Ming Dynasty: I risked my life to teach the prince, the emperor begged me not to die

Chapter 24 About Money

Zhu Houzhao looked depressed. He wanted to comfort Chen Ce but didn't know how to start. He could only change the subject and asked, "What are we cooking today?"

What an abrupt change of subject!

Chen Ce accepted his intention and said with a smile: "Eggplant, braised fish."

After lunch, Liu Jin was busy washing dishes in the kitchen, while Zhu Houzhao and Chen Ce were drinking tea out of boredom. Suddenly, he thought of something and reached into his crotch.

puff!
Chen Ce spat out a mouthful of tea, stood up and backed away in horror, saying, "What are you doing?"

Just talk, why are you pulling out a gun?
Zhu Houzhao took out ten taels of silver and handed it to Chen Ce, saying, "What's the matter?"

"No, you hid your money so deep?"

Zhu Houzhao looked smart and said to Chen Ce, "Little brother, I have to tell you this. We Jinyiwei have to be careful when we travel around the world. Don't show off your money, you know?"

But you don't have to do this.

"Why don't you give me money?"

Zhu Houzhao hesitated to speak. He couldn't say that you solved a troublesome problem for my father and that this money was a reward from my father, right?
"Isn't it good to give you money? I hate poor people the most. Being generous and charitable is my character."

It is very likely that he was praised by Emperor Hongzhi. It seems that the dispute between the Zhang and Zhou families has been resolved.

Chen Ce did not refuse, he took the ten taels of silver and said: "Then keep it, I'll give you more next time."

Zhu Houzhao: "..."

My Eastern Palace is also poor, otherwise I would definitely give you more. That little money is not enough for you to spend. My father says every day that he has no money, so he asked the Baochao Mint to issue new money!

"I heard from the imperial court that they are also short of money. You said that such a big country is short of money, so they should just issue new currency?"

"Issue more and give some to every citizen. This way everyone can get rich. How great it is."

Seeing Zhu Houzhao's whimsical look, Chen Ce felt it necessary to let the future of this empire know the relationship between economy and productivity.

Since the Hongwu Emperor began to issue Tongbao coins, new coins have rarely been minted since the Xuande Emperor. During this period, the Hongwu Emperor also issued a certain amount of Baochao indiscriminately, but the court did not do a good job of recycling the Baochao at that time, and issued Baochao indiscriminately, which once led to the collapse of the credibility of Baochao.

Chen Ce thought for a moment and explained to Zhu Houzhao: "During the Hongwu Dynasty, Baochao was issued. Do you know why it ended in failure?"

The teachers at the Eastern Palace didn't tell him, so he didn't know and couldn't understand.

"I don't know... Of course I know, how could I not know? But I don't want to answer. I want to hear whether your idea is correct." Zhu Houzhao said to Chen Ce with a solemn look.

Chen Ce smiled and said, "If the country is short of money this year, we will print treasure notes. If the country is short of money next year, we will still print treasure notes."

"But the total amount of goods in the country has not changed, the population has not increased much, and productivity has not increased much. There is more money, and the total population and goods cannot keep up with the growth rate of money, which will inevitably lead to currency depreciation."

Zhu Houzhao: “?”

It seems very impressive, but why didn’t I understand it?
"Here are three teacups. You have twelve cents. Each teacup costs four cents."

"There are still three teacups here. I'll give you another nine cents, so one teacup becomes seven cents."

"I had saved twelve cents with great difficulty, and went to buy a teacup, only to find that it had become more expensive."

"What do you think I should do? What about a large group of people like me? Will there be any complaints?"

I seem to understand a little this time.

Chen Ce continued, "Okay, let's assume that the country prints more money infinitely, there are still three teacups, and people have more money, then the price of buying teacups will increase again, from five coins to ten coins, one hundred coins, one thousand coins, ten thousand coins or even more?"

"Before, our neighbors had our Ming Dynasty's treasure notes. Now, they buy a teacup for 10,000 wen and silk for 10 million wen. Is the value of Ming Dynasty's commodities also beginning to collapse?" "The excessive issuance of treasure notes will inevitably reduce the value of paper money. In addition, the treasury does not recycle old notes, so the old notes depreciate. Over time, the people will no longer believe in the credibility of treasure notes."

"Once the imperial court's credibility regarding the treasure notes collapses, it will be difficult to restore it."

"Since the Hongwu Emperor issued the treasure notes indiscriminately, how has the treasure notes been circulated among the people until now? Does anyone still use them?"

Zhu Houzhao seemed to be thinking about something after listening to this.

This is an issue of inflation and the gross value of productivity. It is not difficult to understand. Chen Ce did not go into depth with Zhu Houzhao about financial matters. He had a general understanding in his mind and knew that currency should not be issued indiscriminately.

Too much to chew.

But it was enough to shock Zhu Houzhao.

He knows so much, he can answer whatever you say to him, and always makes it easy to understand. It's not like when he asked Jiao Fang and others in the East Palace, they said it was useless to learn these things and that they just needed to study how to govern the country when they couldn't answer.

But how can one learn to govern a country? Can one really govern all the people in the world with only half of the Analects?

"If we don't issue treasure notes, what about issuing new currency?"

Zhu Houzhao asked again.

Chen Ce shook his head and said, "I still don't recommend it. In recent years, no emperor has had the courage to issue new currency because the people do not accept it. The final result is a waste of manpower, material resources, and financial resources."

You know, making new money also requires a large amount of treasury expenditure, and the cost of minting new coins may not be lower than the value of issuing a new coin.

Chen Ce didn't know whether Zhu Houzhao was asking casually or whether Hongzhi had already planned to issue new currency.

In fact, at this point in time, the Hongzhi Dynasty had already prepared for the minting of new coins, which were to be officially issued in the 16th year, but the final result was aborted in the 2nd year of the Zhengde Dynasty.

The Hongzhi new currency was very popular in the antique market in later generations because of its low circulation and therefore very high value.

But looking at the current situation, it is not a wise choice as it will consume a lot of national financial resources. Instead of doing this, it is better to spend money on something meaningful.

Chen Ce said to Zhu Houzhao: "What I said may not be correct. Why not do a survey to see how the public accepts the new currency? It will be more intuitive."

Zhu Houzhao nodded, seeming to feel something was wrong, as if he had been conquered by him.

He said calmly: "Your ideas are not mature enough."

Chen Ce was stunned for a moment and asked Zhu Houzhao, "What's wrong?"

Zhu Houzhao said mysteriously: "I won't tell you what happened. Anyway, you are still not mature enough. You need to think more and understand more."

Chen Ce: “…”

He really didn't expect Zhu Houzhao to take advantage of the situation like this, and he even had to bite the bullet and pretend to be an expert at this time.

"Oh, I'll think about it more later."

Miss Wu from next door came over at this time to do laundry for Chen Ce. When she saw Chen Ce and Zhu Houzhao sitting together and chatting, she left on her own accord.

Zhu Houzhao said to Chen Ce with a smile: "This girl is not bad."

Are you here again?
Chen Ce looked at Zhu Houzhao.

Zhu Houzhao hurriedly shook his head, stretched out his hand to stop Chen Ce and said, "Sorry, I already have a girl I like."

I have reason to suspect that you did it on purpose.

(End of this chapter)