Chapter 69 Ming Treasure Notes

[Silently recite the URL three times. Do you remember it? If not, I will ask again in the next chapter. It is best to share it on Facebook for me]

"Go!"

After receiving the document, Qin Hao rode his horse back to the mansion. As soon as he arrived at the door, he saw Zhuge Xuan and others going out.

He walked to the stone steps, dismounted, handed the long whip to the guard who came forward, and asked him to lead the horse to the stable.

Then he walked straight to the mansion, asking: "Is the news from Amorim true?"

Although it was written in the letter, there was still an extra word.

Zhuge Xuan dismissed a few people and followed Qin Hao into the inner hall, saying in a deep voice: "The news just sent by San Salvador cannot be wrong."

"Okay!"

After getting the affirmation, Qin Hao was overjoyed and suggested: "Why not go and take a look now."

He really couldn't hold it back. Taiwan Island is good in everything, but it is too comfortable. If he was happy in the past, he would be happy to do this, but now he is definitely not able to stay.

How can I not see the Ming Dynasty when I come here!

At this time, the fire clouds in the west of the sky had occupied a large area, the clouds were red, and the dark moon in the east was also quietly hanging, revealing a small part of the night, one on the left and the other on the right, clearly distinguished.

Zhuge Xuan looked out the door and said, "It's getting late now, let's go tomorrow."

"I'm impatient, then go tomorrow." Qin Hao smiled, and his heart was no longer as anxious as in the past few days.

Entering the inner hall with Zhuge Xuan, he suddenly saw four boxes, three large and one small, on the desk table in the inner hall, which should have been full of documents.

"Why are there boxes on the table?" Qin Hao asked curiously, glancing at Zhuge Xuan. There were not many things that Zhuge Xuan could put on the official documents.

He walked closer and picked up a small one on the table. He felt that it was a bit heavy, so he planned to find out.

He opened the wooden box and saw that it was actually full of silver ingots, which were placed neatly.

Qin Hao took the silver in the box and looked at it carefully. After coming here for so long, it was the first time he saw such a bright and beautiful silver. Some of the silver he saw before was not only gray in color, but also scattered and fragmented, and was not as beautiful as the batch in front of him.

"Who made this silver, and why is it so exquisite." Qin Hao did not ask the purpose of this batch of silver, but asked this first.

"Does the lord still remember Luanping?"

Zhuge Xuan smiled and reminded, while opening the other three boxes on the table one by one.

"Luanping, isn't he farming on the mountain!"

Qin Hao was suspicious. This man was appointed by him personally, and asked: "He is a blacksmith, but he has such skills."

"Sir, I submitted a document before, saying this matter. In addition to farming, there is also a small iron furnace for smelting iron and making farm tools for reclamation."

"There is such a thing, how could I not know it?"

Zhuge Xuan heard this, with a look of contempt on his face. You basically don't read the documents I submitted, and leave them on the table to gather dust, so you know so much. Then he took out a petition from his desk and handed it to Qin Hao.

Taking the petition, Qin Hao saw that the date on it was more than a month ago.

That was when he was still at war with the Shan clan in San Salvador. During the war, Zhuge Xuan sent a lot of letters, but he didn't read most of them and left them in the drawer of the conference room.

"I failed in my duty. You did a good job." Qin Hao smiled and let it go.

Then he looked at the other three boxes. One box was the same as the one in his hand, with silver. The other two boxes, one with small ingots of gold, and one full of copper coins.

Putting the silver back into the box, Qin Hao asked, "Is this the travel fee?"

"Yes."

Zhuge Xuan presented the four boxes one by one in front of Qin Hao and said, "The two silver boxes each have 100 taels, the gold box also has 100 taels, and the one with copper coins has 50 strings of cash."

"Are these enough?" Qin Hao couldn't help but feel a little worried because there was so little silver.

"There are less silver and copper coins, but they are basically enough." Zhuge Xuan said.

He also knew that there was less silver, but even this was squeezed out bit by bit.

The circulation in the territory was all the seizures left over from before. There was not much reserve and no source of harvest, so it was very scarce. There was a gold mine that could be mined, but what was the use of it? Gold was too valuable. Ordinary people used less silver, let alone gold. It was basically not circulated among the people.

The main currency in circulation in the Ming Dynasty now was silver. In addition, it was estimated that a treasure note that was once officially recognized should be added.

