Volume 4 is in the ascendant Chapter 463: One Baht
There were repeated examples of people awakening their own unique strategic skills during the first imperial examination, which made Bai Tu understand that this was by no means a coincidence, but that being on the list of the imperial examination really had some kind of guiding effect on awakening strategic skills!
It's not surprising - the awakening of strategic tactics is influenced by two aspects: one's own talents and the official position one holds.
Since "official position" has an impact on strategy, it is not surprising that the imperial examination, which has a sense of ritual, will have a similar effect...
For this purpose, Bai Tu specially discussed this matter with Yu Ji, Chu Ji and other important city girls and Yi Ji.
Yu Ji suggested to Bai Tu that he could create a stronger sense of "ritual" during the next imperial examination, which might have a stronger guiding effect. Maybe the top three scholars at that time would be able to awaken corresponding exclusive strategies on the spot!
In this way, the strength of the Chu State can be enhanced and the attractiveness of the imperial examination can be increased.
After Liu Ye obtained the sea shipping trade permission from the Ministry of Rites, he began to negotiate prices with the Ministry of Revenue while waiting for a reply from the State of Wei.
Liu Ye, who had dealt with the State of Chu more than once or twice, was already familiar with the process and understood the routines.
For example, when negotiating with the Ministry of Rites, the discussion was more about the nature of the permission such as "allowing certain goods to be traded", while when negotiating with the Ministry of Revenue, it was a pure dispute over "interests"!
As long as the price is high enough, you can definitely buy it...
However, this time it was a little different, because the chief clerk of the Ministry of Revenue was present during the previous discussions with the Ministry of Rites, so the transaction license itself stipulated that Wei could buy at least one of the main ships of the Chu Navy in service for "30 million coins".
Thirty million coins do not refer to Han Wuzhu coins, but Chu coins...
In fact, in the past six months, many princes have discovered that the State of Chu is vigorously promoting currency transactions, and this currency is none other than "Chu currency".
For a long time, because the commodity economy of the Later Han Dynasty was in decline and whenever there was troubled times, the princes would routinely privately mint inferior coins , so "barter" was the mainstream of major transactions.
At this time, there was no collateral for coinage. The metal used for coinage, that is, "copper", was used as a guarantee for the value of the currency.
However, in history, during the Three Kingdoms period, Wei, Shu, and Wu competed in minting coins, and they often minted "hundred-dollar coins" and "ten thousand-dollar coins" - that is, they directly cast the words "hundred", "thousand", and "ten thousand" on the copper coins, stipulating that this coin could be used as tens of thousands of coins...
Of course, it is useless to impose regulations. In fact, when it comes to the public, the value of these hundreds of millions of dollars will drop sharply, leaving behind a ruined currency trading system.
However, if the commodity economy is to truly recover, the monetary system must be re-established, so Bai Tu began to mint Chu coins, and gradually only recognized Chu coins in transactions!
How did other princes obtain Chu coins?
Naturally, the Chu State also clearly marked the prices of various horses, minerals, etc., and collected them in Chu currency.
In addition, there is a constant purchase price of 100 coins per stone for rice, wheat and other grains - the Chu State's grain storage mainly relies on official and semi-official large farms, and purchases from the private sector are only to prevent grain prices from falling sharply. For example, this year, due to the increase in grain prices, the court did not purchase too much extra grain.
The Chu coins have been verified by all the princes. They are also copper coins, and they are copper coins of very high purity. In terms of weight, although it is less than a five-zhu coin, it is more than four zhu... It can be called a conscientious coin.
Of course, the Chu State’s external statement was that one coin of Chu currency was “one baht coin”.
In history, after the chaos of coins among the princes, the "Wuzhu coin" was once considered a symbol of orthodoxy - that is, the minted coins were as heavy as "Wuzhu" - "zhu" was also a unit of weight.
Those who are willing to mint Wuzhu coins will be regarded as responsible forces.
According to the Han system, sixteen liang is one jin, and twenty-four zhu is one liang...
One catty in the Han Dynasty was about half a catty in later times, and five zhu was a little more than 3 grams.
Bai Tu was fed up with these mixed systems that were full of ritual but actually anti-human, so he began to restandardize weights and measures since the establishment of the State of Chu.
There was not much change between the Chu jin and the Han jin, except that standard weights were recast in each county to make it more precise, equivalent to half a jin, or 250 grams, in later generations.
Later, ten liang was equal to one jin, and ten zhu was equal to one liang, that is, one plant was equivalent to 2.5 grams. At the same time, the smallest Chu coin was also based on the specification of one zhu, which was also a way to promote the concepts of "Chu zhu" and "decimal system" to the people.
They even specially minted a "big coin" that was worth ten, not to save copper, because the material of the big coin was also ten times that of the small coin...
As for anti-counterfeiting...it mainly relies on adding trace amounts of other metals during the casting process, and the cost of counterfeiting copper coins is very high in itself - it doesn't make much sense to use the same weight of copper to cast counterfeit Chu coins, after all, copper itself is a precious metal.
In addition, if counterfeit currency is discovered in the country, the person will be executed immediately, and if foreign counterfeit currency is discovered, the trading level of the princes will be directly downgraded. Therefore, there is no need to worry too much about the counterfeit currency problem.
In addition, the Chu State still recognized the mainstream one gold and ten thousand coins - one catty of gold could be used as ten thousand coins.
However, only real gold is recognized, not brass... In fact, the so-called "brass" in the Han Dynasty was called "gold" only when it was awarded, which sounded better. In addition, when copper coins were used as money, they were called "gold".
