His palms were sweating.
"Did you know that His Highness Prince Qing changed the name of the commercial notes? They are now called 'Flying Silver'."
Lu Zhaoan had a sudden inspiration and spoke up.
Gu Yaoniang's eyes were fixed on the food in front of her, without even looking up: "I know. Didn't I already say that at the last grand court assembly?"
Lu Zhaoan gave an awkward laugh: "Oh...right, right, right."
Undeterred and unwilling to let the conversation die down, he picked a topic and said to Gu Yaoniang, "The Ministry of Revenue is now planning to completely replace silver ingots and copper coins with flying silver."
Gu Yaoniang raised an eyebrow: "How could that be? At first, the people certainly wouldn't accept it. Real gold and silver being replaced by a piece of paper will definitely make them uneasy. It's more likely that it will be gradually replaced after being implemented for a while."
Lu Zhaoan was somewhat surprised. He said, "Yes! The officials in the Ministry of Revenue think so too. The plan is to implement this for a few years first, encouraging the use of flying silver for buying and selling. With flying silver, one can also exchange it for cash at the silver shops set up by the imperial court. Once the people get used to using flying silver, they will no longer exchange it for cash at all, and will only use flying silver for buying and selling."
Gu Yaoniang pursed her lips and nodded. It sounded feasible.
But she sighed softly, "I only hope that the official in charge of making the flying silver will not have any selfish thoughts and secretly make more flying silver."
Lu Zhaoan was taken aback. Having been in business for many years and being an extremely intelligent person, he naturally understood Gu Yaoniang's meaning.
Silver is printed on paper, and you can have as much as you want. If someone were to have selfish desires and secretly produce more silver for their own use, then the people would likely suffer hardship.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com