The Wanli Emperor of the Ming Dynasty was extremely rebellious

Chapter 639 Forcing it if it doesn't work
The currency of the Ming Dynasty circulated throughout the land.

Countries around the world use the currency of the Ming Dynasty for transactions.

At that point, not only will they lose pricing power, but they'll even have to print their own money and be used by all countries.

This idea seems pretty good.

But can a currency simply circulate anywhere in the world at will?

Seeing that Song Yingxing and his maternal grandfather were busy with their work, Xiao Zhu Changxun couldn't help but ask, "Father, what if others don't use the gold, silver, and copper coins we stamp?"

It's not that simple, of course.

Each country has its own currency, and getting them to use the Ming Dynasty's currency is not so easy.

Wanli thought for a moment, then patiently said, "If they don't want it, we'll force them to accept it."

Force it?

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun asked in confusion, "Father, what do you mean by 'forcefully pushing'?"

When the Ming Dynasty becomes so powerful that no one dares to provoke it, then it won't be a war of guns and cannons anymore; it might be a war of currencies.

This may be the main foreign policy strategy you will be using in the future, and you need to figure it out.

Emperor Wanli explained in detail: "The so-called 'forced push' means using various methods to compel other countries to use the currency of the Ming Dynasty."

For example, if you want to buy things from the Ming Dynasty, you must use the currency of the Ming Dynasty.

Now we can implement this in Southeast Asia, where vassal states must exchange real gold and silver for Ming Dynasty currency in order to buy Ming Dynasty goods.

If they won't exchange it, then don't buy it.

Uh, are you really pushing it like that?

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun was still somewhat puzzled and asked, "Father, they can choose not to buy our things."

We'll have to use some tricks for this.

Emperor Wanli patiently explained, "The fact that they dare to disobey us proves that they are not truly submitting to the Ming Dynasty."

For vassal states like these, we'll find a pretext to attack them and see if they choose annihilation or exchanging gold and silver for our currency.

Oh, so you dare beat them up if they don't use our money?

I understand this.

Simple, straightforward, and easy to understand.

He also prefers to use this strategy.

Xiao Zhu Changxun nodded slowly, then asked, "Father, what about countries outside of Southeast Asia?"

Isn't that the same principle?

However, doing it this way seems a bit unreasonable.

Wanli thought for a moment, then patiently explained, "This tactic can actually be used in countries outside of Southeast Asia as well."

However, doing this to countries that are not subordinate to us is a bit domineering and will provoke resistance from them.

Our goal is to get them to use our currency, not to make enemies of them. If we make enemies, they will never use our currency.

Therefore, for countries that are not subordinate to us, we can try other methods first.

For example, controlling gold and silver.

They want to buy our goods, so we'll accept real gold and silver, nothing else. We'll take all the real gold and silver and stamp it into gold, silver, and copper coins.

In this way, their real gold and silver will decrease, while our gold, silver, and copper coins will increase.

When their gold and silver are insufficient to purchase our goods, they will consider using our gold, silver, and copper coins.

Uh, I didn't understand that.

Xiao Zhu Changxun asked, somewhat puzzled, "Father, this doesn't seem right."
Their gold and silver aren't even enough to buy our goods, so where will they get the gold and silver to exchange for our currency?

That's right.

Emperor Wanli patiently explained, "We are doing this to force them to use the currency of our Great Ming Dynasty."

Think about it, they're used to our products, but they don't have enough money to buy more, and we don't accept barter. So what do we do?

When the time comes, if we use Ming Dynasty currency to buy their goods, they will have to accept it. If they accept our currency and sell goods to us, isn't that the same as using our currency?

This seems to make sense.

However, there are still problems.

Xiao Zhu Changxun asked with some curiosity, "Father, do we still need to buy things from them? What doesn't the Ming Dynasty have?"

You can't think of it that way.

Emperor Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently explained, "There are many things that the Ming Dynasty doesn't have."

For example, spices, pepper, sandalwood, and various giant timbers used for shipbuilding, which are special products of Southeast Asia.

There are other things that we in the Ming Dynasty have, but it's cheaper to buy them from others.

For example, cotton was very cheap in the Mughal Empire.

If they really don't have anything that our Great Ming Dynasty wants to buy, we can have them make it for us.

For example, the amount of sleepers needed for railway construction is enormous. We can choose not to manufacture them ourselves and buy them from others. If that's not possible, then we can have them sell their labor.

For example, we are currently short of people to farm, so we can simply pay them to hire able-bodied young men to farm.

In short, as long as the Ming Dynasty's currency circulates throughout the land, we can buy many things with money.

Oh, come to think of it, there are quite a lot you can buy with this money.

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun slowly nodded, and then asked, "Father, how do we exchange gold, silver and copper coins for real gold and silver?"

