As the saying goes, everything is difficult at the beginning.

The difficulty of the canal project lies in the opposition of the courtiers and the bidding for the project.

And these two dilemmas have now been solved very smoothly.

The canal project successfully completed the bidding work, and no one objected to the hundred officials, and the whole country united as one, and the canal project was carried out as the top priority of Daqin.

For Li Yang, there is no need to worry about the next things, the planning of the canal project is the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry, and the matter of money and grain is the responsibility of the Ministry of Households.

Therefore, Li Yang was at ease, hiding in the garden yard of 1,000 square meters at home every day, drinking tea, appreciating lotus, researching and researching food, so he was not at ease.

However, after not enjoying this idle day for a few days, the State Council sent someone to invite him to the State Council to discuss state affairs.

What's going on again?

Li Yang began to question the ability of Li Si and others.

Li Si of the Qin Dynasty, a well-known ability in history, helped Qin Shi Huang reform, abolished the division of feuds, created the county system that lasted for more than 2,000 years, and advocated the burning of the "poems" and "books" and other doctrines of the people, and banned private learning, so as to strengthen the rule of thought. Participating in the formulation of laws to unify the system of rails, writing, and weights and measures, what a stumbling position.

Outcome......

Now it seems that no matter how awesome a person is, he is still not as awesome as Benjun, and he still has to consult Benjun for everything, hey, those who can work hard!

Who calls himself so capable!

Li Yang shook his head and sighed, so he hurriedly entered the palace with doubts.

…………

Not long after, Xianyang Palace, the State Council.

At this time, in the State Council, the leading groups of various ministries and commissions were there.

Seeing Li Yang swaggering in, everyone hurriedly got up and saluted: "Zhenguo Jun!" ”

Li Yang also bowed back: "I don't know if you adults have anything to discuss?" ”

Fusu also stood up to greet him and said, "Taifu, the canal project has encountered a problem. ”

Everyone nodded.

"Is there a problem with the canal project?" When Li Yang heard that it was about the canal, he couldn't help but become solemn, and hurriedly asked, "What happened?" ”

Fusu spread his hands and said with a bitter face: "The treasury ...... No money! ”

"What? No money! ”

When Li Yang heard this, he was also dumbfounded.

If you don't have any money, that's a big problem.

Hubu Shangshu Ji said with a bitter face: "The contractors of each project of the canal project need to pay 20% of the project in advance according to the contract, and then pay the payment according to the progress of the project and acceptance. It's just that...... Today, the state treasury simply cannot afford to pay the advances. ”

"............" Li Yang looked confused.

Is the treasury of the State of Qin so poor?

With this year's grain production tripled, it stands to reason that it is impossible to be so poor, so poor that it is impossible to pay 20% of the advance payment for the canal project?

Li Yang said in disbelief: "Haven't you confiscated this year's taxes?" ”

Ji Kai said: "Most of the provinces have already paid taxes to the national treasury, but they are just ...... Isn't it all necessary to settle the Great Wall project, so after the Great Wall project is settled, there will be almost no money left in the treasury. ”

When Li Yang heard this, he suddenly realized.

Last year's Great Wall project, also only paid 20 percent of the project money in advance, and now the work is stopped ahead of schedule, which is equal to 80 percent of the entire Great Wall project, and this time it is a one-time settlement, which is no wonder that the treasury will cause a deficit all of a sudden.

After understanding the reason, Li Yang was also speechless.

At this time, Ji Kai said: "This year, my Daqin grain production has tripled, and the grain reserves of the national treasury are very rich, but ...... If grain is used as an advance payment, I am afraid that there will be no food in the army in the spring and summer of next year. The stakes are so high that we don't dare to make decisions lightly. ”

Li Yang nodded, this grain reserve, which is the fundamental thing to maintain the country, is indeed not to be moved.

In case of a natural disaster next year, there is no grain harvest, and the treasury of the Qin State has no grain, let alone disaster relief, that is, the Qin army will have to starve to death.

Thinking of this, Li Yang said: "The grain reserves of the national treasury are the foundation of the country, and they should not be moved. Canal engineering money, or think of another way! ”

Hearing that Li Yang also thought that the grain reserves could not be moved, everyone was also slightly relieved, at least this time this time the Zhenguo monarch did not come nonsense.

It's just that......

What can we do now that the canal project is waiting for an advance payment to begin?

"If it really doesn't work, the canal project can only be postponed, and we will step up the minting of coins first." Fusu sighed helplessly and said.

Everyone also nodded: "That's all." ”

Li Yang asked, "How long does it take to mint coins?" ”

Ji Kai said: "From mining to minting, the advance payment required for the canal project will take at least half a year. ”

"What? Half! ”

Li Yang's eyes widened directly.

"Yes, at least half a year." Ji Kaidao.

"That's it." Li Yang shook his head directly.

Joke, drag on for half a year, so do you still want to build the canal?

Of course, when it comes to minting large quantities of coinage, he is not worried about inflation.

Because, precious metals are valuable in their own right.

So if gold, silver, copper are used as monetary materials, then inflation will not occur in any case.

There were only two reasons for the "inflation" that occurred in ancient China, one was the poor quality of the coinage, the low copper content, or the light quality of the coins. The second is large-scale famine, and in fact, grain and cloth also played the role of equivalent in ancient China for a long time, and in Japan, the role of grain as an equivalent continued until the Edo shogunate. Since the role of money was once pinned on the grain and the cloth itself, how can the currency still be inflated? So strictly speaking, inflation did not exist in ancient times (before the popularity of paper money).

There were, of course, exceptions, as the Spaniards acquired large quantities of silver from South America at the beginning of the Age of Discovery, which for a time led to the saturation of the European market with silver. Prices have risen, but throughout human history, this is the only time of inflation before paper money.

In ancient China, due to the lack of a mature financial system, money could theoretically be issued endlessly, but in reality it simply did not work. First of all, we need to know that copper is a precious metal, and it is worth a lot of money in itself. The imperial court minted too many copper coins, which would cause the depreciation of copper goods, and eventually lead to the "coinage cost" higher than the "use value" of the currency.

And in ancient times, there was another interesting phenomenon, because there was no financial system, people could only store copper coins by "hoarding and holding", or even directly buried underground, resulting in a continuous decrease in the currency circulating in the market, which would make the currency appreciate, once the "use value" in the market exceeded the "minting cost", the imperial court could continue to mint copper coins.

This approach is to let the market automatically adjust the balance between "goods" and "currency", and the method is advanced but not cumbersome, which is simply awesome.

Although precious metal coins are valuable in their own right and are not susceptible to inflation, they are ...... For Li Yang, a "talent" who travels through the 21st century, this kind of coin is a bit OUT!

Minting money with copper is time-consuming and labor-intensive, and it is not easy to carry, which is very detrimental to the development of commercial society.

So...... Li Yang had a bold idea.

As...... Let's just play the second biggest, one big step, and directly set up a central bank of the Great Qin Empire to issue Great Qin banknotes?