Chapter 394: Paper Money

"Chancellor Wang, you have come to see me, is there good news to report to me?"

While brainstorming in his heart, Zhang Jie teased Wang Lun with a smile.

"Your Majesty, I have indeed come to report good news to you."

A smile also appeared on Wang Lun's face, and he replied leisurely.

"Oh?"

Zhang Jie also became interested in his heart:

"I don't know what kind of good news requires you, the Left Chancellor, to make a trip?"

"It concerns the national economy and people's livelihood of millions of Great Gan people, my weight is still light.

Under the heavens, only Your Majesty can bear this burden."

Wang Lun's expression was solemn, and his tone was serious.

"No wonder he can become the Left Chancellor of the Secretariat."

Seeing Wang Lun's serious flattery, Li Dequan couldn't help but slander in his heart.

"Please Your Majesty, take a look."

Wang Lun, who didn't know Li Dequan was slandering him, solemnly took out a memorial from his sleeve.

"Present it."

Seeing that Wang Lun said it so seriously, Zhang Jie didn't dare to be slow.

Li Dequan walked a few steps to Wang Lun, took the memorial, and then walked quickly to the imperial desk,

respectfully presenting the memorial to Zhang Jie with both hands.

"Oh, so this is what you were talking about, Chancellor Wang."

Zhang Jie, who opened the memorial, found that there was not a single word on it

—Wang Lun, the Left Chancellor of Great Gan, had actually presented a blank memorial to Zhang Jie!

However, Zhang Jie had no intention of pursuing this matter,

his gaze was completely attracted by the few pieces of paper tucked into the memorial:

These few pieces of paper were colorful, and each was of a different size,

with Arabic numerals and Chinese characters 1, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 printed on them.

The only thing in common was that the front of these pieces of paper all had a portrait of a young emperor wearing a flat crown, eyes looking straight ahead,

gaze profound, and heroic—who else could it be but Zhang Jie wearing imperial robes?

These pieces of paper were clearly banknotes of different denominations!

After issuing precious metal coins of different denominations in gold, silver, and copper,

Zhang Jie and the Great Gan imperial court still couldn't resist the temptation of paper money and began to manufacture paper money belonging to their Great Gan.

After all, compared to precious metal coins that require real gold and silver, paper money only needs cheap materials such as wood pulp,

cotton wool, etc., to manufacture, and the seigniorage collected is simply exciting to think about.

And compared to the limited number of precious metal coins, paper money can be printed almost however you want, as much as you want.

Why was the 21st-century Eagle, the former lighthouse of the earth, already hollowed out in industry,

and even couldn't gather the supporting industrial workers and production lines,

yet still able to stand for many years, tottering but never falling?

Wasn't it because it had previously established the Dollar system with hegemony,

and could use the Dollar to sell almost all products to the earth.

Letting the Federal Reserve just start the nuclear-powered printing press and print Dollars crazily,

could make all the people in other countries around the world work for them.

In 1865, during the Victorian era, at the peak of the British Empire,

the true British Prime Minister Palmerston left such a dying wish before he died:

The vast plains of North America and Russia are our granaries,

Chicago and Odessa are our mining areas, Canada and the Nordic Peninsula grow trees for us,

Australia is responsible for herding sheep, Argentina raises cattle, Peru provides silver, South Africa contributes gold,

India and China grow tea for us, the Mediterranean becomes our orchard,

and our cotton plantations are expanding from the southern United States to all warm regions around the world;

this is a true portrayal of America crazily harvesting global leeks with Dollars that are actually just a stack of waste paper.

Zhang Jie will not comment on America's other policies, but their policy of "using the energy of ten thousand nations

to support the people of one nation" made Zhang Jie feel it was very worth learning.

The Way of Heaven is to reduce the surplus and supplement the deficiency; the Way of Man is to reduce the deficiency to serve the surplus.

The total amount of resources is just so much, if you don't transfer some from others, how can you let the people under your rule live a good life?

Looking at these banknotes, Zhang Jie's mind immediately rang with the dialogue in *Project Gutenberg*:

"I'll handle the intaglio printing machine, who will handle the moiré?

Printing will produce moiré, the only way is to find a painting master to draw it one-to-one!

I've handled the color-changing ink, who will handle the acid-free paper?

That bag you use for documents is acid-free paper.

Acid-free paper is handled, who will handle Zhang Jingchu?"

"Of course it's me, could it be you?"

Zhang Jie indicated that it was not that he was lustful, but that for this kind of thing,

it was better for him, who was more pleasing to the eye in both appearance and charm after sharing, to do it, and the success rate would be higher.

He was contributing himself for everyone's fortune-making cause; his sacrifice was truly too great.

"This is indeed a major event concerning the national economy and people's livelihood of millions of Great Gan people."

Zhang Jie stroked the banknotes and said faintly.

Money, especially this kind of money that is prepared to circulate in the world, from him, the emperor,

down to every commoner, who doesn't have to deal with it?

If it has any problems after circulation, it is a major event that shakes the foundation of the country, and one cannot be too careful.

"How is the anti-counterfeiting mark of this thing done? Is there a possibility of imitation by the people?"

Zhang Jie urgently asked the question he was most concerned about.

He didn't want to just put paper money into the market,

and then have a bunch of fake money that is hard to distinguish from real money appear to disturb the market and strike the people's confidence.

"Your Majesty, please rest assured."

Wang Lun smiled confidently and replied with a chest full of plans:

"The raw materials used for our Great Gan's paper money are special materials, only available in specific places.

Its production and transportation have been completely controlled by us, ensuring that not a single bit will leak out.

And these banknotes use the latest technology researched by the Science and Technology Research Institute,

ensuring that no master capable of cracking this technology will appear among the people within ten years."

Wang Lun didn't say what to do if a master cracked it after ten years: with the support of the power of the Great Gan nation,

the research of the institute cannot stand still for ten years, and it will inevitably research new anti-counterfeiting technology.

At that time, just print new banknotes to replace the old ones.

"That is good."

Zhang Jie nodded after getting a satisfactory answer.

Although he could get a complete set of modern banknote data from the Consumption Zhang Jie,

ensuring that no one could crack it within fifty years and create fake money that is hard to distinguish from real money,

but for one thing, this is too much of a rush to help the seedlings grow, which will destroy the innovation of the scientific researchers in the Water Margin world;

for another, with Great Gan's current level of technology, even if they wanted to copy it, they wouldn't be able to!

How could a technological gap of hundreds of years be made up in a few years?

The few banknotes in his hands now only use a few of the simplest anti-counterfeiting processes. ===== CHAPTER 395 =====