Qian Qianyi patiently explained to Ruan Dacheng: "What I mean is that we should treat currency reform as a business, not as a national policy!"
Ruan Dacheng, who had always been very brave, suddenly became a little scared.
Why is currency reform a national policy?
Everyone in the court was watching this matter.
If you are not careful, you may die without a burial place.
He swallowed and asked, "Brother Qian, how do you want to do the currency reform business?"
Qian Qianyi did not respond to this question, but smiled at Ruan Dacheng, "Excuse me, brother Ruan, why does the court say that the currency reform in the four provinces of Jiangnan is progressing slowly?"
"Because..." Ruan Dacheng hesitated, "Because the number of Ming Yuanbao exchanged by the four provinces is too small! Other provinces have tens of millions or even millions of them, while the four most prosperous provinces in Jiangnan have less than 20 million in total!"
"That's why the court concluded that the currency reform in the four provinces of Jiangnan was progressing slowly!"
Qian Qianyi's smile became more and more obvious. He picked up the teapot beside him and poured himself a cup of tea. He said word by word: "In other words... as long as the four provinces in Jiangnan exchange a certain amount of Ming Yuanbao, we can report to the court, right?"
Ruan Dacheng could not deny it and said, "Yes! However...the specific amount of exchange is still to be discussed. After all, Jiangnan is too rich."
"No need to discuss. The four provinces in the south of the Yangtze River have already exchanged nearly 20 million coins. If we exchange another 80 million coins, the total will reach 100 million coins! Enough to report to the court!" Qian Qianyi said while pinching his fingers: "Among them, Nanzhili has 30 million coins, Zhejiang has 30 million coins, and Fujian and Guangdong have a total of 20 million coins."
Ruan Dacheng had no idea what Qian Qianyi was up to, so he simply stopped agreeing and sat quietly in a chair, listening attentively.
Qian Qianyi went on to say: "The key to currency reform in the four provinces of Jiangnan is the issue of interest distribution!"
"Indeed! The currency reform harms the interests of the gentry, so the gentry will resist!" The messenger sent by Ma Shiying couldn't help but say.
"Wrong!" Qian Qianyi shook his head.
"Wrong? What's wrong?" The messenger was a little confused.
"Strictly speaking, the interests of the gentry have not been harmed, because one tael of silver and one round treasure can buy the same amount of things!" Qian Qianyi said seriously.
"Ah?" The messenger felt a little unwell. He stuttered and asked, "Then...why did the gentry oppose the currency reform? Isn't this asking for trouble?"
Qian Qianyi looked at Ruan Dacheng with a smile: "Brother Ruan is knowledgeable and talented, please explain it."
The messenger then looked at Ruan Dacheng, his eyes full of desire for knowledge.
Ruan Dacheng hesitated for a moment and then whispered, "The famous official Wen Yanbo of the Northern Song Dynasty once said that the emperor ruled the world with the literati, not with the people!"
"What does it mean to rule the world together? Simply put, it means to share the wealth of the world together, because the symbol of ruling is to collect money from the people!"
"The court collected land tax from the people, and the literati collected land rent from the people. The court collected business taxes from merchants, and the literati took benefits from the merchants and helped them reduce taxes in the court."
"The currency reform that the imperial court is going to implement is a piece of fat meat! But the imperial court wants to eat it all by itself and won't share the meat with the gentry, so the gentry will resist."
The messenger was so shocked by such remarks that he shrank back in his chair and stopped talking.
Seeing this, Qian Qianyi continued the previous topic: "Each exchange of a Ming Yuanbao will generate a profit of six cents. The court directly takes three cents, leaving three cents for the local government! The local government also needs money. Even if they only take one cent, the profit left for the gentry is only two cents."
"These profits are too small for the gentry, so resistance is inevitable."
Having said this, Qian Qianyi stopped to drink tea.
He wanted to give Ruan Dacheng enough time to think.
After thinking it over, Ruan Dacheng asked, "Brother Qian, what is your solution?"
"Money!" Qian Qianyi replied, "Currency reform is not as difficult as imagined! The upper echelons want both performance and profit, while the lower echelons only want profit. The profits for the court remain the same, and the profits for the gentry can be increased from 2 cents to 4 cents!"
"Where does the money come from?" Ruan Dacheng asked, "The court took 3 cents, the local government deducted 1 cent, and the gentry took another 4 cents, which adds up to 8 cents! And the currency reform only brought in 6 cents of profit!"
"There is a two-cent deficit between the two!"
Qian Qianyi smiled mysteriously: "Since ancient times, when the national treasury is empty, it is either plundered from the people or plundered from the merchants!"
"This time... we'll plunder the people!"
Ruan Dacheng was silent for a while and then asked, "Brother Qian, how much do you plan to plunder? And how do you plan to plunder?"
"The mission of the four provinces in Jiangnan is to exchange 80 million Yuanbao. Based on the 2 cent deficit for each Yuanbao exchanged, we only need to collect 1.6 million to make up for the deficit! In order to deal with other temporary emergencies, we need to prepare 3 million taels of silver this time."
"As for the method of plundering," Qian Qianyi paused, "we can only start with corvée labor, otherwise we will be caught."
Ruan Dacheng fell into deep thought.
He was thinking about whether the method proposed by the Donglin Party headed by Qian Qianyi was feasible.
After a moment, Ruan Dacheng raised his head and asked, "Brother Qian, under what name do you intend to assign corvée labor?"
"Huohao!" Qian Qianyi took out a silver ingot and a Ming Dynasty round treasure from his arms and said, "When silver is cast into round treasures, it will produce fire consumption. It is justified to collect fire consumption silver!"
"No!" Ruan Dacheng shook his head like a rattle. "The total cost of casting each Ming Yuanbao is nine cents and four cents. The court has already included the fire consumption into the cost. We can't impose the fire consumption on the people, otherwise it will give others an advantage."
Qian Qianyi stretched out his right hand to signal Ruan Dacheng to be quiet. After he was quiet, he explained: "The imperial court's decree is to promote currency reform, but it never said that the apportionment of fire consumption is not allowed! We are not breaking the law by doing this."
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