Xiong Shang sat among the high-ranking officials attending the morning meeting, deaf to everyone's small talk. On the first day, he heard the person in charge of the Maritime Safety Bureau associate silk with the worthlessness of a penny, and this shock made Xiong Sheng stunned.

Silk has had a monetary nature for thousands of years, and Xiong Sheng has always believed that silk is currency in his life for decades. Suddenly, that idea fell apart. Such an impact made the Ministry of Rites Shangshu only feel that the ground under his feet seemed to be no longer steady. There is nothing new in the content of the morning meeting, and the rainy season is coming, so everyone needs to pay attention to the various things in the rainy season.

At the end of the meeting, Xiong Shang stayed behind to continue the discussion of Eastern Rome. He couldn't help but say a word about the silk shipped to Eastern Rome, and then heard Zhao Guanjia ask: "What happened to your family's silk business?" ”

Xiong Shang's whole person was shocked, as if he was secretly acting and suddenly the whole person was exposed to broad daylight. Who the hell betrayed himself? Xiong Xiang's brain began to work rapidly.

"Like you, you are not the first to want to solve the silk smashed in your hands through the channels of the imperial court. There are not a thousand before you, but eight hundred. Zhao Jiaren said with a smile.

Xiong Sheng felt as if someone else had said this, but he didn't have time to think about it, just a trace of expectation appeared in his heart. Maybe Zhao Guanjia can help. Then he heard Zhao Jiaren say: "I can't do anything about this." In the past, Mongolia was also one of our big buyers, and if we went to war with Mongolia, of course sales plummeted. ”

Even a faint hope can still cause quite a strong discomfort when it is extinguished, and then Xiong Xiang's head is lowered. Zhao Jiaren spoke again at this time, "Can you understand now why I care so much about Eastern Rome?" ”

"I don't know." Xiong Sheng shook his head.

"Because there must be tens of millions of people on the Eurobasi side, and there must be hundreds of thousands of people who can afford silk. By opening up this trade route, the silk of the Great Song Dynasty will have a greater market. ”

"But don't my family still have to lose money?" Xiong Shang Shang replied with some depression.

"You don't make sense. What is the causal relationship between your family's loss of money and the opening of trade routes? I don't know what's going on in your house, but I'm sure it's okay. Zhao Jiaren couldn't help but remind Xiong Shang. But after saying that, he also felt that it was not appropriate to just talk about it, so he said, "What the hell is going on in your family." ”

"My family was greedy for money, and when I saw that the price of silk had fluctuated every four months for more than a year, I became greedy and borrowed money to buy 50,000 horses when the price fluctuated last time. Now, six months later, the price of silk is even lower. If you want to lose money, you can't get out. ”

"Why can't you lose money?" Zhao Jiaren was really surprised.

"Official, now there is no market. New silk is pouring out like a tide, and of course everyone wants to buy new silk, not old silk. Those people in other people's houses who cheated our family sold old silk to them at a low price. This is more old than old, and naturally no one wants to buy it. If the family completely cuts the meat, they are afraid that they will have to pay 100,000 yuan. If these 100,000 yuan are paid, they can probably commit suicide at home to apologize. Alas......"

Zhao Jiaren frowned, thought for a while, and finally replied, "Do you want to take the opportunity of preparing gifts for Eastern Rome to sell these silks?" ”

"Yes."

"You give me a reserve price, I can ask."

"Are the officials really willing to help?" Xiong Shang replied in surprise.

"Huh." Zhao Jiaren laughed dryly. From a broad point of view, who in the Great Song Dynasty did not rely on Zhao Jiaren to make a fortune. It's just that some smart people follow the system closely, so they look more detached.

Xiong Sheng is not a fool, he just said the wrong thing, but he also knows that he faces the last chance. He hurriedly replied, "I'll go back right away." ”

I hurried to my cousin, but when I entered the hotel, I didn't know where to go. ran home again, but Cousin Xiong didn't go to Xiong Shang's house. This can scold Xiong Xiang angrily. But at this time, there was no one at home, and after Xiong Shangshu scolded a few words in the empty living room, he felt that there was no way. I can only rush back to the Ministry of Rites to continue my work.

When I came home in the evening, I saw my cousin at home. Cousin Xiong came up first to apologize, "Brother, I didn't listen to you, I ran out of Silk Street to see if there was a chance." I didn't leave a message to the store, I just begged my brother not to be angry. ”

With just this sentence, Xiong Xiang's anger disappeared by half. He said angrily: "You give me a reserve price for shipping." ”

Cousin Xiong was overjoyed when he heard this, "Someone is willing to buy our silk!" How much are they willing to give? ”

Xiong Xiang's face turned blue, and he asked coldly, "What do you mean by this, are you still going to earn another vote?" ”

"You can't afford to lose money." Cousin Xiong retorted, "Since we have already worked my brother, we have to earn some money if we don't earn a little, but also earn some money for my brother." ”

"Don't say it so nicely, to put it bluntly, you still want to make money. I have asked many people in charge of this, and they all said the same thing, I am afraid that the old silk will not be sold for half a year. It is difficult to say whether there will be sales in the future, but there will be more and more new silk, and the textile silk factories will also be opened one by one, and the old silk will only be more and more difficult to sell. ”

"My brother is a scholar, so it's useless to speak?"