Since the eighth year of Hongwu, the Ming Taizu "ordered the Secretariat to make the Ming treasure note" and ordered it to be circulated among the people, this "Ming Tongxing treasure note" made of mulberry stalks, one foot high, six inches wide, green in color, and with dragon pattern flower rails on the outside, has been depreciating continuously.

Logically speaking, the Ming Dynasty had already produced the sprouts of capitalism and the soil for the growth of paper money.

As for why the Ming Dynasty treasure notes were so unpopular among scholars, farmers, merchants and industrialists in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to the fact that the treasure notes were made in a rotten way and counterfeiting was prevalent among the people, the greatest credit should be attributed to Zhu Yuanzhang.

He single-handedly killed the standardized printing system that started in the Song Dynasty.

The Song Dynasty was in a remote corner, but it had developed sea transportation, prevailed commercial ideas, and had a high understanding of silver notes.

But Zhu Yuanzhang was a rough man who didn't understand the operating mechanism of the financial system at all. He only knew that the treasure notes were easy to use. Whenever there was a war, he would start to swipe them. It was just some paper. Compared with its value, it was not too good. Moreover, the royal majesty was here. If the emperor used it to buy things from you, would you dare not give face?

During the Hongwu reign, Shen Wansan's fate still frightened merchants of all sizes in Jinling.

When fighting the Yuan court, there was no money, so he started to issue treasure notes;

When fighting the various tribes in the grasslands, there was not enough money, so he continued to issue treasure notes;

After winning the war, the soldiers' pensions and rewards were gone. Zhu had no other choice but to ask the Baochao Division to issue enough money, bringing the printing technology, one of the four great inventions of my country, to its extreme.

Of course, there were also people who knew the business who persuaded Zhu Yuanzhang.

In the 23rd year of Hongwu, Zhao Mian, the then Minister of Revenue, wrote a memorial saying, "Now I hear that some citizens in Liangzhe have exchanged one string of banknotes for 250 coins." He used this as an excuse to persuade Zhu Yuanzhang to issue less treasure notes and increase their feasibility.

Zhao Mian's meaning was very clear. One tael of treasure notes could not be exchanged for 250 coins. You should take it easy.

But Zhu Yuanzhang would not stop after tasting the sweetness. In the 27th year of Hongwu, "the people of Liangzhe valued money more than banknotes, and many people exchanged money for one string of banknotes with 160 coins. This was generally the case in Fujian, Guangdong, Guangxi, Jiangxi and other places. As a result, prices soared, and the banknote law became less effective."

The private treasure notes had completely lost their feasibility and could be regarded as a piece of waste paper.

Zhu Yuanzhang printed too much and used too much. In one year, he printed 5.15 million ingots of banknotes. In addition to daily use, there were also rewards for ambassadors to China and rewards for ministers. Later, he felt that such printing was not satisfactory, so he directly used large denominations.

Yan Wang Zhu Di was rewarded with the largest denomination: 40,000 taels.

You should know that the largest denomination before was only one string.

Moreover, the court did not collect it. The taxes required were real gold and silver, grain and the like. This kind of transfer of damage made ordinary merchants and people unbearable. They would rather carry heavy copper coins than accept convenient treasure notes.

According to historical records, when the treasure notes were first issued, one string of notes could buy one stone of rice; in the fifth year of Yongle, one stone of rice was worth thirty strings of treasure notes; in the early years of Xuande, one stone of rice was worth fifty strings of treasure notes; in the ninth year of Zhengtong, one stone of rice was worth one hundred strings of treasure notes.

The result is predictable. The value of the treasure notes depreciated by three quarters during the Hongwu reign. During the reigns of other famous monarchs of the Ming Dynasty, the treasure notes could not last long. They gradually withdrew from the market 20 to 30 years after Zhu Yuanzhang's death, and completely collapsed during the reign of Emperor Xiaozong Hongzhi.

The market is profit-seeking and harm-seeking, and feudal society is no exception.

Of course, it cannot be said that the form of paper money is not conducive to the market. It can only be said that Zhu Yuanzhang did not know much about it. Although the treasure notes died, the form of the treasure notes has been passed down.

The tickets issued by private money houses replaced part of the functions of the treasure notes, which are equivalent to the checks of later generations. Large money houses can exchange silver and money in various provinces across the country, and have a good reputation.

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