Ming Dynasty: Ask Zhu Yuanzhang to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 101: Exploding the capital! Old Zhu's doubts and trust!

"Newspapers for sale, newspapers for sale, freshly-published Daming Daily. Big news today: King Wu abolished the Baochao Tizhusi Office, established Daming Bank, and issued new banknotes!"

Early in the morning, the cries of newsboys could be heard everywhere on the streets of Jinling.

"Good news! From today on, the people can use the new banknotes to pay taxes or buy grain from the granary!"

"The Bank of Ming Dynasty is in charge of the national treasury. From now on, the Ministry of Revenue will only be in charge of the account books."

"Big event, King Wu ordered that from now on, the commercial tax will be increased from 30% to 15%."

"The new version of the Ming Dynasty Treasure Note has been published in the Ming Daily. Come and have a look!"

……

The third day of October in the twenty-fifth year of Hongwu.

The Ming Daily published the news that the court abolished the Baochao Tizhusi, established the Ming Bank, issued new banknotes, and reformed commercial taxes.

In the past, imperial orders had to be conveyed layer by layer, which often took a long time.

Even if it is posted and people see it, and then spread it around so that everyone knows about it, it will take more than three to five days.

Now with the establishment of the "Da Ming Daily", the daily circulation has reached over 100,000 copies. Within a day, the news has spread to every corner of Jinling City and quickly spread outside the city.

At the same time, official documents from the court were being sent rapidly to all states and prefectures.

When the news came out, the world was shocked.

"From now on, the treasury will use new banknotes to withdraw money instead of silver? Isn't this nonsense?"

Officials in various government offices in the capital were all amazed by this.

Although the Ming Dynasty has been promoting paper currency for many years.

But in fact, both treasure notes and silver have always been used.

Where it really matters, silver is used.

For example, the salary of an official was half silver and half treasure paper.

In fact, everyone knew what was going on, so just treat that half of the treasure as nothing.

The remaining half of the silver is the actual salary.

Now that they have to switch to using treasure notes for all their expenditures, how can they not panic?

"Don't worry. Didn't you see what's written here? You can exchange the new version of the treasure notes for silver at the Daming Bank. You just need to pay a small handling fee."

Some officials were relatively calm.

"I'm not in a hurry. I don't rely on this salary to make a living anyway." Some officials from wealthy families didn't care at all.

"As soon as the treasure notes are issued, I will immediately go to the Ming Bank to exchange them for silver." An official said, "I rely on this salary to support my family."

"You say, if His Royal Highness the King of Wu makes this change, aren't you afraid that counterfeit banknotes will flood the market and the Ming Bank will not be able to exchange silver?"

An official whispered.

"Yes, our Ming Dynasty treasure notes have been decoupled from silver since they were issued. We only print them, not accept them."

One official was very worried and said, "Now that the King of Wu has made such reforms, he uses new banknotes to pay taxes and purchase grain, and the bank is also responsible for accepting the banknotes. Aren't you afraid of problems?"

"I don't understand. If the bank really forced acceptance, a tael of Baochao with a face value of one tael can be exchanged for one tael of silver. Then why did the court go to the trouble of printing money? Isn't this just like taking off your pants to fart? It's a waste of time."

An official said in confusion.

As soon as this statement was made, it was immediately agreed by many officials.

"Yup!"

"is not that right?"

“I can’t figure it out!”

"Who knows what King Wu is planning?"

The officials had no knowledge of modern finance, so it was naturally difficult for them to understand the mysteries involved.

"Could it be that the King of Wu wanted to cheat the silver first and then default on his debt later?" an official speculated.

“It’s not impossible.”

An official said: "First use this method to stabilize people's hearts, then print a large number of banknotes to buy civilian supplies, and then abolish the current regulations, prohibiting the use of new banknotes to pay taxes, purchase grain, and not exchange them."

"If that's the case, it's a good idea." An official praised and doubted, "But I'm afraid it will damage the reputation of the court."

"How much is the reputation of the imperial court worth?"

Some officials were not impressed at all and said, "The most important thing is to cheat the money first. The court's rules and regulations have never been changed. This cannot be regarded as the court's breach of trust."

"I always feel that this is inappropriate!" Some officials shook their heads repeatedly.

……

royal palace.

As usual, Old Zhu opened today's "Da Ming Daily".

Old Zhu, who usually smiled happily when he saw the newspaper, frowned for the first time.

"Nonsense, how could Hu'er do this?" Old Zhu suddenly put down the newspaper in his hand.

"This treasure note was originally printed and issued by the imperial court. If the imperial court ran out of treasure notes, couldn't it just print some on its own? Why would it collect treasure notes?"

"What is the purpose of the imperial court if the common people are forced to pay taxes with banknotes and use them to buy grain from the government's granaries?"

"The imperial court prints banknotes, the people use them to buy things from the imperial court, and then take them back from the imperial court... Isn't this just a waste of time?"

I have to say that Lao Zhu is very smart in other aspects.

However, there is an extreme lack of knowledge about modern finance and the nature of money.

Since no one has ever told him this knowledge, it is easy for him to fall into misconceptions.

It is precisely because of this that Zhu Yuanzhang could never understand why the common people were still unwilling to use banknotes even though he had used severe punishments and killed so many people.
Why is it so difficult to change the habit of using silver and copper coins?