We charge a processing fee of 0.5% or even 10%, so we can recoup all the money spent on processing gold, silver, and copper coins, and even make a considerable profit, right?

what are you thinking?

Is this what you call making money?

Wanli shook his head slightly and said, "No, we will exchange them in equal measure. We will give them the same amount of gold and silver as they bring in exchange."

They can have copper coins, we'll exchange them for copper at the price they pay. The point is, we can't let them feel cheated.

what?
Xiao Zhu Changxun looked puzzled and said, "Father, they haven't lost out, but we have."

"If we process millions of gold, silver, and copper coins a day, who knows how many machines we'd need to build, how many workshops we'd need to construct, how many molds we'd need to carve, and then there are the labor costs too! Wouldn't we be losing money hand over fist?"

You don't understand.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then explained in detail: "This is actually just the beginning."

We still use real gold, silver, and copper to mint currency. To put it bluntly, this currency itself is valuable, and many countries use real gold and silver to buy things from us.

Moreover, we have broken it down into smaller units, making it more convenient to use. There will not be much resistance to the implementation of such a currency.

At least, no country will fight us to the death for this, since it's an equal exchange and they won't suffer any loss on the surface.

However, once all countries have gotten used to using our gold, silver, and copper coins, we will make a fortune.

There's a saying that goes, "Habit becomes second nature." Once they get used to it, they'll accept any currency from the Ming Dynasty.

We can then use the excuse that gold, silver, and copper coins are too heavy to issue paper money similar to banknotes.

Once everyone gets used to using paper money, it's as if we'll have an inexhaustible supply of money.

what?
Will anyone accept paper money?

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun exclaimed in surprise, "Father, that's unlikely, isn't it?"
Your Majesty, I remember when you were correcting the wrongful convictions and embezzlement, there was something called the Great Ming Treasure Note. Wasn't that just paper money? But after a while, it became worthless.

Who would dare use paper money now? Even if we printed it, nobody would want it, right?

The Ming Dynasty's "Treasured Notes" actually squandered a winning hand.

Emperor Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently explained: "There were actually problems when the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes were introduced. The biggest problem was that the Ming Dynasty Treasure Notes could not be exchanged for real copper coins."

Since paper money cannot be exchanged for an equivalent amount of copper coins, it naturally becomes worthless paper. It's clearly just paper and has no value whatsoever.

When we introduce paper money, it must be exchanged at the same value. That is, the amount of gold, silver, and copper coins that are marked on the paper money can be exchanged for the same amount of gold, silver, and copper coins.

This way, people won't treat our banknotes as worthless paper, because our banknotes are real money and can be exchanged for gold, silver, and copper coins.

what?
Isn't this completely unnecessary?

Xiao Zhu Changxun still looked puzzled and said, "Father, since the paper money we issue can be exchanged for gold, silver and copper coins, others will definitely exchange it too."

"Won't the paper money just come back to us then? Wouldn't we have wasted our time and resources?"

You still don't understand.

Wanli shook his head slightly, then patiently explained, "Didn't your father just tell you that habits become second nature?"

If we can guarantee from the beginning that all paper money can be exchanged for gold, silver, and copper coins, then people will use paper money.

The biggest advantage of paper money is its convenience; after all, even the lightest gold, silver, and copper coins weigh about one tael (approximately 50 grams) per ten.

Think about it, if it's a big deal, a ship full of goods could be worth hundreds of thousands of taels of silver, or even in gold coins, it would weigh hundreds or thousands of kilograms.

It's so heavy, who could carry it?
Paper money is different; a banknote worth tens of thousands of taels can be easily picked up with one hand.

Even if it's not worth tens of thousands of taels, just a few taels of copper coins would still weigh several kilograms, and it would be very uncomfortable to put in your pocket.

If it were paper money, it would be a thin wad of cash, so thin you wouldn't even feel it when carrying it around.

In this situation, most people would carry paper money, since they can always exchange it for gold, silver, or copper coins if they're worried about it. Why wouldn't they carry paper money?

Everyone is used to carrying paper money, and paper money can always be exchanged for gold, silver, and copper coins, so it has never depreciated in value. That's fine.

This way, fewer and fewer people will use paper money to exchange for gold, silver, and copper coins, and we can print more and more paper money.

Imagine if we had gold, silver, and copper coins worth a billion taels, we could print paper money worth a billion taels.

"If others want to exchange for gold, silver, or copper coins, that's no problem at all. But wouldn't we suddenly have an extra billion taels?"

That's incredibly profitable!

Upon hearing this, Xiao Zhu Changxun nodded repeatedly and said, "Your subject understands."

Hopefully you understand.

This is a long process, and it cannot be accomplished in one or two years, or even one or two decades.

(End of this chapter)