Chapter 254

Jiajing took a deep breath and said with a sigh.

"First, this is an attitude."

"As long as the court still offers the service of exchanging Baochao for cash, it proves the court will not recklessly issue Baochao."

"Therefore, this move is undoubtedly placing a ballast stone for the people of Great Ming!"

"Second, as long as Baochao can still be exchanged for cash, the people who already hold Baochao, even if they do not come to exchange it, will keep their Baochao safe; in this way, the exchange rate of Baochao will likewise rise."

"Wonderful, truly wonderful."

"Great-Grandfather, this person Su Qiao deeply understands the principle that blocking is inferior to channeling; it is very good."

Zhu Yuanzhang continued to stare at Su Qiao, burning with anger.

Gritting his teeth, he looked at Su Qiao inside the Usage Warehouse and asked.

"Su Qiao, do you know what crime you have committed?"

Su Qiao stuck out his neck and answered.

"Reporting to Your Majesty, I do not know!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at Su Qiao fiercely and asked.

"Then do you know what Old Zhu intends to do with the gold?!"

What Jiajing could see, Old Zhu could naturally see as well.

When he saw those people disperse just now.

Zhu Yuanzhang saw the little calculations in Su Qiao's heart.

But Zhu Yuanzhang was still furious.

Because these silver taels were reserved by Zhu Yuanzhang for those descendants of his whom he had never met.

Su Qiao wore an expression of lofty righteousness.

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang, he suddenly said.

"Replying to Your Majesty, I do not know; what does Your Majesty intend to do with the gold?"

"But I know that these Baochao worth one thousand taels of Huang Jin are far more valuable than one thousand taels of Huang Jin!"

As soon as Su Qiao finished speaking.

Zhu Yuanzhang, who had been burning with anger, could not help but be stunned.

Four thousand guan, far greater than one thousand taels...?

148, Great Ming Baochao, a program running on a bug!

Inside the Usage Warehouse of the Chengtian Sect Baochao Bureau.

Zhu Yuanzhang looked at Su Qiao with a gloomy face and asked.

"You have treated our Great Ming's Baochao as a trade?"

Su Qiao nodded slightly.

"More or less, you could say so."

"You!"

Zhu Yuanzhang stared at Su Qiao with eyes about to split from rage.

All the officials of the Baochao Bureau trembled as they stared at Su Qiao.

Before that great fire at the Baochao Bureau.

The Baochao in Zhu Yuanzhang's hands had already depreciated to two-thirds of their face value.

And now the price of these Baochao has not only recovered.

It even vaguely shows a trend of breaking through the price set by the Paper currency law.

The children of our Zhu family who died in battle in Liaodong.

Was it not for this very day?

Jiajing, looking at the Baochao before Su Qiao in the chat group, could not help but take a deep breath and suddenly say.

"Emperor Taizu, it seems we Great Ming were wrong before."

"And wrong in the extreme."

All the Emperors could not help but focus their gaze on Jiajing's face.

"Baochao is not money."

"Or to put it bluntly, in this world, there has never been money."

"All money is merely goods."

"Copper coins are goods, gold and silver are likewise goods."

"As long as it is goods, if it is excessive it becomes cheap, if it is scarce it becomes precious; that is all."

Zhu Di said casually.

"Just 'precious because scarce'?"

Jiajing slowly stood up, lifted a bowl of tea, and said.

"No."

"Besides 'precious because scarce', we must also know what Baochao is selling."

"Our Great Ming, from beginning to end, should not have treated it as an ancestral law."

Zhu Di looked at Jiajing in confusion and asked.

"Then what should it be treated as?"

Jiajing squinted his eyes and smiled.

"Baochao should be treated as a trade."

"If we say the court is a blacksmith's shop, then this Paper Currency is the ironware we sell from our shop."

"And our Great Ming blacksmith's shop has only two competitors: one is gold, the other is silver."

As soon as Jiajing finished speaking.

Zhu Yuanzhang's eyes suddenly brightened.

Before this.

Old Zhu had always regarded himself as a Son of Heaven whose words became law.

He had treated all things under heaven as matters he could decide with a single word.

But there are far too many things in this world that a Son of Heaven cannot decide.

A Son of Heaven cannot decide the sun's rising in the east and setting in the west, nor can he decide the moon's waxing and waning.

He cannot even decide whether his ministers are loyal or not.

Jiajing's voice still echoed within the chat group.

"Gold and silver are natural products, beyond human capability; therefore, gold and silver are valuable no matter what."

"This is the strength of gold and silver, a strength our Great Ming's Paper Currency can never surpass."

"Attacking an enemy's strength with one's own weakness is a grave taboo in military strategy."

"If our Great Ming's Paper Currency is to truly take root and expand this trade from the hands of gold and silver, we must still find the strength of the Paper Currency."

"That is, to know why the Paper Currency is valuable."

Hearing this.

The emperors in the chat group were instantly stunned.

Why is the Paper Currency valuable?

Zhu Di said casually.

"Because of the Paper Currency law?"

Jiajing nodded slightly.

"The Paper Currency law is one factor, but not the only one."

"The Paper Currency is portable, safe, and backed by the Paper Currency law; this is the foundation of our Great Ming's Paper Currency, something gold and silver do not possess."

Zhu Di looked at Jiajing with a solemn expression and said.

"To put it plainly, your words mean that the Great Ming's Paper Currency Exchange Office must guarantee the ability to redeem actual silver and actual cash?"

"Then what is the point of our Great Ming issuing Paper Currency?"

This is actually the ultimate root cause why the Great Ming's Paper Currency, and indeed paper money from all dynasties in the Central Plains, ultimately ended in inflation.

Whether it was the Jiaozi, the Zhengtong Notes of the early Yuan, or the Great Ming's Paper Currency.