Three Kingdoms

  Chapter 495 Let's go into the water together

  Strictly speaking, the gold and silver standard monetary policy is not prone to inflation. If only gold and silver are used as coins, the amount of gold and silver in circulation depends entirely on the demand for money in the entire world.

When the social demand increases, the amount of gold and silver will increase through mining and casting or transfer from the national stockpile due to the increase in demand; when the social demand decreases, the quantity of goods purchased for the same amount of gold and silver will decrease. Buying goods with depreciated gold and silver is not worth the loss, so people will store gold and silver, and the quantity in circulation will decrease accordingly.

  Anyway, gold and silver are no problem at all after a few years. Therefore, the purchasing power of gold and silver remains stable for a long time in most cases.

But it is a pity that although China is not a big country producing gold and silver, the output is not scarce. However, due to various reasons, and gold and silver were the most important objects of wealth for the ancients, they had to use inferior metals. To act as currency, that is, copper coins.

  Especially in the Han Dynasty, only merchants’ wealth was dominated by copper coins, and most people’s wealth was mainly reflected in the form of land, rice, or silk. The amount of copper coins held was enough to ensure daily expenses. Therefore, when the variety and quantity of commodities change little, the higher the velocity of money circulation, the higher the prices and the more serious the inflation.

  Chang’an is now facing such a situation. When the people realize that the copper coins in their hands have started to depreciate, they frantically want to replace the copper coins in their hands with real objects, and those who get the copper coins have to quickly sell the copper coins again...

   As a result, almost all the copper coins on the market were gathered together, and the commodities, whether useful or not, were all rushed home first!

The wooden signs are easy to use, so they issued more without knowing it. When the supplies needed to be distributed, most of the food, grass and items were transported to Meiwu by Dong Zhuo, and Dong Xiangguo, who was very refreshing when he abandoned the jade seal last time But this time, after allocating a little food and grass, he refused to allot a second time, and refused to say anything.

  There is nothing Li Ru can do about this. Dong Zhuo's temper became more and more surly, and sometimes even Li Ru would be scolded head-on and face-to-face, and then quickly turned around to appease him after scolding, making Li Ru dumbfounded.

  Another thing that Li Ru had no choice about was that the goods in the original Chang'an market might be in short supply in general, but it definitely wouldn't be like it is now! However, the nature of all people was concentrated at this moment. When they saw the rising prices, they put all the copper coins in their hands into the market without any consideration, and at the same time reduced the supply of goods in the market...

It would have been fine if Li Ru had been in Chang'an from the beginning, and maybe he could have discovered it in time to control it, but after Li Ru arrived in Chang'an, under the vicious circle, Chang'an's market had already begun to collapse, and it soon began to spread to the surrounding areas. This heavy domino can no longer be lifted up.

The grain and grass in the original plan were transported away by Dong Zhuo, and now the merchants and common people all over the city did not listen to the notices posted by Li Ru and the persuasion of the people they sent, and frantically threw themselves into the action of collecting various materials. …

  10,000 yuan for one stone of grain! The rice shop was forced to open by the government, but every day the door was not even removed, just a small crack was opened, and the grain sales were only two or three stones before closing...

   A fired clay bowl costs 5,000 yuan!

  30,000 yuan for a piece of inferior burlap!

  Da Yang Yi only needs 250,000 yuan!

  Ordinary horses cost one million dollars!

  …

  The opponent Li Ru is going to face now is not the coalition forces in Shandong, but his own people.

   It's not that there are no solutions at all, but Li Ru has no burden at all to count opponents, but Li Ru is somewhat unable to do it if he wants to attack his own people.

  Jia Xu picked up a piece of beef and said, "So, how much is this piece of meat worth now?"

  Li Ru glanced angrily, and said, "Based on the current market price, the plate in front of you would cost about 8,000 yuan..."

   "Eight thousand dollars? Then with these drinks, wouldn't it be a banquet of ten thousand gold?" Jia Xu tsk-tsk loudly.

  Li Ru ignored Jia Xu's complaints and stared at the table case, still hesitating in his mind.

  There are several copper coins on the table.

new.

  Jia Xu squeezed a piece of beef, threw it into his mouth, chewed, and said vaguely: "What do you think... do it..."

  Li Ru raised his head, turned to Jia Xu, sighed and said, "It's no different from drinking doves..."

  Jia Xu chuckled, put his finger in his mouth and licked it, and said, "Why don't you ask Xiangguo to bring out the food and grass from Meiwu?"

  Li Ru shook his head, and said: "Unless all the grain and grass in Meiwu are brought out, it will be a drop in the bucket, and it will not help. Besides, the current situation, the Prime Minister also needs to ensure that the military grain supply is safe."

   "Then it's over..." Jia Xu said indifferently, "Now you can't even lose, you can't make a calculation, and you can't make a balance, so why are you hesitating?"

