Chapter 341 Disadvantages
When the sun shone into the palace, the court officials thought it was just a normal court meeting and had no idea that Liu Heng was preparing a surprise for everyone.
Luo Jing naturally had to go to court.
After Liu Heng arrived at the palace, the court meeting began. After the formal procedures were completed, Liu Heng asked, "Do you have any memorials?"
This kind of memorials submitted at the grand court meetings are basically just going through the motions. Normally there is nothing real to be discussed here, and it is usually used as an occasion for testing.
But today was special. A minor official in charge of money and grain, arranged by Jia Yi, stood up from the back and walked into the hall and said, "Your Majesty, I have a memorial to report."
This scene made all the ministers look sideways. Many of them didn't even know this person, and didn't know what matters such a small person could report to the emperor. Smart people had already started to figure out who had pushed this chess piece out.
Liu Heng smiled and asked, "What do you want?"
"Your Majesty, I have a word of advice.
In the past, because the country needed a large amount of money and counterfeit money was rampant and the court was unable to stop it, Empress Gao allowed private coinage. However, after these years, countless copper coins have flowed in the country. I think the disadvantages of this method have outweighed the benefits.
The power to mint coins is related to the fundamental safety of the imperial court. It should be taken back by the imperial court as soon as possible, and private minting of coins by the people should be prohibited. Instead, the minting should be unified by the imperial court."
As soon as these words were spoken, many people turned their eyes directly to Liu Heng who was sitting at the top.
Could this be someone the emperor directly sought?
In fact, people of insight in the world have long realized that the imperial court will sooner or later take back the right to mint coins. Not to mention the benefits to the imperial court, just from the perspective of human greed, how could the huge profits from minting coins be allowed to be earned by kings and powerful people?
Although mainstream public opinion is that righteousness comes before profit, are there really people in this world who don’t love money?
Even if the emperor wanted to do something, he would need money. The emperor had the greatest power in the world, and no matter how he wanted to, he could not give up the continuous production of gold from coinage.
The court, which had been relatively quiet just now, was immediately in uproar, with some officials even standing out and shouting, "What nonsense!
Private coinage was allowed, which was an innovation of Queen Gao and King Lofven.
Over the past few decades, under this policy, the world has become increasingly prosperous, and the quality of currency in this dynasty is the highest in history. Now there is not even a single person using the old currency of the previous dynasty.
Doesn’t this prove King Lofven’s foresight?
Are you questioning Queen Gao and King Luo Wen?
What a courage!
I think you are just a treacherous minister who wants to disrupt the government. You say these evil words and want to deceive Your Majesty. You deserve to be put to death.
Your Majesty, please kill this thief to set things right."
He actually brought up Empress Gao and King Luo Wen directly, and what he said was agreed by many people, especially Luo Xin's status and influence, which were really too high for these people.
Many people know this man. He is not only a court official, but also one of the leading figures of the Confucian school and a great scholar of the time. His furious look now leaves no doubt that if he had a sword in his hand, he would probably use it to stab the court official who had just spoken to him.
Let him know that Confucianism has abundant military force, let him know why Confucianism and Mohism were once considered the two major schools of thought, because others could not defeat Mohism, but Confucianism could!
Of course, the others would not give in to him and also stepped out and shouted, "You can speak freely in the court. This is also the rule set by Queen Gao and King Luo Wen. What do you want to do by shouting for war and killing?
I think you made a lot of money from minting coins, so you are preventing the court from taking back the right to mint coins."
This was a direct personal attack, and the court was immediately in chaos. These people pointed at each other and started cursing, and those who were close even started fighting.
Luo Jing watched from afar with a smile on his face. What a lively and vibrant court.
Liu Heng sat at the top, looking somewhat helpless. This trend started from the time of Emperor Gao. He glanced at Luo Jing and saw that this boy was actually smiling. He said, "A Jing, let them be quiet."
Luo Jing smiled, holding the copper hammer in his hand, and then struck it heavily. Such a heavy sound echoed in the hall, and the ministers stopped their friendly exchanges breathlessly.
Liu Heng rubbed his head gently. He guessed that there would be arguments. After all, touching interests is more difficult than touching the soul.
However, the controversy in the court was beyond Liu Heng's expectations, and it was a complete chaos. Needless to say, those who benefited from it would be ignored, as Liu Heng would not care about their opinions.
But the problem is that there are also many people who have nothing to do with coinage who oppose it.
Seeing this situation, Liu Heng temporarily stopped the court meeting.
"I understand your opinions. If that's the case, I'll pick a time to have you all discuss it together and see which side makes more sense."
Liu Heng was prepared to discuss it carefully. After all, it was rare to see both supporters and opponents making eloquent arguments.
Although he had already decided in his heart that the government must take it back, listening to the opinions of the opposition might help him make some supplementary suggestions for subsequent matters. After all, there is no such thing as perfection in policy making.
