Cheng Qian held a gold ingot in his hand and fell into deep thought.
A gold ingot contains eight coins of gold, but it is worth a hundred copper ingots.
However, the actual value of gold is only about one or two gold and ten times, which is a little higher than the past gold one or two straight eight copper coins.
But gold ingots and gold are still eight times the price difference.
By minting coins, gold is minted into gold coins, excluding labor costs plus copper costs, etc., which is still six or seven times the profit.
In the past, there was little gold, and the profit of this gold coin was not significant, but now, with the continuous discovery of gold mines and the exchange of gold from overseas trade, Datang's gold reserves have greatly increased, and the amount of gold coins minted has also increased significantly.
For every gold coin minted, you can earn sixty or seventy yuan.
The minting of gold coins has simply become the most lucrative industry, and it is not much worse than the imperial court's monopoly on salt and wine.
The salt tax of the imperial court was ten times higher than the price of salt.
And this gold coin is also seven times more profitable.
Such a high seigniorage profit is known as seigniorage, but now this coinage power is not completely in the hands of the imperial court, and the imperial court has lost a large amount of seigniorage.
Silver ingots and copper ingots are also similar, silver coins are worth more than silver, copper coins are also worth the same money, when twenty copper ingots, in fact, it is more than ten times the profit, more profitable than selling salt.
Every year, the imperial court loses much income due to the opening of coinage.
Most of the lost income went into the Zhang family's pocket.
Because although the coinage technology is not only available to the Zhang family, the imperial court and several major banks have also bought the technology from the Zhang family, but the technology alone is not enough, there must also be gold, silver and copper.
The Zhang family has the largest private bank, as well as the largest pawnbroking and insurance industry, plus their huge commercial industry, the Zhang family not only has money, but also gold, silver and copper.
Money money money, if the court wants to be strong, it must have money.
The annual fiscal and tax revenue of 100 million yuan can not be satisfied.
Coinage has always been mostly official minting, and there are often occasional open private minting.
But most of the time, it was officially cast, and even the previous dynasties issued a lot of laws and decrees, and all the crimes of stealing money were killed, and those who privately cast as spring cloth did not enter the official slaves and maids with their wives.
In the past, private casting relied on reducing fineness to make profits.
And the one who received it melted the copper coins into bronze vessels for profit.
Now, it is because of the use of a method similar to Chongbao in the past, which increases the value of the currency with less bids and more, and the official reduces the amount of gold, silver and copper.
The Zhang family and others are not privately minted, but coins that have been approved by the imperial court.
They mint coins in a dignified manner and make huge profits.
"Your Majesty, the eldest grandson Xiangguo and the senior speaker have arrived."
"Hmm."
The eldest grandson Wuji and Gao Shilian's nephew and uncle came in.
"Your Majesty."
Cheng Qian beckoned the two to sit down, one was his uncle and the other was his uncle, and they were also the two people he trusted more now.
In order to avoid the court being full of Zhang Dang, the emperor now relies on the eldest grandson and others who have a bad relationship with Zhang Chao.
He handed the gold ingots in his hand to his eldest grandson.
"Uncle, what is the amount of gold ingots minted in a year in the imperial court now?"
"In the past few years, there have been more than 100,000 gold coins every year, and this year new gold ingots have been issued uniformly, and it is estimated that almost 300,000 gold ingots have been minted and issued in half a year."
The eldest grandson Wuji replied.
In just over half a year, more than 300,000 gold coins were issued, which is quite amazing.
A gold coin costs eight gold coins, and 300,000 gold coins must use 240,000 taels of gold.
Before Zhenguan, the annual amount of gold and silver mined by the imperial court was only about 10,000 taels.
In recent years, a lot of gold and silver deposits have been discovered, and the mining volume has also increased significantly.
In more than half a year, more than 300,000 gold coins were minted, worth more than 30 million copper coins.
By minting coins, the profit reached no less than 20 million.
