A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 276 The Wolf Really Comes

"In one month, we minted 36,000 strings of coins, consuming over 200,000 catties of copper, yet we made a profit of 9,000 strings!"

Your Majesty,

Li Yuan smiled, and the wrinkles on his face bloomed like ripples.

Coin minting was surprisingly profitable. The Yishou Mint House had already resettled tens of thousands of refugees from Sizhuyuan and Nanshan, yet it still made such a huge profit. Nine thousand strings of cash a month, wouldn't that be one hundred thousand strings a year?
"I said that if you can make good new coins, I will give you a coin casting furnace and allow you to cast coins on your own. Now I am fulfilling my promise, Li Yi, I will give you a coin casting furnace!"

Li Yuan was generous and magnanimous, and immediately gave Li Yi a coin minting furnace, giving him the legal right to mint coins.

"Pei Jian, I will also grant you a coin casting furnace."

The emperor also gave each of his three legitimate sons, Crown Prince Li Jiancheng, Prince of Qin Li Shimin, and Prince of Qi Li Yuanji, a coin casting furnace.

He gave away five coin casting furnaces at once.

Liu Wenjing knelt before His Highness. He did not hear his name called, and his face looked rather ugly. He stared at Pei Ji, feeling very aggrieved.

"From now on, the use of evil money is prohibited."

The emperor ordered that in the future, officials in the markets would be responsible for prohibiting bad money. If anyone traded with bad money, both the buyer and the seller would be punished. Bad money had to be exchanged for good money with the local officials, or the government would exchange it with silk.

The minting of coins by officials of the previous dynasty has been temporarily slowed down. They can be traded or exchanged for new coins at the ratio set by the government.

Notices must be posted in the two markets of the capital, as well as in the markets of various states, to place sample Kaiyuan Tongbao coins on sale. Counterfeit coins are no longer allowed to be traded in the market, and violators will be severely punished.

Those who engage in illegal money transactions will be punished with caning.

Privately minting counterfeit coins is punishable by death.

In all provinces throughout the country where copper and iron are produced, private mining is allowed and the government collects taxes. Private mining is encouraged, but the private sale of copper materials and the manufacture of copperware are prohibited.
Private individuals only make bronze mirrors for sale.

Private individuals were allowed to mine copper, but after the imperial court collected mining taxes, all remaining copper materials had to be sold to the government and could not be bought or sold privately.

"Bronze ban!"

On the one hand, there was a shortage of money. On the other hand, a huge amount of copper was needed to cast bronze ware, Buddha statues, etc. The huge profits from casting bronze ware led to the prevalence of selling coins to cast ware and destroying coins to cast Buddha statues, which made the shortage of money even worse.

Now Li Yuan and the prime ministers saw that minting coins was so profitable, so they all wanted to increase the scale of minting new coins.
It is imperative to ban bad money, recycle old money, and ban copper.

Li Yi, who obtained a coin casting furnace, reaped a great reward.

But he has no copper now.

If there is sufficient copper material, a coin casting furnace can be used at full capacity according to current technology to cast 10,000 strings of coins a year, with a profit of 2,500 strings of coins.

But the problem is that the imperial court is short of copper, so where can it get it for him?

The court's new copper mining policy now only allows private mining, but all mined copper must be purchased by the government and cannot be bought and sold privately.

This is simply a double-edged sword. Even if Li Yi mines copper himself, the copper cannot be used to mint coins. He still has to purchase copper materials from the court.

Yishou Money Supervisor earned Li Yuan nine thousand strings of cash in one month. Li Yuan was very happy. Of course, he had to play the pipa when he was happy. So he took Pei Ji and the two brothers went boating in the North Sea.
The king and his ministers played and sang by themselves, which was very enjoyable.

The song is over,

Li Yuan drank the fine wine and lamented that the only flaw was that the coinage, which was so profitable, had to be stopped due to lack of copper.

"Yizhou is rich in copper, so we can open more mines there to mine copper," Pei Ji suggested.

"Distant water cannot quench immediate thirst!" Li Yuan stroked his beard.

"Then the market will collect bad coins, recycle them into heavy copper, and mint new coins to make a profit. When the bad coins are recycled, you can make another profit. Repeat this process, and you can continuously mint new coins, and the amount of bad coins on the market will decrease."

