Alum Building!
The shopkeeper standing at the counter glanced at the piece of fine silk on the table, then looked up at the handsome man outside the counter and said with embarrassment: "Master Liu, this cloth is really hard to calculate. How about you pay with coins?"
The fair-faced young man also said with a depressed look: "If I had coins, I wouldn't have to carry this batch of cloth to eat. My grandfather has recently regarded coins as more important than his life, but I don't even have a copper coin on me."
"Quickly settle the bill for Brother Liu."
Fan Zheng came over and bowed to Master Liu, saying, "My servant is ignorant, Brother Liu, please don't argue with him."
Young Master Liu exclaimed, "Da Lang, I don't want to either, but I really can't take out the money."
Fan Zheng smiled and nodded: "No problem, no problem. If Brother Liu wants to make things easier, you can store the cloth in the shop first and settle the bill later."
Mr. Liu's eyes suddenly lit up. "That's a good idea. It saves me from carrying cloth out every day. I'll put it here first. When it's almost used up, send someone to tell me."
"yes."
"Goodbye!"
...
...
"Brother Liu, take care."
After Mr. Liu left, Fan Zheng said to the shopkeeper, "In the future, try to let them keep the cloth in the store. The cloth can be exchanged for money, but the shorter it is, the less valuable it is."
"Hey! I understand."
The shopkeeper nodded and sighed, "The court didn't say it would print Jiaozi, but some people took out coins. But today I haven't seen even a single copper coin."
As soon as Jiaozi came out, all kinds of rumors came out. Many people believed that the reason the court issued Jiaozi was because it did not have copper coins at all and was just trying to be mysterious.
Therefore, the monetary policy promulgated by the court not only failed to encourage the people to take out their money, but instead made the money shortage even worse.
Boom boom boom!
I heard footsteps and saw a team of Royal Police coming in.
"Yanei?"
Fan Zheng immediately walked over and saw three or five people following Cao Dongdong, so he couldn't help but ask, "You are going to treat us today?"
Cao Dongdong glared at him with disdain: "I don't have that much money to pay for your treat."
He often entertains guests, but never goes to Baifan Building.
Fan Zheng glanced at Cao Dongdong gloomily, and then asked, "I wonder what business has come to our shop for, young master?"
Cao Dongdong said: "We are here to check the salt."
"Check the salt?"
Fan Zheng was stunned.
Cao Dongdong nodded. After all, Fan Zheng was his brother, so he didn't hide anything from him. He whispered, "Investigating smuggled salt is the duty of our Royal Police. Last time, the Commissioner of Taxation took it over. This is not acceptable."
After hearing this, Fan Zheng was stunned. "Young Master, the price of salt is rising every day. If you check it out, I'm afraid it will rise even more sharply."
Cao Dongdong immediately said, "In other words, you want us to secretly bring in private salt?"
"That's not what I meant."
"What do you mean?"
Cao Dongdong snorted, "Now that the price of salt is rising, private salt sellers may take advantage of the situation and sneak in. If the tax police catch them first, it will be very embarrassing for our Royal Police."
Fan Zheng didn't know what to say.
Because what Cao Dongdong said really makes sense. The key is that even if the Royal Police don't investigate, the tax police might investigate. Moreover, the tax police are elusive and we don't know whether they are investigating or not. The police station doesn't want to lose power.
The price of salt had already risen slightly due to the lawsuit, and then the powerful people fanned the flames behind the scenes, causing the price of salt to rise further, and now the police station has got involved.
No one can understand this magical plot.
Can't say who's at fault.
However, the price of currency and salt has increased, which is really terrible. Other goods have become bastards.
There are also complaints among the people.
Since the people do not have these two things, they are of course suffering heavy losses.
They directed their criticism directly at the imperial court. The official salt was expensive, private salt was not allowed to be sold, and the price of currency was rising. Using currency to buy salt was as uncomfortable as eating shit.
But I have to buy it.
It’s uncomfortable or not.
And this happened right under the emperor's feet, so the emperor could not sit idly by.
Zhao Xu immediately convened an important meeting in Chuigong Hall to discuss countermeasures.
"Your Majesty, I think that this is all caused by those private salt dealers who deliberately spread rumors to drive up the price of salt, thus forcing the court to turn a blind eye to the private salt. The court must not let them succeed."
At this point, Wang Anshi immediately stood up and spoke aggressively.
Lu Gong said embarrassedly: "But according to our investigation, the official salt supply in Kaifeng Prefecture is indeed insufficient."
