Early the next morning, the front hall of the chapter platform.

"Yesterday, the envoys of the Western Regions gave me a wake-up call." I glanced at everyone and said slowly: "The territories annexed by Great Qin before were all bartering barbarian tribes, and there was no problem of coins.

However, the Kangju, Kushan, and Mauryan dynasties that Great Qin is about to face, and even the Greek, Roman, and Carthaginian states in the future, all have their coins, that is, the monetary system, and if Great Qin wants to completely conquer them, in addition to military suppression, it also needs currency wars! ”

Ge Yue stood up and said, "Your Majesty, when the Six Kingdoms were still alive, there were also all kinds of coins, but because there was a fixed exchange ratio, they did not affect each other. Your Majesty is worried, but is it because the Western Regions use gold coins, while Great Qin uses copper coins? ”

I nodded and said in a deep voice, "Exactly! ”

Hearing this, Li Si arched his hand and said: "The currency war that Your Majesty is talking about, but it is a method to defeat the enemy country by making the enemy country short of food like Guan Zhongqi Gongxi Lu and Lu Min abandoning the peasants?" ”

"Not bad." Fighting economic warfare Guan Zhong is a well-deserved ancestor: "That's probably the case, but it's more complicated than that." ”

I slowly asked the crowd a question: "Copper is not as valuable as gold, so why can Great Qin use cheap copper coins as the main currency, while the West uses expensive gold and silver coins as currency?" ”

Everyone looked at each other, and it was still Ge Yue who was the first to speak: "Is it because the value of Western goods is higher?" ”

Li Si guessed: "Could it be because they have more gold and silver and less copper?" ”

Sima Li was silent for a while, and then said in the same vein: "Maybe it's because their trade is more prosperous?" ”

There was a lot of speculation.

When the crowd had quieted down, I explained, "You are right and you are not right, there are two main reasons.

First, it is true that the West is more prosperous in trade, their sea routes are smooth, and their maritime trade is relatively prosperous, but it is not accurate to say that it is more prosperous than Daqin.

Prosperity is relative, although Great Qin suppressed commerce, the overall trade volume was countless times larger than that of the West! If Great Qin also uses gold and silver coins as the lower coin, then no matter how many gold and silver mines there are, it will not be enough!

Second, if the West also issues copper coins on a large scale, their country will soon collapse, the reason is very simple, whether it is the Six Kingdoms or the Great Qin, to put it exaggeratedly, even if it is painted with a complex pattern on worthless paper, it can even be recognized by the people as currency, how to understand? ”

I glanced around the crowd: "Because there is a national credit endorsement!" To put it bluntly, the people believe that no matter how many kings and emperors the country changes, as long as the court is still that court, the coins in their hands will be recognized, and they can take them out to buy things! This can be seen in the difference in the popularity of the coins of the Six Nations from other smaller countries.

Unlike Western countries, their coins are issued by kings and lords, and most of the coins are printed with the heads of kings or lords.

Therefore, Daqin can issue copper coins in denomination rather than weight, of course, there will also be bad coins, but on the whole it will not affect the trust of the head of the Qianshou in this kind of coin, but Western countries can only issue gold and silver coins with absolute value, although they are also in denomination, but there is an essential difference from Daqin's copper coins. ”

Ge Yue was a little puzzled, and said in confusion: "As Your Majesty said, since the gold and silver coins have absolute value, even if the king changes, those gold and silver coins can be melted and minted again?" ”

I smiled, although Geyue is the internal history of Su Zhisu, he is not very clear about many economic laws.

"If you are a lord, you are equivalent to the princes of the Zhou Dynasty, will you let those people melt down the coins themselves?"

Ge Yue was stunned for a moment, and said embarrassedly: "Then naturally not." ”

I went on to explain: "Another reason is that neither copper coins nor gold or silver coins have complicated rims, which leads many black-hearted merchants to cut off some of the original sufficient gold and silver coins for profit, because the value of gold and silver, even a little bit, is a great wealth over time.

Copper coins are different, although the value of copper is also high, but it is far worse than gold and silver, and Daqin is extremely strict with the management of coins, which rarely happens, which is also one of the advantages of copper coins.

If, as you say, the old coins were minted into new coins, wouldn't the gold and silver coins of the same denomination be a great loss? ”

Everyone suddenly realized.

Li Si frowned and said, "Your Majesty just mentioned that the lord has the right to mint coins, isn't it the same as the princes of the Six Kingdoms?" ”

I shook my head: "This is the difference between Westerners and us, there is a sentence in their state system that explains it very clearly, the lord of the lord is not my lord, and the vassal of the vassal is not my vassal. ”

Yu He was surprised: "Doesn't that mean that the king can't even control his own head?" Because there are also ministers and so-called lords in the middle! ”

"You're right, this is one of the reasons why the West has been conquering and never being unified, and even if it is, it is like Zhou Tianzi, and it affects their monetary system. This situation would continue until they appeared as emperors, and Great Qin was much ahead of them. ”

Everyone was stunned, but they didn't expect that the West would be the same as before the reunification of Great Qin!

Li Si arched his hand and said, "What does Your Majesty think?" ”

"This is easy to solve." I said in a deep voice: "That means that the currency of other countries is not allowed to circulate in Daqin!" As you all know, before the unification of Great Qin, the currencies of various countries were basically interconnected by weight, Qin coins could be exchanged for equal weight Zhao coins, and Zhao coins could be exchanged for equal weight Qi coins, and those widely recognized currencies could be used in any country.

But it can't be like this in the future, I came up with a word, it's called exchange rate! ”

The crowd apparently didn't get it.

I explained, "It's how much Great Qin's currency can be exchanged for how much other country's currency. For example, a gold coin of Guishan can be exchanged for ten and a half taels, a Greek gold coin can be exchanged for five and a half taels, and so on, all trade activities that occur in Daqin must use half taels! ”

Li Si's reaction was still the fastest: "What if Guishan gives Great Qin inferior gold coins?" Or maybe Guishuang had exchanged all of Daqin's half taels, causing Daqin to only use their gold coins? ”

I smiled: "The former, a fixed time, such as ten days or a month to send someone to randomly check the fineness of the gold coins, adjust the exchange ratio accordingly, but unfortunately the technology can not be realized, otherwise it should change daily, the exchange rate should not only look at the fineness of the coin, but also look at inflation, deflation, import and export volume, etc."

The latter, must not allow them to exchange without restrictions, it is not difficult to control this through the means of trade, as long as everyone has contacts to buy things from each other, coupled with the deliberate control of the imperial court, basically this problem will not occur. ”

Lees nodded and fell into deep thought.

I said with a serious face: "It's not easy, but it has to be done!" When one day Great Qin will not be able to conquer the enemy by force, as the first country to formulate a monetary system, Great Qin will have a great economic advantage! ”