However, more than 300,000 gold ingots, minted and issued by the Imperial Mint, are only a fraction.
There are only tens of thousands, and the seigniorage earned by the imperial court is only a few million.
The real big head is produced by Zhangjia and other mints.
The Zhang family alone minted more than 200,000 gold ingots, with a profit of more than 15 million yuan.
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It's a money grab.
Robbing the money of the imperial court, openly robbing money.
Even if the imperial court still has to levy a special seigniorage tax from the Zhang family, as high as 20%, then it will only get back 3 million yuan.
The Zhang family still has a profit of 12 million yuan, and if he levies 20% of the business income tax, he will only get back another 3 million, and the Zhang family still has a profit of 9 million.
This money is given to the Zhang family, which is to give him more money to recruit troops and buy horses.
Cheng Qian's heart is uneasy.
"Uncle, since ancient times, the right to mint coins should belong to the imperial court.
Private coinage, which is not in accordance with the rules. ” The imperial court even had to raise taxes on salt ten times, and coinage was so profitable, how could it be given to private individuals In the past, when coins were minted, gold coins were worth a little more than gold, and they only used two percent of copper instead of two percent of gold, earning two percent of the difference, minus processing costs, etc., and the profit was only about one percent.
And now, the profit is at least seven times, which is a skyrocketing seventy times.
How can the imperial court still be handed over to private individuals?
The eldest grandson Wuji's eyes lit up.
The Zhang family is extremely powerful, and one of the keys is that they are rich.
Now the emperor proposed to take back the coinage right, which is also a good way to weaken the Zhang family's wealth.
And this matter is also tenable, after all, since ancient times, the right to mint coins has been in the hands of the imperial court.
"It is forbidden to mint coins privately, and it is also forbidden for private people to store large quantities of gold, silver and copper, and set a minimum limit, and those who exceed it must be sold to the imperial court."
If it is only to take back the right to mint money, and the court does not have gold, silver and bronze in its hands, it will not work.
It is necessary to set up a line, just like the monopoly of salt and iron.
Gold, silver and copper mines are still allowed to be mined privately, just like iron ore, but the gold, silver and copper mined must be taxed and can only be sold exclusively to the imperial court.
The gold and silver brought back by those foreign trade merchants must not exceed the upper limit of private ownership, and the excess must be sold to the imperial court.
In this way, the imperial court took back the right to mint coins and had the materials for coinage.
Monopolize the right to mint and also receive all seigniorage.
If at least 300,000 gold coins are minted every year, then the imperial court can earn 20 million yuan a year from the gold coin seigniorage alone.
In the current revenue of the imperial court, the salt monopoly earns 40 million a year, the tea, wine and sugar get 20 million a year, the commercial tax tariff is 20 million, and the two taxes of the imperial court are about 30 million.
The revenue exceeds 100 million yuan, but industrial and commercial tariffs and monopoly taxes account for the majority.
In addition, the royal family also has a lot of operations, mainly engaged in buying and selling, making some monopoly operations, and also has its own caravan fleet, as well as shares in large trading houses such as Zhangjia.
These revenues are counted in the royal treasury and are not included in the national treasury, and the annual treasury income of Cheng Qian is about 20 million.
It is said that the emperor Chengqian is still relatively rich, the treasury has a lot of income, and his small treasury has always been very good.
But who doesn't like a lot of money?
Besides, the emperor also spends money in many places, and all kinds of rewards often have to be paid by the emperor out of his own pocket.
In particular, the kings of the royal clan divided the feudal lands, and they were not as rich as other princes, and the imperial court would not pay much money to these feudal kings, but they still had to pay money for their brothers and sons to build territories for them.
If you can make a profit of 20 million a year by minting gold coins, this will of course have to be recovered.
Silver coins are now minted in a similar amount, slightly more than gold coins, and can mint about a million a year, but silver coins are not so valuable, and the profit of minting one is seven times, and it is only about seven times.
