The atmosphere at the scene can be solidified, because everyone knows that this meeting will determine the future direction of Datang. The pen "Fun" Pavilion www.biquge.info will even determine the survival and demise of the Tang Dynasty. Shi Bufan has released the gluttonous beast of productivity, and if the speed of reform is lower than the speed of progress of productivity, then the collapse of Datang is inevitable. Such a crisis is simply the first crisis in a lifetime. Compared with any competition for domination of the world, it is more dangerous to dominate the world, and you can still know who your opponent is, what means will be used against you, and you can also see the moves.

However, in this progress of productive forces, it is impossible to see who the opponent is, or even the opponent is not a person at all. The opponent is actually yourself, and only by defeating yourself can you overcome this progress of productivity. It is easy to defeat the enemy, but it is difficult to defeat oneself, to overcome one's own comfortable heart, to overcome one's own slack and lazy heart. Shi Bufan had already shown them this consequence, but in the face of this result, they felt a deep crisis.

If you don't want to be destroyed in that "violent adjustment", you can only take the initiative to change yourself and avoid this violent adjustment called "revolution".

"Smack!" Li Shimin slapped the table first and said, "Since I started the army with my father, I have fought with countless heroes in the world, but I have always fought with others. But today, I am going to fight with the heavens and the earth, and I don't believe that I will lose to the heavens and the earth! ”

"Li Shimin really deserves to be a generation of heroes in troubled times, some people are more and more courageous, and the more dangerous they are, the more they can tap their potential and burst out. Others are crushed in the face of adversity. The former kind is a great businessman, but the latter kind may be a mediocre talent. Li Shimin is obviously the previous one, he chose to fight with the sky, and he is quite powerful. Shi Bufan thought.

Li Shimin made up his mind, but it was a lot easier, and said: "Shi Bufan, what do you say should be done next?" ”

Now Li Shimin will definitely not kill Shi Bufan, because if he kills Shi Bufan, there will be no hope at all. On the contrary, it will be more useful to keep it for the extraordinary. Although this productivity was released by Shi Bufan when the monster was released, but now only Shi Bufan has the ability to contain this monster. The one who knows this "monster" best is actually Shi Bufan, if what happens to Shi Bufan, then everyone knows nothing about this "monster", that is the most dangerous.

"Your Majesty, the ministers believe that the first thing to do is to decentralize the right to mint coins. Merchants authorized by the imperial court were even allowed to mint their own coins to meet the needs of market money as soon as possible! Shi Bufan said.

"What? Decentralization of minting rights? Li Shimin exclaimed.

All the ministers present were also shocked, Shi Bufan actually asked for the decentralization of the coinage, which was simply a bit ridiculous. Before the Han Dynasty, China's coinage rights were used to mint coins from both the court and the people. However, after the rebellion of the Seven Kingdoms in the Western Han Dynasty, the imperial court has begun to withdraw the right to mint coins, and stipulates that whoever dares to mint coins without authorization will be severely punished.

Because the right to mint means that you control the economy, it means that you control the currency, which makes the court very worried. It was feared that if private individuals had enough coinage power, it would cause huge economic power and affect the imperial court.

"Your Majesty, my decentralization of coinage power is not a complete decentralization in the true sense. What I mean is that the imperial court will build a coinage workshop or place, and then hand it over to the merchants of the world for bidding, promising to give the imperial court a certain amount of currency every year, and the remaining currency after the payment is completed, and the merchants are allowed to stay. ”

"The imperial court has the discretion to decide how often to sign tenders, and sometimes to conduct tenders every few years, ranging from two years to three years, and to change them frequently. And it is good to send commissioners to supervise, to supervise the quality of the coinage, not to cut corners, and to supervise all aspects of discipline. ”

In fact, this is still under the control of the imperial court, but in fact the power to mint coins is temporarily handed over to certain merchants with management ability. After the deadline, the imperial court could adjust according to the actual situation, and could increase the amount of money demanded, which also curbed the excessive profits of merchants. ”

"On the contrary, in order to make more profits, merchants have to take the initiative to improve the minting method, improve the management method, and reduce the cost of coinage, so that they can mint more money with less time and less time."

