The film and television world begins with the battle for the throne in Kowloon

Chapter 1066: Political Discussion in the Imperial Study (V)
In this era, the Tang Dynasty has both of these things, so why can't it take over the entire region?
Li Yan is also familiar with the struggle for supremacy between the Eagle Sauce and the Russian Bear in later generations.

Although the two hegemons are competing for supremacy in all aspects, in the final analysis, the two sides have different philosophies. The Russian bear still continues the old colonial method of expansion, occupying land and enslaving local people. This method is too intense and has long been unsuitable for the new era.

The Eagle Sauce has adopted a more advanced and subtle approach, supporting the independence of various regions and fulfilling the demands of local people to decide their own destiny.

But they continue to reap the world through economic means.

One is to occupy your territory, enslave your people, and plunder your property; the other is to take away your territory, semi-enslave your people, and still plunder your property. Obviously, the Eagle Sauce approach is more gentle and less likely to cause people to reject it.

This is the fundamental reason why the Eagle Sauce model replaced the British-Sun-Setting and the Bear model.

However, the actual ruling ability of the Tang Dynasty was extremely limited. Li Shimin had divided half of the border territory among the vassal states. How to restrain these vassal states became the core issue of the Tang Dynasty court.

Most people think of controlling by force, and punishing anyone who rebels?
This method is indeed very important, but it cannot be relied upon alone. War can only be used when it is absolutely necessary. Moreover, in this era, sending troops to the distant Western Regions to conquer, whether they win or lose, will cause a fatal blow to a country.

Often, even if a war is won, the country may become impoverished, which is the same as a defeat.

Therefore, some softer methods are needed to restrain the vassal states and strengthen the court's control over them, and this is economic means.

Moreover, economic means can go beyond the limits of military strikes and influence other more distant neighboring forces.

Generally speaking, Li Yan has added a more flexible layer of economic governance on the basis of the previous one-dimensional expansion governance. If used well, economic means can achieve results that military methods cannot.

No matter what kind of court action, there must be economic accounting.

Whenever ancient dynasties went to war, the cost could not be controlled at all and kept rising without limit. When the court could not afford it, it would put pressure on the people, which would lead to the people's misery at best and chaos at worst. This was also an important reason for the dynasty's decline and even bankruptcy.

'hiss'

Several people looked at each other, all with shocked expressions. Xiao Yu was even more embarrassed: "Your Majesty, since ancient times, the court has not competed with the people for profit. Is this a move?"

"Master Xiao is overthinking. Issuing currency and money houses are two completely different concepts and should not be confused."

Before Xiao Yu finished speaking, Li Yan waved his hand and said, "The issuance of currency by the Tang Dynasty is conducive to the unification of the border areas and increases the recognition of the people in the border areas for the court. It is beneficial to the present and future generations. It cannot be understood in such a narrow sense."

"Moreover, a bank is not a simple business. Ordinary banks collect money from the people's savings. However, the national bank I have established does not charge the people any fees. Everyone can deposit their money in the national bank for free."

Next, Li Yan picked out some simple concepts of future banks and explained them in a way that they could understand.

"I have decided to establish a new department in the court, called the Finance Temple."

"The Finance Temple has four departments under its jurisdiction: the Treasure Notes Promotion Department, the Treasure Notes Issuance Department, the Datang Assets Management Office, and the East Factory."

Li Yan was somewhat helpless. In addition to the three provinces and six ministries, there were also many institutions directly under the court, such as the Sinong Temple, the Imperial Household Department, the Imperial Rites Department, the Guanglu Temple, the Weiwei Temple, the Zongzheng Temple, the Dali Temple, and the Honglu Temple.

Most of the institutions directly under the imperial power, below the provinces and above the ministries, were famous temples, so Li Yan had no choice but to follow the local customs.

Some functional agencies of later generations are given a local skin to facilitate their integration and acceptance.

As soon as Li Yan mentioned the name of this new department, everyone knew the level and position of this organization in the court.

Zhang Sun Wuji was stunned. He did not expect that the emperor had even thought of the establishment of various departments. He asked quickly: "Your Majesty, what is the main responsibility of this Finance Temple? Does it need to transfer some functions of the Ministry of Revenue?"

"There are four departments and offices below. I don't understand."

"Yes, Your Majesty, how do we determine the level of this Finance Temple? Is there any conflict with the current institutions of the court?" Ma Zhou also asked.

Xiao Yu was concerned about another matter: "Your Majesty, is that East Factory the same as the East Factory under the Eastern Palace now? Or is there another one?"

Seeing that Liu Bo was about to ask a question, Li Yan quickly put down his hand, unexpectedly calming everyone down, and explained: "Don't worry, everyone, I will explain one by one." "This Finance Temple has no overlap with any department in the current court in terms of functions. It is a brand new department. The following four departments and offices are its four basic functions. I will explain them one by one in detail."

