Brother Song Taizu

Chapter 66
As the saying goes, buy up and not down.

Zhao Kuangyin has definitely never heard of this sentence.

However, ordinary people in this era, especially wealthy households with a certain amount of wealth, are using practical actions to prove this matter.

This critical moment coincided with Li Jing's sudden serious illness. This was an issue that even Zhao Guangmei had not thought of, or had really ignored. However, it suddenly pushed the currency war that was already in full swing into a new direction. climax.

It's just adding fuel to the fire.

And when everyone discovered that the coins of Southern Tang Dynasty were rising sharply, people would instinctively tend to save money and wait and see.

Then the more we waited and watched, the more it rose, and the more we waited and watched, the more it rose. After another two months, Nan Tang's currency had risen to the point where five hundred wen was worth one tael of silver.

In fact, at this time, Zhao Kuangyin's best response should be to postpone the issuance of new coins, or at least to cover the gap, or simply use the money to do some large-scale projects to consume it, which is actually possible. .

As a result, he got excited and thought that he would take advantage of the shortage of coins in the Southern Tang Dynasty to squeeze his market share.

It can only be said that the ancients are ancients after all. After all, the Five Dynasties and the early Song Dynasty have just entered the market economy and citizen economy society. The powerful economic society of the Han and Tang Dynasties did not provide them with any reference at least economically, so that at this time they You really can’t!

Because the coins of the Southern Tang Dynasty are rising, in fact, even if the newly issued Song coins remain unchanged, they will undoubtedly still fall relatively. Therefore, at this time, if a normal common person has both Song coins and Nan coins in his hands, money.

Then he will definitely use Song Qian first when buying things.

As far as the administrative system of the Song Dynasty was concerned, it was impossible for him to really go down to the grassroots level and control what money was spent by the people.

Then the money of the Song Dynasty naturally fell, and it fell quite sharply. At this time, Zhao Kuangyin increased his investment, so wouldn't it be over?

As a result, the exchange ratio between Song money and Tang money was quickly widened, reaching the one-to-one level. However, most people were not willing to exchange, but fortunately their purchasing power was barely equal. The expulsion of Nan money must have failed. , but it can still barely hold on.

At this time, the market suddenly discovered that the latest batch of Song coins issued was adulterated with iron!
Originally, this was new money, and the credibility had not been established at all. Everyone came from the Five Dynasties period. Although the Song Dynasty seems to be very good and powerful now, who knows that the Song Dynasty will still be there ten years later. Not here?

Under such circumstances, the reason why Song Qian can still be exchanged with Nan Qian is that this batch of Song Qian is genuine and worth two cents, and the production is indeed more exquisite. At least it seems to be better than Nan Qian. of.

As a result, the people's confidence suddenly dropped due to the mixing of iron. If you dare to mix iron into copper today, will you have to mix copper into iron tomorrow?Should Hou Tianyou simply give out iron money?
In just three days, Song Qian began to fall off a cliff. In Kaifeng, the exchange ratio between Emperor's Feet and Nan Qian dropped to the point where even two for one could not be exchanged. Even large-scale exchanges would require three for one. Gotta get out.

Zhao Kuangyin was dumbfounded. As Sun Liancheng analyzed before, if Nanqian increased, at most Zhao Guangmei would make money and Nantang would make money. However, Song Qian fell sharply, which meant that he was actually losing money.

But it is rare. Everyone knows that Zhao Kuangyin does not have a very good temper, and even the simple and rude Zhao Kuangyin with a soldier's temper is extremely, extremely rare this time. Instead of getting angry, he appeared alone in the Sansi Shiyamen and turned everyone around. After he was driven out, he calmly faced Xue Juzheng and asked:

"What's going on? I believe you won't be stupid on such a low-level issue, and I don't believe you will make any negligence or mistake at such an important moment. So, I need an explanation now."

Xue Juzheng smiled bitterly, knelt weakly in front of Zhao Kuangyin, and actually cried softly.

"Officials, no, there is no copper. If the copper in the treasury is minted into pure copper coins, it can last for at least two months. There was originally a batch of raw copper from Guanzhong, but it was only when it was allocated that there was a flaw and the number did not add up. , was killed by corrupt officials, but even the person responsible could not be found, I, you are guilty of ten thousand deaths." Zhao Kuangyin was unusually calm when he heard this, shook his head and said: "You used to be in charge of the Punishment Department, it was me. I started managing money only after I became an official. This matter cannot be blamed on you, so I cannot blame you."

"Official, I..."

Xue Juzheng only felt his heart heat up, and his tears fell even more fiercely. He kowtowed heavily again, but heard Zhao Kuangyin say: "Get up, don't cry. The more you do it at this time, the less likely you are to be a coward. There is no time for us to feel guilty." Now, we have to find a way."

"Yes."

"Why is there so little copper in the capital's reserves? Can copper be found on the market?"

"It's very difficult to find. The imperial court's copper reserves are not large. Officials and large copper mines are almost all in the south of the Yangtze River."

Hearing this, Zhao Kuangyin was silent for a while and then sighed longly and said: "I really blame you and me for this matter. The preparations for such a big thing as coin minting were not sufficient beforehand. There was no preparation when storing copper. Considered well.”

In fact, this is a very helpless thing. In fact, during the Five Dynasties period, most of the time copper coins became thinner and lighter as they were minted. Many times it was because it was difficult for a clever woman to make a meal without rice.

First, business developed too fast during the Five Dynasties. This is a very magical thing. The more wars raged, the more developed industry and commerce became. Because the powerful were defeated in the war, the army became a military-industrial complex. Groups, concurrently run enterprises, do business, and even become real economic entities.

The circulation of goods has become unprecedentedly efficient, and when the military does business, it pays more attention to market fairness than the powerful economy. After all, the military's tentacles cannot reach the grassroots, but if any powerful official at the grassroots dares to destroy market fairness, what will happen? Material monopoly and personal dependence hinder the army from making money. They are really killing people.

Who told you about law, ethics, and all the intricacies?Civilian killings require review and investigation, while military killings only require a person's name.

The civilization of society and the commercialization of the economy will inevitably lead to an increase in the demand for currency, and since banknotes cannot be issued, there will naturally be a shortage of copper, so the only option is to mix iron with it or cast large and small coins.

Secondly, there is actually a very important reason: there really are not that many copper mines in the northern region, especially in the Central Plains.

In other words, there are not many copper mines in the shallow layer of the earth that are easy to discover and smelt. This is because the Central Plains region developed too early, and the history of using copper coins was too early. Those copper mines that are easy to dig and obvious have already been It was almost mined by the ancestors. As early as the Eastern Han Dynasty, the country's large-scale copper mines were basically all in the south.

But the Five Dynasties never unified the southern region!
Such an important matter was not paid enough attention to before Zhao Kuangyin minted the currency, and there was such a serious omission.

"The copper on the market is indeed not easy to collect. Normally, the most important way to mint coins is to melt old money and make new money. However, now that Nanqian has risen like this, this old money... the imperial court really can't melt it. Get up."

Zhao Kuangyin nodded, leaning on his jade ax and said, "Stop complaining. Is there any way to remedy this?"

"I really can't think of anything at the moment. I think that if there is anyone in the world who can do something, then it must be King Qin."

"Well, that's what I think too. Come with me and I'll take you to see him."

(End of this chapter)