The central government office is located directly west of the Weiyang Palace, which was the office of the senior bureaucrats of the Han Dynasty. The overall color of the government buildings is yellow, which is very striking among the Miyagi complex, which is mostly dark. This is taboo in the later dynasties that advocate golden, but the Han Dynasty advocates black, and because Gaozu Liu Bang called himself the son of the Red Emperor, it is supplemented by red, so it is respected by Xuanse. The so-called mysterious, that is, the meaning of black with red.

Prince Liu Che has been in the Central Government Office for more than a year, and although he is not very handy with various government affairs, he has really accumulated a lot of experience, and his horizons can't help but broaden a little and his thoughts are more thorough.

In the afternoon, Liu Che led Liu Fei, the king of Jiangdu, to the Danong Mansion and found Cao Luan to discuss the upcoming autumn harvest.

When it comes to the autumn harvest, the big farmer makes Cao Luan seem overjoyed. Since the chemical fertilizer began to be promoted to all parts of the country, according to the three major agricultural departments in charge of agricultural affairs in various counties across the country, the crops in various places are growing gratifyingly, and most of the weather in various places this year has been smooth, and there have been no serious large-scale disasters, and a bumper harvest should be a foregone conclusion.

Seeing this, Liu Che couldn't help but pour cold water on him and said: "Don't be in a hurry to be happy, the so-called rice is expensive and hurts farmers, and rice ** also hurts farmers." Since his father's accession to the throne, the Han Dynasty has had bumper harvests year after year, and the price of grain, mainly corn, has generally stabilized at 80 yuan per stone all year round. However, there were faint signs of falling grain prices the year before last, if it weren't for the fact that the five emperors' brothers ordered the new Imperial Reserve Administration to purchase grain on a large scale, and the father made preparations for sending troops to Heshuo, set up regular positions in several large counties, and ordered Taicang to hoard grain on a large scale, I am afraid that the grain prices in the past two years would have plummeted! ”

Cao Luan had to admit that His Royal Highness the Crown Prince was reasonable, compared to the terrifying price of grain when the heroes of the late Qin Dynasty were in the scuffle, the price of grain at 80 yuan per stone is now extremely low, as long as there is no disaster year, most civilians can eat their stomachs. However, low grain prices also caused the peasants' incomes to be not high, and although the imperial court's several rent reductions and reductions had made the people's lives much better, once the grain prices fell, it would offset the additional income brought by the rent reductions and reductions.

"The lower officials are also worried about this, if the Royal Reserve Administration and the official warehouse continue to stock up on grain, they should be able to maintain the price of grain." Cao Luan looked at Liu Fei, the king of Jiangdu, and had already pointed out.

Liu Fei waved his hand again and again, shook his head and said with a wry smile: "The reason why the Royal Family Reserve Administration has spent a lot of money to hoard grain in the past two years is to assist the imperial court in preparing for war at the behest of my father. The battles of Heshuo were frequently victorious, and it only took more than half a year to defeat the division, and the grain hoarding of the General Reserve Administration did not even have time to transport to the border gates. Now the warehouses are full, the whole hoarding of nearly 10 million stone grain, this year handed over to the imperial court to manage the land rent of several large feudal land also to transport to storage, Liang State, Qi State is already rich, plus the princes of the country, I am afraid that there will be tens of millions of stone new grain into storage. ”

Liu Fei paused, with a painful look on his face, and said again: "Now the warehouses of the General Reserve Administration are seriously insufficient, and it is impossible to build too many new warehouses in a hurry, only a large amount of old rice at a low price, and the loss is huge!" ”

"Never!" Cao Luan was shocked when he heard this, and his wishful thinking was still secondary, and what made him even more uneasy this year was that the General Administration of Reserves not only could not assist the imperial court in hoarding grain, but also had to sell a large amount of old rice at a low price. As a result, not only will it be difficult to maintain food prices, but there is also a risk that food prices will plummet in several counties around Gyeonggi.

"If not, what can I do?" Liu Fei frowned, looking very troubled: "You can't transport the old rice out of the warehouse and leave it idle, and it will rot due to improper storage, right?" ”

Cao Luan was speechless, even if he would rather Liu Fei really let Chen Mi rot than **, but he couldn't say it. Not to mention that most of the powerful people have shares in the royal industrial group, and the grain of the General Reserve Administration is also equivalent to their property in disguise, once the news of this waste of food spreads, I am afraid that it will be spurned by all the people, and the government and the opposition will be in an uproar, even the emperor of the Han Dynasty does not dare to bear the infamy of being punished by heaven.

