Uncle Tian Sheng is now a big family, and his Tian Commercial Group can be said to be making money, and he naturally looks down on the appreciation of five percent of the treasury bills every year. However, as a relative of the emperor, he still had the consciousness of sharing worries for the country, so he asked people to withdraw tens of millions of baht worth of gold and copper coins from the treasury, and prepared to "donate" to the imperial court to obtain the treasury bills issued by the Great Agricultural Mansion as a voucher.

Unexpectedly, when Tian Sheng went to the Great Farmer's Mansion to propose the intention of buying a large number of treasury bills, the Great Farmer ordered Cao Luan to only take out ten stacks of treasury bills with a denomination of "10,000 baht", and helplessly explained: "This time, the government only issued a total of one billion yuan of treasury bills, and according to the regulations set by His Majesty and the Prime Minister, the amount donated by each household should not exceed 10 million yuan." ”

Tian Sheng was stunned when he heard this, he had never heard of the emperor's restriction on the amount of donations his subjects to the imperial court, and he asked suspiciously: "According to the edict issued by the imperial court, this treasury bill can be repurchased by the imperial industrial group at an annual interest rate of five percent, that is, it can be bought and sold at will." Even if the imperial court now restricts each household from donating more than 10 million yuan, if you really want to buy this treasury bill, it is a big deal to buy it from someone else. In this way, doesn't the practice of restricting purchases seem redundant? ”

Cao Luan smiled bitterly and shook his head, at the beginning of the previous discussion on the issuance of treasury bills, the crown prince Liu Che insisted on setting quite strict regulations on the upper limit of the amount of treasury bills and the method of issuance.

His Majesty the Emperor who was present at the time, Prime Minister Yuan Ang and Cao Luan were also a little disapproving, but Liu Fei, the king of Jiangdu, did not question it, but showed a thoughtful look.

In the face of the doubts of the three people, the crown prince Liu Che could only explain in detail some details of the issuance of treasury bonds in later generations. Treasury bonds, also known as state public bonds, are creditor-debtor relationships formed by the state on the basis of its credit and in accordance with the general principle of debt by raising funds from the society. The essence of treasury bills is bearer treasury bonds, which are a kind of physical bonds, in which claims are recorded in the form of physical bonds, which are bearer and can be listed and circulated.

Logically speaking, Treasury bills should indeed circulate freely, and the purchase restriction does not have much substantive significance. However, the reason why Liu Che tried his best to persuade Emperor Jing and others to issue treasury bills this time was that in addition to raising a large amount of money for the imperial court to set up a standing position, he still had to try to implement paper value certificates, which was a disguised test for paper currency in the future. If you just want to raise funds, a mere billion yuan is obviously just a drop in the bucket for Liu Che, who secretly owns a large number of shares in both the Royal Industrial Group and the Tian Business Group, and there is no need to spend so much energy at all.

Of course, Liu Che did not stupidly announce the idea of promoting paper money in the future, but dispel the emperor's father's intention to let the imperial court issue treasury bills on a large scale to make money from another aspect.

The first is that the national debt must have a debt ceiling, otherwise it will be like the debt of the US imperialists in later generations. Today's Han Dynasty has no global economy to support it, and no other country has to pay for the debts of the Han court. Once the scale of the treasury bonds is too large to be repurchased by repaying the principal and interest, the creditworthiness of the imperial court will immediately go bankrupt, and the harm will be great.

Dahan does not have the so-called GDP statistics, and Liu Che can only simply formulate a conservative upper limit of one billion yuan based on this year's estimated treasury income of nearly 10 billion yuan. Compared with the reference of the proportion of GDP in later generations, Liu Che felt that it was more convenient and safer to use the central fiscal revenue as a reference.

The second is that in the early Han Dynasty, the wealth was hidden from the people, but this "people" were not ordinary people, but wealthy families and wealthy merchants. There are countless powerful people and businessmen who are rich enough to rival the country, and once some people with ulterior motives are allowed to hold a large amount of treasury bonds, they will wait for an opportunity to sell or exchange them in the future, which will have a great impact on the finances of the imperial court. For the issuance of Treasury bills, it is necessary to set up some obstacles to the number of subscriptions of the elites and tycoons, and try to disperse the holdings of Treasury bills.

Emperor Jing very much agreed with Liu Che's concerns, as a thick black emperor who was good at scheming, he never hesitated to use the greatest malice to figure out his subjects, and naturally did not want the treasury bills used to accumulate wealth to become a hidden danger to the empire in the future. Yuan Ang and Cao Luan also accepted His Royal Highness the Prince's explanation, and discussed how to unify their voices to the outside world.

Today, Cao Luan's statement to Tian Sheng is a purely official version of the speech they discussed, and he slowly explained: "Uncle Guo, please see that this treasury bill is printed with the words "Jiawu Year", which means that it was issued this year. It is now autumn, and the New Year is only a few months away. By the end of the year, the Treasury bill had risen by five percent. If you change the uncle, will you resell the treasury bills in your hand to others before the New Year's Festival? ”

Tian Sheng was stunned when he heard this, and had to admit that Cao Luan was reasonable.

