After the court meeting, the Tang Dynasty reached a decision to dump goods on the Roman Empire.

For many years, the Tang Dynasty has maintained a huge trade surplus with Rome, which comes from traditional porcelain, silk, tea, and even more thanks to the products that Li Yi has made. For example, big smoke, such as fine wine, such as stockings, high heels, these products. These products, in turn, are different from porcelain in that they are consumables and need to be purchased constantly.

As a result, a large amount of Rome's wealth flowed into the Tang Dynasty.

The Tang Dynasty became rich, and the Roman nobles suddenly found that they had a lot less money, and the Roman nobles who smoked the people's fat and ointment naturally increased their taxes. The peasants don't have much money in the first place, and this tax increase makes it even more moneyless. And the aristocracy intensified in order to maintain a luxurious life. In many places, peasants revolted, and Rome began to unrest.

………………

Time flies, and soon at the beginning of 219 A.D., the royal palace hill of the city of Rome, the main hall.

The Roman maids all wore high skirts, small suspenders, high heels on their feet, stockings on their legs, and a cover of great evil.

The Roman guards in the palace only rolled their eyes on the beautiful legs and mountain peaks that were inadvertently exposed.

Compared to the happy work of the guards, the upper echelons of Rome have collectively lost their hair.

The Roman Emperor Caracalla was supposed to be assassinated two years earlier, and Macrinus replaced him. However, due to the appearance of Li Yi, this time and space sent troops to rest the empire, and in the great battle of the very resting and Roman coalition forces, he killed Macrinus, and actually allowed Caracalla to survive.

However, although he did not die, Caracalla's life was very difficult, and it can be said that he was very anxious, because his treasury was out of money, and he could not pay his military salary. It is even more impossible to restore the military strength before the war with the Tang Dynasty, especially the navy.

"How can there be no money and less taxes. What's going on? Caracalla roared loudly at his chancellor, Nius Tiberius.

Tiberius wiped the golden sweat from his forehead, and because his hair was coated with gold dust, all that flowed down was golden sweat, and said, "Your Majesty, if the money in the hands of the people is reduced, according to the previous tax collection, it will lead to bankruptcy, and it can only be a tax reduction." However...... However......"

Caracalla shook his head, and a lot of gold dust was sprinkled with curly gold, his white face turned red, and he said fiercely: "But what, say! ”

Your Highness, the senators of the Senate looked at each other and were silent.

Seeing that they were not helpful, Tiberi could only say: "The salaries of the army and officials have not been reduced, so ...... Money is getting scarcer. ”

Caracalla scratched the curly gold, and flicked the sleeves of his robe. He also knew that the army and officials were the foundation of his rule over the country, and he could not afford to do so, otherwise he would be in chaos.

He grasped the point and asked suspiciously: "How can the people's money be reduced for no reason?" ”

At this time, the first elder Antonic finally spoke, bowed down and said, "After our research, we can determine that it is because of the trade with the Tang Dynasty. The Tang Dynasty brought gold and silver back to their country, and our country had less money. ”

The Romans at this time were not as shrewd as the Westerners of later generations. They can't be explained by the twisting theories of post-generational economics, but they are also able to figure it out in their consciousness.

The merchants of the Tang Dynasty used the unequal treaties signed with Rome to frantically export goods to Rome. The Tang Dynasty items were practical and novel, and the Romans were willing to buy them. The Tang Dynasty, in turn, with its huge territory, had little need to buy goods from Rome, except for individual raw materials.

Therefore, Li Yi's Tang Dynasty is like a Pixiu, only in and out. And the world is left with only two super empires, the Tang Dynasty and Rome. In this way, only in and out, the amount of gold and silver used as money circulation in Rome naturally decreased.

If it weren't for the Roman Empire, which controlled a large number of gold and silver mines, it would have gone bankrupt long ago.

However, it takes a long time for precious metals to be produced, and if it continues, bankruptcy is a matter of time. When the time comes, wages will not be paid, the army will riot, the officials will run away, and the rule will be over.

At this time, Caracalla was terrified, but he got up again, brandished the Roman scepter, and angrily scolded: "Despicable Emperor Wude, I will tear up the Sabbath Treaty and expel ...... No, capture the Tang merchants and reclaim the wealth of the empire! ”

"No, no!" Old Antonic knelt down at that time and exclaimed, "Your Majesty, the army is not ready, and the navy has not yet been built, but the Datang Canal in the Egyptian region has been opened." If war is declared on Datang, Datang's fleet will enter the Mediterranean Sea through the Datang Canal......"

Caracalla shouted angrily: "I have a huge imperial territory, what can the Tang army do even if it gains in the early stage? ”

At this time, the patriarch Prius Scipio came out, bowed down and said, "Your Majesty, the Tang army will definitely be mired in war. I'm going to win the final victory......"

Caracalla smiled, but suddenly disappeared with the words of another senator, Gaia Julius.

