Lu Weizhang was wearing a goldfish bag with a purple robe and jade belt, and his face was full of smiles.

As the father of the queen, he was the father-in-law of the dynasty, and he was just crowned the secretary of finance and the marquis. Lu Weizhang is really proud, but what makes him happiest is not only these, yesterday, the concubine gave birth to a son for him.

Lu Weizhang's biggest heart problem over the years is that he has no son, only an only daughter, and he has thought about succeeding one in the clan before. Unexpectedly, when I was getting old, the old trees were still blooming. This concubine was collected by him when he was running a bank for the emperor's son-in-law, and once he negotiated business with the southeast maritime merchants, drank a few more glasses during the entertainment, and then woke up the next day to find that there was an extra woman on the bed, which was given by the maritime merchants.

This is a very common thing in the mall.

Lu Weizhang didn't expect to drink too much for a while, and poured out this trip, but when he woke up and saw the woman, I saw that she was still pitiful and moving, and I was a little moved for a while. Later, I heard from the maritime merchants that this woman was a girl from a white family, the daughter of a merchant. Behind Lu Weizhang was Liu Jun, and those maritime merchants did not find a woman in a green house casually, but spent some effort.

Lu Weizhang finally accepted this woman, and at first she was placed in Nanjing, where he bought a separate courtyard, and he didn't dare to tell his family.

Later, the matter was still revealed, and Mrs. Lu was quite reasonable and took the initiative to let him take the person back.

Unexpectedly, this businesswoman Liu is a child who can give birth, and after taking it back, she gave birth to a daughter in the first year, and in a blink of an eye, she has now given birth to a second one, and she is still a fat child. The Lu family is no longer in the future, which is happier than Lu Weizhang's marquis.

A little eunuch came over and said that His Majesty and the Empress had invited him over.

In Kunning Palace, Lu Xueqi had a big belly, and Liu Jun was holding his eldest son Liu Hekun on the side.

"Greetings to Your Majesty and Niangniang." Lu Weizhang wanted to bow and bow.

Liu Jun hurriedly stepped forward, "This is not the court." It's just between family members, and there is no need to be a big gift. ”

Lu Xueqi congratulated her father with a smile, "When I heard that my aunt gave birth, my daughter was very happy, but because of her heavy body, it was inconvenient to go out of the palace to visit her younger brother." I hope my father will forgive me. ”

"The queen's body is important." Lu Weizhang said busily, although he is the queen's father, but the queen is the mother of a country, according to the ceremony, he has to kneel when he sees his daughter.

"The queen and I have prepared some gifts for Uncle Xiaoguo." Liu Jun said with a smile. Lu Weizhang is not only the queen's father, but also his personal financial assistant all along. Liu Jun's gift to his brother-in-law was very heavy, a lot of pearls and jade of various colors, worth no less than 100,000 yuan, and he also gave 100,000 silver dollars.

The reward is great. However, neither Liu Jun nor Lu Weizhang are people who are short of money.

Although Liu Jun also said that I am the country.

But the silver used by Liu Jun for reward was private property.

Until now, Liu Jun has always kept many properties in his own hands and has not been assigned to the imperial court.

The East India Company, the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau, and the Royal Bank, which had just been spun off from the Four Seas Bank, as well as the Jiangnan Money Bank, the Salt Company, and the Tobacco and Liquor Monopoly Company.

Recently, many officials have played a game, saying that Liu Jun holds these and refuses to let go, because he is competing with the people for profit. Embezzle the wealth of the imperial court. However, Liu Jun only smiled when he saw it, of course the emperor also needs money.

Although the money of the imperial court was nominally also the emperor's money. However, the money of the imperial treasury has strict budgeting, auditing and financial expenditure procedures. Liu Jun didn't want to reach out and destroy this system that had been built up with great difficulty.

It is always convenient to have his own inner treasury, and besides, Liu Jun also feels that there is no harm in putting these businesses in his own hands, firstly, to make private money by himself, and secondly, he believes that he can operate better by putting them in his own hands. Third, he still pays taxes according to the rules and regulations when he runs these businesses, and the court collects taxes, and he collects profits. It doesn't affect.

This is different from the imperial shop in the Ming Dynasty, which operated, bullied and dominated the market, and basically did not pay taxes, so this was certainly not a good thing for the imperial court. And Liu Jun's imperial stores, they all pay taxes in accordance with the law, and they do not evade taxes at all.

Not exactly, though.

Because there was a tax package agreement with the Ming Dynasty before, and Liu Jun only ascended the throne in April, in fact, the tax for the first half of the year was still paid according to the tax package.

