Chapter 30 Banknotes "My lord, what is your intention in promoting the establishment of a money house?" Jia Xu asked. "Wen County is now booming with business, and a large number of merchants are coming to trade, but they need to carry a lot of copper coins, which is extremely inconvenient." Tian Ze did not directly mention the issue of making money, but started with the issue of commerce, which he had noticed a long time ago. He had long noticed that many of the merchants who came to trade would bring several large carts of copper coins. After buying things, they would transport them to the Central Plains to sell, and then bring large amounts of grain to Liaodong and bring back large amounts of copper coins. When he visited the merchants incognito, they often raised this issue. He also asked why it was not more convenient to just bring in grain in exchange for copper coins and then exchange them for goods to ship back. But from the merchant's answer, he realized that he was naive. Business is not that simple. Apart from other things, the problem of unequal value between the two cannot be solved. This also involves various issues such as trade cycle and security. Due to the actual situation and for the sake of safety, many businessmen have to go through this. "Now you have raised the issue of people's wealth. The solution to both of these lies in money houses, paper money and checks," said Tian Ze. The problem with the money house was actually not difficult to solve. Tian Ze had been to the bank and had reimbursed payments for goods, so he roughly knew how it worked. But the key is that the paper money and silver notes that money houses must use are not mature enough at present.
During the reign of Emperor Wu of Han, white deerskin coins were introduced, which can be regarded as the predecessor of paper money. However, Emperor Wu of Han's approach was too simple and crude. He simply relied on his power to fleece the people without really managing the business with all his heart. Tian Ze wanted to try to promote paper money and silver notes, but how to ensure their high quality and strict anti-counterfeiting performance gave him a headache. Knowing its importance, he has never stopped researching in this area over the years. At present, relatively tough paper with special texture and color-changing ink that can be preserved for a long time and can be preserved for a long time have been initially developed. Although the effect is still somewhat different from Tian Ze's expectations and the cost is not low, it can barely meet the requirements. At worst, we can wait until the technology matures and then gradually implement the exchange for new currency. "The so-called money houses are similar to private money houses. They are credit institutions responsible for currency exchange and deposits." "The so-called currency exchange is to exchange paper money and silver notes for copper coins and gold and silver." "So-called paper money and silver notes are similar to silk and white deerskin coins. They are made of special paper with value and used as money." Tian Ze explained, then took out a copper coin from his sleeve and gently placed it on the table. “The so-called money is essentially a general equivalent and a product of commodity exchange.” At this moment, he couldn't help but sigh that fortunately the knowledge he learned in junior high school was not completely forgotten. Those remaining memories were priceless to him. This knowledge was the crystallization of thousands of years of human wisdom. "Initially, people bartered, but it was difficult to balance the value of goods. After all, it was obviously unreasonable to exchange a cow for a chicken. Besides, cows also come in different sizes and fats, so we can't generalize." "In order to measure this value and facilitate transactions, money came into being. By using money as a reference, we can more accurately measure the value of an item, thus facilitating transactions. Later, shell money, copper coins, etc. appeared one after another." “So, in essence, money is just a general equivalent. It is valuable only if it is widely recognized and circulated. Its own value is not important. As long as it cannot be easily imitated, obtained and has stable credit, it will work.” "But today's copper coins have many disadvantages. First, they are not convenient to carry in large quantities. Second, casting requires copper mines and a lot of manpower. Third, and this is a very critical point, the value of copper itself is very high, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage." "For a long time, the scale of folk sacrifices and funerals has been extremely large. Some officials even used this to make money, resulting in most of the gold, silver and copper coins being buried underground. In addition, a large number of copper coins were hoarded by wealthy families and were not circulated in the market." “Copper is very laborious to mine and cast, and it is also used to create various copper products.” "As a result, the copper coins in circulation are obviously insufficient, making it difficult to support the convenient and smooth circulation of wealth. Its role has been greatly reduced, which is not conducive to the prosperity of the market or the abundance of the treasury."