"This is so true!"

"Come on, play another song."

The next day at noon,

The East and West Markets opened with the sound of drums.
Today, there are many more Wu Hou in the two markets.
In front of the municipal government office in the city center, a new notice was posted and a string of new copper coins with a hint of yellow and white was hung.

The clerk in the market office shouted loudly: "This is the newly minted coin of the imperial court, called Kaiyuan Tongbao. A thousand coins weigh six catties and four ounces, and ten coins weigh one ounce.
During the Kaihuang period of the Sui Dynasty, two coins could be exchanged for a new coin; during the Daye period, five coins could be exchanged for a new coin.

As for the other bad coins such as goose-eye coins, ten of them can be exchanged for one new coin.

From today onwards, transactions with counterfeit coins are prohibited. Violators will be punished with caning, and those who privately mint counterfeit coins will be put to death.

Bad money must be exchanged for new Kaiyuan Tongbao coins or silk at the municipal office.

The coins minted by the previous dynasty can still be traded for the time being..."

Market officials, accompanied by military officers, patrolled the two markets throughout the day, and any transactions involving counterfeit currency were dealt with immediately. Those with counterfeit currency were forced to exchange for new money and publicly punished with caning.

The Kaiyuan Tongbao coins hanging in front of the list,

It looks very beautiful when it is golden.
But when everyone heard that it took two good coins to exchange for a new one, and five white coins to exchange for a Daye one, their faces changed.

Someone in the crowd shouted, "This is a money grab!"

As for small coins like goose eyes, ten coins were exchanged for only one penny, which was even more difficult for everyone to accept.

Many people simply stopped doing business, held on to their wallets, and quickly left the market and went home.

Overnight,
The homes of nobles and officials in Chang'an all received an imperial edict.

The imperial court officially promulgated the "Prohibition of Hoarding Money Order", stipulating that private hoarding of money should not exceed 5,000 strings of cash. Any excess must be disposed of within one year. For princes, special leniency was granted, allowing them to dispose of the money within two years.

Violators will be punished with different penalties according to the size of their official positions.

It was also stipulated that transactions exceeding ten strings of cash must use silk.

This decree was issued,
The capital is in an uproar.

Everyone was worried about the imperial court's Kaiyuan Tongbao, except Li Yiyun, who was calm and composed.

Anyway, as a coin minter, he had spent all the copper coins in his family in advance, so no matter how the court wanted to exchange the old coins, they couldn't get anything out of him.

The imperial court will still grab money,

The cost of minting one thousand coins is seven hundred and fifty, and the profit is two hundred and fifty, a profit of thirty-three percent. They can be exchanged for old or bad coins, and there is still a large profit.

This is a blatant robbery of the people's wealth.

It was only slightly better than the ten-cent coin. In theory, if the imperial court minted a new coin and then exchanged it for the old coin, the value of the coin would almost double.

night,

Li Yi sat in his study, fiddling with his abacus.

Coinage became a highly profitable business.
He minted 36,000 strings of coins a month, making a profit of 9,000 strings. The court used his 36,000 strings of coins to exchange for bad coins, and could have profited a minimum of 10,000 strings.

The court gave the exchanged bad coins to Li Yi for smelting, and obtained copper materials to continue to cast new coins. The cast new coins were taken to the market to buy back the bad coins.
This transaction is an endless cycle.
Every time you turn it, you have to scrape off a circle of oil.

Whose oil?
Whoever has dirty money will be stripped of his wealth, and naturally the common people will be plundered.

Luo Sanniang was also counting beads.

"A coin-making furnace can produce 30,000 coins a day, which means 10,950 strings of coins a year. If each string of coins earns 250 coins, the profit for the year is 2,737,500 strings of coins."

The more Luo Sanniang calculated, the more excited she became.
There are only more than 30 craftsmen working in a coin casting furnace. Even if the costs of copper, charcoal, etc. are taken into account, it is still a huge profit.

Moreover, there is no need to worry about not being able to sell the minted money like other goods.

"Don't think so. Even though the saint has given me a coin casting furnace, we don't have copper. How can we cast coins?"