One million pieces will make a profit of seven million.
It's copper money, and the profit is high.
When twenty copper coins, when ten copper coins, when five copper coins, when two copper coins.
"Since the release of copper ingots this year, we have recycled a large number of old copper coins, and a total of about one billion copper ingots have been minted."
Of these, about 500 million are two copper coins, 300 million are five copper coins, 100 million are ten copper coins, and 100 million are twenty copper coins.
One billion copper coins of various denominations are only equivalent to 4.5 million yuan.
Although the profit is high, it is still not as profitable as gold coins.
If the current amount of coinage is maintained, and all the coinage rights are collected by the imperial court, then the imperial court can get about 30 million seigniorage taxes a year.
That's almost as much as the income from the salt monopoly.
And the Zhang family will also reduce their income by at least 20 million a year, even after tax, it will be 16 million less.
Cheng Qian thought it was very necessary.
He had been troubled all along, but now he had finally found a breakthrough.
The coinage rights were collected by the imperial court, and the money was directly grabbed by issuing gold coins with low gold content and high denominations, as well as silver coins and ten copper coins.
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Whose money is being robbed Of course, the money of the richest people.
It's a shameless tactic, but he thinks it's very doable.
For example, Zhang Chao made money by monopolizing the market through various technologies and scales, such as Zhang's shipyard, his family's steel factory, his family's bank, pawn, etc.
Gao Shilian reminded the emperor that there would be risks.
First, the original ingots currency was issued because the credit of paper money was damaged, and the imperial court's gold, silver and copper reserves were insufficient, so it was not necessary to reduce the fineness and increase the face value to save the currency credit.
According to the original plan, when the situation of the imperial court and other countries improves, new currencies will be issued, and the fineness will be increased and the denomination will be lowered to protect the credit of the currency.
After all, gold coins are seven or eight times higher than the price of gold, and there are serious hidden dangers here.
Originally, everyone who had technology and gold could mint coins, but now they can only be minted by the imperial court.
If Zhang Chao casts it privately, can the imperial court stop it?
And even if the Zhang family does not mint privately, according to the previous agreement, after this wave passes, the imperial court will issue new currency, and this time the ingots currency is actually only a transitional currency to save the market.
"The value of the currency is inflated, and it may even jeopardize the credibility of the banknotes again.
Once the credit of paper money is shaken again, it can be very dangerous. ” The biggest reason why paper money can pass is that the imperial court announced that paper money can be exchanged for gold, silver and copper banknotes at any time.
In the past, copper coins could be accepted, because the copper coins themselves were valuable, and even if the copper coins were melted to cast copper coins, they could be more valuable, and the copper contained in the copper coins even exceeded the value of the currency.
Now the imperial court is engaged in this set of ingots, a copper coin can be used as two, five or even twenty, which is equivalent to the actual depreciation of copper coins.
The gold coins of the imperial court were only one-eighth of their actual value.
Many things have market rules, and if they are messed up, there will definitely be problems.
Recently, there was last year's run on the currency and inflation, and in the distance, there were various currency reforms reformed by Wang Mang, which not only had many types of currency, but also had high face value and low real value.
The currency value of Wang Mang and Emperor Taishang later went into big problems.
"To restrain the princes, it is better for the imperial court to stop minting ingots and start issuing new coins now, so that the profits of coinage will be greatly reduced, and it will also curb the princes from profiting from it, and it will also help stabilize the market."
Cheng Qian thought about it, the market is very good now, if he gives up the ingots, Zhang Chao can't make so much money, but he can't make it either He directly took back the coinage right, and all the coinage profits would be his.
Gao Shilian was still persuading, but Chengqian couldn't listen to it anymore.
"Even if we want to reform the coin, we are not in a hurry to do so.
It is not too late for me to take back the coinage first, and then wait a few years before issuing new coins. ” t1706231537: