Chapter 871: Economic Talent

Yu resumed the conversation, then picked up a sample of the vouchers: "Everyone, we are now discussing the implementation of the Planned Economy. Because the Planned Economy was already investigated and inquired about among the common people and at the grassroots level at the very beginning of its design and conception, and since so much time has passed, the news should have spread by now."

So even if they do not understand the general details, they should have gained some basic understanding of what this Planned Economy is for. Plus, this was prepared in accordance with everyone's wishes, so there shouldn't be too much difficulty in implementing it.

The most important thing to pay attention to is that when pushing it down to the lower levels, every detail must be explained clearly. This will require the efforts of your grassroots officials.

The Ministry of Revenue is the top priority and is in charge of this matter, but because the Ministry of Revenue is undergoing reform, the work pressure during implementation will be quite high. We plan to fully implement it this Winter, then run a trial to identify any problems and correct them immediately.

We cannot let this matter delay next year's work schedule, so our proposal is that officials from all departments, as well as their families, should lead by example. We will prioritize the implementation and experience for you first; start with yourselves, try it out, and then from you, spread it to the people at lower levels, and communicate and disseminate it among other family members and friends, telling them how to use it correctly."

Yu shook the vouchers in his hand: "The issuance standards and ratios for these vouchers have already been explained to you. Now all the vouchers have been printed successfully and are stored in the warehouse. Later, they will be handed over to the Ministry of Revenue for distribution and exchange."

Considering the staffing issues of the Ministry of Revenue, personnel will be drawn from the Ministry of Rites and the Ministry of War to ensure the smooth progress of the exchange work.

At the same time, during the exchange process, the Ministry of Revenue must ensure the accuracy of the scales; the measuring scoops must be recalibrated to ensure precision. If necessary, you may concede some profit to the people; you must not be overly harsh, but you are absolutely forbidden from using this to seek personal gain."

Yulong immediately stated his position: "No problem, the Ministry of Revenue will strictly supervise and investigate to ensure the smooth progress of the exchange work."

"Good, you can take a look at these vouchers to ensure you are familiar with them and can distinguish between each one. If, during the exchange work, you discover a situation where someone is trying to exchange goods with the wrong voucher, it is strictly prohibited."

Next is the matter related to the vouchers, which has already been added to the laws. The Ministry of Justice should familiarize itself with it as soon as possible.

First, for lost vouchers, no replacements will be issued; lost is lost. Second, for damaged ones, the quantity that can be exchanged will be determined according to the size of the damage. If half is damaged, only half the goods can be exchanged; if one-third is damaged, one-third can be exchanged. Anything less than one-quarter remaining will be treated as waste and will not be exchanged.

Deliberate damage or smearing on them is illegal. Destroyed ones will be collected and uniformly destroyed and reissued. For those who deliberately destroy them, they will be punished; the Ministry of Justice should look at the relevant details for this.

The last point, and also the most important one, is that private reselling of vouchers is prohibited, even for Grain Coupons. This is to protect the interests of the lower and middle-class people. Once discovered, no matter how high your rank or how noble your title, you will be severely punished without mercy. This is sabotaging our Planned Economy Policy.

Those who need to trade or buy and sell vouchers can only do so at the fixed voucher exchange centers set up by the government. Trade at face value: buy in with the same amount of grain as you sell out. Of course, this is for Grain Coupons; other vouchers will have their prices re-evaluated based on the current value of grain."

Most people could not understand this last sentence at all, but people like Yu and Yulong understood it very clearly. After all, they had been dealing with various materials and numbers for a long time, so they immediately knew what it was about.

A certain number of catties of grain is just that; its value as grain remains constant, because the number of people a catty of grain could feed in the past will remain the same no matter how many years pass.

However, it is different when exchanging with other materials. If grain production is high and there is a bumper harvest, and every household has more grain than they know what to do with, then more grain will have to be spent when exchanging for other materials. If trading for cloth, and if there is a bumper harvest of grain that year but the hemp for weaving cloth has a reduced yield, then more grain will be needed to exchange for cloth.

Such a situation only exists within Huaxia. When trading with other tribes, the gap is not so obvious, because grain is always valuable; they won't collect more of our tribe's grain just because your tribe's cloth production has decreased.

Naturally, business opportunities arise from this. If you hoard grain, the grain will appreciate in value in a year of reduced production. However, storing grain for a year also involves significant loss—either stolen by mice or insects, or soaked by rain, becoming moldy or sprouting—so the risk is relatively high.

But if you notice that grain production might decrease based on the weather conditions that year, you can hoard more Grain Coupons, because Grain Coupons will become more valuable and can be exchanged for more materials. If you discover that cloth production might decrease, then hoard more Cloth Coupons. Once the cloth production actually decreases, the amount of grain one Cloth Coupon can be exchanged for will be greater. In this, you have merely consumed the time spent waiting for the result, but the Cloth Coupons you exchanged with the same amount of grain can be exchanged for more grain once that time arrives.

This is a form of speculation that will inevitably appear and cannot be prohibited. What can be done is to guide it within a reasonable range.

Those who can understand the profits this matter can bring now are disdainful of doing such things, because the scale of Huaxia is still too small. You might work yourself to the bone doing it once, only to find that the grain you exchanged back is less than the grain that spoiled in your own warehouse in a year.

It remains to be seen if such a clever person will appear among those who are not as wealthy. If one really does emerge, Baifeng will certainly recruit and reuse them, because such a person has a quick mind and is sufficiently intelligent. If they were to work in the Ministry of Revenue, they would be extremely capable.

In reality, the current Ministry of Revenue of Huaxia is more like an accounting and cashier department managing wealth for Baifeng. Its ability is very mediocre, and its ability to formulate and execute economic policies is far too poor. As long as one can do arithmetic and read, they can work in the Ministry of Revenue.

To this day, Baifeng has not been able to find a truly suitable person to control and manage the Ministry of Revenue. In any case, the future Ministry of Revenue certainly cannot be like it is now.