The Great Song Dynasty: You were put in charge of teaching, and you produced a whole bunch of prime

Jiang Lin slumped in his chair, looked at Li Gefei kneeling on the ground trembling, and suddenly laughed.

He laughed so loudly that tears almost streamed down his face.

Zhao Lingjun, unable to bear it any longer, kicked Jiang Lin under the table.

"What's wrong with you? You've scared everyone." Zhao Lingjun complained in a low voice, then turned to Li Gefei and said gently, "Lord Li, get up quickly. Jiang Shanchang has had too much to drink and is talking nonsense. Don't take it to heart."

Li Gefei stood up tremblingly, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and didn't even dare to sit down.

Jiang Lin stopped laughing and waved his hand, "It's nothing, I was just testing your composure. Li Gefei, right? Sit down, let's have a good talk."

Li Gefei then sat down again, still somewhat doubtful.

"Just pretend you didn't hear any of the strange questions I asked you earlier." Jiang Lin resumed his languid yet authoritative demeanor. "Right now, I'm only interested in what's going on in your head. You just said that you gleaned these ideas from observing grain merchants doing business in Licheng?"

Li Gefei nodded: "Reporting to Headmaster, my family is poor and I can't afford many books. Besides reading a few classic texts, my favorite place to go is the market. I've noticed that many wealthy merchants don't actually transport goods; instead, they buy and sell contracts that describe the goods."

Jiang Lin nodded, signaling him to continue.

"I've been thinking, if merchants can use contracts to make money out of thin air, why can't the imperial court?" Li Gefei's thinking became clearer and clearer. "The imperial court has credibility and laws. As long as the imperial court acts as the dealer and sets the rules for buying and selling contracts, which grain merchant in the world would dare to disobey? In this way, the imperial court doesn't need to maintain so many ever-normal granaries, nor does it need to spend a lot of money to import grain from other places. As long as it controls these contracts, it can stabilize grain prices."

Jiang Lin thought to himself, "This person is an expert."

Isn't this the prototype of a national-level exchange? Backed by national credit, it issues commodity futures contracts to regulate the market.

How is this kid's brain structured?

"Li Gefei, do you know how many people's interests will be threatened if your method is actually implemented?" Jiang Lin deliberately put on a stern face to test him. "Those big grain merchants in Jiangnan all have powerful families in the imperial court as their backers. If you ask them to hand over their pricing power, they will devour you alive."

Li Gefei's face paled slightly, but he gritted his teeth, raised his head, and looked directly at Jiang Lin.

"Master, I know. But I also know that Master Jiang and Prefect Su's implementation of the practical civil service examination in Hangzhou is nothing short of uprooting those powerful families." Li Gefei's voice trembled slightly, but remained firm. "I am a poor scholar. If I were to take the poetry and prose exams of the past, I would never have made it in my life. It was Master who gave me this opportunity. My method is specifically designed to deal with those powerful grain merchants who hoard and speculate on grain!"

A hint of admiration flashed in Jiang Lin's eyes.

This young man is not only an economic genius, but also has a keen political sense. He saw the antagonism between the Jingshi Academy and the powerful families, so he didn't hesitate to offer his services.

"Good. You have guts." Jiang Lin picked up his teacup. "However, your theory has a fatal flaw."

Li Gefei was stunned: "A loophole? Please enlighten me, Headmaster."

Jiang Lin put down his teacup, leaned forward, and his eyes sharpened.

"You only see that contracts can lock in prices, but have you ever thought about what would happen if there were a once-in-a-century disaster and there was simply no food left on the market?" Jiang Lin asked coldly.

Li Gefei opened his mouth as if to say something, but was interrupted by Jiang Lin.

"Grain merchants have no grain on hand, so they'd rather pay you the penalty for breach of contract. Okay, the imperial court gets the penalty. But can money put food on the table? The people are starving and about to revolt. You're holding a pile of penalty money; where are you going to buy grain? Grain merchants from other regions know you're short of grain, and they'll definitely drive up spot prices like crazy. In that case, the money you have won't be enough to buy enough grain. That's a bank run!"

Cold sweat broke out on Li Gefei's forehead again.

He only considered the financial aspects of the operation, but did not take into account the issue of physical delivery in extreme circumstances.

"And another thing," Jiang Lin continued, pressing further, "You're letting the imperial court handle things, that's fine. But what if the officials in charge of managing these contracts are corrupt and collude with grain merchants to deliberately lower or raise contract prices? In that case, the imperial court won't be able to stabilize prices; instead, the officials and grain merchants will work together to empty the national treasury. That's called insider trading, do you understand?"

Li Gefei collapsed completely into his chair.

Although the words Jiang Lin used sounded new to him, he understood the logic behind them immediately. His proud and perfect plan was like a sieve riddled with holes in front of Jiang Lin, completely exposed and riddled with flaws.

"Headmaster...this junior...this junior was not thoughtful enough, please forgive me." Li Gefei lowered his head like a defeated rooster.

Jiang Lin saw that Li Gefei had been dealt a heavy blow and knew that the time was right.

Suppressing geniuses is a way to better win them over.

"However..." Jiang Lin leaned back in his chair, his tone softening, "You're already a genius for figuring out this 'futures'... oh no, this 'pre-sale contract' method on your own without anyone teaching you. I can fill in the gaps in your understanding."

Li Gefei suddenly raised his head, hope rekindling in his eyes: "Does the headmaster have a solution?"

Jiang Lin smiled.

"What does physical delivery rely on in extreme situations? It relies on strong logistics and backup warehousing. As long as we completely control the canal transport and salt trade channels, and build several super-large grain warehouses as base warehouses, we can cope with a run on the bank."

Jiang Lin paused, then continued, "As for official corruption and insider trading, that's even simpler. Instead of letting the government directly manage it, we'll establish an independent 'Great Song Grain Contract Trading Center.' All transactions will be open and transparent, with multi-party oversight. Anyone who dares to embezzle will have their claws chopped off by the Imperial City Guard."

Upon hearing the words "Imperial City Guard," Zhao Lingjun puffed out his chest in agreement.

Li Gefei was thrilled. Jiang Lin's few words not only completed his plan, but also pushed it to a grander scale that he never dared to imagine.

He stood up, walked to Jiang Lin, and bowed deeply.

"Your Excellency possesses extraordinary talent, and I, a humble student, am utterly humbled in your presence. If Your Excellency does not despise me, I am willing to serve you with utmost loyalty!"

Jiang Lin nodded in satisfaction.

"Alright, enough with the formalities. Su Shi has already decided that your exam paper will be the top scorer in the provincial examination." Jiang Lin casually dropped a bombshell.

Li Gefei was struck dumb, frozen in place.

The top scholar in the provincial examination of Jiangnan?

How could a poor boy from Qizhou become the top scholar in the literary world of Jiangnan?

"Don't be too happy yet." Jiang Lin stood up and patted Li Gefei on the shoulder. "The title of Jieyuan is just a title. What I want you to do is a hundred times harder than passing the imperial examination. Starting tomorrow, you'll move into Jingshi Academy. Learn accounting from Qian Duoduo and hydrology from Shen Kuo. Once you've completely perfected this set of 'futures' rules, I'll send you to deal with those big grain merchants in Jiangnan. I'll make them spit out all the money they've taken from the people, with interest!"

Li Gefei's eyes were red, and he nodded heavily.

"I will certainly not fail you!"