Shi Bufan took the initiative to tell Li Shimin about various things related to the cost of coinage, and there are several main things about the cost of ancient coinage, one is the cost of copper ore raw materials, the other is the cost of labor, and the third is material loss and management loss. The cost of copper ore can be improved by advances in mining technology, and the cost of labor is also the cost of the minter. Another material loss can also be reduced by casting technology. As for the loss of management methods, this is actually the most difficult to solve.

At present, the method adopted by Datang is that the official mints its own coins, and every official who mints coins is a high-ranking official. Tang Dynasty officials had high benefits and high incomes. However, the management system is also very bloated, and the management system is completely managed according to the bureaucratic style. This kind of coinage method obviously leads to high management costs, and may even lead to more losses in minting coins.

On the contrary, if businessmen want to get more profits, they will take the initiative to improve production technology, take the initiative to reduce various management costs, and reduce a lot of bloated and unnecessary management departments. Increase the number of front-line workers to avoid the results of ten sheep and nine herds. This greatly reduces the cost of minting and makes minting profitable.

"As long as we strengthen supervision, the imperial court strengthens supervision, and ensures that we do not cut corners for adulteration, it can actually reduce the cost of minting, make coinage profitable, and even mint more currency with less copper loss." Shi Bufan explained.

"But isn't it inappropriate to let a private person take charge of the coinage?" Li Shimin still reluctantly said.

Shi Bufan said indifferently: "Your Majesty, do you think that coinage will be profitable?" But that's the case now, coinage doesn't actually bring too much profit. The minister said that money is because they have value, so they will be used as a ruler to measure the value of other goods. ”

"The value of copper coins is mainly the value of his copper, and he is essentially using copper to measure the value of other commodities. This is the characteristic of physical money, physical currency must have physical goods, such money must face its value, even if it is compressed, it cannot be lower than the value of raw materials. Therefore, coinage is not printed paper, so the profit margin is still limited. Shi Bufan said.

Many people have a concept in later generations, that is, only the national government can take and print money, so they subconsciously take ancient times for granted. However, both in the East and the West, there is an official and private controversy over the right to mint. This controversy did not disappear until the gold and silver standard banknotes.

The ancient coinage was not the same thing as the printing of money in later generations, the cost of printing money was low, and most of the time a banknote would be printed below its face value. Even if a hundred-dollar bill is printed, the cost may still be one piece, and the other ninety-nine dollars is the seigniorage collected by the state.

But in ancient times, it was different in ancient times, it was physical currency, gold coins, silver coins, copper coins, and it was all about taking out real money. One consequence of physical money is that it has a low rate of profit on currency minting. Because the value of money is mainly derived from materials, his materials occupy the vast majority. The cost of materials is the highest cost, which makes it impossible to make countless times the profit of paper money by spending extremely low.

In fact, the main dispute over the right to mint coinage in ancient times was not over the rights and interests of coinage, nor was it because the huge profits of coinage made the people distrustful. In the case of such physical money in ancient times, the market would not self-regulate the "exchange rate" of various currencies according to the weight and quality of the currency.

And the ancient controversy over the right to mint coinage was a matter of national security, not the proceeds of coinage. Let private individuals have the power to mint coins at will, so that the economic foundation of the country will be unstable, and finally let the coinage rights be returned to the central government.

