After the emperor and his ministers arrived at the Palace of Heavenly Purity, Chongzhen asked Wang Chengen to bring a stool for Fan Jingwen.

Fan Jingwen is already 62 years old.

Try not to let him stand if possible.

Li Banghua had just left and the court was not yet completely stable.

Fan Jingwen is the only person who can shock the court.

Don't let him get tired.

Fan Jingwen was in no mood to sit down, so he stood up, bowed, and asked, "Your Majesty, please enlighten me."

"What do you want to teach me?"

Fan Jingwen's eyes were filled with doubts. "Your Majesty, didn't you say that you had thought of a solution for the people in Guanzhong before releasing him?"

"There is a way, but it requires the cooperation of the cabinet."

"I and the cabinet will do our best to cooperate," Fan Jingwen promised.

Fan Jingwen started from the grassroots and knows the difficulties of ordinary people. Now that he has become the Prime Minister of the Ming Dynasty, he still cares about the people as before.

Now that the people in Guanzhong are in trouble, he can't stand it.

After hearing Fan Jingwen's assurance, Chongzhen first nodded, then glanced around the hall, and finally looked at Wang Chengen.

Wang Chengen understood immediately and waved to the eunuchs and maids in the palace: "Get out."

After the eunuchs and palace maids left, the palace door was closed.

There were only the emperor and his ministers, plus Wang Chengen, left in the huge Qianqing Palace.

Fan Jingwen knew that Chongzhen was going to talk about something important, so he took two steps forward and said, "Your Majesty, I am listening."

"Well," Chongzhen raised his lips slightly, "My plan is very simple, to implement currency reform in Guanzhong ahead of time."

ah?

Fan Jingwen, the Minister of Works and Chief Minister of the Cabinet of the Ming Dynasty, who had seen countless worldly events, was dumbfounded.

Although he wanted to help the people in Guanzhong, he did not want to affect the national policy of currency reform.

After several rounds of discussion, the currency reform has almost been finalized.

According to previous plans, after the collection of autumn grain this year is completed, the imperial court will officially announce the use of silver coins, namely the Ming Yuanbao, and prohibit the circulation of ordinary silver.

certainly.

People will not abandon silver just because of a ban.

On the contrary, they will value silver more.

Even if local officials saw someone using silver, they could not stop it, after all, this was public opinion.

Going against public opinion often results in popular unrest.

After the imperial court announced the use of silver coins, all official trade would be settled in silver coins.

For example, officials' salaries, soldiers' wages, and the purchase of military supplies.

In addition, taxes will temporarily be collected only in silver coins.

If you have silver, you need to go to the local Baoyuan Bureau or Baoquan Bureau to exchange it.

After Fan Jingwen regained consciousness, he bowed and said, "Your Majesty, first of all, I don't want to disrupt the plan of currency reform; secondly, I really can't think of how implementing currency reform in Guanzhong in advance will help the people."

"It's very simple..." Chongzhen stood up while speaking: "When the people in Guanzhong pay their autumn grain, they can hand in silver or copper coins."

"This..." Fan Jingwen didn't know whether this was a good or bad thing.

If this were really done, the imperial court would probably not be able to collect even a tael of silver in Guanzhong, and all that would be handed over would be copper coins.

Silver is expensive and copper is cheap.

Regardless of whether they had silver in hand or not, local officials, gentry, and people would leave their silver and hand over copper coins without hesitation.

"The people in Guanzhong can't even take out copper coins, right?" Chongzhen asked in return.

"I can get it out! I can get it out!" Fan Jingwen answered Chongzhen's question and lowered his head to think quickly.

Of course, he was not considering the attitude of the people in Guanzhong, but was thinking about the impact of this policy on the court and current affairs, especially the impact on currency reform.

"What is your majesty's plan?" Fan Jingwen's mind was a little confused, and he asked in a low voice helplessly.

"The plan is simple. Tell Lu Daqi to collect taxes in both silver and copper coins," Chongzhen replied.

"Hmm..." Fan Jingwen improved his wording, "What is the exchange rate for collecting copper coins? Officially, one tael of silver is exchanged for 770 wen, but the actual exchange rate is one tael of silver for 1,500 wen."

"One to a thousand!"

“But this is not in line with the official system.”

"Then we should change the official system. It just so happens that we need to reform the currency system, and change the exchange rate at the same time."

"But..." Fan Jingwen had a new question, "But Your Majesty, how do we deal with the copper coins we collected?"

It's not that he is nagging, but this matter is of great importance.

He is the chief minister of the cabinet and does not want anything to go wrong during his tenure that would cause chaos in the court and the local areas, so he must be cautious.

"How was the previous silver handled?" Chongzhen asked.

"A portion of it was kept in the local treasury to pay officials' salaries and soldiers' wages. The rest was escorted to the capital and collected into the national treasury."

"Isn't it okay to just do it the same as before?" Chongzhen asked back.

"But..."

"Why are you saying but..." Chongzhen was annoyed by Fan Jingwen's repeated buts.

"Ahem," Fan Jingwen coughed twice and then changed the subject: "But..."

Chongzhen: ...

"Just say it, just say it!" Chongzhen sighed helplessly.

"Officials and soldiers only recognize silver and don't really recognize copper coins. So there's no way to use these copper coins to pay salaries to officials or soldiers."

"Then give them silver... no, give them Ming Yuanbao!"

"But..." Fan Jingwen said again, "Where will the money come from? There is not much silver in the local treasury."

Chongzhen's mouth curled up slightly: "I asked the inner treasury to open a Ming Dynasty bank in Shaanxi, where you can exchange silver for copper coins in the treasury."

Silver for copper?

If nothing unexpected happens, it will definitely be a losing deal.

Thinking of this, Fan Jingwen suddenly became alert.

My dear, there is more to this chapter. Please click on the next page to continue reading. It’s even more exciting later!