Wang Anshi immediately said: "This is all caused by private salt. It is precisely because of the rampant private salt that legal salt merchants dare not buy more official salt. Now, under the threat of the tax commissioner, private salt dealers have gone into hiding, resulting in a shortage of supply.
If the imperial court cannot hold on, private salt will only become more rampant. However, if the imperial court can survive this crisis, it will surely be able to curb the arrogance of private salt trafficking. The government should also urge the police to continue to crack down on private salt dealers. "
Zhao Xu nodded and said, "Master Wang is right!"
Wen Yanbo asked: "How can we survive this crisis?"
Wang Anshi said: "Currently, 70% of the salt is in the hands of the court, and only 30% is in the hands of the court. Merchants are profit-driven, and now that the salt supply is insufficient, they will inevitably raise the price, which is understandable. The court can spend money to buy the salt in their hands, and then sell it to the people at a low price."
Sima Guang was stunned when he heard this. This was not something Wang Anshi would do. With Wang Anshi's character, he would at most buy salt from merchants at the previous price, and then add a few cents to sell it to the people. At any rate, it would be fine as long as it was lower than now. This was the win-win situation that Wang Anshi often advocated.
"How much do you plan to pay for the salt from the salt merchants?" Sima Guang asked.
Wang Anshi said: "The original price of salt was about 45 coins, but now it has risen to 60 coins. The court can buy the salt from the salt merchants for 50 coins, and then sell it to the people at the original price."
Sima Guang was shocked and asked, "This is going to cost a lot of money?"
Wang Anshi said calmly: "But if we can curb the arrogance of private salt, we will be able to make money in the future."
Lu Gong suddenly asked, "Master Wang, are you planning to use Jiaozi to buy salt from the salt merchants?"
Wang Anshi shook his head and said, "If all the Jiaozi are given to the salt merchants, how much can they use? There is still no currency in the market. The Jiaozi will still be paid to the royal police as wages. I will allocate this money from the Sinong Temple."
No problem!
There's really nothing wrong with this!
Could it be that this guy has changed his personality?
Sima Guang immediately bowed to Zhao Xu and said, "I support Mr. Wang's suggestion."
This suggestion is very much in line with Sima Guang's governing philosophy. The court should bear some of the responsibilities it should bear, and collecting taxes is enough. It should not always think about making money.
Wen Yanbo asked again: "But I heard that people in the market are very opposed to the court's plan to issue Jiaozi."
Wang Anshi downplayed the issue again, saying, "That's because they have a misunderstanding of the court. The court has sufficient reserves. When they see that Jiaozi can be exchanged for real currency at any time, they will naturally put aside their prejudice against currency."
Zhao Xu glanced at Wen Yanbo and the others, and seeing that they had nothing to say, he nodded and said, "Okay, let's follow what Wang Xueshi said, and let the Sinong Temple be in charge of this matter."
After leaving Chuigong Hall, Sima Guang looked at the backs of Wang Anshi and Han Jiang and muttered to himself, "This is really unlike his style. Could it be that this fellow has changed his character?"
Lu Gong beside him smiled and said, "Junshi, you may have a prejudice against him. Now the tax commissioner has finally deterred those private salt dealers. If it continues, even if the court makes a loss at present, it will still make money in the long run. Jiefu's suggestion is reasonable."
Even Wen Yanbo, who was standing next to him, nodded slightly.
Sima Guang smiled and said, "I have worked with him for so many years, and I know his character very well. If there is nothing fishy going on here, I will apologize to him in front of you."
Lu Gong smiled and said, "You must keep your word."
The imperial court had to pay for the rescue of the market on its own, and no one had any objection to that.
All you can say is that you are cruel.
On the one hand, Zhao Xu ordered the police to continue to strictly investigate private salt, and on the other hand, Wang Anshi also went to find the big salt merchants and bought all the salt in their hands at the price of fifty coins per catty.
Although the market price has been driven up to sixty cents, the problem is that few people buy it and ordinary people cannot afford it.
Moreover, the initial price was forty-five cents, which was already very high. Fifty cents was also a high price, and the salt merchants could make a lot of money from it. The key point was that the Ministry of Agriculture said it would pay in cash. If you still refuse the court, you will not be able to continue to be a salt merchant.
Basically no one had any doubts and sold them all to the court.
Zhang family!
"Those big private salt dealers have already been contacted."
Li Bao said to Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Are they willing to sell the salt they have?"