"What do you mean by that?" Xiong Xiang's eyebrows almost stood up when he heard this.

"My brother gave an order, do those people dare not listen to my brother?"

"You...... You've been a rich man for a long time, and your brain is broken! Xiong Sheng couldn't hold back any longer, and simply pointed at Cousin Xiong and roared, "This kind of thing is often hundreds of thousands of millions of bills, whoever owes me, others will listen to what I say!" Do you think I opened the imperial court? ”

was so angrily reprimanded, Cousin Xiong still replied: "My brother is a scholar, so can't he ask for an official family?" ”

Xiong Shang originally wanted to say something more, but after hearing this, he suddenly felt discouraged. He leaned back on the sofa, feeling a sour nose and feeling sad. As a scholar in the imperial court, he was surrounded by enemies. If you can't catch up with a trend or keep up with an order, where is the opportunity to develop. A few wrong steps, I don't know how many criticized pieces were sent to Zhao Guan's house. This time, Xiong Shang found an opportunity for the Xiong family in an almost impossible situation, but the Xiong family obviously couldn't understand this. The court in their eyes means that whoever is big can do whatever he wants.

"Let's go." Xiong Shang waved his hand.

"Brother. Aren't we going to make money? Cousin Xiong hurriedly said.

"You go, I don't want to bargain with you." After saying that, Xiong Sheng got up and walked back to the study and closed the door tightly.

Mrs. Xiong saw the situation so far, so she could only persuade Cousin Xiong to leave. After Cousin Xiong went out, Mrs. Xiong made tea and knocked lightly at the door, "Official, drink some tea." ”

"Don't drink it!" Xiong Sheng shouted angrily in the study.

"Don't be angry, don't be offended. Has the husband forgotten this? ”

"I didn't forget! I'm just going to be angry, I'm going to be a villain! Xiong Shang continued to lose his temper.

"You may be angry by doing this, but I feel sorry for you and don't want to see you angry alone. After a while, you just want to smash the furniture to vent your anger, and let the concubine accompany the officials to smash it. It's also fun for the two to be in company, scolding people, and smashing things. ”

Although through the door, he heard Xiong Sheng laughing inside, but then choked up. After a while, Xiong Sheng finally opened the door and wiped away a handful of tears.

Mrs. Xiong saw that the paper in the room was beaten all over the floor, but she didn't clean it up, but poured tea for Xiong Sheng first and brought it to him. After serving Xiong Shang and drinking, he continued: "Since this matter has made the husband so angry, it is better to send someone home to ask what is going on." If the family just sends someone to ask, they have already made up their minds, and we will deal with it. ”

"I'm going to leave them alone!" Xiong Sheng said angrily.

Mrs. Xiong smiled: "The husband is a lover, why should he wronged himself because he met a villain." You do things for your family frankly, whether they can understand it or not, we do it ourselves, just have a clear conscience. ”

“…… Ma'am, I don't think you used to seem like that. ”

"I learned these truths when I was in the school club." Mrs. Bear gave Xiong Sheng an accurate answer.

The bears stood in fright and could not respond.

Just when Xiong Shang's family was staging a family drama, Zhao Guan's family entertained three important ministers in the back garden. Sun Qing, the head of the household department, Qi Ye of the Great Song Dynasty General Money Village, and Liu Meng, the secretary of the Ministry of Officials.

These three people naturally have a lot of information, and the Zhao Guanjia led a few beginnings, and these people did not dare to deceive the Zhao Guanjia, who had always been wise, so they told the news they knew. After probably scraping together some news, Liu Meng asked puzzledly: "Official, why do you want to ask the officials below how the officials are governed?" ”

"Hmph. In my opinion, the rule of officials is not necessarily bad, but everyone's income is not high, and the supervision is not effective. The current situation is probably not well thought out before. Zhao Jiaren replied.

"Ill-conceived? What's not going on? Sun Qing asked tentatively.

"I just considered the withdrawal of silk as currency, but I didn't expect that after this silk lost its monetary function, the silk trade itself also needed a lot of monetary support. Combined with the cascade effect, it is equivalent to a hole in the monetary system that has been dug into a bigger hole than I thought. After finishing speaking, Zhao Jiaren picked up the wine glass and drank half of the wine inside, and then said with a smile: "I thought that the people were more conservative, and there must be a lag when the monetary function of silk was completely canceled, but I didn't expect the people to keep up with the situation more closely than I thought." ”

When Qi Ye of the Great Song Dynasty General Money Village heard this, he immediately replied: "Official, now the payment of ten wen has been circulated to the people. Originally, the cloth was needed to exchange things, but now Jiangnan is a town and has begun to pay money with ten yuan. Silk and cloth are used by fewer and fewer people. ”

"Hmm." Zhao Jiaren answered, but he thought of more than 800 years later. The fact that mobile payments are beginning to replace banknotes is a great step forward, and the trend of banknotes driving out other general equivalents seems to be just as fierce.