Chapter 172 New Treasure Notes
"In this way, the impact of coal on charcoal will be minimized, so that the coal will not cause serious damage and make it impossible for people engaged in the charcoal business to make a living."
Zhu Chong spoke eloquently and Old Zhu nodded repeatedly. He didn't expect that he almost did something bad with good intentions.
But it was precisely because of this that Old Zhu became even angrier. Why did his good intentions always cause trouble when it came to Zhu Chong?
But Old Zhu also understood that what Zhu Chong said was true, and the people's affairs could not be handled by the court's methods.
He also came from the common people, and he knew that if he were in their place, and knew that the price of coal was more than ten times lower than that of charcoal, he would definitely choose coal instead of charcoal.
As a result, the charcoal business in the market will definitely plummet. Those who rely on charcoal for a living will lose their livelihood in an instant. If they fail to transform in time, they will be doomed.
If someone with ulterior motives takes the opportunity to stir up public resentment, there will definitely be a big disturbance and blood will flow like a river!
But Old Zhu was unwilling to accept this. He instinctively rejected Zhu Chong's approach, always feeling that he had lost face and wanted to make up for it.
"Father, what my second brother said is absolutely right." Zhu Biao stepped forward and said, "Before, the people of Yingtian Prefecture relied on charcoal to survive. Now that we have coal, those who can't afford charcoal now have a choice."
"I think what you said, 150 wen per catty, is still a bit high. I think 130 wen per hundred catties, while this price will have a certain impact on charcoal, it won't completely wipe out the charcoal business..."
In fact, Zhu Biao did not say anything else, because the price of charcoal has always been high in Yingtian Prefecture. The cheapest charcoal costs more than 300 wen per hundred catties, and the highest price even reaches nearly 500 wen per hundred catties.
The charcoal business was not government-run, but now the coal business was completely government-run and was purely for generating revenue for the court. Zhu Biao naturally wanted to take advantage of the situation and let Zhu Yuanzhang make the final decision to avoid another dispute between Zhu Yuanzhang and Zhu Chong.
"What the prince said is very good. I approve it!" This time, Old Zhu nodded directly. The way the prince gave him was too obvious, but it was exactly what Old Zhu needed most at the moment, so he took advantage of it.
"Thank you, father!" Zhu Biao was overjoyed when he heard this. He quickly pulled Zhu Chong to express his gratitude and then ran away immediately.
"It's finally settled." Zhu Biao didn't breathe a sigh of relief until he left the palace and boarded the Crown Prince's carriage. "Second Brother, you've accomplished a great deed this time!"
Zhu Chong grinned but said nothing. He certainly knew that he had done a great deed.
In the coal business, Zhu Yuanzhang, the crown prince and the empress accounted for 90% of the profits, while the Baochao Tizhusi only accounted for 10%. When the business was booming, most of the profits went to Zhu Yuanzhang and the crown prince, and the national treasury was also filled. Zhu Biao was of course happy.
"And second brother, when will you make that treasure note? It's been several months, you better hurry up!"
After talking about the coal, Zhu Biao took the initiative to mention the Baochao. Zhu Chong was not interested, so he sent Zhu Biao away with a few words and went to the Baochao Tizhuo Office alone.
Today's events served as a wake-up call to Zhu Chong. As long as he stayed in Yingtian Prefecture, he would never be in charge. The issue of treasure notes must be put on the agenda immediately.
When Zhu Chong returned to the Baochao Tizhu Division, Zhang Quan came to him in a hurry and said, "Sir, I have followed your instructions and asked the craftsmen to add cotton to the raw materials of the Baochao."
"But the problem is that after printing and dyeing the paper with cotton added, the writing becomes blurred. You see..."
Zhu Chong laughed when he heard this. "The raw materials for banknote paper have changed, so why are we still using the old ink? Of course we have to change it!"
After saying that, Zhu Chong invited Zhang Quan to go to the workshop together. However, when he saw the ink used for printing in the workshop, he was completely stunned.
Looking at the dark, long strip of ink without any reflection, Zhu Chong shook his head.
"This ink is not good. We need to add new materials. Let's add tung oil. Collect the tung oil and store it immediately so we can make new ink."
After hearing Zhu Chong's order, the craftsmen woke up as if from a dream. Zhang Quan also suddenly realized it and immediately did as he was told.
Tung oil is a very good ink setting agent. The ink after adding tung oil is the printing ink that Zhu Chong wants.
The ink problem was solved in a few words, but a new problem immediately arose.
Because Zhu Chong said that he wanted to put his portrait on the treasure banknote, but according to the engraving, there was no suitable place for Zhu's portrait on the treasure banknote.
Finally, Zhu Chong made the decision to make a full-length portrait of Lao Zhu into a watermark and put it in the blank space on the banknote.
The purpose of doing this is, on the one hand, to prevent counterfeiting, and on the other hand, to deter unscrupulous people.
After all, in this era, the imitation methods were still very advanced, and the printing of treasure notes was not as exquisite as in later generations, so we could only make some preparations in the details.
If any villain dared to counterfeit the new treasure notes, it would be equivalent to deceiving the emperor, because the watermark of the treasure notes was Zhu Yuanzhang, and the crime of deceiving the emperor in the Ming Dynasty was punishable by confiscation of property and extermination of the clan.
Zhu Chong didn't mind killing a chicken to scare the monkeys. If anyone dared to imitate it, he would personally lead his troops to wipe out that person's entire clan!
Thus, the production of treasure notes began to proceed in an orderly manner, but there was still no conclusion on when to issue them. The court held several large court meetings for this purpose, but for some reason, they were all suppressed by Zhu Yuanzhang.
Crown Prince Zhu Biao felt strange about this. After repeated inquiries, he learned that it was because Zhu Chong had read the memorial. So he tried every possible means to get the memorial, but he didn't expect that he could not understand it.
In desperation, Zhu Biao could only go to Zhu Chong and ask what the memorial meant and why Zhu was so cautious about the issuance of the new treasure notes?
"Brother, how come you don't even understand this? I just said one thing: the royal finances and the national finances should be separated. Why did you bring my treasure notes into this?"
"No," Zhu Biao shook his head. "You mentioned in your memorial that there's a distinction between imperial finances and national finances, but in my opinion, there's no difference at all. Why do you insist on keeping them separate?"
"So that's what you're talking about." Zhu Chong shook his head and smiled, "Brother, family, country, and the world. The world is the biggest, the country is second, and family is the smallest."
"Although the royal family is a family, it is much smaller than the country. Therefore, the royal family and the country must be treated differently!"
"Actually, big brother, you should also know that there are differences in this regard throughout the dynasties. For example, the common taxes we see are actually two types: the levies are paid to the royal family, and the taxes are the revenue for the national treasury. Big brother, do you understand?"
Zhu Biao nodded blankly, feeling like he understood, but also feeling like he didn't understand. The most important thing was that he still didn't understand why this matter was related to the issuance of the new treasure notes?
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