In fact, the ratio of one pound of gold to one hundred pounds of copper coins existed during the Qin Dynasty. This also refers to real gold. People in the Han Dynasty were able to distinguish between gold and brass...
However, the price of gold in the Han Dynasty was actually very low, and it could only be exchanged for copper coins that were a hundred times heavier.
In addition, the Chu State also recognized the not very mainstream "three silvers for one gold", which was the mainstream exchange ratio that lasted for a long time during the Western Han Dynasty. Three pounds of silver could be exchanged for one pound of gold.
It can be said that Baitu is paving the way for silver coin transactions - with the reserves of copper, as a trading metal, sooner or later there will be a time when it is not enough, but with Tanzhou, silver coins can be used with confidence!
After mining, the "Sanzhu silver coin" can be used as a straight hundred coins, and three taels of silver can be used as a unit of ten thousand coins.
As long as the silver mining channels in Danzhou are "locked", there is no need to worry about inflation - Danzhou's silver reserves can crush other silver mines for a long time.
As for paper money, Bai Tu planned to wait until silver coins became popular and then use "silver notes" as a transition, which he thought would be enough to last until a more reliable monetary system was established.
The other princes naturally noticed the Chu State's move to promote the "Chu currency", but their reactions varied.
The Han Dynasty nominally prohibited the circulation of Chu coins in the Central Plains, Guanzhong, and Xiliang. If it were not impossible, Liu Xie would even want to collect Chu coins and melt them into Han Wuzhu coins to demonstrate his authority... Unfortunately, he had no money.
I can only find someone to write an article to criticize the Chu State for changing the system from 16 liang to 24 zhu, and the violation of etiquette and the way of heaven, etc...
However, the so-called ban only meant that Chu currency would not circulate in the capital area. In fact, the Marquis of Yong, Marquis of Zhai, Marquis of Sai, and Marquis of Zheng would not specifically prohibit the circulation of Chu currency in their respective territories.
Only Liu Bei, Marquis of Qi, resolutely prohibited the circulation of Chu currency in Xuzhou and Qingzhou areas outside Donglai.
Donglai County was a major trading county because it had two ports of the Chu State. Therefore, to a certain extent, it could tolerate Chu currency as a circulating currency.
The State of Wei prohibited the circulation of Chu currency among the people, and turned a blind eye to the large-scale transactions of the aristocratic families. However, when dealing with the local aristocratic families, they would never use Chu currency. At the same time, they also wanted to promote Wei money. Unfortunately, the State of Wei did not have the foundation of Chu, and its own goods could not be exported everywhere. It was difficult to open up the situation with Wei money, so it could only promote circulation among the people of Wei.
Liu Zhang responded by "playing dead" and "not seeing".
As for Gongsun clan and Hanzhong Tianshi Dao, because of the previous agreement to buy Chu armor and repair Han Weir, Chu currency is used throughout the territory...
However, no matter what, as the currency of the Chu State, all the major princes basically had some understanding of its value, especially Liu Ye, the Grand Herald, who was able to weigh the significance of "30 million coins".
First of all, the State of Wei had no habit of hoarding Chu coins, nor could it exchange its own resources for Chu coins and pile them up in the warehouse. Therefore, to collect 30 million Chu coins, it would definitely have to exchange them for goods worth 30 million Chu coins.
Overall, that’s… a lot of money!
But compared to the value of the "newest" flagship, thirty million coins is completely acceptable.
Of course, the moment Liu Ye successfully negotiated, he realized that the State of Chu must have newer shipbuilding technology.
But now Liu Ye still foolishly believes that as long as he has the "sample" back and with Ma Jun's ability, he will be able to catch up with the progress of the Chu State.
However, when Liu Ye negotiated with the Ministry of Revenue, he finally understood what shamelessness meant...
The main ship is priced at 30 million coins?
That’s right, we in the Great Chu State are trustworthy. We said 30 million, and it’s 30 million, but... it’s a bundled sale. We must purchase five main ships and other supporting ships at one time, even including the second-generation ships launched three years ago!
The total price is 300 million.
When Liu Ye accused the Ministry of Revenue of breaking the contract, Bu Zhi said that the final right of interpretation belonged to the State of Chu and the price of 30 million per ship had not changed.
When Liu Ye angrily stated that he would refuse the Chu State's garrison at Tuyin Port, the Ministry of Revenue also reacted indifferently - that was the Ministry of Rites' business, don't expect us to give up the Ministry of Revenue's performance in order to cover the Ministry of Rites!
Liu Ye could feel that their attitude was largely true, which was also in line with the characteristics of the six tribes of Chu.
The reason why Bai Tu divided the foreign trade negotiations into two parts, the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of Revenue, was to maximize profits. If the competition between the two departments really affected the major affairs of the Chu State, the palace would step in.
The fact that the palace officials did not show up means that the Chu State and the King of Chu do not think this is a big deal...
At this time, Liu Ye also remembered what Bai Tu had said to him before, and understood that Chu was telling him that he knew Wei was imitating sea ships, so don't think of buying Chu's technology with the price of one ship!
In the end, Liu Ye returned to the chair of the Ministry of Revenue and gradually lowered the price to 260 million. And it was not a price reduction, but... the State of Chu agreed to sell fewer ships to Liu Ye, and the unit price actually increased.
But what Wei State wanted was a sample, so it just accepted it!
As for the transaction period, the State of Chu only said that the transaction would be within one year - because the main ship was still in Danzhou.
Liu Ye was not in a hurry. It would take more than a month or two to collect 260 million...
