When Wen Tiren left Chongzhen's office with excitement and some uneasiness, Zhu Youzhen looked up and saw Wang Chengen beside him looking like he wanted to speak and stopped, and couldn't help but say easily: "If you have anything to say, just say it." Why pretend to be speechless and stop? ”

Wang Chengen said hesitantly: "The minister doesn't want to interfere in the government, but this Wen Shilang has only entered the ministry not long ago, and His Majesty will hand over such an important matter to him, will it be a little too rash?"

His Majesty doesn't seem to know much about him, shouldn't he let him report to Mr. Xu more, lest he turn this list into an opportunity to form a gang for himself? ”

Zhu Youzhen smiled and said: "Where can he set such a list alone, although my Ming officials are a little less than the previous dynasty, there are more than 20,000 people." Such a list should at least reach more than 1,000 people, and Wen Changqing can find so many relatives and friends in a short period of time.

After saying that, after the list is drawn up, it still needs to be discussed and reviewed by the cabinet, and it is not an occasion for him to be a servant of the ministry. If everyone is not satisfied with the list he has drawn up, I will have to change the servant at most.

Of course, the officials who are included in the list may not be grateful to him for drawing up such a list. Those officials who have been removed from the list must be resentful of him. Therefore, this kind of resentful thing, it is better not to let Mr. Xu participate in it, lest even he suffer an unwarranted disaster. ”

With the arrival of Wu Chunfu, the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, Wang Chengen suddenly wisely shut his mouth and stopped talking about Wen Tiren with the emperor.

Wu Chunfu did not come empty-handed, he also brought a complete set of original instruments of weights and measures of the public system. More than a dozen chamberlains made two trips to fill the floor of the front hall of the office building, and only then did they carefully transport this set of public weights and measures.

Zhu Youzhen got up with great interest and stepped forward to observe them one by one, while Wu Chunfu carefully explained the standards of each original weapon to the emperor on the side.

After half an hour, Zhu Youzhen returned to his seat and asked Wu Chunfu to sit down in front of him. After he sat down, he first turned back to Wang Chengen and said: "You have people carefully send this set of metric original instruments to the basement of the Qianqing Palace, keep it well, and then take it out every year to compare and verify the set of metric original instruments stored by the Ministry of Industry to see if there will be any errors." ”

After Wang Chengen accepted the emperor's order, Wu Chunfu respectfully said to Chongzhen: "The minister has personally checked it, and the results of the 49 sets of metric original instruments are completely consistent, and there is no error, please rest assured." ”

Zhu Youzhen replied with a smile: "There is naturally no error now, but after a long time, with the change of temperature and humidity, the metal will produce fine deformation, and the accumulation will naturally produce errors." Okay, let's not talk about that. Now let's talk about how the Ministry of Industry plans to implement this public system of weights and measures. ”

Hearing Chongzhen's inquiry, Wu Chunfu, who originally had a relaxed expression, suddenly turned into a state of business, and he replied seriously: "The minister intends to make 5,000 sets of weights and measures by the Ministry of Industry in accordance with the previous practice, and then send them to all provinces, prefectures, counties, customs and customs, and abolish the original old weights and measures.

His Majesty was asked to issue an imperial decree to officially announce to the world that after the new weights and measures were sent to various places, the new system would be adopted for taxation and merchant market transactions in the imperial court, and the use of the old weights and measures would be forbidden. In a few months, all the weights and measures in the world will be changed, and after a year, the people will be able to get used to the new standards of weights and measures. ”

Regarding Wu Chunfu's bureaucratic approach, Zhu Youzhen could only shake his head and say: "The reformulation of the public system of weights and measures was originally for the convenience of the people, if the imperial court does not ask the reason, and compulsorily abolish the old standards overnight, the local officials are at a loss, and even the people will be puzzled, but they will instead regard the imperial court's issuance of public system weights and measures as a bad government to deprive the people of their wealth, which is really contrary to my original intention." ”

Wu Chunfu suddenly hesitated and said: "But if the public system of weights and measures is not enforced, and the old and new weights and measures are used together, won't the weights and measures of all provinces in the world be even more chaotic at that time?" I'm afraid this is still hindering people's livelihood, right? ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "The promulgation of the public system of weights and measures is nothing more than setting a standard for the world, but if this standard is to be accepted by the people, it needs to take into account the daily habits of the people.

This old system of weights and measures has been practiced for thousands of years, and the people have long been accustomed to this set of measurement standards, and the court may not be able to reverse their past habits.

Therefore, even if the imperial court promulgated a new standard of weights and measures, in the process of private transactions, the common people would still be accustomed to using the old system. So we have to give the people time to get used to the metric units.

Therefore, all the metric units must be forcibly unified within the imperial court, but the transactions that occur between the common people can adopt a parallel system. What we need to do is to use the metric unit as the standard and redefine the standard of the old weights and measures, which can be called the municipal system, that is, the weights and measures used in the market.