Li Yan explained very patiently, even though he only had a vague understanding of the later generations. However, he felt that it was no problem to deal with these ignorant people and this backward era.

"This Finance Temple, as the name suggests, is all about increasing the country's administrative financial resources. It has nothing to do with the Ministry of Revenue, the National Treasury, and the existing granaries. Once established, it will be equivalent to the Tang Dynasty having a second national treasury and granary."

Li Yan stretched out his hand and waved it confidently in the air, and said excitedly: "If the functions of the Finance Temple are fully utilized, I can say without exaggeration that the financial resources available to the court will at least double on the existing basis."

"Huh"

Xiao Yu, Cen Wenben, Ma Zhou and Liu Bo all looked excited, but Changsun Wuji had a worried look in his eyes.

Although he didn't understand much, he knew that the court had 60 million guan of available financial resources per year. If it doubled, it would exceed 100 million guan, which was a terrifying number. But wealth would not increase for nothing. If the court increased, it would inevitably lose the interests of the nobles.

What can the nobles do?
Will it trigger a new round of struggle between imperial power and the aristocrats? How should he deal with himself being caught in the middle?
Li Yan ignored Changsun Wuji's thoughts and randomly pulled out a silver note, saying, "You can think of this silver note as the treasure note that the Tang Dynasty will soon issue. One note represents 100 strings of cash. If everyone in the world uses this treasure note for transactions, it will be worth 100 strings of cash."

"And the right to print this kind of treasure banknotes is in the hands of the Tang Dynasty. Does it mean that the Tang Dynasty will have inexhaustible financial resources forever?"

Liu Bo's family used to have a bank, and upon hearing this, he quickly said, "Your Majesty, this is true in theory, but in reality, bank notes cannot be issued casually. For each note to be issued, there must be corresponding silver deposited."

“Otherwise, it’s a blank slate.”

At this point, Liu Bo looked a little heavy and ugly. The Liu family was a big family in Luoyang, and his family also opened a bank.

When he was young, he managed a bank for a period of time. He once secretly issued banknotes to spend without the knowledge of his parents. In the end, banknotes were flying everywhere, which ruined the bank and caused the Liu family to lose its credibility.

To the extent that up to now, the Liu family has been completely squeezed out of the money-lending business. He was well aware of the seriousness of the matter and thought that the emperor had the same idea as him, so he came forward to explain and revealed the key.

After listening to this, Li Yan nodded silently: "Yes, Lord Liu is right. In fact, the reason why this silver note has the purchasing power of the face value is because it is backed by the same amount of silver."

"For every 1 guan of Baochao issued by the bank, one liang of silver must be collected from the treasury, so as to keep the Baochao strong."

In the Tang Dynasty, a money shop was equivalent to a bank. A money shop was a bank with the simple functions of issuing silver bills, collecting silver and money, and lending money to others for profit.

Wealthy families, especially merchants and warehouses, had frequent transactions, but it was not convenient to use gold, silver or copper coins, so they used silver notes. Some families were afraid of the inconvenience of carrying silver and money on the road for business or traveling to take exams.

They would also deposit the money at home into a money shop and then withdraw it when they arrived at a different place.

However, the money houses at this time charged fees on both ends, and Li Yan was not too generous to subsidize the interest, but adopted the method of interest-free deposits. This alone can make him very competitive, coupled with the backing of the court.

Naturally, it easily surpassed private money houses and became the largest savings institution in the Tang Dynasty.

Through Liu Bo's narration, everyone easily understood what Li Yan meant, which was to open a national super-structured money house to issue currency, and to collect and lend money for profit. The profits earned would be used to subsidize the shortages of the Tang Dynasty and carry out infrastructure construction.

Xiao Yu hesitated for a while, and finally said: "Your Majesty, in my opinion, issuing currency is feasible. After all, it is conducive to the unification of the Tang Dynasty. But the collection and lending of money is the work of lowly merchants. It is difficult for the court to do it."

Li Yan said indifferently: "I know there are two problems here. The first is the problem of competing with the people for profit as you just mentioned, and the second is the problem of image and face."

"I think that neither of these two is a problem. First of all, it is said that the court is competing with the people for profit. In fact, it is not competing with the people for profit. My dear minister, you might as well put it more directly. It is competing with the nobles for profit. I wonder if what I said is correct?"

As soon as Li Yan finished speaking, all the officials were silent. It was obvious that ordinary people had a hard time surviving, so how could they have extra money to do business? Those who could do business were not ordinary people, most of them were supported by aristocratic families.

The so-called competition with the people for profit was just a decent way for the aristocracy to protect their own interests. They just wanted to enjoy the benefits alone and avoid the involvement of the imperial power and the court. It can even be said that the official positions in the court were just a tool for them to look after their own interests.

Their fundamental purpose in becoming officials is not to benefit the people, but to protect and expand their own interests.

(End of this chapter)