Today, Liu Jun also wants to talk to Lu Weizhang about these things.

Now that Lu Weizhang is the Minister of Finance, the Huangdian has been handed over.

Among Liu Jun's royal stores, the most high-quality assets are banks. In the past few years, with Liu Jun's influence, the bank has been fully rolled out, and the world has spread the net, and successfully issued silver coins and silver dollar coupons.

The amount of deposits taken in by the banks is staggering, and the amount of commercial loans they lend is extremely large, and the profits are staggering. And the bank's mint alone has brought great benefits to Liu Jun.

Compared with the tax package handed over to the Ming Dynasty in the past, it was really a thousand times the profit.

Minting is profitable, and the profits are still very high, and in general, the right to mint belongs to the state. The state imposes a seigniorage tax on the minting of coinage.

At present, the standard silver dollar minted by the bank is 88 percent silver, and the denomination is one dollar, which is half a tael of silver. Excluding the cost of materials and manual casting, the net profit reached 8%.

And the most profitable thing is not the silver dollar that is minted, but the silver and copper coins.

There are many kinds of silver coins, such as five jiao, two jiao, one jiao and half jiao, and the silver content is much lower than that of silver dollars, and the lower the face value of the silver horn, the lower the silver content, and the higher the profit of minting.

Basically, the profit from minting can reach about ten percent.

Liu Jun's bank monopolized the right to mint money, and through the bank, it continuously absorbed the silver taels in the hands of merchants from all over the world, and then continuously minted silver coins, earning a lot of profits.

"Up to now, the bank has built nine mints, with more than 1,000 furnaces, more than 3,000 casting machines, and more than 100,000 workers in the mint alone. By the end of June, we had minted more than 180,000,000 silver coins of one yuan, and more than 850,000,000 silver and copper coins. ”

Liu Jun hugged his son, Lu Weizhang followed aside, and without the need for an account book, he could accurately say these numbers like a number of treasures.

Speaking of these figures, he was very emotional, just minting coins, in the past few years, the income reached more than 30 million silver dollars.

"The Mint, since His Majesty's accession to the throne, has begun to mint new styles of silver dollars. The silver dollar is similar to the previous dragon dollar, with several changes in contents. The main thing is the words of the Royal Bank of the Han Empire, as well as the side head of His Majesty on the obverse, and the rest of the silver standards remain unchanged, but after the new coinage process is adopted, the output is increased and the cost is slightly reduced. Nowadays various silver dollar factories. At full capacity, it can produce about five million silver dollars per day. ”

Mint five million coins a day, and after deducting expenses, the profit can reach half a million. It can mint 150 million in a month and 1.8 billion in a year. The premise is that the bank can have so much money in its hands.

Although the imperial court also issues silver dollar coupons now, because the imperial court stipulates that the tax levies silver dollar coupons, and the silver dollar coupons can be exchanged for silver dollars at any time, the credit of silver dollar coupons is very strong, and with the strength of credit. People are also more and more fond of using this kind of banknotes, which are more convenient to carry.

But in any case, the silver dollar is still very important, after all, the silver dollar is not a banknote, and it must be guaranteed to be exchanged for silver dollars at any time.

There is a law in the market that bad money drives out good money, but today's bank bills have good credit and are easy to use, so they no longer let the people hide a large amount of silver. Silver is hidden because the value of silver is stable and has room for appreciation. The people hid the silver and waited for it to rise. This is also a means of keeping, just like buying a house to prevent inflation.

However, now the strength of the silver dollar bill has made the people no longer blindly hide the silver, and as the bank has interest on it, the bank can keep it better, and it is gradually stable today. The commodity economy boomed, and everyone deposited their silver in the bank in exchange for silver dollar bills.

This allowed the bank to receive a steady stream of silver, which was then minted into silver coins, and also made the credit of the imperial court's silver dollar bills stronger.

And the imperial court wanted to continue to maintain the credit of the silver dollar bills. Then you have to keep your holdings of silver dollars.

A steady stream of silver coins is extremely important.

"What is the total amount of money in circulation in the country at present?" Liu Jun asked an important question. This circulating volume is mainly about the cash in the people and shops.

The amount of money in circulation was extremely important to the country's economy, especially after the imperial court issued a silver dollar bill. In the past, copper coins were mainly used in the Tang and Song dynasties, but copper has been lacking, and there is a problem with copper coins, that is, the price of copper has been high, and the actual cost of copper coins cast by the imperial court is higher than the value of the currency, and the more you cast, the more you lose.