Even the rich and powerful businessmen will not think that there is too much money in their families. Five percent of the money doesn't seem like much, but it's still profitable. In the decades since the founding of the Han Dynasty, under the national policy of recuperation and recuperation, the accumulation of wealth has been quite fast. The copper coins in the treasury of many wealthy families are already piled up, and even the rope that wears the money is about to rot.

The economic activities of the early Han Dynasty were far less prosperous than those of later generations, and a large amount of idle funds had no place to invest, and could only flow into land transactions in large quantities. Throughout the more than 400 years of history of the Han Dynasty, the benefits of land annexation have been serious, and the central government has no way to do anything, and a large reason is that the powerful and powerful have wantonly purchased farmland and forest land in order to preserve the value of their wealth.

The Royal Household Group announced that it would buy Treasury bills at a rate of 5% per annum, and said that they could be exchanged at any time, even if it was less than a year, and the principal could be repaid. In this way, it is more cost-effective for the elite to exchange their spare money for treasury bills rather than rusting it in the dark treasury.

As for the credibility of the Imperial Industrial Group, there is no doubt in the eyes of the Han magnates. Not to mention that the social atmosphere of the Han Dynasty attaches the most importance to integrity, and pays attention to "people do not stand without trust". Just saying that a large number of powerful and wealthy families who had previously invested in the Royal Industrial Group have received a large number of year-end dividends for two consecutive years, it is enough for them to have great trust and good impression of the group management headed by Liu Fei, the king of Jiangdu.

In short, after the explanation of Cao Luan, the great farmer, even Tian Sheng, who had only come to subscribe to the treasury bills with an attitude of "poverty alleviation" to the imperial court, now has a real interest in the treasury bills. After the subordinate officials of the Great Farmer's Mansion counted the tens of millions of dollars and transported them into the treasury, Tian Sheng walked out of the Great Farmer's Mansion with a delicate small box, which contained a full 1,000 treasury bills with a denomination of "10,000 baht".

The princes even put on a big battle, and at the same time went to the Great Farmer's Mansion to subscribe for treasury bills. On the surface, he is a prince and should share his worries for the country, the monarch and his father, but in his heart, he is thinking that after the New Year's Festival, he can earn back 500,000 yuan with tens of millions of dollars, which can at least slightly cover the expenses of gifts to the Queen Mother and the emperor's father during the New Year's Festival. Subsequently, Liu Shou, the king of Qiyi, and Liu Wu, the king of Liang, also came together, and each subscribed to treasury bills worth tens of millions of dollars.

As a result, most of the magnates and giant businessmen who originally held a wait-and-see attitude couldn't help but be ready to move. Especially when the news came out that this time the Great Farmer's Mansion only issued a billion yuan of treasury bills, and many royal clansmen had subscribed for most of them, if it were not for the upper limit of subscription, I am afraid it would have been carved up long ago.

Since ancient times, there has been a simple folk custom in China that follows the trend, especially when something begins to appear rare and precious, it will trigger a crazy pursuit. As news of the imminent sell-out of Treasury bills spreads, the rush to buy is likely to intensify.

In the entire Beique Jiadi, many powerful families cursed the royal family in their hearts and ate alone, and at the same time asked the chief housekeeper in the mansion to quickly take out the silver money in the treasury, and with a letter to prove their identity, they went to the Great Agricultural Mansion to subscribe for treasury bills.

The treasury bills that were originally intended to be sold to the private sector have now completely excluded the wealthy businessmen who have no original qualifications, and even many low-level wealthy families with unknown family backgrounds have returned empty-handed, just because the powerful people of the Han Dynasty have snapped up them too fiercely.

The powerful are definitely generous, and each family has subscribed to the upper limit of 10 million yuan, otherwise they really can't afford to lose that person. Treasury bills worth just one billion dollars can only be divided into 100 shares according to the subscription limit of 10 million dollars per household. Not to mention that the royal family has subscribed a lot, and it is said that in the northern Que Jiadi, where the powerful gather, there are definitely more than 1,000 wealthy families who can easily come up with tens of millions of spare money.

Even Cao Luan, a big farmer who had been mentally prepared, was still apprehensive, and secretly admired the foresight of His Royal Highness the Prince, but fortunately the subscription ceiling was limited, otherwise these powerful people from wealthy families would not have to exert pressure and try to take the treasury bills alone.

In just a few days, a billion dollars worth of treasury bills were snapped up by the crazy elites. The crown prince Liu Che was urgently summoned by the emperor's father to the imperial study of Weiyang Palace to discuss the follow-up matters.

