The coinage of the Eastern Han Dynasty was different from that of the Western Han Dynasty, in which the imperial court minted money by itself, and the coinage power of the Eastern Han Dynasty was delegated to local counties, which were responsible for specific smelting and minting matters.

The department in charge of currency minting in the Luoyang Imperial Court was Jin Cao, a subordinate of Taiwei, but it only carried out macro control and did not personally participate in the specific currency minting.

Of course, in the current situation, Jin Cao's role is infinitely close to zero, and no one will pay attention to what he says.

The emergence of this situation is probably related to the fact that the Eastern Han Dynasty government did not attach importance to the minting and circulation of currency, and even the Eastern Han Dynasty government has repeatedly ordered the "ban" and "abandonment" of coinage, and is quite inattentive to the monetary economy, and has not thought about the development of commodity and monetary economy at all.

For them, money means instability in a sense, and they only seek stable rule, and the monetary economy does not mean much to them.

Even a considerable number of officials in the court hope that the economic state will degenerate to the era of barter, and it may be better for everyone to barter instead of currency.

Under this monetary policy, the five-baht coin that prevailed throughout the Eastern Han Dynasty was very problematic, and its copper content, casting process and money style were different, and even not only local counties could mint money, but also private individuals could mint money.

The entire field of currency circulation can be regarded as a group of demons, if not clean.

Some coins are of higher quality and have a higher copper content, but some coins are of inferior quality, not only looking ugly, but also having a low copper content.

And people tend to exchange low-quality coins for high-quality coins, and then hide high-quality coins and not use them, and over time, the market is full of low-quality coins with less than 60% or even 50% copper content.

With the continuous decline of the economic situation at the end of the Han Dynasty, the copper content of the coinage became lower and lower, the face value became smaller and smaller, and people's trust in bad coins became lower and lower.

Such a situation was particularly obvious in Liangzhou at the beginning.

When Liu Bei first took control of Liangzhou, there was almost no currency trading in Liangzhou, and all the bulk goods were bartered, even the small-scale trade of the people, and even the monetary rewards for the army would have requirements, which must be high-quality currency, and could not be filled with inferior currency-

The big-headed soldiers understand the difference between high-quality currency and low-quality currency, and if they want to use low-quality currency to fool the big-headed soldiers, then they have to ask the steel knife in the hand of the big-headed soldier if they agree.

This situation is naturally unhealthy, and it cannot meet Liu Bei's needs, and it is also quite difficult to collect taxes, of course, it is easier to collect money, but the value of the currency is different, and the collection of goods is more secure, but the requirements for grassroots administrative ability are too high, and the calculation is too cumbersome, and Liu Bei is too busy.

In the face of this economic situation, Liu Bei's response was to mint money himself.

Liu Bei used the seized copper and the copper mines under his control to mint the common five-baht coin, which was generally called Liangzhou money locally at first.

Its copper content is equipped according to 85%, which is basically the highest peak of ancient coinage, and it is also a very credible copper content.

It's not enough to just mint money by yourself, just minting high-quality currency by yourself will also cause the economic phenomenon of bad money driving out good money, which will make Liangzhou money a collection, and make Liu Bei suffer heavy losses, and he just made a wedding dress for others for a long time.

So Liu Bei thought of a good way.

Hook your own coinage with Liangzhou fine salt.

At that time, Liangzhou fine salt was fully rolled out in Liangzhou with Liu Bei's means of vertical and horizontal strife, and it was also fully rolled out in the trade with the Qiang people and even some areas of the Western Regions, Liangzhou fine salt defeated all opponents and became the only salt sold locally.

Of course, there is no other salt that can be sold in the entire Liangzhou area.

Therefore, Liu Bei linked this crucial fist product related to the national economy and people's livelihood with Liangzhou money, making it a credibility far beyond anyone's imagination.

Moreover, Liangzhou money must also enter the circulation field - Liu Bei stipulated that the purchase of Liangzhou fine salt can only be purchased with Liangzhou money minted by the Liangzhou government, and other local coins are not accepted, nor do they accept any barter, and must be purchased with Liangzhou money.

You can't take Shu brocade, don't sell it, collect and only collect Liangzhou money.

Don't have Liangzhou money?

Yes, first take the same value of goods or coins from other places according to the actual value to exchange Liangzhou money, Liangzhou has a special money exchange office, official configuration, fair price, Tong Su is not deceived.

Then in exchange for Liangzhou money, go to the official or some private salt shops to buy Liangzhou fine salt.

All in all, if you don't take Liangzhou money, don't think about buying salt to eat.

People have to eat salt, and this alone can ensure the commercial circulation of Liangzhou money.

And through the channel of the money exchange, Liu Bei successfully collected a large number of private minted five-baht coins in local areas, and he did a little understanding of these five-baht coins, and found that there were not only coins of the Eastern Han Dynasty, but also coins of the Western Han Dynasty, and the farthest can be traced back to the coinage of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty.

Some valuable coins were kept by Liu Bei as a collection and existed, carefully preserved, for the use of inheritance, and the rest of the inferior coins were recast by him as raw materials for casting Liangzhou money, and then put into circulation again.

In this way, a cycle of good money driving out bad money has been formed in the Liangzhou Trade Zone.

In view of the possibility of counterfeit currency manufacturing, Liu Bei also made some targeted measures.

First of all, the local counties were not allowed to mint money under his decree, and the local copper mines were taken over by Liu Bei, and the coin-minting craftsmen were also registered and managed, which directly cut off the possibility of minting money in local counties and counties.

Private coinage, on the other hand, has a certain degree of secrecy and is not easy to find.

However, the coinage of the Liangzhou government has a very high casting process, the Liangzhou money area is relatively large, the weight is relatively heavy, the pattern is more special, it is Liu Bei's own design of the pattern, handed over to the excellent technical craftsman to complete the coinage mold, if you want to copy the forgery, it takes a lot of effort.

Private coinage generally does not have a high process, there are not so many patterns in the pattern design, and Liu Bei is not so willing to give copper, it is easy to distinguish the difference between Liangzhou money and private coinage.

Therefore, once there is a five-baht coin that is not Liangzhou money on the market, Liu Bei's monetary supervision departments in various places will immediately find out, and then report to the county government for targeted investigation and crackdown.

In the end, there are a few families that can mint money privately, so Liu Bei's targeted attack did not have a great social impact.

The private minted currency in the Liangzhou region was cut off less than a year after the fine salt trade was rolled out, or the kind that was completely cut off and never seen again, and as the fine salt business gradually extended outward, what happened in Liangzhou was repeated everywhere.

Over the years, with the enhancement of Liu Bei's control over the area west of Luoyang, especially after the implementation of the slave restriction order, the private coinage in the west of Luoyang has basically disappeared, and the tools and professional technical personnel needed for coinage have almost all been taken by Liu Bei for his own use.

With the growth of Liu Bei's power and the gradual maturity of the monetary supervision department, Liangzhou Coin is like a newcomer to the officialdom with the support of someone above, opening a smooth way forward.

At the beginning, Liangzhou minted five baht coins were only used in Liangzhou, but with the continuous sale of Liangzhou fine salt, Liangzhou money began to move to the land of Sanfu and the land of three rivers, and with the expansion of salt interest groups, the scope of application and value of Liangzhou money were more and more recognized.

After Liu Bei became a general, Liangzhou Qian had a new market title - General Money.

(End of chapter)