And because of the high price of copper coins, there are always people who collect copper coins and melt them into bronze objects to sell, and then get several times the profit. As a result, during the Tang and Song dynasties, money was always tight in the world. For example, when later generations talked about Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty, they always said that Zhenguan was rich, and the rice was only two or three dollars.

In fact, this is not wealth, Zhenguan time, just experienced the chaotic times at the end of the Sui Dynasty, the world's population was seriously attritional, and the economy collapsed. At that time, it was not wealth, but a serious shortage of money. When money is scarce, the purchasing power of copper coins increases, commodity prices continue to fall, and economic development is hindered.

During the Tang Dynasty, money shortages plagued the Tang Dynasty, and the Tang Dynasty even had to use both money and silk, and even grain and cloth were often used as physical currency. The imperial court even stipulated that it was forbidden for money to go out of bounds, and more than ten times should be used for silk without copper coins.

The commodity economy of the Song Dynasty was prosperous, but it was also affected by the shortage of money, and finally had to appear short payment, as well as the iron money of Sichuan and the final Jiaozi came out.

During the Song Dynasty, the total amount of copper coins in circulation was said to be 255,600 yuan. One penny is always a thousand, which means as many as 256 billion copper coins.

Lu Weizhang faced the emperor's question and gave an answer.

According to the bank's estimates, the current circulation of money in the world is about 1.8 billion yuan. Among them, silver dollars, silver ingots, copper coins and silver dollar coupons are added together, and 300 million new silver dollars and auxiliary coins are minted, about 1 billion yuan of silver ingots, 100 million yuan of money are made, and 400 million silver dollar coupons are obtained. ”

Liu Jun shook his head, the total amount of currency in circulation of 1.8 billion is seriously insufficient. This will seriously affect the development of the economy, and if money is tight, it will be very harmful to the development of commodities.

In later generations, the amount of money in circulation in the country can reach trillions.

Fortunately, there are still silver dollar coupons in the imperial court, otherwise, the silver taels and copper coins alone will not be able to support the current economic development at all.

These silver dollar coupons issued by the imperial court today are not simply printed and then used as money. In fact, these silver dollar bills are deposited in the bank treasury after the bank absorbs deposits, and then exchanges the corresponding silver dollar bills, and then takes them out for lending.

There should not be much difference between the deposit silver in the treasury and the loan silver dollar bills that were released, after all, the silver used as a reserve fund is actually the depositor's silver. Depositors may come and withdraw the silver at any time, and even other people may take silver dollar coupons to exchange for silver, once the silver dollar coupons are overissued. can have serious consequences.

At the end of the day, if you want to print money, you still have to have reserves. If the imperial court itself has no money, it prints money indiscriminately, and the consequences are quite serious. Now the imperial court has a relatively large tax revenue, which is used as a reserve for printing money. However, it can stabilize the credit of silver dollar bills.

Silver dollar bills are circulated and then recovered through taxes.

"It is also necessary to increase the efforts to absorb silver into the warehouse, mint more silver coins for circulation, and the imperial court has to master more silver. Let the people take out all the money and circulate it. ”

Silver is the reserve of silver dollar coupons, without silver as reserves, silver dollar coupons are unable to pay for waste paper without credit, once the credit of silver dollar coupons is bankrupt, the blow is really huge. Now the imperial court has issued 400 million silver dollar coupons, which is already a lot.

More releases. It's going to be a little dangerous.

In the final analysis, the currency of the Han Dynasty is still based on the silver standard, and the silver-copper composite system with copper coins is just a certificate that can be exchanged for silver dollars, not a real credit currency.

"Your Majesty, there is one more question at the moment. Our coins are a bit of a mess at the moment, with silver coins having horns and points. However, there is only one type of copper coin, and one copper dollar is equivalent to half a silver dollar, which is of high value and difficult to pay for small transactions. In ordinary transactions, people can only use all kinds of old-fashioned copper money, which is very inconvenient. ”

A copper dollar is worth half a penny of silver. And for half a cent of silver, you can buy a pound of good rice and buy many steamed buns. If people drink a bowl of soy milk and buy a steamed bun, it will be difficult to pay. You can't cut a copper dollar and use it, so until now. The people had to use all kinds of old money again.

Many unscrupulous profiteers took the opportunity to start making fake and inferior copper coins, which was not convenient for the people's livelihood and transactions, nor was it conducive to the country.

"Your Majesty, I propose that in the future, silver and copper auxiliary coins should be set up in four denominations, in addition to one silver dollar, there will be four denominations of five jiao, two jiao, one jiao, and half jiao, and the copper dollar will also be set in four denominations, which are divided into two cents, one cent, half cent, and one pen. This not only facilitates the minting, but also increases the variety of copper coins, and is also conducive to the use and trading of the people. ”

Although the copper coin is small, it cannot be underestimated, after all, in the daily life of the people, the change is always used the most. No one buys a steamed bun and takes a silver dollar, and buys a green onion and takes a silver dollar coupon.

