is unwilling to engrave the emperor's profile portrait on it." Xia He said in a low voice.

Li Ze thought for a moment and said: "Now that my Tang Dynasty is still in a corner, to recover the world, we still need force first, this gold coin, let's engrave a warrior statue, silver coin, cast and engrave a farmer, based on agriculture, take agriculture as the root, copper coin, then cast a merchant, no business, no business, no business, no rich." Sun Lei, replacing these won't add too much cost, right? ”

"No!" Sun Lei said: "It's just a change of mold." ”

"Then do it!" Li Ze made the final decision. "Now the whole world, including the pseudo-Liang side, also uses a large number of our coins, and if this set of coins can be established and implemented in the world, we can make them a lot of money. Pull all the money in their hands into our pockets, so that they can also taste the taste of money shortage. ”

"On the pseudo-Liang side, there is no shortage of masters of this way, but even if they are the most proficient in this way, they are afraid that their understanding of the financial side is not as good as that of one of the heads of our household department, and when they find out about the problem, it will be difficult to return. Once their people get used to our way of trading, it is not so easy to get it back, and their national credit is almost zero. Xia He said.