In Changle Palace, Liu Heng looked at the memorials that were being presented like snowflakes in front of him, and said with some emotion: "A Jing, why do you think so many people are against it?"
Luo Jing flipped through the memorials and said thoughtfully, "What these people said is not without reason, but there is no such thing as all benefits without any harm in this world. The key is to see what is needed. Back then, the court needed to delegate the right to mint coins, but now it needs to take back the right to mint coins. There is nothing worth discussing."
Liu Heng smiled softly and said, "That being said, my uncle taught me that I must listen to the advice of my subjects, be open to opinions, and be good at accepting advice. As long as I listen, whether I follow the advice or not, my subjects will do their best, so I want to hear what they have to say."
The return of the right to mint coins to the imperial court sparked great controversy, and the storm of controversy even swept across all schools of thought.
Huang-Lao Taoism opposed to taking back the right to mint coins. Among Confucianists, some opposed and some supported it. After all, there were too many Confucian schools. On the contrary, Legalists basically agreed to take back the right to mint coins.
First of all, I would like to point out that although the Legalists were practiced in Luoling, they were not eliminated.
Because Luo Ling's practice of legalism did not simply condemn the Legalists, but rather criticized some of their ideas.
The Legalists are greedy for profit and seek wealth and glory. They kneel quickly in the face of power, not only when facing the monarch, but also when facing the Luo family.
After removing those techniques of controlling the people from the ideological classics, they neutralized some less radical ideas, reformed their own doctrines, and then accepted the supervision of Luo family.
Therefore, there are still many Legalist students serving in government today. When Luo Xin was regent, although he was close to Confucianism and the Huang-Lao school, he was also willing to employ Legalist students as long as they were both virtuous and talented.
However, there are many talented students among the Legalists, but not many with virtue. The Legalists' educational idea that benevolence, righteousness, and virtue are completely useless is a bit too extreme.
In recent years, he has continued to change his doctrines and learn from Confucian practices, absorbing a large number of nice-sounding and beautiful words from Confucianism and Huang-Lao school to cover up himself.
Liu Heng moved very quickly, and a side hall of the Changle Palace was soon filled with bigwigs from all sides. Most of those with vested interests did not come here, because Liu Heng wanted to hear some of the disadvantages of taking back the right to mint coins, so as to revise his own policies.
At the beginning, a doctor of the Huang-Lao school directly said: "The court's withdrawal of the power to mint coins is an act of cruelty and oppression to the people. The suffering of the people of the world will begin from now on. I hope Your Majesty will think deeply about it."
Liu Heng didn't say anything, so Luo Jing asked, "Please explain in detail, Doctor."
The doctor said, "In the past, during the tyrannical Qin Dynasty, the First Emperor unified the currencies of various countries and the imperial court issued them uniformly, but soon people began to forge them.
The same was true in the Han Dynasty.
Do you think that only princes and powerful people would commit fraud?
The trend of counterfeiting is from top to bottom, and almost everyone is involved in it because the cost is too low and the means are too many.
As far as I know, the most basic method is to grind copper powder on the edge of a copper coin. Grinding such a large coin will not produce any obvious change. The copper powder will accumulate over time and can then be cast into new coins to make a profit.
What's worse, some people directly melted the copper coins and mixed other metals into them to make worthless small coins, with almost no copper left in them. People called them "leaf coins", which means money as light as leaves.
There are countless such methods, and the Mohists must know them best, after all, many of the coin-minting workshops were built by them.
This situation did not end until the imperial court decentralized the right to mint coins and the powerful people in the world competed to improve the quality of coins. I can directly and confidently say that the decades from Empress Gao to King Luo Wen in power were the decades with the highest coin quality since the invention of copper coins.
Once you start to take back the right to mint coins, you will definitely force the people to accept this money. After all, there is no reason in the world for the court to mint coins and the people to refuse to accept them. That would be a contempt for the court's majesty.
I really don't want to see the hard-earned situation destroyed, so I advise you not to take back the coins."
These words made Liu Heng frown slightly, because in a certain aspect it did make sense. Luo Xin had relaxed the control over currency for this reason.
Luo Jing agreed with what was said to some extent, but he also had different opinions. However, in such an occasion, he would naturally not take part in it himself, and there would naturally be countless people fighting for him.
Sure enough, someone soon voiced opposition, and from a completely different perspective.
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During the reign of Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty, there was a heated debate in the court over the ownership of the coinage right. Emperor Wen of the Han Dynasty specially convened a meeting, which was known as the "coinage debate". The speeches of both sides of the meeting were fully recorded and passed down to later generations through historical records. The author will translate and interpret the historical materials in detail, and strive to make every reader understand both sides of the debate. - "The Rise and Fall of the Han Dynasty"
(End of this chapter)
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