In determining the standard of the old weights and measures, the Ministry of Industry should do two things, except for gold and silver, which should be kept in the old system, all goods should be in whole number units.

For example, in the old system, one pound was equal to 598 grams, and every tael was equal to 37,375 grams, in order to avoid disturbance in the currency market, the standard unit of one tael of gold and one tael of silver was 37,375 grams.

In addition to gold and silver, the weight of each catty is uniformly adjusted to 500 grams, and the 10 system is adopted between catties and taels, and each tael is 50 grams. In this way, two catties are just one kilogram, and the conversion between the metric system and the municipal system is relatively simple.

As for gold and silver, the old system of measurement units of more than two is abolished, and the lower two is still converted according to the decimal system and the metric standard gram is used.

The Imperial Court intends to officially announce the implementation of the public system of weights and measures on April 1, so that all contracts and debts signed before April 1 will still be under the old system, and all contracts and debts after April 1 should be under the new system, unless otherwise agreed before the signing of the contract.

This year, next year, and the year after that the old system will still be used for the collection of grain, but it must be converted into the metric system for collection, and the standards of the public system of weights and measures will be publicized to the people in the process of collection. The Ministry of Industry should dispatch personnel to assist the Ministry of Household in conducting inspections in various localities to prevent localities from taking advantage of the opportunity of changing weights and measures to raise the standard of taxation. ”

Wu Chunfu carefully remembered the emperor's words, thought about it carefully, and then asked cautiously: "Does Your Majesty mean to use three years to promote the public system of weights and measures?" ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said: "Yes, but the use of public system weights and measures to redefine the standards of the city system can be accelerated, first of all, let those businessmen pass the new market system in the market."

As for the manufacture of weights and measures under the public system and the new market system, the Ministry of Industry may authorize private businessmen and craftsmen to apply to the Ministry of Industry for a license to manufacture scales, and the scales manufactured by them must meet the standards prescribed by the Ministry of Industry, otherwise the license will be withdrawn and they will be prohibited from continuing to manufacture scales.

In addition, the Ministry of Industry can issue a provision that the weighing instruments used by each shop in the market must have the mark approved by the Ministry of Industry, and all weighing instruments that have not been approved will be confiscated. If the amount of weighing instrument used has an obvious shortage of pounds and sizes, in addition to confiscation of illegal gains, a fine of 3-10 times will be imposed.

Of course, this rule will be promulgated first, but it will be implemented after a year, and they will always have time to replace the scales and gages. ”

Wu Chunfu felt a lot more relaxed about the emperor's suggestion, so that the Ministry of Industry could earn some silver from the merchants and use it to supplement the production costs of the 5,000 sets of weighing instruments and measuring tools distributed to the local government.

After carefully explaining to Wu Chunfu how to promote the public system of weights and measures, Chongzhen hesitated for a while and then spoke to him again: "In addition, the Ministry of Industry took out five sets of original instruments, discussed with the Prime Minister Yamen, and sent someone to give one set each to Korea, Ryukyu, Bo Ni and Siam, and one set to Japan.

In addition to representing the friendliness of the Ming Dynasty, these artifacts would also serve as a measure of trade between Ming merchants and their countries. Therefore, they can convert the weights and measures of their country according to this set of prototypes, so as to facilitate future trade with the Ming Dynasty.

As for England, Spain, and the Netherlands, we will wait until the return of the British to Europe in the second half of the year. At that time, it may be possible to have the envoys of Europe personally present them to the kings, which would be more ceremonial and ceremonial. ”

After Wu Chunfu wrote it down, he couldn't help but ask the emperor: "Then Annam, Burma, Mongolia and other places, do you want to make the same preparations?" ”

Zhu Youzhen shook his head and said: "Annan and Myanmar have always been disrespectful to my Daming, so I won't consider it for the time being. As long as Mongolia, Houjin, Tibet, and the north and south of the Tianshan Mountains are all inherent territories of my Ming Dynasty, there is no need to give the original weapon, and let the merchants trade with weights and measures..."

After sending Wu Chunfu away, it was almost noon. Wang Chengen said to Chongzhen on the side: "Your Majesty, is it okay to stop here in the morning, and if there is anything to deal with in the afternoon." ”

Zhu Youzhen also felt a little tired, but he still subconsciously asked: "Who is next?" What do you want to discuss? ”

Wang Chengen replied a little helplessly: "It's the book of the Ministry of Rites, and he doesn't have anything to do, just to report on the measures of the Ministry of Rites to rectify morale." ”

Zhu Youzhen thought for a while and then said, "I'd better invite him in, I'll finish his report and finish this morning's schedule..."

Wang Chengen had to follow Chongzhen's instructions and signal the attendants on the side to greet people.

The meeting between Chongzhen and the Ministry of Rites did not last long, and the two exchanged opinions on the rectification of the scholar's style, and then ended the meeting.

But Wang Chengen noticed that after meeting with Shangshu of the Ministry of Rites, Chongzhen, who was on the way back to the Qianqing Palace, had been thinking about something.