Hearing this, Wen Tiren and the other three couldn't help but be surprised, and glanced at each other, their eyes full of doubts.

You know, everyone knows that if the imperial court can issue banknotes, then there is no need to worry about what taxes can not be collected.

For this reason, when the Ming treasure banknote encountered problems in the Hongwu years, the monarchs and ministers thought of a way together, and even did not hesitate to make a clear decree to the world, and issued a lot of regulations, but in the end it was irretrievable, and there was no way to stop printing and distributing it in the Zhengde years.

Such a difficult thing, when it comes to the young Emperor Chongzhen, it has become a very simple matter? Is it possible!

To be honest, Wen Tiren and Bi Ziyan and the other three didn't believe it at all. However, when they looked at the emperor's demeanor, they were full of confidence, which made them a little puzzled.

Regarding the issue of banknotes, Hu Guang had already considered it, and it happened that he also knew the history of currency and knew where the problem was, so he had already prepared, and now he was ready to implement it, first of all, he had to let Shoufu and Hubu Shangshu support.

The reaction of the three natives in front of him was also expected by Hu Guang, which was the limitation of the times, and had nothing to do with whether they were smart or not.

Thinking of this, he opened his mouth and said: "Compared with physical coins such as gold, silver and copper, treasure banknotes are convenient and practical, so I don't need to say it anymore, right?" ”

Seeing the three courtiers nodding, he continued: "But why is the Ming treasure banknote not popular with the people, and finally has to stop printing, just because it is printed too much? ”

Of course not, Bi Ziyan replied immediately in his heart. As the head of the household, he must know more about the finance of the Ming Dynasty than others.

When the Ming treasure banknotes encountered a depreciation crisis, the imperial court thought of various methods, including reducing the issuance, and even reducing the means of the imperial court's expenditure on treasure banknotes, but it was useless.

Hu Guang didn't wait for someone to answer, so he continued: "No, the most fundamental reason is that the Ming treasure banknote is a kind of credit currency, and it relies on the credibility of the imperial court. Once there is a hint of distrust, even if it is just a rumor, then the credit will be destroyed, which will affect the embodiment of the value of the treasure banknote, and this process is irreversible. ”

Hearing the emperor talk eloquently, he didn't seem to understand a little bit when he said it, and there were a few words that he didn't understand very well. In this way, the emperor's speech gave the three of them an unfathomable feeling, and for a while, no one asked, they were all listening and thinking intently.

Hu Guang did not adopt the way they could speak as soon as they could understand it, one was that he didn't want to be so tired and asked him to adapt to them, and the other reason was that it was deliberate, that is, that you should listen as if you understood a little, so that he could appear to be level.

I only heard him continue: "Now that the cause has been found, it is easy to do. It just so happens that at this time, there is enough silver in my Ming Dynasty, so the newly issued banknotes adopt the silver standard, which can solve the problems encountered in the previous Ming treasure banknotes. ”

At the beginning of the Ming Dynasty, there were not many reserves of gold and silver in the country. Later, for hundreds of years, the trade between the Ming Dynasty and foreign countries has been a trade surplus, resulting in most of the silver obtained by countries around the world in every possible way into the Ming Dynasty.

In this way, there is also the basis for silver as currency, and there is also a whip law of Zhang Juzheng in the Wanli period, which established silver as the official currency.

It is precisely under the premise of these two that the people of the Ming Dynasty already have enough understanding of silver. If the silver standard had been adopted, there would have been no difficulties. Before the change, even if the silver standard was adopted at the beginning of the founding of the country, it would encounter great difficulties sooner or later.

When the three courtiers heard this, Bi Ziyan couldn't help it, and asked first: "Your Majesty, Weichen is stupid, I don't know what this silver standard means?" ”

Hearing this, the other two couldn't help but nod. Listening to what the emperor said, the key is this silver standard, but they can't understand the meaning of this silver standard, which makes their hearts further attracted.

Hu Guang listened to it and smiled slightly: "The so-called silver standard system means that the imperial court will print as many silver taels as there are banknotes. After the paper money was issued, the imperial court allowed the people to exchange the paper money for silver and physical goods. In this way, it can solve the problem that the banknote may depreciate, because there is a court to cover the value of the banknote! ”

After a pause, seeing that the three courtiers were thinking, he sighed again: "Actually, this is not a real banknote, this is just a bank note. Oh, and there is no bank yet, it's just a kind of voucher. But this is also urgent, and can only be taken step by step. ”

After he finished speaking, the three courtiers came back to their senses. When it comes to money, Bi Ziyan speaks first. I saw him frowning and said: "What Your Majesty said can indeed prevent the depreciation of this banknote, but there is no silver in the court right now!" ”

Thinking of this, he felt that something was wrong, so he immediately corrected it again: "The household department is only 620,000 taels!" ”

This is the income after the seizure of the original left capital Yushi Cao Yubian, especially after the seizure of the Yongchang ticket number. At this time, Bi Ziyan already understood why the emperor had asked before, and no one could use this money, so it was supposed to be used here.

"That's right, Your Majesty, it's only 620,000 taels, it's useless!" Xu Guangqi was the most sensitive to numbers among the three, and immediately followed with a frown.

And Wen Tiren had confirmed at this time that the emperor was still the same emperor, and there was no situation where he might have been possessed by Taizu before. With the way the emperor did things before, there must have been his reasons. Thinking so, he didn't speak this time.

When Hu Guang heard this, he didn't care, and immediately smiled and said, "It's okay, there will definitely be silver." Now you only need to take the first step, and then print and distribute it when there is money in the future. ”

The seizure of Jin merchants is a major factor in the success of the issuance of banknotes. Because in his estimate, most of the first batch of banknotes printed out will probably be exchanged immediately, and eventually these banknotes will return to the hands of the imperial court, and there will be little silver left in the household.

But with this good start, seeing that the imperial court did not break its promise, and could indeed exchange paper money back for silver taels, the confidence of the common people in using paper money will be greatly increased, which will effectively guarantee the value of paper money.

After the raid of the Jin merchants is completed, and the imperial treasury increases by tens of millions of taels of silver, even if there are still people who will exchange the silver twice, it is absolutely impossible to exchange it. With such a huge buffer, it will be much easier to implement banknotes.

Bi Ziyan naturally didn't know about Jin Shang, but he didn't think so far, thinking that in this case, the emperor would just issue paper money, at most it would be an attempt, after all, it was indeed troublesome to use gold and silver.

Thinking like this, his mind turned to other aspects, and he asked a little curiously: "Your Majesty, what do you mean by these on this banknote?" ”