Lu Weizhang also opposed the reprinting of small denomination banknotes, because the printing cost of too small denominations would be relatively high, and second, the circulation of small denomination banknotes is easy to break, not as durable as silver and copper coins.

And after all, paper money is only credit money, not like minting silver and copper coins, and there can be an additional minting profit. Although copper coins are small, they can be minted more profitably.

Copper coins with four denominations, two cents, one cent, half a cent, and one penny, are actually equivalent to being twenty, ten, five, and one. When twenty two cents of copper dollars, it will not be much heavier than the copper coins of the past, but one is equal to twenty, even if two silver dollars are converted into one or two silver, converted, two cents of copper dollars are also ten copper plates.

In fact, the copper coins at the end of the Ming Dynasty have long been chaotic, all kinds of private casting, even the best official gold back money, one tael of silver can be worth about 1,300 copper coins, and the private minting is two or three thousand or even five thousand pieces for one or two silver.

Now Lu Weizhang proposed that the imperial court also mint copper coins, but not Kong Fang a penny, but minted these four copper dollars, a silver dollar is equal to a thousand copper coins, one centi is also a penny, but also cast two cents, one cent, half a cent, these three kinds of twenty, ten, five sons. The weight will not be much, although the copper content is fixed at 95%, but the total amount is down.

This is equivalent to minting ten times five times the denomination of copper coins at one-tenth and one-fifth of the cost.

This is not the same as issuing paper money, which relies on credit, although it seems to have no capital, but once the line is crossed, it is very dangerous. But copper coins are different, copper coins are physical currency, and then use silver dollars as a credit guarantee, and the imperial court can make a lot of money from it.

To be precise, Liu Jun's Royal Bank wants to make a lot of money, and the minting of a large number of copper auxiliary coins can also greatly alleviate the problem of money tightness. You can even use these scattered copper coins to redeem the silver in the hands of ordinary people and merchants.

You can also use copper coins to relieve the pressure of the imperial court's silver storage preparation.

After all, there is only so much silver, China is not a big silver-producing country, and most of the silver is imported from the trade between Nanyang and Japan. Now one more copper coin can relieve a lot of pressure.

"Well, yes, it is necessary for the copper coin to be a secondary coin. I will immediately begin to prepare the plant, machinery, and workers, and immediately prepare for the start of minting, and I hope that by the end of this year, we will be able to mint a total of 100 million copper coins and put them into circulation. In the future, for those old coins, they should be gradually recycled and reminted, and only those that could not be collected, and all of them were recast into new copper coins. ”

Liu Jun estimates that there will be a huge demand for small copper coins.

The Song Dynasty circulated more than 200 billion copper coins, even if the Han Dynasty had silver coupons and silver coins, the demand for copper coins could not be completely replaced, and the need for 100 billion copper dollars was definitely wanted, which was equivalent to minting as many as 200 million or 300 million yuan of copper coins of the fourth grade.

With a total value of 100 million, it is necessary to mint billions or even tens of billions of copper coins of various denominations.

In the Song Dynasty, five million yuan was minted a year, but at that time, it was popular to save money, and seven hundred and seventy coins were consistent. Five million guan is 3.8 billion copper coins.

During the period of the Beiyang government, according to statistics, there were 890 billion copper dollars of all kinds minted.

"Wait for the copper coins to be minted, and let the bank issue another 500 million silver dollar bills according to the reserve ratio of 1:5."

Today's silver dollar coupons have eleven denominations, respectively 100 yuan, 50 yuan, 20 yuan, 10 yuan, one yuan and five jiao, two jiao and one dime, five cents and two cents, Liu Jun feels that there is no need to change it for the time being.

"From July, in the future, all imperial stores can no longer use the package tax, and they have to pay taxes according to the imperial court tax law, and they will pay taxes according to the regulations, and they will be as much as they should be." Liu Jun said.

However, whether it is minting silver coins or copper coins, it requires a lot of silver and copper, but China's silver production has not been high, but Japan, the world's second largest silver producer at this time.

Between the mid-sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, more than 200 million taels of silver were produced in Japan in a hundred years, and Japan has now replaced the Europeans with a much higher amount of silver than they had shipped from the Americas to the South Seas to China.

Liu Jun couldn't help but wonder if he was looking for an excuse to send troops to Japan, and first grab a few thousand tons of silver and come back. (To be continued.) )