Thousands of officials of all sizes gathered in the palace, and hundreds of officials above the fifth rank who can go to court to discuss matters. It is not a big deal to meet an acquaintance on the street. Zhao Bing stopped a loan of money and probably no one would refuse. Even if he didn't come forward, either Wang De and Ni Liang would not come back empty-handed. But he still couldn't hide his face and was not very good-looking. Isn't the emperor borrowing money like robbing? I guess no one dared to let him pay it back. More importantly, he was worried that someone would see through it and ruin his trip.

However, Zhuang Shilin is different. If Wang De is the chief manager and Ni Liang is the maid, then he is the accountant, who specializes in managing his money for himself. Yu Gong and his private hands are justified in asking for money. Besides, Zhuang Shilin is Zhao Bing's confidant, and he will understand what's going on. Even if he is responsible, he dares not "betray" himself. So he asked Su Lan to stop the sedan chair and bring him to him.

Since Su Lan has been living in the palace, outsiders know nothing about her, but everyone in the country knows that she is Your Majesty's personal maid and trusts her very much, and does not avoid her when discussing confidential matters. So when Zhuang Shilin saw Su Lan, he knew what was going on and knew that she could not leave the palace alone, so he immediately got out of the sedan chair and followed her to see Your Majesty.

"Has Lao Zhuang brought the money?" Zhao Bing asked without waiting for Zhuang Shilin to show his respect.

"Your Majesty..." The little emperor likes to secretly leave the palace and everyone knows that he is aware of it, but he opens his mouth and asks him for money, which still scares him.

"Don't call him Your Majesty, you are the young master. I forgot to bring the money when I left the palace today. I will borrow some from you and return it to you!" Zhao Bing pointed at a few people and said with a smile.

"Hey, my husband just opens his mouth with money, why be polite!" Zhuang Shilin understood now. His Majesty left in a hurry and forgot to get the money. He happened to stop him and rob him when he saw him!

"How much money do you have?" Zhao Bing looked up and down and asked.

"Young master, you probably have a dozen cents!" Zhuang Shilin touched in his sleeve.

"Gold or silver, isn't there any fragments?" Zhao Bing asked with a frown. The reason he asked this was because he realized that he had a wealth of money just like he traveled through time here. The amount of money can really kill people!

Since ancient times, China has mostly used mint coins, but since the Qin and Han Dynasties, ring coins have been created, and later customized to be round on the outside and square on the inside, which is the origin of "Brother Kong Fang". In the Han Dynasty, it was called Wuzhu coins because of its weight. By the Tang Dynasty, because the weight of Kaiyuan Tongbao was stable, it could be used as a balance code, and "money" became a unit of weight. Ten coins and one hundred and six hundred cents were a pound of weight. The standard for the coin was a thousand coins, with a weight of about six and three ounces, which was a lot of money. Therefore, the money was wrapped around a few scholars. In terms of the lifting weight, it was 60,000 pounds and wrapped around the body. Not to mention that it could not be entangled, it could not be moved even if it was entangled.

Modern people are even more outrageous. You may have watched the Kunqu opera "Fifteen Strong" and the thief Lou Ahshu tiptoed out of someone's house and acted in a state of ignorance, and was very happy. If you know how heavy the money is, "Lou Ahshu" really can't do these movements. The total weight of the money is about 100 kilograms, and you have to pack it in a big sack. Carry the 100 kilograms of stolen money out of the village and walk a few miles. Lou Ahshu can be selected as a special forces soldier even if he puts it in modern times.

Businessmen who trade long distances do not dare to transport money like this, they can only carry goods and sell goods. The money they earn can only be squandered at their destination or when they return to their hometown, and they can only bring some small money along the way. It is impossible to have a romantic and romantic life all the way. Therefore, the ancients had money, even if they were dozens of monies, were well known to passers-by. People were too familiar with the sound of copper coins colliding in their pockets and backpacks. If they had to be transported for more money, they would have to use a car. The sound of copper coins colliding along the way was equivalent to drinking "there is money here". This was simply a "traitor" who made the rich helpless.

