"Saint, the biggest enemy of the Great Song Dynasty is not the Khitan party, nor is it redundant soldiers, redundant officials and monks, but a shortage of money. It was the shortage of money that caused the vitality of the Great Song Dynasty to be greatly damaged, and the finances deteriorated day by day, and the income could not make ends meet. It's just that Wechen couldn't come up with a good solution after thinking about it for most of his life, but it was the Shengshang's sentence that the folk law could also change the law to give Wechen inspiration, which made Wechen suddenly open. The foundation of the Great Song Dynasty is not in the court but in the people, and financial management should also be for the people, not for the court. Wang Anshi and Zhao Ji sat down opposite each other in front of the Jiaozi reserve room.

"Sir, it's a mouthful, and I still haven't figured it out." Zhao Ji looked very ashamed. After all, the future generations also graduated from college, and Wang Anshi couldn't understand what he said, which really hit Zhao Ji's self-confidence seriously.

"The money shortage is not unique to our dynasty, at the beginning of the Tang Dynasty, the disadvantages of the money shortage began to become more and more obvious, resulting in a large number of copper coins in the feudal towns, the money shortage in Chang'an intensified, and the treasury was empty. In the end, the feudal town was divided and fell into the rebellion of the five generations. "Wang Anshi explained.

Emperor Taizu of the Song Dynasty set the world and destroyed the feudal towns, countless gold, silver and copper coins gathered in the imperial court again, the problem of money shortage was solved, and the Great Song Dynasty began to restore the people's livelihood, so that there is today's prosperity. However, by the time of Emperor Zhenzong, the gold, silver, and copper coins stored in the treasury were almost exhausted, and the speed at which the coins were minted could not keep up with the consumption of the treasury.

During the Renzong Dynasty, there was a situation where there was no money available to the people of Bianjing, and the goods in the market were unsalable, and the people suffered greatly, and the people's resentment boiled for a while. In order to get rid of the money shortage, Emperor Renzong ordered that the copper coins minted by the coinage prisons in the southeastern states must be the first to supply Bianjing. In addition, the Jiaozi issued by the 18 private commercial banks in Chengdu caused a large number of disputes, and the imperial court transferred the Jiaozi issued by the private sector to the government, which alleviated the problem of money shortage in Bianjing.

However, the money shortage in various prefectures and counties is becoming more and more serious, and the southeastern prefectures and counties with prosperous commerce and trade are the most serious. This also led to the fact that the people had almost no copper money to collect, so they had to collect the goods in kind, which gave the officials and businessmen the opportunity to collude, and the officials took advantage of their positions to expropriate the goods that the people did not produce, forcing the people to sell the goods they produced at a low price, and then they had to buy the goods from the merchants at a high price that the government was required to pay taxes. The more the people have a bumper harvest, the more they pay taxes in this court, the more serious the money shortage becomes. The people were miserable.

"Don't blame me, sir, the more I listen, the more confused I become. Sir, do you mean to say that the Great Song Dynasty lacks copper? As a result, the amount of copper coins minted is insufficient, which leads to a shortage of money? Zhao Ji scratched his head and asked.

The purpose of Zhao Ji's issuance of Jiaozi was influenced by the operation of banks in later generations, and he wanted to provide loans for the operation of the imperial court through the model of commercial banks, and then promote commercial circulation and development through the slow depreciation of Jiaozi. Because Zhao Ji knew that the Song Dynasty was a dynasty that had entered modern times with half a foot. The prosperity of commerce and trade and the emergence of Jiaozi made Zhao Ji full of confidence in the development of industry and commerce.

"No, the Great Song Dynasty did not lack copper, and the copper output during the Yingzong Dynasty was nearly seven million catties. During the Tianbao period of the Tang Dynasty, the amount of copper coins minted was only more than 300,000 guan, and the amount of copper coins minted in the Great Song Dynasty today reached 5 million guan every year. In the current transaction of land in the Great Song Dynasty, the high-quality land per mu is only three guan yuan, and the annual salary of officials below the fifth grade of the ministers of the DPRK and the central government is thirty yuan, and the officials do not need to pay a fortune. Wang Anshi continued to explain.

More than 100 years after the founding of the Great Song Dynasty, more than 50 million new copper coins were minted, and more than 600 million copper coins were minted in the Great Song Dynasty. In addition, the imperial court would mint two or three hundred thousand iron coins every year, and the use of gold and silver was not small. For this reason, the annual tax revenue of the imperial court is more than 60 million yuan, and at least the copper coins recovered should also be more than 30 million yuan.

However, the copper coins collected by the imperial court every year were only four million yuan, and the people had almost no copper coins to collect. The people had no money, and the imperial court had no money, and the annual coins lost to the Northern Liao were paid in silver, which made the treasury empty and overwhelmed.

Zhao Ji finally understood a little when he heard this. Da Song is not really short of money, but the money cannot be recovered. Wang Anshi's series of numbers surprised Zhao Ji very much. Only then did I know why later generations were so obsessed with the Song Dynasty, and they couldn't explain the reason.

Zhao Ji did not know the specific output of copper and iron, but vaguely remembered the later American scholar Hartwell's estimate of the coal production of the Song Dynasty: the output of coal in the Song Dynasty in the 11th century was roughly equivalent to the coal production of the whole of Europe in the 17th century. The seventeenth century was a crucial century in Western Europe's march toward modern times. Britain at that time had already completed the bourgeois revolution.

"Sir, as far as I know, the Great Song Dynasty strictly forbade the export of copper coins abroad. Anyone who carries more than five copper coins out of the country shall be put to death. Besides, isn't cloth being used instead of copper coins in circulation? Where did the hundreds of millions of copper coins minted by the Great Song Dynasty go? Zhao Ji couldn't understand it again. Zhao Ji was angry that he didn't study finance and economics in his later life.

Seeing that Wang Anshi was talking dryly, Lu Jia didn't dare to disturb, so he could only bring a table with a group of people and put it between Zhao Ji and Wang Anshi, and also brewed a pot of tea. Zhao Ji hurriedly poured tea for Wang Anshi with his own hands.

Wang Anshi was accustomed to Zhao Ji's kindness, took a sip of tea generously, and then said: "The root cause of the money shortage, Weichen summed it up into two points. One is that the barbarians admired Huaxia, and the coinage of the Great Song Dynasty was not only used by the Great Song Dynasty, but also the four countries of Northern Liao, Western Xia, Goryeo, and Japan, and even the countries of the Western Regions of the South and the West were all used, or for national use. ”

The Great Song Dynasty's foreign trade, the import volume was far greater than the output, and the barbarian countries sold goods to China for trade, and got copper coins, but did not buy Chinese goods, but came specifically for copper coins.

During the Renzong Dynasty, Wenzhou had a money shortage for a month, and the people of Wenzhou no longer had half a copper coin. The reason is that the Japanese merchants in the East China Sea sold a large number of goods at low prices in Wenzhou, such as paper, Tang knives, and silver. These goods sold well in Wenzhou for half a month, and after all the goods were sold, they did not buy goods, only collected copper coins, and transported more than 200,000 yuan at a time. Copper coins in Wenzhou and surrounding states and counties were almost scavenged.

"Is the paper of the Great Song not as good as that of Japan? Isn't the Tang knife a thing of the previous dynasty? Can't the Great Song Dynasty make it? Silver can also buy goods, so why sell it? Zhao Ji interrupted Wang Anshi's words, and these questions made him unable to figure it out.

"The paper and Tang knives of the Great Song Dynasty are indeed not as good as those made in Japan. As for why it is not as good as Japan, Xiangbi Shengshang knows. The Great Song Dynasty was separated from each other, there were many people, officials shirked their responsibilities to each other, and waited for promotions, and most of the people in the ordnance supervisor were sons on behalf of their fathers, and their skills were not learned from their fathers, and the means of stealing the wealth of the imperial court from the camp were becoming more and more powerful. Wei Chen originally suggested that the Holy Lord purge the ordnance prison. Now the new law stipulates that all workshops in the imperial court will be turned into private enterprises, and the imperial court will only be responsible for supervision, which completely solves this problem. They rely on the court for support, but they don't want to forge ahead, and they sit on empty salaries. Now that the court doesn't support them, if they don't want to make progress, they won't have anything to eat. Although silver can also be used to buy goods, a piece of silver is very large and cannot be circulated in the market, unless it is purchased in large quantities. Moreover, it is very difficult to divide and cast silver into silver ingots, which is not only impossible for the Japanese, but also requires a lot of manpower for the Great Song Dynasty to do. The copper coins minted in China are more exquisite than those in Japan, and because China has a lot of land and goods, no one will worry that our copper coins will not be able to buy goods. Therefore, within the four seas, all the whole world use Song money. All countries trust Song money, and the trade of various countries is settled with Song money, and the Great Song Dynasty has benefited greatly from it, so it mints a large amount of money, but the more money is minted, the more money is scarce. The Holy Lords knew that the Imperial Court and the City Bureau had been strictly prohibiting merchants from trading on their own, and using the form of official buying and selling to resell them, not only to make a profit from them, but also to prevent copper coins from flowing out of direct transactions with merchants. Wang Anshi explained slowly, not forgetting to drink tea to moisten his throat.

After listening to Wang Anshi's explanation, Zhao Ji was full of thoughts and began to recall what he learned in college in later generations. In the Ming Dynasty, because of the technological progress of casting silver ingots, silver replaced copper coins, and the copper standard was changed to the silver standard, and the money shortage seemed to have been solved, and then a budding capitalist thing appeared in the Ming Dynasty. However, even in the Ming Dynasty, paper money was the main currency.

