Daming: The system rejected my request for salted fish

After a long silence, Zhu Yuanzhang slowly let out a breath.

"Tell me about this in detail!"

After hearing what Zhu Yuanzhang said, Wei Wu did not give a direct answer, but asked a question in return.

"Before I answer, I'd like to ask Mr. Zhu, do you agree with what I just said about currency devaluation?"

Although Zhu Yuanzhang still had many doubts in his mind, he agreed with the theories Wei Wu had just said.

So I nodded in response immediately.

"Approved!"

After receiving a positive answer, Wei Wu continued:

"Although the Ming Dynasty could use treasure notes to pay taxes, the actual settlement between the imperial court and local officials was still mainly based on grain."

"As I said just now, after the treasure notes are printed, you will be the first to use them, but they will eventually circulate to the hands of ordinary people."

"People were holding a large amount of devalued banknotes, but the value of grain did not depreciate while the banknotes did, so they had to pay more money for taxes."

After Wei Wu finished speaking, Zhu Yuanzhang's expression, which was already not very good, became even uglier.

Although treasure notes could be used to pay taxes, the court collected taxes based on grain, a rule he set personally.

If the treasure notes really depreciated as Wei Wu said, it would undoubtedly increase the tax burden on the people.

Moreover, the people do not trust the treasure notes, so they will inevitably hold on to the grain tightly and would rather pay more with the treasure notes.

Over time, this became a vicious cycle, affecting not only the common people but also the amount of grain collected by the court.

Just when Zhu Yuanzhang was worried about this, Wei Wu dealt him another heavy blow.

"The imperial court promoted treasure notes, but lacked an effective and strict supervision and management mechanism for them, which made them easy for others to exploit."

"Local officials, as well as gentry, landlords, and wealthy merchants, would exploit loopholes in the treasure notes to hoard silver and manipulate prices."

"The court's inability to regulate will cause chaos in the local economy and exacerbate the devaluation of the treasure notes. Eventually, even merchants will lose trust in the treasure notes."

"By then, shops will not accept treasure notes for transactions, and the people who hold large amounts of treasure notes will be the ones who suffer in the end."

After hearing about the disastrous consequences caused by the Baochao, Zhu Yuanzhang's heart sank immediately.

Sure enough, just as Wei Wu had just said, he was really using waste paper to snatch money from the people.

The dignified emperor who was about to establish a new country was so emotionally shaken by these words that his body was trembling.

It took him a long time to come back to his senses. He stared at Wei Wu and asked:

"Xiao Wu, then, how can we resolve this hidden danger and avoid the adverse consequences of the devaluation of the treasure notes?"

It can be seen from Zhu Yuanzhang's current state that he really cares about the possible consequences of the treasure notes.

Seeing Zhu Yuanzhang's current state, Wei Wu's first feeling was that he had provoked Zhu too much.

So he quickly spoke to comfort her.

"Uncle Zhu, you don't need to be too anxious now. The treasure notes have only been issued for a short time, and their credibility has not completely collapsed."

"The Baochao will not depreciate immediately, and the currency problem cannot be solved overnight. It will take some time."

"As long as we start remediating it now, taking steady steps, we'll be fine. First, we need to solve the problem of anchoring."

Anchor!

When Zhu Yuanzhang heard the word "anchor", he became so worried that his head started to twitch.

Solving the anchoring problem is not a problem, all you have to do is take out gold and silver. The real problem is that Zhu Yuanzhang has no money.

Even if his private treasury and the Ming Dynasty treasury were counted, he still couldn't come up with that much gold and silver.

Zhu Yuanzhang knew this, and Zhu Biao, as the crown prince, also knew it, so they both showed bitter smiles on their faces.

Then Zhu Yuanzhang sighed, turned to look at Wei Wu and said:

"Xiao Wu, do you know why we insisted on promoting the Baochao despite the doubts of all the officials?"

"Um...I really don't know about that."