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With the cooperation of the Deng family, Sima Shu successfully recovered the copper mine in the hands of the family and the craftsman responsible for coinage, and then a government-run money village was announced in the surprised eyes of everyone, and after the establishment of the money bank, Deng Chong, the new director of the court, immediately announced that the court would recast the five-baht coin!

It is easy to have a professional, and a family like the Deng family, which specializes in coinage, quickly came up with samples. In the spacious conference room of the cabinet, Sima Shu, dressed in a dark yellow suit, sat on the chair of the Taishi at the top, and nine cabinet ministers in purple official robes sat in a row on the left and right sides below.

In addition, Deng Chong, the new director of Qianzhuang, stood at the bottom, and everyone arrived. Sima Shu cleared his throat and said, "Ladies and gentlemen, I have summoned everyone here for a meeting today for the purpose of this money bank's issuance of 'five baht coins'. ”

Hearing Sima Shu say this, the cabinet ministers below couldn't help but look at each other. Wondering how you can mint new coins so quickly? It's so grand.

Just when everyone was wondering, they saw Sima Shu clapping his hands, and immediately a guard walked a lacquerware plate to the middle. I saw that the plate was covered with a red cloth, which looked quite weighty. Everyone craned their necks curiously to see what was going on.

"Hehe, come, Lord Deng, you are an expert, come and tell you about it!"

Deng Chong first saluted Sima Shu, and then respectfully bowed his hand to the cabinet ministers and said: "Ladies and gentlemen, as we all know, since the end of the Han Dynasty, due to the disputes between the princes, the financial benefits have been embarrassed, so that the princes in various places have set up bureaus and furnaces and increased a large number of coins, and the money has been made and the price of money has plummeted. ”

"Now the court must regain its prestige, in accordance with His Majesty's demand that the amount of minting be limited and that the coinage be thick and refined. This time, with the help of the Ministry of Industry and the Ministry of Households, the Qian Zhuang minted the first batch of 'Hongwu Tongbao Money', and I would like to invite you to take a look. ”

After that, Deng Chong lifted the red cloth on the plate, and the copper coins that had always been yellow and clear suddenly appeared in front of everyone. Deng Chong made a gesture of invitation, and several other cabinet ministers reached out and picked up the copper coins to observe the results. This 'Hongwu Tongbao money' uses a five-baht coin base, and is divided into two kinds of big money and small money after casting. The front and back of the big money are cast with the words "Yiwen" and "Hongwu Tongbao". The front of the small coin is cast with the word "dime".

The color of the big coins is golden and bright, and the texture of the small coins is lighter and darker, Zhang Bin and other ministers gently weighed the weight of the new coins with their hands, and found that the texture of these copper coins is indeed excellent, and they couldn't help but feel a burst of joy. You must know that copper coins actually represent the majesty of the imperial court. The quality of copper coins of a dynasty can see whether the national strength of the dynasty is strong. In addition, high-quality copper coins can also be very good at calming the people's hearts.

Thinking of this, Du Xi shook the copper coin and asked, "Lord Deng, I don't know how Qian Zhuang is going to issue Hongwu Tongbao?" Nowadays, there are many copper coins left over from the previous dynasties on the market, how to exchange them with each other? ”

"One big coin is worth ten small coins. The Qianhan five-baht and Cao Wei five-baht coins on the market can be used with Hongwu Tongbao for the time being because of their very good quality, but by the time of next year, Qianzhuang intends to gradually withdraw these two kinds of money on the market, and strive to achieve complete currency unification by the end of next year. ”

"As for all kinds of private money and bad money since the end of the Han Dynasty, it will be completely banned from circulation, and the old money and bad money in the hands of ordinary people can be exchanged for new money at the government. According to Qian Zhuang's estimate, he is ready to exchange one penny for two old money. Deng Chong said unhurriedly.

"What! You mean one Hongwu Tongbao is exchanged for two bad coins! Tobe Shangshu and Cabinet University Scholar Du Xi exclaimed in surprise, not only him, but also the others couldn't help but scream.

"Hongwu Tongbao" is the first batch of coins minted in the Hongwu Dynasty, and the materials are sufficient and of high quality. It can be seen that the Ministry of Industry has spent a lot of effort on minting new coins this time, and it will not be surprising that such money is not to say one for two, even one for five. Deng Chong was not surprised by everyone's reaction, and even he could pat his chest to ensure that "Hongwu Tongbao" was the best and most well-made copper coin ever.

"Your Majesty, you can exchange the quality of Hongwu Tongbao for ten bad coins. At present, all kinds of bad coins on the market are in very poor condition, poor workmanship, and huge quantities. If this exchange method is followed, the losses of the imperial court will be difficult to predict. Far from alleviating our financial strain, our financial strain will worsen. Du Xi said urgently.

Sima Shu, who had been silent in the face of everyone's discussions, said: "This way of exchanging one for two was decided by me, and this is not a joke. Speaking of this, Sima Shu couldn't help but think of the advice proposed by the other party when he first met Deng Chong.

"But, Your Majesty, it makes no sense to do so to the court. As Lord Du said, the loss of the imperial court is not small. Moreover, now that the treasury is empty, the imperial court is the opportunity to replenish the treasury. This new coin issuance is a good opportunity. Your Majesty, please think twice. Pei Wei on the side also advised Cambodia that the imperial courts of previous dynasties always wanted to earn a vote when issuing new coins. Where do you make yourself lose money when you come up.