Although the Song Dynasty later had quasi-bills such as Jiaozi, Huizi, and the current Zhongtong banknotes of the Yuan Dynasty, which were easy to carry. However, after Zhao Bing took office, he did not dare to try issuing paper money because he did not have gold and silver as a credit guarantee. Otherwise, it would be ugly to die, and the enemy's banknotes were not allowed to be circulated in Qiongzhou. Therefore, the currency system in Qiongzhou is very chaotic now, including copper coins and gold and silver. However, due to the official forced exchange ratio and sufficient supply of materials, the prices have been stable, and there was no confusion. However, inconvenience was certain, so Zhao Bing's question just now...

"Young Master, these are all in total, so use them first!" Zhuang Shilin took out a stack of paper from his sleeve and handed it over and said with a smile.

"Oh, why is it a salt ingot?" Zhao Bing took it with some confusion and looked it through it. However, as he said, these paper pieces should be salt tickets to be precise. According to the algorithm of the Song Dynasty, one salt ingot is one stone, and the weight is 116 kilograms, including one kilogram, five kilograms, and hundreds of kilograms, both big and small.

"Young Master, this salt can also be used as money in the market!" Zhuang Shilin explained with a smile on his face, "Young Master, the salt price per kilogram of salt in our Qiongzhou is fifty cents. Because it is an official price, it is very stable and very convenient to carry, so the people use it as paper money after exchange."

"So that's it!" Zhao Bing nodded, but felt that it was inappropriate and asked again, "This salt quotation can only be used as a certificate for obtaining salt, and our government does not repurchase it. How can merchants exchange salt quotations for gold and silver or make money?"

"Did the young master forget that the salt in Qiongzhou is several times lower than that in the mainland? After these merchants collect salt intake, they own vendors from other places charge them. Sometimes they can still make profits from it. Therefore, they are more willing to collect salt intake than gold and silver!" Zhuang Shilin whispered.

"Haha, no wonder when I bargained, those merchants had to ask if there were any red or blue tickets. It turned out that the mystery was here!" Zhao Bing immediately figured out what was going on.

After Zhao Bing decided to build a salt farm for funds, the prospect he described moved all the ministers, and the project was quickly promoted. After the first batch of 5,000 salt fields were put into production, the second phase of 10,000 mu of salt fields had been put into production, and now it has reached a scale of 50 million kilograms of sea salt per year. At first, as he expected, overproduction caused the price to plummet, and even the price of 20 cents could not be sold.

However, with the intervention of the Bureau of Affairs and the destruction of the coastal salt farm, Qiongzhou sea salt began to dump into the mainland at a price of 60 to 100 ci, and the merchants had the most sensitive sense of smell, and they quickly smelled business opportunities. The Yuan court continued to use troops everywhere and required a huge military expenditure, so they could only continuously increase the salt tax, so that the price of each salt (each 400 jin per Yuan system) quickly soared from the price of every seven taels per Yuan banknote in the second year to one ingot of every Yuan banknote, until the current two ingots.

A ingot of Zhiyuan Banknote can be exchanged for fifty guan coins, and the price of each salt is equivalent to a high price of 250 guan and a jin of salt. At present, each ingot of Zhiyuan Banknote can only be exchanged for about 40 guan in the market under the impact of counterfeit coins, but the price of jin of salt is still around 200 guan, which is still ten times that of Qiongzhou salt. The gross profit obtained by a 500 shi boat is more than 70,000 guan, which is a faster transaction than robbery.

In fact, Zhao Bing had already calculated that since the construction of the salt field was used to build the baggage army, the salt workers used were also prisoners, and these people did not have to pay wages, and the raw materials were sea water and sunlight, so the production cost per kilogram of salt was only equivalent to the loss of tools and the burden of the salt workers' food and clothing. Calculated kilogram of salt was only five cents, and selling it to twenty cents was a huge profit.