Seeing this, Liu Che knew that Cao Luan had truly understood the serious surname of the gaffe, and immediately spoke: "There is no need to be too alarmed by the Great Agricultural Order, the new granary of the General Administration of Reserves has been built in full force, trying to store more after the autumn harvest." It's just that now Dahan is building roads in various places, and in the future, it is necessary to renovate the river and improve the transportation, and there is a huge shortage of manpower and animal power, and the progress of building new warehouses will definitely be affected. Moreover, the Royal Industrial Group is responsible to its shareholders, and excessive hoarding of food is not a long-term solution. Therefore, the imperial court must set up a large number of new warehouses throughout the country as soon as possible, and the national treasury allocated special funds to hoard grain on the spot. ”

Liu Che's meaning is obvious, the Imperial Reserve Administration is a for-profit institution under the Imperial Industrial Group, even if it can occasionally serve the imperial court, but it cannot last long, so as not to make the big peasant mansion dependent on the surname. As a traverser, Liu Che knows that the country's grain reserve institution must be state-owned, and once it is controlled by businessmen, it is equivalent to putting the lifeblood in the hands of others. In the future, once the imperial court loses control over a large group such as the Imperial Industrial Group, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Cao Luan nodded helplessly, looked at Liu Che and the others again, and said with a little emptiness: "It can only be like this, but although the treasury has been full in recent years and the annual income is quite large, several wars have also consumed a lot of money and grain, coupled with continuous rent reductions and exemptions, if you want to set up warehouses in various counties across the country to stock up on grain, I am afraid that you still have the strength to do so." ”

Liu Fei was cunning like a ghost, and naturally heard the meaning of his words, which was nothing more than the idea of fighting the royal industrial group, and couldn't help sneering: "When it comes to money, there are quite a lot of treasury in our group, but the establishment of an official warehouse is a matter within the responsibility of the Great Agricultural Mansion, and this king does not dare to act beyond his authority." ”

Cao Luan looked embarrassed, knowing that his request was indeed not very kind, how could there be a reason for the court to let the merchant pay. In the political atmosphere of the early Han Dynasty under the dominance of the idea of rule by inaction, it was extremely important to compete with the people for profit, and it was rare for later dynasties to steal money from merchants.

Liu Che can understand Cao Luan's difficulties, and he has been working together for more than a year, and he knows that the bureaucratic system in the early Han Dynasty was still quite simple. As a large peasant in charge of the world's silver rent, Cao Luan's workload was extremely complicated, and he was equivalent to the general manager of several most important ministries such as the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Agriculture, and the Ministry of Industry of New China in later generations.

Since the Great Agricultural Order is in charge of this treasury, Cao Luan has hundreds of millions of dollars in his hands. Therefore, the great agricultural orders of the early Han Dynasty were basically in their early forties, and they were the youngest positions with an average age among the three princes and nine secretaries. If you replace the old and weak elderly, I am afraid that within a few months, you will die of exhaustion in office.

"The lonely king and the imperial brother came here this time, it was at the behest of their father, and they wanted to discuss the matter with the Great Agricultural Order, which should solve this trouble." Liu Che smiled faintly, took out a few brand-new pieces of paper from his arms, and handed them to Cao Luan.

Since Xinhua Bookstore began selling wire-bound books more than two years ago, the elites of the Han Dynasty have long been extremely familiar with paper, and Cao Luan is no exception. He took it and saw that the front of these pieces of paper was printed with ink with seven large characters of "Treasury Bills of the Han Empire" and three slightly smaller fonts of "Jiawu Year". Depending on the color of the ink, the lettering on the back is somewhat the same. Black ink is used for the paper with the word "10,000 baht" and red ink is used for the paper with the word "1000 baht".

