After a while, two small yellow doors came in with a few large planks and set them up in front of everyone. The other came in with a large pile of papers, and a small wooden box in his hand, which he placed on His Highness's desk.

These wooden boards are the blackboards made by Xu Ping earlier, from the three divisions, and they are all made by skilled craftsmen, and they are so black and shiny. Xu Ping often used these blackboards when he recruited his subordinates for meetings with the Salt and Iron Division and the Editing Institute, and the data listed on them were concise and clear, and they could be understood at a glance. The hall performed something, and by the way, I brought these big blackboards.

When he arrived at the blackboard, Xu Ping bowed his hand: "Your Majesty, ministers, before I do this, I want to talk about a drawback of the 'cash method' that Vice President Li Shu did not mention just now. ”

"If you have something to say, just say it."

Zhao Zhen decisively allowed it. Speaking from the heart, Zhao Zhen is not a diligent emperor, although he forced himself to be a good emperor, a good emperor must be diligent, and even posed to Lu Yi Jianxian, but it was really tiring. Zhao Zhen wants to vomit when he sees the recitals every day, especially the four and six chapters in the recitals, quoting scriptures, which looks particularly brain-consuming. Xu Ping's recitals are different, they always have something to say, and it is clear at a glance. And all kinds of information and data in it are detailed, so you don't need to think about what this sentence means.

Zhao Zhen likes to watch Xu Ping's recitals and also likes to listen to Xu Ping talk about things. It's never fancy, it's often to the point, and it won't make you dizzy.

Xu Ping looked at Li Shi's expression in front of him, and saw that he was not angry, but a little curious, and looked like he was listening attentively. sighed secretly in his heart, this is a good official, but unfortunately a good official is often a stepping stone for others.

"The tea method in the first year of Tiansheng, all kinds of drawbacks, Deputy Li Shu has basically said that there is one of them, that is, the 'cash method' has reduced the copper coins of the Zhongjing Division. Deputy Li Shu believed that it was because the copper money was used to buy grain along the border, which led to the copper money entering the border and not staying in Beijing, so he encouraged tea merchants to bring copper money from other places into Beijing. Weichen thinks that in addition to the need for copper money to buy grain along the border, another reason is that the 'cash law' requires tea merchants to buy tea with cash, and merchants who enter China sell grain to get copper money directly. The copper coins in the middle are on the merchants, and they have nothing to do with cash compared to the previous tea merchants, which in itself increases the demand for copper coins. This amount is not small, and the tea money is often one million yuan a year, which means that the 'cash method' line directly has a gap of one million copper coins. ”

Xu Ping's words are in the vernacular, that is, the demand for coins is related to the circulation link and circulation speed, although the "cash money method" has reduced the false valuation of tea prices, but also increased the circulation of copper coins out of thin air, slowing down the circulation speed. In this way, the demand increases, while the supply remains unchanged, which is directly reflected in the shortage of copper coins in the capital and along the border at the same time.

The ministers present do not have this understanding of currency, and after listening to Xu Ping's words, it seems to make sense, but they can't figure out what the truth is. There is still so much money, how can you feel less out of thin air?

Zhang Dexiang was relatively close to Xu Ping because of his uncle Zhang Pin's relationship, and asked: "Deputy Envoy Xu, what I said before seems to have some truth, but I still don't know a little. There is a fixed number of copper coins, whether it is in the hands of merchants or in the hands of the government, there are still so many, why is there less? ”

Xu Ping said: "Please see if you are participating in politics." ”

I picked up a stick of chalk and drew two large circles on the blackboard, each with five hundred written in it.

"If the fixed number of money is 1,000, set it to be 500 in the capital and 500 along the border. Intermediate merchants enter the grain and grass along the border, and they have to be handed over, and they go to Beijing or go to the tea field to exchange tea, which has nothing to do with cash. ”

Then he drew two large circles on the blackboard, a small circle, and wrote four hundred in the two large circles and two hundred in the small circles.

"The total number is still 1,000, because of the 'cash method', if the merchant wants to use cash, there will be 200 to the merchant, and the border and the Jingshi will each have a hundred less, so naturally there will be a shortage of copper coins."

Zhang Shixun laughed out loud: "What is the truth of this? Whether the merchant's cash is to buy tea or buy a trade quote, it always has to be spent, is it possible that he still carries it with him? ”

Xu Ping looked at Zhang Shixun and shook his head slightly: "Xianggong, don't businessmen just sell tea once, business must go on forever, otherwise where will they have food?" Isn't it obvious that some people buy tea with copper money, and at the same time, some people exchange grain for cash, and all in all, the merchant has always had so much copper money, isn't this reason obvious? ”

Everyone here was a handsome man for a while, and they just didn't think in this direction before, but now Xu Ping clicked the words away and immediately understood. Even Zhang Shixun just looked at Xu Ping unpleasantly, and the words came out casually, without thinking. Without waiting for Xu Ping to reply, he already understood in his heart, and couldn't help blushing.

Zhao Zhen nodded secretly at the top, or Xu Ping's method is easy to explain the truth. Draw a few circles, everyone will be clear at once, if you just use words, I don't know when to go.

