Du Zhongxiao thought that in order to solve the problem of Ye County, upgrading was almost inevitable. After the upgrade, how to manage the iron superintendent, there is probably only one way directly under the central government. In this regard, the Salt and Iron Division expanded its power, and took advantage of the development of railways and convenient transportation to control the world's major government-run industry and commerce. Based on these, we will directly manage the economy of the world.

Yexian was promoted to Yezhou, with more officials, and at the same time straightened out the official system under the rule. The most important thing is to straighten out the bureaucratic system.

Wen Yanbo said: "Including the iron supervisor, all the field affairs in the world must be assessed with how much money is made, which requires the unification of coins." In the past few years, it has been very beneficial for all walks of life to issue money citations, and it is time to unify the money citations. The government affairs hall thought that the degree branch division was in charge of this matter, and according to the amount of copper coins, a considerable amount of money was issued for the use of the world. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Xianggong, how many copper coins does the imperial court have now?" ”

Wen Yanbo said: "The sum of all roads is about 120 million copper coins, and according to this, there are about 300 million yuan of money issued by various roads." ”

Hearing this data, Du Zhongxiao was taken aback, this was more than he thought. Since Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty minted five baht coins, a total of more than 1,000 years now, the Song Dynasty has minted the most money, much more than other dynasties. Among them, the coins that really maintain their value in full are only two or three hundred million guan, and the imperial court can grasp more than 100 million guan, which is not a small number. Based on these copper coins and properly operated, they should be available for the world's use.

Du Zhongxiao said: "According to the practice of issuing money quotations in Yizhou, if you want to prevent the money quotation from depreciating rapidly, the quotation of money is at most five times the capital. Now only more than 300 million yuan has been issued, and the savings have contributed a lot. However, if you include the government-run iron prison, the imperial court's tax expenditure, etc., a large amount of monetization, the need for more money than before. The lower officials thought that there were two ways, one was to use interest to attract people to save their money in savings banks, instead of hiding them privately. Another is to increase the value of copper coins, and for the same money, you can buy more things. ”

Wen Yanbo listened and hurriedly asked, "What Zhongcheng said is very true. Don't know how? ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "If you want to make the copper money you save interest, the savings bank must lend money from abroad to collect interest." There are deposits and loans, and the interest rate difference between them is used to make money, so that it does not lose money, and the business can be continued. There are many places in the world to use money, and as long as there is collateral, you can borrow money. ”

Liu Xin said: "Isn't this official lending? Private lending has already done endless harm, and if the government lends again, it is only afraid that there will be trouble. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Xianggong, there are many times in the world when you borrow. Not to mention natural and man-made disasters, it is to reclaim wasteland, and it is also useful to open shops and factories. As long as the review is clear, there is a mortgage, there is a guarantee, and it is not a time when the principal and interest cannot be collected, you can lend as much as possible. As long as the court has set the interest rate and no usury is allowed, what does it matter? There is so much money in the savings bank, which is the most valuable in the world, and of course you can lend. ”

Li Shen said: "Zhongcheng is right, the people have to borrow money many times. Just like a farmer, if the year is not good, there is no money when planting, the light is not good for planting, and the heavy one can only flee. At this time, I lent money and mortgaged the green seedlings in the field, and I was not afraid that I would not be able to repay the money after the autumn. ”

When Li Shen was a magistrate, he once let go of the Qingmiao loan according to the actual situation, which is the origin of the Qingmiao Law when Wang Anshi changed the law in history. In an agrarian society, the seedling loan is the most obvious lending opportunity, with the crops in the field as a guarantee, and there is no fear of not receiving the principal and interest. But now it's different, and with factories, the most important lending opportunities are obviously industry and commerce. Due to the operation of the factory, it is often necessary to borrow money, which is an opportunity for banks.

It is necessary to unify the world's coins and use copper coins as the basis for issuing banknotes, and there will be a large amount of capital in the savings house. Without this money, the savings bank loses its most important source of income and is difficult to maintain. With the power to lend, the savings bank became a bank.

Wen Yanbo nodded: "It is feasible to collect money from depositors on the one hand and lend money on the other." However, it is necessary to think carefully about how to do it. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "The matter of coins involves the fundamentals of the world, and it is not comparable to other policies. I thought that if the printing of money was collected by the imperial court, and then the degree branch secretary was responsible, there would be some unclear powers and responsibilities. There should be a separate department to deal with this. The branch still uses the money of the yamen, collects it, and deposits it in the savings office, and transfers it from the savings office according to the documents. In this way, we can prevent things from happening in the world, and the branch division relies on the power that can print money, and falsely prints money to tide over difficulties and cause trouble. ”

Wen Yanbo thought for a while and said, "This matter is important, let's discuss it later." In addition to using interest to attract private savings, what should you do to increase the value of the currency? The coins were minted by the imperial court and spent to the people, and the value of the currency was already determined. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Xianggong, things are not like this. Before the issuance of money, the private people destroy the money caster, and they can get several times the profit. It shows that the copper coins at that time were actually undervalued. It's just that the imperial court is not allowed to destroy money casters, and there are too many copper coins among the people, resulting in depreciation. It can be seen that the value of copper coins is actually higher. The imperial court can collect all the copper coins in the world, issue money citations, and at the same time make iron coins for small amounts and send them to the people for use. If there are more iron coins in the people and it is easy for the people to use, they can push up the value of copper coins and actually increase the number of coins. ”

As soon as these words came out, there was a lot of discussion in the room for a while, and everyone had their own opinions.