Li Bao said: "They were a little hesitant before, thinking that the court could not support it for long, but now the court is buying official salt on the one hand, and on the other hand, it has asked the police to conduct a strict investigation. They can't hold on any longer. Under such circumstances, they are definitely unable to sell their salt, because all legal salt merchants have no salt. Except for the court, anyone selling salt in Kaifeng Prefecture must be selling private salt.
They are willing to sell their private salt for 18 coins, but if we want to buy all the salt they have, it will cost us 300,000 strings of cash."
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "This is a sure win business. If the government is unwilling to pay, I can pay for it."
Li Bao laughed and said, "The government has already prepared the money."
Zhang Fei laughed and said, "Find more people and buy all the salt from them in batches."
Li Bao nodded.
Zhang Fei asked again: "What actions has Xiangguo Temple taken?"
"They didn't make any moves." Li Bao shook his head and said, "They mainly wanted to use currency to attack the exemption tax. The salt price was just used by them to cause trouble for the court. The previous increase in salt prices had nothing to do with them. It was only later that they added fuel to the fire."
At this point, he paused for a moment, "Speaking of which, few people understand the court's current policy."
Zhang Fei smiled coldly and said, "Even if they can see clearly, they can't do anything. After all, the salt is no longer under their control, unless the coin can taste salty. This time I'm going to beat them down completely, damn it."
Ma family.
"Brother Lu, can you still eat so deliciously now?"
Ma Tianhao looked at Lu Bin, who was eating the pork elbow with relish, speechlessly.
Lu Bin wiped his mouth and said vaguely: "The temple has been under strict control recently. It's not easy to have a good meal. I can only come to your place to eat."
Ma Tianhao smiled bitterly and said, "That's not what I'm referring to. The court bought salt at a high price and sold it at a low price. There must be something wrong here."
"I know." Lu Bin nodded.
Ma Tianhao asked: "Then can you still eat?"
Lu Bin raised his head and asked, "Then do you know what the problem is?"
Ma Tianhao shook his head. "I don't know about that, but I told you a long time ago that Zhang San is not someone you can easily mess with. He was the one who fought the lawsuit. If you guys go after this, he will definitely not sit idly by. I suspect this matter is also related to him."
Lu Bin threw the elbow into the plate and said, "I didn't agree with it at first, but they insisted on doing it. I was just following orders. Whether it succeeds or fails, it has nothing to do with me. I don't understand this either, so what can I do?"
really.
This series of actions by the imperial court indeed left many people stunned.
It was totally unexpected for them.
When has the imperial court ever done a business that loses money? Looking at the new laws, which one is not for the imperial court to make money? This is not Wang's school of thought!
At the same time, many truly ambitious ministers in the court gave Wang Anshi a thumbs up, such as Zhao Yan, Xu Zun, and Zeng Gong.
Sima Guang, Fu Bi and Wen Yanbo also strongly supported it.
Doing so would not wrong the salt merchants, and would also take care of the people, which is impeccable.
So much tax has been collected from the exemption of military service, so what if we just take care of the people?
Take from the people and give back to the people!
Everyone supported it and the money was in the hands of the Sinong Temple, so the implementation went very smoothly.
After the imperial court purchased the official salt, it immediately closed all the salt shops, saying that it would be sold to the outside world after a unified plan.
The people already knew that the court would sell salt at the previous price, and they were very happy. They thought that the court had done a great thing, and everyone was waiting patiently.
But in fact, Wang Anshi was waiting for Jiaozi. Since salt had to be used as a reserve, the previous design of Jiaozi could not be used. It had to be redesigned. However, he asked Zhao Xu to send the Imperial City Administration to guard it strictly and no news could leak out for the time being. At the same time, it was increased from the initial 300,000 strings of cash to 500,000 strings of cash. Now the issuance amount was not determined by the reserve but by how much salt there was.
At the same time, Zhang Fei was also actively purchasing private salt.
The reason for this drama is actually to provide Zhang Fei with an environment for purchasing private salt. The key to this plan is to control all the salt.
The court's actions made it impossible to hide all the private salt. Any salt that was sold was bound to be private salt, and all the legal salt was bought up by the court.
At the same time, the police station is stepping up its investigation efforts. Once the case is uncovered, both the people and the money will be lost.
Private salt dealers were also eager to get rid of their salt.
This made Zhang Fei's acquisition very smooth.
Bian Jing Law Firm.
"How's it going over there?"
Wang Anshi asked Zhang Fei.
Zhang Fei nodded and said, "Most of the illegal salt is in our hands. We can start now."
Wang Anshi seemed a little hesitant.
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Isn't it possible that Master Wang is planning to raise the price of salt again?"