I only heard Gaia Julius say: "The flames of war must have burned in Rome, and the Don army was defeated, so it retreated." But Rome at that time, it will be ......"

Yes, the Tang army was defeated, and the people left, and they recovered after a few years. And what about the devastated Roman proper?

"This is also the difficult ...... of the all-out war of the Empire," said the elder Calpunias Brutus, in a serious tone, "why did Emperor Wude agree to negotiate peace and sign a treaty?" It's because he's not sure, he's afraid of getting in, and he wants to eat away at us little by little. Your Majesty, before you are sure of attacking the Tang Dynasty, you must not act rashly and give the Tang Dynasty an excuse to send troops. ”

Tiberius said: "In some places, bartering has already begun. ”

When there was no money in the place, there was no money in the Roman court. Small people can barter goods, how can the court barter? The great Rome could not afford to lose this man.

Caracalla was full of anger, and he was very eager to drive away the greedy Tang merchants, but this was bound to provoke Emperor Wude. If the Tang Dynasty sends troops under the pretext of sending troops, the Roman side is not ready. If they take advantage of it and leave, and sign an unequal treaty on their own side, won't there be no time to recover, and the country will gradually disappear.

Caracalla did not make the mistake of "Lafayette" in the Qing Dynasty in later generations, so he could only knock out his teeth and swallow it in his stomach, and said bitterly: "How is that good? ”

Even the Roman guards lost interest in looking at the black silk heels, and their hearts were full of worries about the empire.

After a moment of silence in the hall, the wise senator Calpunias said, "You can increase the intensity of gold, silver, and copper mining, and speed up the minting of coins." Maintain the stability of the army and the government. ”

Elder Gaia shook his head and said, "This will not be effective in the short term. ”

Caracalla said in his heart: Yes, my side will soon not be able to pay military salaries and salaries, and my dynasty is about to fall, so where can I wait to mine?

As the son of Severus, a famous and powerful monarch in the history of the Roman Empire, Caracalla still had some wit, and he quickly had an idea and said to the ministers: "Ladies and gentlemen, I heard that the Tang Dynasty opened a bank, issued paper money, and was very rich, can we learn?" ”

Prius was the first to rejoice: "Yes, yes, issue banknotes, print them as you like, and print as much as you want." ”

In ancient times, people didn't know too much about financial rules, let alone inflation, and they only knew how to print as much as they wanted.

The rest of Rome was similar, and the crowd cheered and shouted, "Your Majesty, this is a good idea." ”

As a result, Caracalla issued an edict to reform the monetary system and use paper money in the future.

Rome is a large country with a thousand-year history, and the domestic talent is flourishing, Caracalla copied from Li Yi, and soon gathered a group of skilled craftsmen to make a paper money template that could not be imitated, and Caracalla's head was printed on the banknote.

Because Caracalla's head is curly gold, later, in order to compare with the martial arts banknotes of the Tang Dynasty, the world called it "Ka Jin Mao". As a result, the world had two early banknotes.

Later generations of researchers found that the workmanship of Datang's Wude banknotes was exquisite, and the level of the template had reached the peak of manual perfection, and the precision template machines of later generations could not imitate it. And the "Golden Retriever" can only be said to have concentrated Roman craftsmanship and craftsmanship, and the rest of Rome could not prepare such resources, so it could not be imitated.

From then on, Rome began to enforce paper money from the top down. And completely copied the banking system of the Tang Dynasty to establish the Roman Imperial Bank, engaged in the issuance and exchange of paper money.

Caracalla, however, soon ran into a great dilemma.

………………

Half a year later, in the main hall of the Royal Palace, Caracalla convened a meeting of the important ministers of the Senate.

Since Caracalla's father, Severus, had his feet on the Senate, he did not need to pass the Senate for everything, as was the case in previous dynasties. He only needs to gather a few of his henchmen and discuss it with him. The Senate had a "democracy" on its roof, and in fact it had become the court of Severus and his son.

"Your Majesty, the bank has been opened, but ......," said Tiberius, the elder in charge of finance, with difficulty.

It turned out that the Roman Imperial Bank was opened smoothly, and every town was built. The payment of paper money salaries to the army, officials, is also smooth. But soon something unsmooth happened, the money was taken out, and the common people didn't believe it and didn't accept it, so they still collected gold, silver and copper coins in private. This led to complaints from the military and officials, who demanded that the banknotes be exchanged for gold, silver and copper coins.

Li Yi, a modern person, searched his stomach and studied with elite talents, how long did he come up with the Tang Dynasty monetary system, how could the Roman ancients easily copy it? The Romans, still not quite understanding the modern economy.

Rome was able to learn all the hardware, but not the Datang software.

The reason why Datang was able to successfully issue banknotes was because of the currency standard system that Datang successfully established, the value of the currency was supported, and the people were willing to use it. This standard appears to be the gold standard, but it is not.