When Liu Che entered the imperial study, he found that the atmosphere inside was a little weird. The big farmer made Cao Luan's face flushed, and he was excited to report back to the emperor's father. And Prime Minister Yuan Ang frowned slightly, silently sitting on the side seat, looking like he wanted to speak and stopped.

"Che'er came just in time, Cao Qing happened to mention that he would issue another billion yuan of treasury bills in order to renovate the river, what do you think?" When Emperor Jing saw Liu Che coming in, he waved his hand to interrupt the gushing Cao Luan, and asked with squinted eyes.

Liu Che immediately understood why Prime Minister Yuan An's face was uncertain, and it was obvious that Cao Luan, a great farmer, had been carried away by the sudden huge wealth, and tried to persuade the emperor's father to issue more treasury bills.

He sighed in his heart, the windfall that flew in was really addictive. Especially the big peasant order, who is in charge of the world's money and rent, is usually used to being tight, and suddenly let him discover such an effective means of collecting money, so he is naturally a little carried away. On the contrary, as the head of the hundred officials, Prime Minister Yuan Ang acted more steadily and thought more far-reaching, obviously disagreeing with the imperial court's wanton debt.

Liu Che pondered for a moment, although he couldn't figure out the emperor's father's thoughts, he still decided to veto Cao Luan's crazy idea, so as not to set a bad precedent and leave hidden dangers for the future financial system of the empire. As early as when planning the issuance, Erchen repeatedly stated that the treasury bond is a double-edged sword, although it can temporarily raise much-needed funds for the country's development, but it is too much, let alone regarded as a panacea for enriching the national treasury. ”

Emperor Jing seemed to have expected Liu Che's reaction, and did not show any surprised expression, but turned his head to look at Prime Minister Yuan An, who was looking at him with a look of relief, and asked, "What does the Prime Minister think?" ”

Yuan Ang arched his hand and said: "What His Royal Highness said is extremely true, and the minister seconded it. ”

Seeing this, Cao Luan hurriedly bowed down and said: "This time it is only the issuance of treasury bills worth one billion dollars, according to the so-called national debt theory that His Royal Highness explained to His Majesty and us at the beginning, as long as the upper limit of national debt does not exceed 20% of the annual income of the treasury, there is not much risk. His Royal Highness the Crown Prince proposed a very huge river renovation charter some time ago, and it is necessary to allocate a huge amount of money from the national treasury, and then issue another billion, isn't it the best of both worlds? ”

Liu Che hurriedly waved his hand and said: "Now that the treasury bonds have reached 10% of the annual revenue of the national treasury, it is natural to reserve some space for the issuance of treasury bonds to deal with emergencies, such as wars and disasters." What's more, a billion dollars are not obtained out of thin air, that is, debts, and the principal and interest will have to be repaid in the future, if one day, the national debt is issued too much, and the imperial court cannot even pay the interest, the country will definitely not be a country! ”

Emperor Jing opened his eyes suddenly, and said faintly: "The emperor's words are too heavy, and you need to pay attention to proportions when speaking." ”

Liu Che bowed down to admit his mistake, but Prime Minister Yuan Ang stood up and followed his words and said: "Your Majesty, according to what the ministers have seen, His Highness's words are not alarmist. ”

He paused, sorted out his thoughts a little, and replied: "In fact, this time the imperial court borrowed money is not a precedent, in ancient times, King Zhou Xun once listened to the words of King Chu Xiaolie, and used the name of the Son of Heaven to convene the six countries to send troops to attack Qin, but he suffered from insufficient military spending, so he had to borrow money from rich merchants and landlords. However, the six countries did not obey the military orders, and the money he borrowed was quickly spent, and the creditors came to collect the debts, so he had to hide on a high platform in the palace. ”

Instead of being angry because of Yuan An's metaphor, Emperor Jing showed a faint smile and said with a slight sense of remembrance: "This allusion to high debts, I heard it as early as when I was the prince, and the mistake of the prince's family order at that time was used to teach me, don't be the king of Zhou. Now that I hear it from the prime minister's mouth, I can't help but think of the situation when I was young and taught. ”

Everyone present was full of black lines on their heads, and they secretly slandered themselves. Chao Cuo was unjustly killed by Emperor Jing, and now Yuan Ang and Chao Cuo are compared, I really don't know whether to praise or denigrate.

Fortunately, Emperor Jing did not let everyone speculate for too long, he waved his hand and said conclusively: "Well, there is no need to issue additional treasury bonds this time." Che'er should also compile the so-called theory of national debt into a book as soon as possible, so that I and all the important ministers can study it carefully. When the time is ripe, let the Tingwei Mansion cooperate with the relevant government departments to formulate the "National Debt Law" of Nalaoshizi, and add it to the Han law, so as not to appear in the future faint or mediocre kings, learn from the king of Zhou, and lose all the good social institutions! ”

(Huhu, four thousand chapters are sent, so the update is a little late, forgive me, brothers!) (To be continued.) )