Luo Sanniang said, "Since the saint gave Alang the furnace to cast coins, it is impossible that he would not give him the copper materials."

"The Imperial Treasury doesn't have the copper to start production."

"Then can we collect bad coins and melt them down to make new ones? The court would exchange ten bad coins for one new coin, and we could exchange nine bad coins for one new coin, or even eight for one? That would still be a big profit."

Li Yi smiled,
"Don't do that. The imperial court has issued new policies and is keeping a close eye on everything. Don't take risks just for a little profit. It's not worth it."

"What should we do? We have a coin-making furnace, but no copper to make coins. This year we will lose nearly three thousand strings of money in vain, three thousand strings!" Luo Sanniang was extremely distressed.

"Don't be impatient. Many policies are not set in stone."

"Ah Lang, what will change?"

"If it can't be implemented, it will naturally have to change. For example, if the court completely prohibits copper mining and trading, not many people will be willing to open mines. As long as trading is allowed, then whether we mine copper ourselves or buy copper materials, we will have copper to mint coins."

"Besides, the imperial court banned the trading of bad coins, but it didn't completely ban old coins. Coins minted by officials of the previous dynasty can still be circulated. We also have workshops, and any old coins we receive can be melted down and recast into new coins."

Luo Sanniang was delighted to hear this: "Alang is the one who thinks things through."

"Oh, right," Luo Sanniang recalled something. "Someone from the Qin Palace came the other day and talked about the Jiechi Salt Fields in Hedong. He said it was time to reclaim the salt fields."

"If you hadn't mentioned it, I would have forgotten about it," Li Yi smiled.

That piece of salt field was given to him by Li Shimin last year. Although it was only one acre, it could produce two to three thousand stones of salt a year. In addition to the salt that grew there, he could get a lot of salt.

"After discussing with the steward of Prince Qin's Mansion, I have arranged for people to go there." Sanniang said.

It's getting late,

Li Yi looked at her.
Feeling Li Yi's gaze, Luo Sanniang's earlobes turned red with embarrassment and she lowered her head.

"I've been busy outside all this time, and I've neglected you."

Sanniang lowered her head like a quail.

"It's getting late, take a rest."

Luo Sanniang immediately stood up and walked out with her head down, "Alang, you should rest early too."

Li Yi held her back and asked, "Where are you going?"

"Go back to the house and rest."

"Stay here with me tonight,"

Sanniang seemed to be frozen, her whole body stiff.

"Are you feeling unwell?" Li Yi asked.

Luo Sanniang was stunned for a moment, then she understood and quickly shook her head: "No, it's not inconvenient."

"Then stay."

"it is good."

Li Yi picked her up,

Sanniang cried out softly.

"lamp,"

"Ah Lang, the lights haven't been blown out yet."

······
A night of spring breeze,
Get up early the next morning,

The peach blossoms in the garden are blooming.

The Yishou Money House had no copper materials to start work, so it was a three-day holiday. Li Yi also gave himself three days off to spend time with his wives and concubines in Chang'an.

His daughter Li Shu had grown up a lot. She was plump and white after being fed by her wet nurse. She liked to be held by Li Yi and talked a lot.

Du Shiniang still hasn't gotten over it and is still depressed, and Li Yi has no good solution.

"Ah Lang, Li Erlang from Pingkangfang is here and says he has something urgent to do."

Li Yi came to the front yard living room,
Li Dejiang told him the latest news as soon as they met: "Liu Wuzhou is calling."

At the beginning of April, Liu Wuzhou led the Turkic army and stationed them at Huangshe Ridge, where they were very powerful. Li Yuanji ordered General Zhang Da to lead a hundred men to meet the enemy. Zhang Da thought that with so few troops, it was too risky, but Li Yuanji pressed him to do so.

Zhang Da had no choice but to lead his troops to attack, but they were annihilated by the Turkic soldiers as soon as they arrived at Huangsheling. Zhang Da was also injured and captured. The angry Zhang Da surrendered to Liu Wuzhou, and then led Liu Wuzhou's troops to attack Yuci and captured it.

Yuci is just a few dozen miles east of Taiyuan.

Keep shouting wolf, wolf,

This time the wolf really came.

(End of this chapter)