Cao Luan looked carefully for a moment, and asked with a puzzled face: "Forgive the official for being stupid, I don't know what this is?" ”

Liu Che smiled and explained: "This is a small sample of treasury bills printed by an extremely secret workshop in Shaofu, which is used as a voucher for future treasury loans to private individuals. Whenever the imperial court needs a large beginning, in order to temporarily make up for the imbalance of the treasury balance, a corresponding amount of treasury bills can be issued for the people to buy, and five cents of interest per year must be paid when repurchased. ”

Cao Luan was stunned when he heard this, and then his face changed greatly: "Absolutely not!" Historically, only the people made offerings or donations to the court, and there has never been a matter of the treasury borrowing money from the people. If you really want to issue this treasury bill, won't you lose the face of the imperial court? ”

Liu Che sighed slightly in his heart, it was extremely difficult to do something that would help reform in the era of imperial power. Even with this small treasury bill, in order to convince the emperor's father and Prime Minister Yuan An, he took a lot of effort. Now he has to convince Cao Luan, who is in charge of the treasury, that he is really physically and mentally exhausted.

Since ancient times, China has had "under the world, it is not the king's land." Since everything in the world belongs to the emperor, how can the emperor say that he borrowed his own things? The people's money is basically the emperor's money, but it is only temporarily kept for the emperor, and once the emperor needs it, he can take it at any time.

Therefore, the common people of China essentially have no property rights in history, and there are no domestic debts in the past dynasties.

The surest way for the emperor to make money was to raise taxes. The Chinese emperor was not restricted from raising taxes, and he had unlimited right to collect taxes as long as he wished. Of course, the emperor can also sell his official beard. The method of selling officials to raise funds was popular from the Han Dynasty until the fall of the Manchu Dynasty. For the emperor, honor, status, and official titles can be created infinitely, without cost, as much as you want, and inexhaustible.

More violent emperors could also collect money by confiscating them or by having their subjects donate "selflessly". Of course, we can't forget one thing, that is, he can start the money-making machine and make a lot of money. However, in ancient times, money was minted from heavy metal, and it was expensive to make money.

Generally speaking, it is no more cost-effective to make money by making a lot of money than selling official titles, raising taxes, and confiscating them. It's just that once the metal or even paper money becomes the main currency, the emperor can make money by coining a large number of coins. Zhu Yuanzhang of the Ming Dynasty printed a large number of treasure money, forced the society to circulate and use it, and plundered a lot of wealth.

The reason why Liu Che was eager to put forward the concept of treasury bills was, first of all, because there was indeed a lack of large funds for a series of major projects to be carried out in the Han Dynasty, and he did not want the treasury to run out of money in the future to promote the process of industrialization; The second is to introduce currency reform for the future, and even test the waters of paper money issuance many years later, so that treasury bills, a disguised currency with a certificate surname, can be recognized by the society, and the Han people's acceptance of paper money will be higher in the future.

Liu Che waved his hand and said quietly: "The reason why the Lone King explained to you like this is that I hope you can understand the true essence of treasury bills. Once the imperial court issued an edict allowing the issuance of treasury bills, this was naturally not the case in the name of the outside world. ”

Cao Luan calmed down a little, and after a long discussion with Liu Che and the others, Fu went with them to meet His Majesty the Emperor, and together with Prime Minister Yuan An, they made a preliminary plan for the issuance of treasury bills.

In the autumn of the third year of Emperor Jingdi, the imperial court issued a decree to set up a permanent liquidation in all counties in the country, and each county according to the number of populations, according to the proportion of the reservation of part of the rent that should have been provided as the capital, each year of summer and autumn valley **, increase the market price of three or five Wen to close the bar, and the price of the valley is expensive to reduce the price of the reduction shall not be less than the capital. If it has not been produced for more than three years, it will be refilled with grain, and it is easy to use new grain.

In the face of such a major decision, the Han government and the opposition did not gather too much attention, just because another, more exciting news spread all over the country. His Majesty the Emperor approved the joint statute of Prime Minister Yuan Ang and Da Nong Ling Cao Luan, and the Da Nong's Mansion did not say that it would issue a kind of "donation" voucher called treasury bills to the people in order to raise the cost of building the standing positions in various places.

The Imperial Industrial Group immediately announced that it would buy Treasury bills for a long time at a price of 5% per year in the future. Of course, in fact, it was just a matter of taking into account the decency of the imperial court and avoiding a backlash from the conservative bureaucracy, and the Imperial Industrial Group changed hands. When the time is ripe in the future, the Great Agricultural Government will buy back these treasury bills from its hands in due course.

For a time, there were those who secretly slandered and those who were excited, while more powerful people and giant businessmen held a wait-and-see attitude and silently followed the development of the situation. (To be continued.) )