Using physical money as money, plus money attraction, it is actually difficult to avoid deflation. The currency issued cannot keep up with the economy, and it is inevitable that there will be a shortage of money. After the money shortage, the people stored money, forming a vicious circle. In the end, the government minted money at a loss, and the people tried their best to collect it, and the world has been in an environment of lack of money. The issuance of a large number of iron coins, as a supplement to the money citation, appropriately raised the value of the currency, in fact, was a partial false issuance, to a certain extent to reduce the shortage of money.

In this era, the denomination of money cannot be too small, otherwise it will increase the difficulty of management. Iron money is used as a supplement for small coins, and its inflated valuation is appropriately controlled, so that it is unprofitable for the people to mint money. The two are used together to meet the people's demand for currency.

Due to the copper ban in the Song Dynasty, on the one hand, it devalued the value of the currency, and on the other hand, pushed up the price of copper. With the collection of a large number of copper coins by the savings bank and the issuance of a large number of iron coins, the copper ban can be slowly lifted, so that the value of copper coins can slowly return to a reasonable range.

Due to the actual conditions, China does not have a large gold mine, nor a large silver mine, these two natural currencies are insufficient compared to China's huge market, and can only use copper as currency. Physical money can be stored, and for the rich, it is best to save it after making money without a bank. As a result, there was a shortage of money in the market, and the imperial court minted a large number of coins. Through political means, the cost of minting coinage was reduced as much as possible, so that copper coins were out of touch with the needs of the market, resulting in the current situation.

China is different from Europe in that it has a huge domestic market, and the domestic market is in an absolute dominant position. How to meet the needs of the internal market comes first, and foreign trade is not important. Before the external development, China did not need to import many goods, and gold and silver were not necessary. Foreign trade, mainly the purchase of various luxury goods, has no significant impact on the domestic economy.

Commercial trade is inherently mutual, and without demand, the desire to sell is not strong. The current situation is that the Song Dynasty did not have many external goods in short supply, and there was little gold and silver that could be used for trade.

Ouyang Xiudao: "Before the issuance of money, iron money was used in the Sichuan and Shu regions, but there were actually many drawbacks. Isn't it inappropriate to mint iron money on a large scale after the money is issued? If it is cast and the people don't use it, it will be embarrassing. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "As long as the casting is well-made and not easy to imitate, why don't the people use it?" In fact, Hedong first minted new iron coins, and the people liked it very much. In recent years, several more roads have begun to cast iron money. In the future, it will be the same as Qian Yin, unified by the imperial court casting, unified specifications, as long as the casting is excellent, the people still like to use it. ”

Fan Zhen said: "The iron money cast on Hedong Road is said to be coated with tin on the outside, which is not cheap. The outer layer is coated with tin and pressed by a machine, which is difficult to cast by the people. What Zhongcheng mentioned has its work. ”

Zhou Zhan, the envoy of the degree branch, said: "In this way, the money is introduced in parallel with the iron money, and it is not inappropriate to collect copper money into the savings house." It's just that in the future, the branch department can't manage the money, and many places that use money may not have money. ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "What's so difficult about this? If it's just a temporary difficulty, borrowing is. The money from the savings bank can be borrowed by the private sector and by the government. ”

Zhou Zhan shook his head: "What kind of system does the government borrow from!" ”

Others just laughed, and no one paid attention to Zhou Zhan. What's wrong with the government's borrowing, it's like it hasn't borrowed before. Before the issuance of money, the three divisions had to borrow money from the inner treasury every year, and most of them borrowed and did not pay back.

Gong Dingchen of the Governor's Yuan muttered: "According to what Du Zhongcheng said, the world will use unified coins in the future." The benefits go without saying, but the world uses one kind of money, can the current imperial court do it? ”

Du Zhongxiao said: "Now there is a railway, not as good as before. The imperial court could choose several places to print money and mint iron money. ”

The railway connected the north of the Yangtze River in the Song Dynasty, and it was convenient to transport. As long as in a few cities with geographical centers, printing money to attract money, it is not difficult to distribute. As for the south of the Yangtze River, there are waterways to pass, and there is nothing. The advent of railways has changed so many things.

Wen Yanbo said: "The advantages of doing this are naturally there, but what are the shortcomings, we still have to think more." Now that there are railways, it is convenient for various places to travel and travel, and it is necessary to unify the coins to avoid disputes. It is naturally a good thing that it is issued uniformly by the imperial court. However, if there is a distribution, there will be a receipt, whether the imperial court can do it, what kind of impact will it have, and after allowing it to go back, everyone will think about it, and it will not be too late for the next meeting. ”

And they all said yes. The things that Du Zhongxiao put forward and affect involve all aspects, and they need to be carefully thought about before they can be discussed.

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