"Everyone's concerns are very reasonable, and that's what I thought at first. But since what Master Deng said, I have changed my mind. Sima Shu glanced at everyone and found that except for Deng Chong and Zhang Bin, the eyes of the others were full of doubts and incomprehension.

So Sima Shu got up and said: "Please think about it seriously, if the imperial court really wants to earn the people's hard-earned money this time." So what are the consequences? It's very simple, maybe the hearts of the people that the court has gathered with great difficulty will be lost in an instant, and I would rather use the loss of the court to exchange the people's trust and hearts of the people for the court! ”

As soon as Sima Shu's words fell, there was another uproar below. But he didn't care about everyone's surprised expressions, and continued: "You don't need to persuade me anymore, I have already made up my mind. As for the financial problem, I already have a solution, and when the new currency is issued, I will explain it to the cabinet! ”

This time it was completely quiet. In the face of Sima Shu's strength, whether it was Zhang Bin, Du Xi and other princes' henchmen, or Pei Wei, Wang Yan and other ministers of the family, they did not dare to have any objections. And the stakes are very clear to everyone here, so they can only regret in their hearts that the court missed a chance to make a fortune.

Seeing everyone's somewhat gloomy expressions, Sima Shu couldn't help but sigh in his heart. He took a deep breath and said loudly, "I know that some people are still there, but it's a pity that the imperial court gave up a chance to make a fortune in vain, but I told everyone. I decided to do this not only for the sake of ordinary people, but more importantly, to fight a currency war with the separatist forces around me! ”

"Currency wars?"

"Yes, it's a currency war. I don't know if you still remember the expulsion of good money from bad money that happened during the period of Emperor Wen of the former Han Dynasty? After the Qin Dynasty unified the Six Kingdoms, it was centralized, and during this brief period, the monetary system was not as standardized as politics. This chaotic monetary system continued until the Western Han Dynasty. Several rulers in the early Western Han Dynasty issued several currencies, but the effect was not good, and the main problems were theft and depreciation: reducing the weight of coins or reducing the copper content. ”

"It was not until the fifth year of Emperor Wen of Han's accession to the throne that the Western Han Dynasty announced two new policies: (1) minting a new coin, named four baht; (2) Open coinage, the private can be free to mint, private coinage is not guilty. As a result, due to the good quality of the new coins implemented by the imperial court, the cost of private coinage was too high, so that the inferior coins were withdrawn from the market, and finally the Han Dynasty unified the national currency. ”

"The situation is somewhat similar to that of the early Han Dynasty, and everyone knows that all kinds of private coins are prevalent in Jiangdong or Bingzhou and Youzhou, and the quality is low, and once our new coins are introduced to the market, they can quickly occupy the entire market. Although we lost a lot in the process, it would be great to make our currency the only currency in the market! ”

"Your Majesty, is this preparing for future reunification?" Everyone present, including Sima Shu himself, did not understand the pros and cons of becoming an international currency, so in the face of the answer given by everyone, Sima Shu had no choice but to ambiguously agree.

"Lord Deng, I have a question for Your Excellency. I have always been nervous about copper mines, many copper mines are in Bingzhou and Jiangdong, although Shu is rich in copper resources, but the quality can not be supported by the imperial court to issue new coins? If we want to cast such a good copper coin as Hongwu Tongbao, we need a large amount of high-quality copper materials, where did the imperial court get so many copper mines, and collecting the old money and old bronze ware of the previous dynasty may be able to solve the urgent need for a while. But it's not a way to do it in the long run. Shoufu Zhang Bin thought for a moment and asked a very critical question.

Although he had been persuaded by Sima Shu, Zhang Bin knew very well that China was extremely short of copper mines, and there had been a "money shortage" in almost all dynasties. This was true of the later Tang Dynasty and the later Song Dynasty. The Song Dynasty even issued repeated orders, and set up cards at the border to strictly prohibit the outflow of copper coins.

After hearing this, Sima Shu picked up a copper coin on the table and asked, "Haven't you noticed that this copper coin is a little different from the previous copper coins?" ”

Different? Isn't it cast in copper? No, it's copper. Zhang Bin, Pei Wei and others looked at this small copper coin again and again, trying to see the mystery.

But Deng Chong on the side said: "This money is cast with red copper and water tin." As for the red copper, it was provided by Tobe. To be honest, the quality of this batch of red copper is very good. That's why Hongwu Tongbao can be so good this time. ”

Hearing this, Zhang Bin couldn't help but pause, as if he had discovered something, he hurriedly turned back to Du Xi and asked, "Du Shangshu, where did this batch of red copper come from?" Could it be that the imperial court has discovered a large copper mine? ”

Facing everyone's questions, Sima Shu and Du Xi looked at each other and smiled: "Yes and no." This is 'Copper'. ”

"Oh copper!" Everyone asked in unison. I thought to myself, 'Oh copper', what is it? Isn't this red copper?

But I heard Sima Shu explain: "To be precise, this is the red copper produced in the Dongying Wa Kingdom. Although the Japanese kingdom of Dongying is poor and sparsely populated, it is not useless. At least we know that silver is produced there. Of course, it also produces a lot of red copper. This 'copper' can be purchased almost cheaply, and in large quantities. There have been many wars in the Central Plains over the years, and the people's demand for copper coins is actually very small. With the red copper imported from the Wa Kingdom and our local copper materials, it can be completely supplied to the imperial court for copper coins to be minted. (To be continued.) )