Wang Anshi said hurriedly: "It's not that the price is raised, but you lowered it too much. If we sell it for 40 coins, there will be many people coming to buy it. But you are selling it directly for 25 coins, which is not much more expensive than private salt."
Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "Master Wang, I have calculated this for you before. We may be losing money on the price of salt, but at the same time the court has issued hundreds of thousands of strings of Jiaozi.
Once Jiaozi worth twenty-five coins could buy a pound of salt, Jiaozi would inevitably become very popular and would be able to purchase all goods.
But if the difference is not that big, why don't the people use coins? Some merchants have said that if the court issues Jiaozi, they will only count 70%. This is actually reasonable. After all, this is a risk. "
Wang Anshi nodded and said, "I understand that, but..."
The price drop is too outrageous, he feels sad!
Zhang Fei said again: "Master Wang, you can't have your cake and eat it too. If Master Wang wants to keep Jiaozi, he will definitely lose a large part of the profit from salt. If he wants to keep the profit from salt, Jiaozi will hardly play a role.
If both salt and Jiaozi make money, who will lose the money? But in my opinion, it is very cost-effective to exchange the profits of salt for the things of the world. "
Wang Anshi was the only person in the world who could understand Zhang Fei the most. He immediately understood the relationship and said, "In this case, the court must strictly monitor the salt."
Merchants want to make money. Once Jiaozi is linked to salt, salt becomes an anchor. For the imperial court, it is necessary to lower the price of salt to make Jiaozi strong. All the profits are on Jiaozi's side, but Jiaozi is not issued by merchants. Why should merchants pay for the imperial court?
The whole system has to change.
Zhang Fei nodded.
This was actually the reason why Zhang Fei struggled before, because if this happened, he would have to go to the northwest. The source had to be controlled, and salt administration became the core of finance.
After all this was prepared, Wang Anshi first announced the salt purchasing policy in the official bookstore. Three days later, all salt shops would open, but salt must be purchased with salt notes.
Since salt is used as an anchor, it naturally cannot be called Jiaozi, and should be renamed Yanchao.
The unit cannot be guan either, and must be changed to one fen, one jiao, or one yuan.
One dime could buy one pound of salt, and it was also stipulated that twenty-five copper coins could be exchanged for one dime of salt note.
Five cents is equal to ten cents, and fifty cents is equal to one dollar.
One fen is equal to five wen, one jiao is equal to twenty-five wen, and one yuan is equal to one hundred and twenty-five wen.
When the people heard the news, they could not help but feel happy and anxious.
Fortunately, the price is amazing.
The price of official salt is almost the same as private salt. This is simply pie in the sky!
But the urgent thing is, where can I exchange salt notes?
Where is the salt money?
It’s not mentioned above.
Three days later, all the salt shops in the capital were opened.
But the store was crowded with people, all of them were in uniform, either royal police, tax police, or prosecutors.
It turned out that this first batch of salt notes were all distributed as wages to the newly recruited police officers, and even to many clerks.
In fact, this news had been out for a long time, but at that time it was about Jiaozi. However, it scared the royal police and the tax police. Even if they gave us Jiaozi, no merchants outside would want it.
But now.!
So delicious!
In such a big capital city, they are the only ones who can buy salt. This... This can only be attributed to the emperor's great grace!
So they hurried over and exchanged all the salt notes for salt.
"Don't worry! Don't worry! We have plenty of salt. As long as we have salt notes, everyone can exchange them for salt."
The clerk at the counter shouted himself hoarse after a while. Seeing that each of the Royal Police officers exchanged more than ten kilograms of salt, he couldn't help but ask, "Dear police officers, you exchanged so much salt, can you eat it all?"
"Why are you nagging? Whether I can finish my meal or not is none of your business. Change it for me quickly."
“Okay, okay, okay!”
The guy kept nodding.
But when these royal policemen exchanged their salt, they immediately rushed into the alley. Immediately, three or five citizens surrounded them and said, "This official salt is very good. If you want it, it's 30 coins per pound. Hurry up and pay."
"Here, thirty cents."
One of the citizens threw the money into the policeman's hand and complained: "This is really unfair. The salt notes are only given to you policemen."
Another citizen said, "Yes! The court is trying to make you, the Royal Police, rich!"
The Royal Police said: "We have been so tired these days, we deserve a little reward."
Compared to before, thirty cents was already very low, and citizens were certainly willing to buy it, but the problem was that the royal police only used twenty-five cents of their wages to pay for these salt notes.
It’s really possible to make money while lying down!
Who wouldn’t be jealous!