The policy of equal loss, calculation and peace is a big businessman in the Han Dynasty. The famous financial expert Sang Hongyang creatively put forward three plans to stabilize prices and restore economic order. The mess was under control, and it was maintained until that reckless Wang Mang came to power...

The policy of equalization means that the tributes handed over to the central government by the local governments will be converted into local products at the local market price. After being handed over to the country, the government will uniformly transport them to other regions that lack these products for sale. The central government can take advantage of the product price differences between regions. can obtain high profits.

  The counting policy is the property tax of later generations. In conjunction with the later release of the denunciation order, the public is encouraged to report on those who have concealed their properties. If it is true after investigation, the defendant will be guarded on the border for one year, half of all properties will be confiscated, and half will be rewarded to the whistleblower. After the release of the suing order, families above the middle class went bankrupt one after another, and the government seized countless private wealth. At the same time, it also provides a large number of free military soldiers, killing two birds with one stone.

  After the implementation of the policy of equalization and calculation, the imperial court has a large amount of supplies in its hands, and Sang Hongyang began to implement the equalization policy to control inflation. Pingzhun is a special imperial institution located in Chang'an. It sells expensive and buys cheap in the market through materials controlled by the state to stabilize prices.

   But now, Li Ru can't do these three things, there is no way, the conditions are insufficient. After all, there are only Yongzhou and Liangzhou that Li Ru can control now, and even if the government orders are issued, they will reach these two regions at most, and the Liangzhou generation is mostly Qiang people, and the poor are smoother than their buttocks.

  Jia Xu said: "Show me the new money..."

   Li Ru sighed, stood up, picked up a few new coins on the table, walked in front of Jia Xu, put them on his table, and then walked to the front of the hall with his hands behind his back, looking up at the sky.

Jia Xu picked up the copper coin, weighed it, and said, "Three baht?" Then, without waiting for Li Ru's answer, he said to himself, "It's better to make it two baht, anyway, this way...hehehe... If you want to do it, you might as well do more…”

  Li Ru turned around in a flash, staring at Jia Xu: "...you mean... dragged into the water together?"

   "What else?" Jia Xu threw a small copper coin on the table, and his voice was a bit dull, "Tsk tsk... this material... such a big mess, do you want to carry it alone?"

  Li Ru frowned and thought about it, looked at Jia Xu, suddenly smiled, and said, "Good!"

  Jia Xu also laughed a few times, and then said: "...Who do you plan to let do this matter?"

  The corners of Li Ru's mouth turned up slightly, and he said, "How about letting Taifu Yuan do it?"

   "That's right!" Jia Xu laughed loudly, nodded again and again, then shook his head and said, "...But I'm afraid Taifu Yuan may not agree easily."

   "Dying on the verge of dying, or doing it, or dying quickly, how can I choose?"

  Jia Xu nodded and said, "Well, I don't care about that... I'll be back in two days, is there anything else you can order?"

  Li Ru thought for a while, picked up the wooden sign from the desk case, handed it to Jia Xu, and said, "You take a detour to see someone...Ask him what he can do in this situation, and help me by the way..."

   "Brother, what do you mean..."

   "I don't mean anything, just take a look."

   "...Ah, yes! Then, I'll take my leave first..." Jia Xu put the wooden sign in his sleeve and got up to leave.

  Li Ru glanced at the plate with a lot of beef left on the table, and said strangely: "...Hey, you have a bad appetite today? Do you want to take it away?"

Jia Xu staggered and walked slowly, waved his hands, and said, "I left it for you... your body... you should eat, you should drink, this world... I haven't seen a chess player get tired from playing chess. dead…"

  Li Ru was stunned, smiled, picked up the chopsticks on the table, and picked up a piece of beef...

   There is a view that the use of copper in ancient China was due to the lack of gold and silver, but this argument is not true. According to the existing research results, there were not a lot of gold and silver in ancient Chinese dynasties, and the gold reserves in the Han Dynasty were even more than that in the ancient Roman Empire. So, what exactly is causing the difference?

   In ancient times, currency was a tool used by the emperor and the government to maintain the operation of the dynasty and extract wealth from the people.

   First, since the Qin and Han Dynasties, China has formed a unified national system integrating imperial power and autocracy. "Under the whole world, is it the land of the king; on the shore of the land, is it the king's subjects?" In ancient times, there was no individual private property, and people did not form a sense of personal rights.

   Second, the emperors of all dynasties in China have basically implemented the basic national policy of emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce, and basically maintained a natural economic state with relatively little trade.

   These two points are reflected in the currency, resulting in such a result: Although the currency is also used for trade and debt repayment, it is mainly used to maintain the operation of the dynasty.

   This chapter says that there is a limit on the number of words... let's put some of it in the next chapter...

  (end of this chapter)