The Yuan Dynasty, as stipulated by Zhao Ji now, banned metal money and used paper money entirely. It's just that the Yuan Dynasty only knew how to use paper money to accumulate wealth, and did not know how to guarantee the value of paper money, which led to the depreciation of paper money, the collapse of the monetary system, and finally perished in less than a hundred years. It seems that the Southern Song Dynasty also caused the depreciation of paper money because of the indiscriminate issuance of paper money, and finally lost the country.

"I see, sir." Zhao Ji suddenly realized, and poured tea into Wang Anshi's cup.

Wang Anshi smiled slightly, it was not that he had never told others these words, but there were almost no people who understood them, and even fewer people expressed their opinions. Now the official family is thirsty for knowledge, which makes Wang Anshi more and more excited.

The second reason for this money shortage is that the imperial court has long controlled the production of copper and iron, and even banned copper utensils among the people. The prohibition could not solve the inevitable need of the common people, especially the wealthy annexation families and wealthy merchants. The more it is forbidden to use copperware, the higher the price of copperware. The people sold copper coins for copper, and made copper utensils, and the income from them was ten times that of copper coins. Bronze ware is more valuable than copper coins, and it also makes the common people, landlords, merchants, and officials store a large amount of bronze ware for future generations. The money sold is copper, and the trend of privately making copper ware is worse than the merger of land and property. The difficulties of the Great Song Dynasty, the poverty of the Great Song Dynasty, and the emptiness of the Great Song treasury were all caused by the shortage of money. Today, commerce and trade are more than 100 times more prosperous than in the past, and the revenue from commercial taxes is no less than agricultural taxes, but without copper coins, they can barter. As a result, the sale of goods is not smooth, the people cannot buy the goods, and the goods of the merchants cannot be sold. The goods were squeezed, the people were trapped, and a lot of wealth and a lot of taxes were lost. Shengshang, if you don't solve the money shortage and don't manage your money for the people, the Great Song Dynasty will not be able to change the law and become strong. Wang Anshi seems to be strengthening Zhao Ji's belief in promoting Jiao Zice.

Hearing this, Zhao Ji finally understood what was going on with the money shortage. In order to write Wang Anshi's dissertation, Zhao Ji read a lot of books about Wang Anshi in his later life.

This problem of money shortage has been greatly alleviated during Wang Anshi's reform in history. The reason is that Wang Anshi stipulated that after paying a certain percentage of taxes, copper coins were allowed to be carried out of the country, and on the basis of the state's monopoly on the production of raw copper, restrictions on copper casting and trade were also relaxed.

Eventually, the price of copper fell and the people had to take out the stored copper for circulation, which further contributed to the decline in the price of copper. The price of copper ware has fallen, and the people and merchants will no longer sell their money for copper, and the problem of money shortage has been alleviated.

It's a pity that Wang Anshi's change was short-lived, and the Song Dynasty went back to the old way, and the problem of money shortage continued to spread and intensified. In the end, the end of the Song Dynasty did not get rid of the shadow of the money shortage. There is no financial master like Wang Anshi, the Song Dynasty later issued paper money indiscriminately, bad money was rampant, the monetary system was chaotic, in order to cope with the war brought by Liaojin Mongolia, Jiaozi Huizi Guanzi and other paper money repeatedly depreciated, that is really the people's livelihood. In this case, it is strange that the Song Dynasty is not destroyed.

"Sir, I have been taught. I have a talent like Mr., can I succeed in changing the law? Zhao Ji excitedly and couldn't help but take Wang Anshi's hand and laughed.

Zhao Ji was so happy that he didn't expect to meet a figure comparable to later economists in the Song Dynasty. Bosom friends are hard to find, Wang Anshi and Zhao Ji laughed when they met.

"Shengshang, Jiaozi issuance, indeed solves the problem of money shortage and many financial management, but there are also many new problems. The issuance of Jiaozi should not be rushed. There is a shortage of qualified personnel in the Ministry of Finance, and we must vigorously cultivate talents in this area. Wang Anshi smiled and admonished.

"Yes, yes, everything is according to the plan." Zhao Ji nodded in agreement.

"The saint, the ministers of the court and the central government are all moving closer to Weichen, and the saint's skill is indeed good. But it's too much, Junshi is already very dissatisfied. Junshi's ability is not inferior to Jiefu, and the saint must rely on it more. The plan to change the law is indispensable, and the day when the saint goes to Shanghai Town will be pushed back! Junshi, if the saint can't go up, it is estimated to be very serious. Wang Anshi said with a smile.

"What is Mr. Junshi's dissatisfaction with me?" Zhao Ji asked.

"Hehehe, the saint will know when he goes up." Wang Anshi played a dumb riddle.

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