He's not even afraid of losing his head!
Therefore, when Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Zhu Yunhuan's reforms, he always felt that something was wrong.

"No, we have to stop him." Old Zhu stood up suddenly.

After taking a few steps, he turned back.

"Although this move is a bit absurd, it will be of great use in encouraging ordinary people to use Ming Dynasty treasure notes."

"Nowadays, most people in the world, especially merchants in Wuyue, are unwilling to use Ming Dynasty treasure notes."

"We have killed so many people, but they are not scared." "If we can use Hu'er's method to make them accept the treasure notes, it is not a bad idea."

After all, Lao Zhu is a very smart man. Although he does not understand the principles of economics, he can still see through some of the obvious benefits at a glance.

"Since we have appointed him to govern the country, we should trust him."

"Although Hu'er's actions are often unexpected, he is not a willful person."

"He must have a deep meaning in doing this."

"Let's see how it works first."

……

Prince Wu's Mansion.

Zhu Yunhuan naturally knew nothing about this.

At this moment, he was busy finalizing the new version of Ming Baochao.

Unlike the original Ming Baochao which mainly used text, the new version of Ming Baochao mainly uses patterns except for the face value indicated in key places.

For ordinary people with low educational levels, patterns are easier to remember than words.

The pictures will leave a deep impression on people and anti-counterfeiting is relatively easy.

This is different from the original Ming Dynasty treasure note, which had a minimum denomination of ten wen and a maximum denomination of one thousand wen.

The new version of Ming Dynasty treasure notes only has six denominations: one wen, five wen, ten wen, twenty wen, fifty wen, and one hundred wen.

It can be said that they are all small denominations.

In Zhu Yunhuan's view, if banknotes are to be distributed to thousands of households, their face value should not be too large.

I casually took out a thousand-wen treasure note and went to a store to buy something, but the store couldn't give me change. What should I do?
Many ordinary people are very poor and have no money at all.

If the area of the banknote is too large, it means that only a few people will use it and the frequency of use will be very low.

Many transactions did not go through smoothly.

On the other hand, the original Ming Baochao, one foot long and six inches wide, is the largest banknote in the world.

Today, the new version of the Ming Baochao has six denominations using six different sizes, but even the largest denomination of 100 Wen is only four inches long and two inches wide, which makes it more convenient to carry.

As for anti-counterfeiting, after using a lot of new technologies, Zhu Yunhuan is fully confident that no one in the current Ming Dynasty can produce counterfeit banknotes that are indistinguishable from the real ones.

What's more, he also numbered each banknote.

In addition to overt anti-counterfeiting, there is also covert anti-counterfeiting.

To some extent, it is not wrong to say that the technological means are completely beyond this era.

Zhu Yunhuan checked carefully and confirmed that everything was correct, then he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

The news of issuing new banknotes has been officially announced to the world.

The address of the first Ming Bank has also been selected.

Three days later, the Ming Bank will officially open, and the new treasure notes will be officially issued from that day on.

The anchor of the new version of Baochao was silver on the surface, but in fact, it also consisted of grain.

Because at that time, the Ming Dynasty court had clear regulations on the price of grain.

The imperial court itself had a large number of granaries, and the people could also purchase grain directly from the imperial court’s granaries.

The exchange rate between Baochao and silver and copper coins was stipulated, which actually stipulated the exchange rate between Baochao and grain.

This brings us to the advantage that only existed in the early days of a dynasty.

At the end of every dynasty, there is always a population explosion but not enough arable land.

Influenced by the idea of having many children, more blessings, ancient people did not spontaneously sterilize themselves like modern people do.

On the contrary, they have a strong desire to have children.

As long as there is a chance to have children, I will keep having children.

In addition, serious land annexation has concentrated a large amount of land in the hands of a very small number of people, further exacerbating food scarcity.

But the early years of the dynasty were completely different.

After years of war, the population dropped dramatically.

Even the original fertile fields have mostly become barren.

At that time, there was no shortage of land in the world. As long as you were willing to work hard to farm, there would be enough food to eat.

Most of the former vested interest groups were also overthrown.

Their wealth was redistributed, including countless pieces of land.

After order was restored, the original fertile land was redistributed to the few people who were still alive.

The fields are still the same fields, but the population is only one-tenth or one-twelfth of the original number.

A large amount of annexed land was also returned because the rulers were overthrown and the interests were redistributed.

This makes the per capita grain output very high.

Much higher than at the end of the dynasty.

This is the benefit brought about after the war, and it is also a benefit that only existed in the early years of the dynasty.

On the premise that grain production is sufficient, it is easy to tie currency to grain, thereby stabilizing the value of the currency and establishing credibility.

On the contrary, if it were the end of a dynasty, it would be very difficult to achieve this.

Because of the food shortage, there is food shortage everywhere, the whole country is short of food.

Stabilizing food prices has become an almost impossible task!
After the inspection, Zhu Yunhuan had a basic understanding of the situation.

His eyes looked elsewhere.

Commercial taxes...and Zhu Di's invitation to become a disciple have arrived!
The fourth day of the tenth month of the lunar calendar.

The King of Wu decided to establish the Ming Military Academy, and the news of recruiting military generals, nobles and generals to enroll was officially announced.

Also announced along with it was the news that Prince of Yan Zhu Di was the first to become a disciple of Prince of Wu and enrolled in the Military Academy.

In an instant, the entire capital city was detonated!
……

(End of this chapter)