- After listening to Zhao Zhen's words, Chen Ke really wanted to spit on his face with a mouthful of old phlegm, the dignified Emperor of the Song Dynasty, with more than 100 million people and a million troops, and the annual military expenditure was as high as 10 million, but he was so afraid of war like a tiger, which was really disgraceful.

Of course, he couldn't show his face, so he had to take a deep breath and nodded: "Small-scale armed conflicts are inevitable, but Weichen promises that he will never let the Great Song Dynasty send troops into a state of full-scale war." ”

"Is this a military order?" Han Qi asked in a deep voice.

"Yes." Chen Ke also replied in a deep voice: "However, I need the full support of the imperial court. ”

In fact, the bigwigs in Bianjing City know very little about Dali, basically they listen to what Chen Ke says, of course, this is also the reason why they have been unable to eat.

"According to your estimates, how much output can the copper mines in Dali have?" Before the official family replied, Zeng Gongliang, the second prime minister, who had not spoken, finally spoke.

This is a very important question, and everyone looks at Chen Ke.

"The Dongchuan Copper Mine can be said to be endless, but it is limited by the level of mining and smelting." Chen Ke said: "According to my estimates, the initial copper output in Yunnan may only be 20 or 30 million catties, and with the increase in manpower and material resources and technological progress, the output will further increase." That's why I'm advocating for businessmen to mine and the government to buy. Because in order to maximize profits, businessmen will definitely try to increase production. ”

"If it's full, it's 30 million catties." Zeng Gongliang is the author of "The General Essentials of the Martial Arts" and has a strong technical knot. I heard him say as if he had a number of treasures: "According to the system of this dynasty, all coins are minted with three catties and ten taels of copper, one catty of lead and eight taels of tin, and the money is thousand, weighing five catties, and the fire consumption is ten taels." After a pause, he said, "So 30 million catties of copper." I can only get 8.2 million yuan. And to raise a soldier, the annual cost is sixty yuan, assuming that the garrison is fifty thousand. The annual cost is three million guan, and then the production and transportation costs are deducted, as well as the profits of the merchants. I'm afraid I have to have three or five million yuan. In this way, it seems that in addition to solving the money shortage, the imperial court is working in vain? ”

When Zeng Gongliang said this, everyone broke out in a cold sweat, and they all stared at Chen Ke with big eyes, if this kid didn't give a satisfactory answer, he would have to be scolded for scolding him.

Chen Ke looked at Han Qi, who had served as the third envoy, with a smile and said, "Dare to ask Xianggong, how much is the annual coinage under the Great Song Dynasty?" ”

"Some years are four million yuan, some years are five million yuan, and they roughly fluctuate between these two numbers." Han Qi said.

"Now. The supply of coins in the imperial court quadrupled at once, and the problem of money shortage could be solved. For the Great Song Dynasty, no amount of money can be exchanged. Chen Ke said lightly: "To clarify this issue, we must first understand, what is the so-called money shortage?" ”

Of course, the bigwigs present will not answer his questions. Chen Ke had no choice but to ask and answer himself: "Compared with the public and private years, and there is a lack of money, department stores are not accessible, thousands of merchants are tied, and people are embarrassed, which is called a shortage of money." I don't know if you have ever thought about it. Why did the imperial court mint money year after year, but the problem of money shortage became more and more serious? ”

"Well, I really thought about it...... Han Qi nodded and said: "In the old man's opinion, there are three main reasons, one is that the people cut money privately. One is the massive flow of coins abroad. Another reason is that the rich like to hide their money. ”

"The cardinal is really insightful." Chen Ke patted the horse and said: "These reasons have indeed aggravated the situation of heavy money and light goods and insufficient currency, but this is only the external cause of the money shortage, not the internal cause." ”

'What a big breath...... Han Qi snorted lightly and said, "I would like to hear the high opinion of the champion." ”

"In fact, to discuss the problem of money shortage, the first thing is to figure out how much copper money was needed in the Great Song Dynasty to maintain the normal operation of the economy." Chen Ke tried to make his words as simple as possible: "What is money for? Except for those that were hidden as wealth, the rest were used to buy goods. So, commodities and money are polar opposites. In the Great Song Dynasty, there were as many commodities in circulation, as much currency as there was in circulation. ”…,

In fact, what Chen Ke said is not accurate, but to make these guys with zero economic knowledge understand, the simpler the better.

Seeing that everyone pondered for a while, they all nodded in agreement, Chen Ke breathed a sigh of relief and said: "So the reason for the money shortage is nothing more than that there are too many commodities in circulation, more than the supply of money. Or the decrease in the amount of money in circulation, not enough to bear the commodity, these two aspects. ”

"I was once in the sky, with prosperous commerce and trade, and a developed economy, which was incomparable to any previous dynasty. In particular, in the past few decades of the reign of the official family, the people of the world can do business freely, so that the commodities in the circulation field have exploded, which urgently needs to have enough money to reach the department stores and make the commodity exchange smoothly completed. In this way, the people can make more money, and the court can collect more taxes. After a pause, Chen Ke sighed and said: "But my Great Song Dynasty lacks precious metals, and the output of gold, silver and copper is very low. However, the prosperity of the current dynasty was ten times greater than that of the previous dynasty, and the problem of lack of money immediately became apparent. ”

