New Shun 1730

Although the emperor had long warned Liu Yu not to do things that would "force the court", even if you think it is right and indeed beneficial to the country, do not engage in such "forced" reforms.

But now it seems that Liu Yu is both obedient and disobedient. The reforms to be carried out now may not be considered "forced", but directly paved a smooth road in front of the emperor, so that the emperor has to take it.

The cornerstone of these three reforms, namely the rice canal reform, the salt administration reform, and the canal reform, seems to be the canal issue. But it is actually a Nanyang issue. The Nanyang issue is essentially a naval issue. The naval victory brought self-confidence to the emperor, overcoming his fear of the unknown ocean and his worry about being captured by the Yangtze River Estuary and cutting off the north and south, which ultimately led to this series of reforms.

The emperor would sometimes think about how this was different from the "repulsive force" he had warned before. After thinking for a long time, he only felt that it could be said to be different or the same.

For example, this salt policy reform, the emperor thought to himself, Liu Yu, do you want to carry out salt policy reform? You must have thought about it, or at least supported it, but you didn't say anything and waited for the court to take the initiative to change.

The emperor did not continue to talk about the details of salt policy reform and currency reform, but turned to ask: "Ai Qing strongly recommends the establishment of the Academy of Sciences. The fundamental reason is that he believes in Xun Qing's meaning: to control the destiny of heaven and use it."

"The behavior of heaven is always constant, and it will not be preserved by Yao, nor destroyed by Jie. If it is governed, it will be good, and if it is chaotic, it will be misfortune. If you strengthen the foundation and use it sparingly, then the sky will not be poor; if you are prepared and moved, then the sky will not be poor. Disease; if you follow the path without hesitation, then Heaven will not bring disaster."

"That being the case, from my perspective, can this salt policy reform be used to control the destiny of heaven? And can this currency reform be used to control heaven and earth?"

Liu Yu thought for a while and replied: "Your Majesty, although the behavior of heaven is constant, it is beyond the control of human beings. I don't even dare to talk about economic matters. But since your Majesty asked Xun Qing in the same way, I also Don’t dare not answer.”

"The reform of the salt policy can be regarded as a response."

"Currency reform... I have no clue at all, so I beg for reform."

"It's like a basket with a big fruit outside, but you can't put it in. Either learn to weave a basket, make a bigger basket, and put the fruit in it; or you can peel the fruit and put it in. In the original little basket.”

"I am stupid, I don't know how economics works, and I know only a little bit about it, so I can't solve the money problem."

"So, there are only two ways to solve problems. Either, solve the problem; or, solve the problem."

The Chinese language is profound, the emperor smiled slightly, how could he not know the difference between these two "solutions"?

If the problem of money exchange cannot be solved, wouldn't it be solved by simply making the problem of money exchange disappear?

In the past few years, Liu Yu had been doing very well, and the emperor also knew that if Liu Yu said he only had a superficial understanding of economics, then the rest of the people in the court would not understand anything more.

Since Liu Yu couldn't solve the problem of currency exchange, I'm afraid no one else could come up with a better solution.

After chuckling, the emperor sighed: "Manpower is limited, but the way of heaven is constant. If people only know a little bit about it, they can accomplish great things. As for controlling the destiny of heaven and using it, it is really beyond human imagination."

"Money is just one thing, and that's it. How about governing a big country? Isn't it more complicated than knowing how to exchange money?"

"Who doesn't know that we should act according to Heaven and govern according to Heaven? But if we don't know the way of Heaven, how can we obey and respond to it? Just like loving you, the most important thing is to study the infinity of the universe and the principles of heaven and earth. Isn't this money the same? Is it difficult to understand something?"

"As for governing the country, according to Westerners, it is either empiricism or rationalism."

"Use past experience to summarize the gains and losses and learn from the history of each dynasty."

"Or use rational deduction to deduce future events and provide guidance for national policy."

"It's just that there are many things happening now that we didn't have experience with in the past. For example, Suzhou Prefecture went on strike calling a break, the people on the Dayuling Commercial Road lost their jobs, and the massive silver problem caused by maritime foreign trade. "

"However, if it is rational, it is so difficult to predict and predict a mere currency exchange, so how can we govern the country with pure rationality?"

Liu Yu secretly laughed, thinking that you are just meaningless.

Besides, is learning from history such a thing? People draw an egg, draw an oval, and fill it with tea-red color; if you draw a duck egg, you also draw an oval, and then fill it with tea-red color. This is not called learning from history. This is called carving a boat and seeking a sword.

Indeed, the problem of massive inflow of silver has never been encountered before. But in the Yongle year of his mother, a huge amount of spices and peppers flowed into the body, and I have never encountered it?

This has never happened before for people on Dayuling Commercial Road to lose their jobs. But he has never encountered the transfer of shipping companies, the deflection of trade routes, or the decline of Quanzhou Port?

Liu Yu probably understood what the emperor meant, but he was still full of fear and uneasiness about the unknown future. He always felt that the direction Dashun was taking was getting weirder and completely different from the past.

To say that it can be speculated is fine.