It's just that the living note officials who are recorded next to them are so bitter, and they can remember it no matter how they speak, how can they remember it when they draw pictures and notes? Xu Ping looked like he would not leave the imperial court for a while, and this errand was becoming more and more difficult to do.

Li Shi bowed his hand to Xu Ping: "Deputy Envoy Xu is right, it is true, I was negligent." ”

"You're welcome."

This is not Li Zhi's negligence, but the development of the times has not yet reached that step, and everyone does not think in that direction.

The reason why Xu Ping mentioned this matter before the official lecture was to remind everyone that he was the deputy envoy of salt and iron who was now in charge of the tea case. No matter what positions the people here have done before, even if they have served as deputy envoys of salt and iron, served as three envoys, and presided over the reform of the tea law, they still know the current situation of the tea law best and themselves, the current deputy envoy of salt and iron, and they will not be able to pass it.

Taking out a special blackboard eraser from the wooden box, Xu Ping erased the few circles he had just drawn and officially talked about the tea method.

Xu Ping picked up a long wooden ruler and drew a table on the blackboard, marking the amount of grain and grass along the edge of Shaanxi Road, the amount of grain and grass transferred from the surrounding roads, the tea quotation issued by the government, the tea quotation received by the tea farm, and the price of the tea quotation, which is actually according to the market value. Finally, there is the amount of tea produced by the tea farm each year, the tax money due to the government, and the actual tax money.

Finally, starting from Shaanxi Road, the implementation of entering the middle school along the border, year by year, fill in this form.

At this time, there are several experienced people here who have already seen the problem, such as Lu Yijian and Wang Zeng, especially Cai Qi and Li Shi, the two of them have been officials in the three divisions system for many years, and this sensitivity is still clear.

But everyone didn't speak, watching Xu Ping push the blackboard that was full of writing aside, and pulled another blackboard over.

This time, Xu Ping played more fancy, drew the coordinates on this blackboard, directly drew a histogram, and then connected a fluctuation curve.

After finishing this, Xu Ping put the two blackboards together and bowed to Zhao Zhen: "Your Majesty, all the ministers, you must have already seen the clues. Since Shaanxi grain and grass and military quarters along the border into the middle, the tea law has been changed repeatedly, every time the tea law changes, the government money has skyrocketed, the second year will be less, to the third year is basically the same as the tea law before the change. From the third year onwards, there is no difference between the effects of the old and new tea methods. ”

Speaking of this, Xu Ping slowed down his tone and said: "Speaking of which, the new tea law says that the old tea law has various drawbacks, and after changing it, it will definitely be able to get rid of the old drawbacks, and even establish a method that is not easy for 10,000 years." As a result, within a few years, the drawbacks of the new tea law came out, and the same words supported the old tea law again, and the result was still the same. Why do you do this again and again? Obviously, it is because no matter what kind of tea method, the imperial court can make huge profits when it is first changed, and even get rid of the old evils, so it is repeated like this. ”

At this time, the longest implementation of the tea law in Shaanxi is the "three sayings", and the "cash money law" started from Li Di at the earliest, and Li Zhi improved the official implementation in the first year of Tiansheng, and it has changed two or three times. It can be clearly seen from the data that the two tea methods have no essential advantages or disadvantages at all, and they are not just a temporary emergency.

Just when everyone was silent, the privy envoy Wang Zeng spoke: "Deputy Envoy Xu, it seems that the change of the tea law is indeed as you said, but every time the tea law is changed, the court has gained huge benefits, where does this benefit come from?" ”

"Returning to the pivotal phase, there are three sources of benefit. First, the gardeners, every time they change the tea law, they are rewarded, and they work hard to grow tea in the first year, and the benefits are gone in the second year. The second is the merchants, the tea law is changed, the old is replaced with the new, all kinds of discounts, and the benefits of the merchants in the past few years will be spit out to the government. Another one comes from the government, no matter what kind of tea law is implemented, the old tea in the officialdom is piled up after a few years, and it is a lot of money to suppress these old teas. ”

Xu Ping didn't say the rest of the words, and there was no need to say them. For example, Chen Cha is inhibited, and the money is in the government, but where does the money come from? Naturally, it came from the hands of the people, and a small part from the tea merchants. Except for Sun Zude of the Governor's Yuan, all of you here started as practical officials, and they naturally understand these truths.

To put it bluntly, the government had to borrow the power of merchants to supply grain and grass to the frontiers, and in order to attract merchants, it had to give them profits. Due to various drawbacks, the extent of this concession will become larger and larger, and when the government can no longer bear it, it will reform the tea law and use this opportunity to recover part of the concession.

This process has been repeated repeatedly, and the successive reforms of the tea law, the officials who have handled it have tried their best to establish a law that can prevent all kinds of evils, but in fact it is useless, and it is just a tool for this repeated process.

The court attaches great importance to every time the tea law is changed, and it is prudent to choose the minister who he can trust the most and think the most capable to do. In reality, it's just a game that doesn't make sense. (To be continued.) )