"We can't risk the world's disapproval by digging out copper coins from the ground, nor can we continue to rely on confiscating copper coins from wealthy families to gain wealth. The best way is to create new coins to avoid the problem of insufficient copper coins." At this point, Tian Ze's eyes flickered. In fact, he was also a little tempted by tomb robbing, as Dong Zhuo, Cao Cao, and Sun Quan had all done it, and although it was a bit unethical, the effect was really good. If things get really difficult someday, maybe I could... Not for the money, but mainly to learn about history through archaeology. "The ideal money should meet three points. First, it should be easy to carry and not easily damaged. Second, it should have stable and clear specifications and be difficult to imitate. Third, it should not have high use value, can be manufactured on a large scale and be low cost." "So the lord chose paper?" Jia Xu was the first to react and asked. Tian Ze nodded. "Paper itself is easy to carry. Over the years, I have arranged for craftsmen to develop a special kind of paper and ink. The process is currently difficult to imitate and can be mass-produced. The cost is just a little higher, but it is still within an acceptable range." "The paper is tough and has a unique texture, and the ink shows a special color in the sun. Using this paper to make banknotes can solve these problems well." "And we can make paper of different sizes, write different numbers with ink to represent different prices, and stamp them with seals. For example, to represent ten coins, fifty coins, a hundred coins, or even a thousand coins, etc." "The cost of making paper is quite high nowadays. We are the only one who has the ability to make paper in large quantities and at a low price, and outsiders are not aware of this. Therefore, the value of paper is very high. A palm-sized piece of paper is worth nearly ten coins. This has reduced a lot of obstacles for us to promote paper money." "At the same time, with the help of the money exchange function, paper money can be exchanged for gold, silver and copper coins, and the government will endorse the money exchange to guarantee the value of the paper money." "The same is true for silver bills, but the amount is larger and must correspond to the identity of the person, with more stringent anti-counterfeiting measures. It is mainly used to facilitate large-scale trade for merchants." "In this way, we can alleviate the many hidden dangers brought about by the people's wealth to a great extent, and obtain a large amount of wealth through coinage and lending from money houses." Upon hearing this, everyone fell into deep thought. What Tian Ze said contained a huge amount of information, and the matter was of great significance. It affected the entire body, so they had to think it through carefully. After a long time, Jia Xu said, "My Lord, paper money is indeed very good, but it is not convenient to implement it in Wen County now, so as not to let the court know about it, which would be a serious crime. However, it should be no problem to implement it in the villages of Changxing Island and Liaodong Mountains." Chen Gong then said, "We need to reserve a large amount of gold, silver and copper coins, set a reasonable exchange rate, and pay close attention to the changes in prices and gold and silver in the world, and do a good job in the operation and protection of the bank. This requires a lot of manpower and people who are good at business and mathematics." Cheng Yu also said: "Money shops and silver notes can only be circulated in Wen County. How can we make merchants believe in and be willing to use silver notes? They have brought the money from thousands of miles away. They can trade directly without using silver notes." Tian Ze nodded, which was also the reason why he had not mentioned this matter before. It's just Wen County, there's no need to go through all this trouble, and it doesn't have sufficient conditions. However, the promotion of money shops and paper money requires a long process, and the people and merchants must gradually get used to them and build trust. So if we start trying now, we can save a lot of time and energy when promoting them in the future. "As Wenhe said, paper money is only being used in the villages of Changxing Island and the Liaodong Mountains for the time being. When new refugees arrive, the copper coins issued will be replaced with corresponding paper money. Some loans can only be paid and repaid with paper money as well." "If the same items in the corresponding stores are purchased with paper money, the price can be slightly reduced, so that people can get used to using it." "In addition, if the people deposit banknotes in the money shop, they can earn an extra penny per month for every thousand pennies they deposit, so that the people will get used to depositing their extra money in the village." "The paper currency will be temporarily named Liaodong currency." "Let these people form usage habits first, and it will be much easier to promote and develop in the future." After answering Jia Xu's question, Tian Ze said to Chen Gong: "Gongtai's reminder is very good. The total value of Liaodong currency must correspond to our copper coins and gold and silver reserves. When we are familiar with the tricks, we can consider how to print more." "The exchange rate is determined based on the price of gold and silver in the world, leaving a certain amount of room to prevent people from taking advantage of loopholes, and it will be adjusted in due course." "As for personnel, reserve them first. How many people can open a bank? It's better to have fewer people than too many. Roll it out slowly. Don't rush. Make sure to strengthen security and supervision. The villages on Changxing Island and the Liaodong Mountains are not required to carry out silver bill business for the time being." "As for what Zhongde said, I have already considered it. We can just open two money houses in Liao County and Wen County to be responsible for the exchange of silver bills."
"In this way, these merchants can exchange the copper coins they earn from selling grain in Wen County for silver notes at the Wen County bank and carry them with them. After returning to Liao County by boat, they can exchange the silver notes for copper coins at the Liao County bank." “It greatly reduces transportation costs and also reduces the risk of loss and theft. On the other hand, even though it’s just a one-time transaction, it can build trust and usage habits.” "In addition, Wen County has a trade surplus. In addition to the copper coins in the Liao County bank that are used by merchants for exchange, the remaining copper coins can be directly used as the cost of attracting refugees and handed over to the county governors of the three surrounding counties, saving us the trouble of transporting money from various places." After hearing what Tian Ze said, Jia Xu and the others thought about it and exclaimed: "My lord is wise!" Afterwards, everyone discussed the details carefully, and it took several days to finalize it. (End of this chapter)