But now, even a currency exchange problem cannot be speculated on. What should we do when Dashun's path becomes increasingly weird and gradually reaches the point where there is no history to rely on?

The future is long, right? Is it bad?

There are different subjects for whether this is good or bad. Is it the common people? Is he a scholar-official? Is it the royal family? Is it the emperor?

If it were something else, Liu Yu could still say a few words.

But today, after he had to worry about the matter of being exchanged for money by the emperor, he had nothing to say.

I had no choice but to use a metaphor that the emperor could probably understand to explain the problem.

The currency system of Dashun is similar to the longitude and moon phase chart problem faced by Dashun navigation now.

If there is only one earth and one moon, the calculation is very simple.

If there was only one sun and one earth, it would not be difficult to calculate.

But if you have to consider a sun, an earth, and a moon, it becomes extremely difficult to calculate.

At least Liu Yu didn't understand such a problem. In history, Euler also lamented that he wasted several years of his life on calculating the sun, earth and moon and had no results.

The same is true for Dashun's currency.

If it's just copper coins, it's easy to calculate.

If it's just silver, the calculation is simple.

But unfortunately, there is no prescribed exchange ratio between copper coins and silver. This is not clear at all - the relationship between copper coins and silver is not a dollar-cent relationship, but an exchange ratio based on pure market fluctuations.

This makes it impossible to calculate at all.

The emperor had the Digu and Kepler systems of the previous Western professors Qin Tianjian, and also had a certain mathematical foundation. He could still understand Liu Yu's metaphor to some extent.

Then the emperor asked Liu Yu a question.

"I understand Aiqing's thoughts."

"So, the emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business in the past dynasties is similar to Aiqing's idea?"

"We can understand the operation of a society based on small farmers, but we cannot understand the operation of a society based on merchants and commerce. So we suppress industry and commerce in order to use the principles we can understand to govern and govern. What we are most familiar with is to turn the world into a A big rural area.”

"What's the difference between this and Aiqing's idea of ​​just getting rid of the copper coins if she can't figure out the money issue?"

Liu Yu said calmly: "Your Majesty, there seems to be no difference. This world belongs to Your Majesty, and His Majesty's holy will determines what the world will be like. There is no difference, it just depends on what Your Majesty thinks."

"But in fact, there are differences. Regarding the silver coin issue, if we follow the thinking stated by His Majesty, we should abandon silver and only use copper coins. Since ancient times, the Celestial Empire has not had the custom of using silver as a currency, and this silver has also flowed in in large quantities during the Ming Dynasty. of."

The emperor laughed loudly when he heard this, knowing that Liu Yu was insinuating that some people in the court were opposed to Western learning. Although the "Western learning" designated by the emperor was only related to religion, and science and technology were designated as "practical learning", some people did not There has been deliberate obfuscation.

As for things like the shareholding system and the buyout system, even if Liu Yu dug out ancient books to find chapters and excerpts from ancient books and said that they existed in ancient times, there were still voices of opposition.

Now Liu Yu used copper coins and silver as metaphors. The emperor understood that Liu Yu meant that it was not possible to return them all, but he could use his past experience in managing copper coins to manage silver. It just depends on whether the emperor wants to completely retreat to the "Bronze" Age, or keep pace with the times and continue to move forward to the "Silver" Age.

The world belongs to the emperor. Liu Yu is just a part-time worker. If you don’t want to use it, you don’t have to use it.

When the emperor heard these words, Long Yan was delighted. After laughing, he said: "Ai Qing has hit the point. Now that I have used you, I don't want to go back. Nowadays, there are many changes surrounding the canal, and it is precisely this that can be When there is no turning back.”

"However, once changes begin, many new problems will arise."

"What does it mean to be new? It's something that never happened in the past."

"I thought that these new problems could be solved with my wisdom. Until today, regarding the money matter, I realized that when faced with such new things, my beloved sometimes felt at a loss and was frightened and uneasy. For a moment, I Just a sigh.”

"I might as well tell you that in the past you talked about developing the navy, taking over Nanyang, and developing industry and commerce. There were many people in the court who had the same mentality as Aiqing when it came to money matters: they were at a loss, fearful and uneasy, and they didn't know the way forward. There are many monsters and monsters on the road ahead, and I don’t know how to solve them.”

"After what happened today, my dear, you should understand the thoughts of all the ministers in the previous court. It is also a good thing. Otherwise, my dear, you will always think, 'What is there to be afraid of?', 'What is there to be uneasy about?', 'Those new Isn’t the problem easy to solve?”

"If my dear, you can understand this, in my opinion, it is better than the millions of taels of silver notes you sent me as tribute. Only then will you know that not all problems in the world can be deduced using reason, and it will also extinguish your arrogance. It would be a great blessing for me to control your impatience and act more thoughtfully."

"Now that I understand, let's settle this matter first. The Huaibei salt policy reform will be coordinated with the small banknote reform mentioned by the minister. Don't be impatient in advancing the process, as impatientness will lead to changes. You need to take one step and watch one step, because this matter You can't tell whether the outcome will be good or bad, so you can't just seize the day and take your time as before. If you can afford it, I can afford it too."