"Your Majesty, I am making a comprehensive reference to the two advantages and disadvantages of thorough opening and thorough tightening. If it is completely tightened, it will cause the government to be unable to effectively excavate the quality and quantity of the coinage, resulting in a lot of waste. ”

"And if it is completely liberalized, it will not only sound good and unsafe, but also the people will suffer from the complex currency. So I combined the two, and the government built the platform, and then let the merchants participate in the bidding and casting. After completing the government's indicators, the rest can be obtained by them. However, if it cannot be done, it will have to compensate the government for its losses, and even if it loses its own capital, it must meet the amount agreed in advance. And this right is only for a certain number of years, and after the expiration of the period, the court can raise the requirements again according to the situation. If the other party can't do it, get out! ”

"Of course, in the daily process, people will also be supervised to supervise their production quality, and they cannot be shoddy and damage the interests of the imperial court. And strictly abide by the same way, especially our unified standards, by our unified standards to mint, can not design other coins at will, everything according to the style given by my Datang to mint. ”

"In this way, on the one hand, the imperial court strengthens supervision, but it is only supervision, and no government will be set up in it. Smaller mints can have an overseer, while larger ones are set up according to the situation. But it must not be too much, and help you build an official mansion directly in it. It is even better to inspect the districts than to set up an official office in the minthouse. ”

In this way, the imperial court could obtain the currency at the lowest cost, and the merchants could get as much benefit as possible. This is also my plan for the decentralization of coinage, in fact, this coinage right is still directly under the supervision of the central court to a large extent, and the merchant must complete it under the supervision of the imperial court. And strictly check the copper coin, which can be marked with the workshop number and age code. When the time comes, if there is an inferior coin on the market, then we can hold it accountable. ”

Li Shimin and they began to think about this method of coinage, in the past, the Tang Dynasty returned the coinage right to the central government, in fact, because it was worried about the security of the currency and the corresponding quality of the currency, including in order to unify the monetary standard. If it is the era of paper money, it is normal that the power to print money is absolutely handed over to the central government, but no one will say anything about it, after all, the cost of paper money is very low, once the printing is casually released, I am afraid that anyone will dare to print, then in the end it will definitely be the country will be chaotic.

However, in the case of physical money, the profit rate of physical money is very low, and the profit rate of physical money is very low, and although the state also regulates the coinage, it is definitely not as strict as that of later generations. Physical money values physical goods, and without copper, money cannot be minted. The biggest feature of physical currency is that no matter how worthless the price of the currency is, it will not completely become a piece of butt paper because the original material of the casting has enough value. And once the banknote is completely devalued, it is no different from a piece of butt wiping paper.

In the age of physical money, proper decentralization of coinage rights still worked, which in turn contributed to the supply of money.

"Decentralization of coinage? Li Shimin is still very hesitant about this ......, because there are still some risks in delegating the right to mint coinage.

"Your Majesty, no matter how good this physical currency is, it will not be able to make too high a profit. As long as we strengthen supervision and set a certain number of years, whenever the minting expires, we can increase the size accordingly, so that the transcendence can obtain more money at the price of arable land, and avoid excessive profits of merchants. As for preventing businessmen from cutting corners, we just need to strengthen supervision and don't need too much to do. Cutting corners is a small thing, but that doesn't mean we can't deny the importance of coinage. It's like we can't deny the construction industry because some houses have been cut off, right? ”

"We can't completely deny the need for officials because some officials are corrupt, right?"

In the end, Li Shimin could only say: "Okay, just do what you say." The imperial court prepared to build various coinage workshops in various places, which were supervised by the imperial court's money supervisors and sub-envoys in various places. In the future, the coinage workshops in various places can be handed over to powerful businessmen in the private sector for management, and if enough money is paid to the imperial court, the remaining currency is allowed to be kept by themselves. And each authorized mint is only for three years, and after three years, as you say, re-tender. and that every merchant, and his close relatives within three generations, may be granted only twice within thirty years. ”

Li Shimin was really experienced, and he quickly thought of limiting the number of times he participated in coinage to avoid monopoly. In this way, Li Shimin still has two brushes, and he quickly made up for the loopholes. Within 30 years, close relatives within three generations were only able to obtain the right to mint coins twice, which prevented some merchants from gaining too much economic power by monopolizing the coinage rights for a long time.

"The emperor is wise!" Shi Bufan said. (To be continued.) )