Chapter 255

It was never born as paper money for merchants to facilitate trade.

It was born for another reason.

—A shortage of copper and silver!

Although the earliest paper money was born on this land, this paper money is actually more like a program running on a bug.

It was originally created precisely because of the shortage of copper and silver.

If one could prepare sufficient copper and silver,

then why print paper money at all?

Why not just use copper coins directly?!

Printing Baochao would be nothing but peeling one's pants to fart!

Hearing Zhu Di's question,

Jiajing said with deep meaning,

"Reporting to Emperor Taizong, this is where Su Qiao's brilliance lies."

Upon hearing this, Zhu Di was momentarily stunned.

Jiajing suddenly said,

"Does guaranteeing the ability to exchange for silver and coins mean one must prepare sufficient silver and copper?"

Hearing this,

Zhu Yuanzhang immediately came to his senses.

Who said that guaranteeing the ability to exchange for coins means one must prepare coins for every single Baochao note?

It is enough if the common people believe the court has sufficient coins!

This extra part that appears out of thin air in between

is the "real gold and silver" that the court can take out and use whenever it wants!

Jiajing looked at Zhu Yuanzhang and said leisurely,

"As long as the power of our Great Ming grows stronger, the coins we need to prepare become fewer!"

"And the paper that creates something from nothing, turning stone into gold, will become more!"

Hearing this,

Zhu Di looked at Jiajing with a shocked expression and asked,

"Are you saying that this young man Su Qiao anticipated all of these things?"

Jiajing shook his head and sighed,

"Perhaps Lord Su did not anticipate it, but the final result of these absurd things he did is only this one."

"Does it still matter whether he anticipated it or not?"

Hearing this, the anger on Zhu Yuanzhang's face finally gradually dissipated.

"Good!"

"Return to the palace!"

Having said this, Zhu Yuanzhang strode away.

The officials of the Baochao Bureau did not understand.

What they saw was that Lord Su had scattered the Baochao originally meant for the Son of Heaven among the common people.

The Son of Heaven was so angry his face turned green.

In the end, the anger disappeared inexplicably!

Lord Su must absolutely have leverage over the Son of Heaven!

Looking at the Su Qiao before them again,

these officials of the Baochao Bureau were just one step away from kowtowing to Su Qiao!

Su Qiao did not notice at all.

His image in the hearts of these subordinates had already become infinitely close to that of Old Zhu!

"Lord, Lord Su, what do we do next?"

Looking at Zhu Yuanzhang's back, Su Qiao took a deep breath and suddenly said,

"Don't ask me."

"Did Your Majesty give our Viceroy Yamen any other tasks?"

The Deputy Commissioner beside him looked at Su Qiao and smiled,

"Yes, the time is about right; we should prepare to exchange old notes for new ones."

Hearing the two words "exchange notes,"

Su Qiao's eyes immediately narrowed.

Later generations mostly believe that the depreciation of Great Ming Baochao was due to Zhu Yuanzhang's excessive issuance of currency.

That is not the case.

Although Old Zhu did not know the principle behind it, he never gave up trying to save the Great Ming Baochao.

Naturally, it was also impossible for him to recklessly over-issue currency forever.

At most, when rewarding the three armies, if he lacked sufficient silver and coins, he would print some Baochao to handle the emergency.

The largest single amount was five million guan given to Zhu Di when he utterly defeated Nair Bu Hua.

And the other fatal flaw of the Great Ming Baochao

is actually the note exchange law.

Because no matter how good the paper used for paper money is, it is still paper.

As long as it's paper,

it will rot and decay.

And so the Paper currency law came into being.

As the name suggests, the Paper currency law was a service provided by the court to exchange old notes for new ones.

For every banknote exchanged for a new one, a handling fee of ten wen had to be paid.

In fact, it wasn't the Paper currency law that was wrong.

Rather, the Paper currency law simply could not solve the problem of banknotes rotting, and instead accelerated the depreciation of old notes.

Originally, old notes were already worth less than new ones.

Now along came the Paper currency law.

This was undoubtedly the government leading the way in trampling on the old notes.

The inevitable final result was that only old notes circulated on the market, while the newer the banknote, the more people treasured it.

Thereby accelerating the overall depreciation of Great Ming banknotes.

Hearing this, Su Qiao waved his hand grandly and immediately ordered,

"Tell him to get lost — we're done exchanging!"

Hearing this,

every official in the entire Banknote Bureau was dumbfounded.

Ever since Su Qiao took office,

first he burned the warehouse storing the banknotes.

Then he scattered all the gold and silver painstakingly exchanged from the common folk to the people.

And now he'd stopped this exchange business altogether.

So what was the Banknote Bureau even supposed to do?!

The Deputy Commissioner gazed at Su Qiao with a sycophantic face and asked,

"But, my lord, our Zanmenya Sect has to do something, doesn't it...?"

Hearing this,

Su Qiao's brow could not help but furrow.

"Do something?"

Gazing at the banknotes piled on the counter in the distance,

a smile could not help but surface on Su Qiao's face.

"There's plenty we can do right now."

Su Qiao gazed at a stack of banknotes on the counter and sighed,