"There is a saying that scarce things are expensive, and the same is true for copper coins. Because the shortage of money is becoming more and more serious, the phenomenon of money and valuables is becoming more and more serious, and at this time, it becomes profitable to store copper coins. Large families continue to store copper coins, so that more and more copper coins are withdrawn from circulation. When stored in storage, copper coins can only represent wealth figures, but as long as the owner does not use it, it is non-existent and useless to society. Therefore, the money shortage has intensified the money shortage, which is an increasingly vicious circle. ”

Chen Ke's words are very simple, but they are like a bright light, so that the officials and the ministers can understand at once, some problems that they couldn't figure out before. Han Qi suddenly realized:

Therefore, the large amount of copper mining in Dali will not only triple the number of coins minted by the imperial court. What's more, it will put the copper coin in danger of depreciating for a long time...... Because although the amount of mining is limited, the copper reserves are unlimited, and the copper coins on the market will only increase and increase, and there is no danger of depletion. As a result, the copper coins of the rich no longer increased in value, but depreciated. Therefore, they will try their best to spend the money, so that the copper money on the market will increase greatly, and the problem of money shortage will be completely solved...... If you spend more money, the tax revenue of the imperial court will naturally rise, and the problem of making ends meet will naturally be solved! ”

"Han Xianggong is high!" Chen Ke was really convinced this time, Han Qi was indeed a genius who was able to accept and understand the theories of later generations so quickly.

"You're the one who thinks about it!" Han Qi looked at Chen Ke with admiration and said, "I think you should come to the Third Division, after a few years of training, you will be able to take charge of the financial plans of the Great Song Dynasty." ”

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Han Xianggong rarely praises people, and the official family is very happy to hear him praise Chen Ke so much...... He made an exception, and the ministers were more or less criticized, and now even the most demanding Han Qi is full of praise for Chen Ke, of course, to prove his vision.

"What kind of support do you need?" Zhao Zhen asked Chen Ke with a smile.

"Go back to the official's house. There are three things, first, transfer the old general Yang Wenguang and his troops on the Guangnan Road into Yunnan, and recruit 30,000 to 50,000 horses on the spot in Guangnan. Second, 100,000 people were recruited in Liangguang, and several technical officials were transferred to manage and dredge the Hongshui River. Third, in order to solve the problem of military and engineering expenses, the imperial court was requested to adopt the method of buying and collecting in advance, and subcontract the future copper ore to the merchants of the Great Song Dynasty. ”

"The vision is really poisonous." Han Qi smiled and said, "I will point to the Lingnan First Army at once." Now he looks at Chen Ke much more pleasing to the eye.

"If not, there is no way to deter Dali." Chen Ke replied with a smile: "Without this, there is no way to train the new army." When the new army is formed, General Yang can continue to sit in Dali to deter Jiaozhi and Tubo, and he can move elsewhere, but listen to the dispatch of the imperial court. ”

"The first two can be considered, but the third, the mining, transportation, and coinage of copper ore, have always been handled by the imperial court, not by fake merchants." Fu Bi said: "This is related to the safety of the Great Song Dynasty. First of all, Dali's copper mines are inexhaustible, and the imperial court does not need to worry about over-mining. Second, mining Yunnan copper is only the first step, and it also needs to be transported out of Dali to be useful, but Dali is far away from the mountains and rivers, and the transportation is difficult, as long as the imperial court controls the Hongshui River channel, it can ensure that all the copper mines arrive at the money prison and do not get out of control. ”

Chen Ke's statement was reasonable, so that the officials and ministers could no longer ask any questions, so they asked him to step back and wait for the will.

After Chen Ke left, Zhao Zhen looked at a few governors and said: "What about sending troops to Dali, what is the public opinion of the prime ministers?" ”

At such times, it is a responsibility to speak, and several counselors and deputy privy envoys all look at the prime minister and the privy minister.

At this time, Fu Bi was the prime minister, so he naturally had an unshirkable responsibility, he sighed lightly, and changed the topic: "Last year, the whole country was flooded, and relief was needed everywhere, but the treasury was empty. To be honest, if it weren't for the land sales of thirteen shops at the end of the year, I don't know how I would have come. The official family has food and clothing, and everyone should be tired, but it can't be like this anymore...... There is no more thirteen shops in Bianjing City that can be sold! ”

Everyone nodded one after another, and the three major problems of the imperial court, 'redundant officials, redundant soldiers, and redundant expenses', in the final analysis, are a financial crisis. Now that the deficit of the imperial court is getting bigger and bigger, the treasury is empty, and if it is not solved, there will be big problems.

"Being in charge is nothing more than saving money and opening up the source." Fu Bi said very sincerely, "Throttling is to reduce the three redundancies, but everyone knows that any redundancy is connected to endless obstacles, if you move a little, someone will jump out and fight with you." The three redundancies must be cut, but to start steadily, the heart must first be stable. If you have money in the treasury and don't panic when you encounter something, you can calm down and cut it step by step. ”

"Prime Minister, this is the words of the old man who seeks the country." Zhao Zhen was very appreciative when he heard this: "Open source is a happy thing for everyone, with little resistance and good results." ”――

Partition -

There is one more, which will get better slowly...... (To be continued)