If I could exchange it for salt notes, I would only have to spend twenty-five cents.
At this time, Cao Dongdong and several royal police officers were sitting in the teahouse opposite, drinking tea.
One of the Royal Police said, "Yanei, will the higher-ups blame us for doing this?"
Cao Dongdong cried out, "Just go ahead and sell it. If anything goes wrong, I will take the responsibility for you."
"Oh! Thank you so much, Yanei!"
The royal police quickly clasped their fists to express their gratitude.
This is just like a festival. In one word, it’s awesome!
In fact, Cao Dongdong was instructed by his superiors to allow them to do so, but they could only raise the amount to thirty cents.
Not far away, under a big willow tree, there were three or five old men standing. They were Sima Guang and others.
"Look! Look!"
Sima Guang said: "I told you there must be something fishy going on here, but you guys didn't believe me."
Lu Gong was bewildered and said, "It is true that there is something fishy going on, but the problem is that if Wang Jiefu does this, won't he lose more money?"
After these words were spoken, they looked at each other.
Wang Anshi had originally said in the palace that it would be sold for forty-five cents, but this time he sold it for a very low price.
But you bought it for fifty cents, and you lost twenty-five cents per pound.
They were also confused.
Sima Guang suddenly cursed: "This stinky boy."
"Stinky boy?"
Everyone looked at Sima Guang at the same time.
Wen Yanbo asked, "You mean, this is Zhang San's idea again?"
Sima Guang said: "It is most likely related to him."
Lu Gong asked, "Why do you say that?"
Sima Guang snorted, "If it was Wang Jiefu's idea, I would have figured it out. But that brat's idea always makes me confused."
He knew Wang Anshi's character and purpose very well, which was to make money for the country. So as long as he grasped this point, he could guess what Wang Anshi would do.
But he often couldn't guess some of Zhang Fei's ideas.
They always say that they will not compete with the people for profits, but now they feel sorry for the court. With such a huge loss from the sales, can the finances sustain it?
But this is all Sinong Temple’s money, and they have no right to interfere if others are willing to make a loss.
However, there were too many people coming to exchange salt, tens of thousands of people came to exchange salt at the same time, but there were not so many shops, and many people could not exchange salt. Since salt notes can indeed be exchanged for salt, why not sell the salt notes directly.
The next day, a secondary market for salt notes was immediately formed.
This made the imperial guards next door very envious.
Why?
He, the Royal Police, makes money without doing anything.
We also want salt notes.
Satisfy them.
The Ministry of Agriculture allocated another 300,000 strings of salt notes and exchanged them for 300,000 strings of cash from the finances of the three yamen.
Tens of thousands of imperial guards received salt notes at the same time, but they had no way to save the money. They only had so much money every month and had to exchange it immediately. The salt notes immediately began to be monetized in the secondary market.
Bian Jing Law Firm.
"Master Wang, how much money does Sinong Temple have now?"
Zhang Fei asked.
Wang Anshi said: "Four hundred thousand strings of cash."
Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "Now it's our turn to retaliate against them."
Wang Anshi was slightly stunned and asked, "Do you have a trick up your sleeve?"
Zhang Fei said: "I won the lawsuit, but I didn't get to show off. They also stuffed a pile of shit in my mouth. How could I let them go?"
Zhang Fei, who is vindictive, will not let them go so easily.
The key point is that if he does this, he will have to go to the northwest and take revenge.
Wang Anshi asked with great interest: "What are you going to do?"
Zhang Fei said: "The Sino-Agricultural Ministry can use the warehouse liquidation law as an excuse to buy up all of their grain, raise the grain price, and lower the currency price. Aren't they exchanging grain for currency? That's fine, just let them rot in their hands."
Wang Anshi hesitated a little and said, "But the Sinong Temple also needs coins!"
Zhang Fei smiled and said, "Master Wang, go outside and see that everyone is exchanging coins for salt notes. If a large amount of coins appear at this time, the purchasing power of the coins will inevitably fall, which will further make the salt notes more popular. When the coins are taken down, we can see the situation and use the salt notes to exchange for coins."
Wang Anshi's eyes lit up, and he said with a chuckle, "I, Wang Anshi, am not convinced by others, but I am convinced by you! This time we must vent our grievances."
Zhang Fei chuckled and said, "It's a must."
I have to go to the ancestral hall to visit the graves tomorrow, so I will post two chapters at a time. The chapter for tomorrow morning is also on hold, because I have to go to the ancestral hall for dinner in the evening, and I don’t know when I will be able to get back.
(End of this chapter)
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