It was noon at this time. When Fu Xiaoguan passed by Chengtian Hall, he took a look and saw that the morning court had not yet dispersed. He didn't know what the emperor and the ministers were discussing.
Naturally, he did not go in, but went directly to the Ministry of Commerce's office.
A new person has been added to the Ministry of Commerce these days.
This man's name was Ma Xingkong. He recommended himself. Fu Xiaoguan admired his courage very much and of course gave him a chance.
The two chatted for an hour at Sitong Bank, and Fu Xiaoguan immediately asked him to go to work in the Ministry of Commerce because this guy raised a point that even Fu Xiaoguan had overlooked -
For business to flourish, there must be enough money in the market!
"Think about it, my dear official. When the new policy is implemented, many merchants will expand their workshops, and the number of goods on the market will increase dramatically. The cost of goods is still there. Even if productivity increases as you mentioned, the cost of goods will decrease, but at the same time, the output of goods will increase.
When the value of goods on the market far exceeds the money people have, a large backlog of goods is inevitable. At this point, these goods must either be sold at a reduced price or destroyed. In either case, merchants suffer losses.
On the one hand, ordinary people wanted to buy but did not have enough money, and on the other hand, merchants could only watch as they lost all their money. The final outcome was that these workshops closed down, merchants went bankrupt, and the entire country's economy was paralyzed.
My words may sound alarmist, but they are the conclusions I have reached after much deliberation. As you are the helmsman of the new policy, I dare to offer my advice. If there is anything inappropriate, I would appreciate your help."
These words shocked Fu Xiaoguan. The silver notes issued by the Yu Dynasty were anchored by gold, and the amount of gold in the Yu Dynasty's reserves determined the amount of silver notes issued by Baolong Money House.
He then went to meet the eldest princess and learned that the gold reserves of the Yu Dynasty were far from enough to cover the silver notes needed by the market during the economic boom.
However, these silver notes must not be printed indiscriminately, otherwise the harm to the economy of the Yu Dynasty will be even greater.
It will not be reflected when business is booming, but once a recession occurs, the silver note will lose its value and will be no different from paper.
With the current economic scale of the Yu Dynasty, there is no problem with the silver or silver notes circulating in the market. However, if the new policy is implemented for two or three years, when productivity is taken to a higher level and capital flows in crazily, the supply of goods will definitely increase sharply. At that time, deflation will definitely occur.
Therefore, in Fu Xiaoguan's future plan, the problem of currency issuance must be solved within two to three years. That is, he needs enough gold to support the market demand for currency, allowing slight inflation, but deflation must not occur.
It was precisely because of this point of view that Fu Xiaoguan specially recruited Ma Xingkong into the Ministry of Commerce.
This guy bought shares of Xishan Shares and had an empty pocket. He originally wanted to find a temporary job in the Sitong Bank to solve the problem of food, but he didn't expect that Fu Xiaoguan would pull him out of the academy and directly throw him to the Ministry of Commerce!
This of course made him very excited. He didn't need to participate in the next year's autumn examination. He hadn't even graduated yet, but he had already become an official appointed by the court, and he was still under the command of a small official. He boasted for two days, and then he couldn't show off anymore -
What kind of people are in this Ministry of Commerce?
They all came to sit in the court early in the morning. By the evening, all the people from various government offices in the huge imperial city had left, but no one from the Ministry of Commerce left!
Here are his classmates and seniors, including his good friend Sima Nan.
After asking Sima Nan, he finally understood that the overtime was voluntary, and the reason for it was so simple that it almost made him vomit blood - "We are happy to work overtime! If you don't want to work overtime, you can leave at any time."
How the hell can you run away by yourself?
Ma Xingkong had no choice but to stay and immerse himself in the legal framework, and then discuss with the young people around him, arguing over a certain point of view until they were red in the face.
Every time this happened, Deputy Minister Li Cai would intervene and smooth things over: "Write down your opinions and submit them to me for review. Whoever I choose will be correct. Stop wasting your time arguing. Do you still want to celebrate the New Year?"
Then the business department would become quiet again, with only the sound of ink hitting paper or the occasional crackle of charcoal fire.
Li Cai was extremely worried at first about the group of people selected by Fu Xiaoguan from the Ministry of Commerce. Except for the top three in the autumn examination, most of the other thirty or so people had not yet graduated from the academy!
One day, Li Cai made a special trip to the academy and investigated the information of these people. He found that their academic performance in the academy was not outstanding, so he came to a conclusion - this young official was a man who was randomly recruited at the last minute to cram for the exam. He was only seventeen years old and was not reliable!
But in the following days of getting along with each other, these guys made Li Cai look at them with admiration. It was not just because they worked overtime, but because these guys had extremely flexible minds. Give them a legal framework, and they can fill it with a flower!
Some of these students, like Wang Sun Wuji and Zhong Fangyuan, had received family business training. But many more used this framework to imagine how to constrain capital and regulate the behavior of businesspeople without dampening their enthusiasm. This aspect also impressed Li Cai.
Their views are novel and unique, and although many of their expressions may not be very accurate, they provide Li Cai with sufficient reference for ideas.
So half a month after the establishment of these business departments, he has already completed the first draft of the "Code of Business Conduct".
He was just thinking about finding a time to deliver this draft to the official today, but he didn't expect that another dispute would break out in the hall:
"I believe this Anti-Monopoly Law is inappropriate. Think about it: merchants have controlled the market with their own strength, and you are going to oppose them. Who will vigorously promote their own products in the future?"
"Brother Wang Sun, what you said is inappropriate. You are looking at this issue from the perspective of a merchant. If you look at it from the perspective of ordinary people, when this commodity is monopolized, the price deviates from the value of the commodity. Merchants can raise prices arbitrarily, and consumers have no way to stop it."
"Brother Sima, your words are biased. I actually think that they invested real money to improve their technology and eliminate similar products. This is typical market competition. If it were the other way around, who would be willing to innovate tools, change processes, and improve efficiency?"
Sima Nan was speechless after hearing Wang Sun Wuji's question. At this moment, Fu Xiaoguan walked in leisurely.
"You've got one thing wrong. Monopoly and fair competition are two different things..."
The daily routine of the Ministry of Commerce resumed. Fu Xiaoguan took a charcoal pencil and wrote and drew on the whiteboard, explaining these new names and how to define them in detail to all officials.
Fu Xiaoguan spent two hours to finish today's lesson. Just as he put down the charcoal pencil, he saw Eunuch Jia walking in tremblingly.
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