But everyone is jealous of such profits as private salt, including Xingchao, the literati who "see money as dirt" and the people who love the people as their children, so they discussed the price increase. Zhao Bing of course also hoped that it would be sold more expensively, but his original intention was not only to solve his financial difficulties, but also to use this to impact the salt administration of the Yuan court and destroy their economy. Of course, he was also a little selfish. After all, the Affairs Bureau participated in smuggling first, the channels were opened, the capital was the strongest, and the profit was the biggest. Everyone was so angry that they were so opposed to it. After all, Zhao Bing thought about it, he felt that he could not just act alone, after all, Xingchao was also money!

However, Zhao Bing opposed raising the salt price to synchronize with the Yuan court. He did some calculations for everyone. The population of the Yuan court now ruled by the Yuan court should be more than 50 million. According to the calculation of six kilograms of salt per person per year, it should be about 300 million kilograms. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the salt production was around 600 million kilograms, and the most important salt production area was the Lianghuai area, with the output being half of the country.

The main combat area of ​​the Battle of Song and Yuan dynasties was also in Lianghuai, resulting in the destruction of salt fields and the dispersion of salt workers, and it has not yet been restored to its original scale. The salt fields on the southeast coast were also destroyed by the Qiongzhou navy. However, Jiangbei was controlled by the Yuan court and salt production was restored. In this way, although there is a gap now, it is not big. Therefore, their competitiveness is mainly in price. If the salt price is raised too high and the profits of private salt dealers have dropped sharply, they will not risk losing their heads to Qiongzhou to sell salt. Then Qiongzhou's salt will still be in a sluggish sales and still cannot get the money, so a win-win price must be determined.

Therefore, under the leadership of Zhao Bing, after several consultations and decisions were made to implement the dual-track system. In order to maintain the stability of Qiongzhou's prices, the local salt price in Qiongzhou was set at 50 cents per kilogram, and the export price was set at 100 cents per kilogram. In order to distinguish between inside and outside, and to allow the court to control the output and income of salt, the salt administration was restored and the salt administration was revised.

Because Qiongzhou has implemented a strict household registration system and granted land according to the dominant population, the possibility of concealing the population is very small, and the number of people can be accurately calculated, so that the ticket system can be realized and the salt entries are allocated to everyone. They can buy salt at a low price in any shop in Qiongzhou with tickets, and merchants can then go to the official warehouse to get salt or go to the entries for gold and silver, which will subsidize the merchant's losses, so that raising the salt price will not seriously affect the lives of local military and civilians. For vendors from other places, they must first go to the Ministry of Revenue to use real money and silver to buy salt entries, and then use tickets to get salt.

In order to distinguish, salt turkeys are also divided into three colors. Red is used by locals, blue is used by foreign vendors, and green is military salt turkeys. In addition, there is a kind of yellow ticket issued by the inner government. Zhao Bing knew that raising the salt price and his own smuggling transactions were also affected, so he reached a new agreement with the ministers. From then on, the benefits that the inner government should obtain from the salt field will no longer be collected in the form of gold and silver, but will be in kind, and the 30% agreement will be implemented now.

After many rounds of negotiations and countless debates and compromises, an agreement was finally reached, and the new salt administration was implemented. This not only protects the interests of all parties, but also prevents corruption in the salt administration to a certain extent. At this time, the salt produced in the salt farm has a book account, the official granaries also have book accounts, and the transfer office also has a book account. If the gap between the three is too large, someone will cheat.

Zhao Bing did not expect that someone could find loopholes in this design. When red tickets were issued, they were rationed according to population, and the difference in consumption of old and young people was not considered. Moreover, no one should pickle vegetables, cured meat, and livestock should also be supplemented with salt. Qiongzhou itself is no longer short of salt, so red tickets were over-issued and were in a state of oversupply. In order to maintain salt prices and promote sales, blue tickets were issued in a hungry sales method and were issued in a quantitative manner every month. In this way, some people saw business opportunities and started speculative trading when scalpers started...

"Young Master, those merchants will lure them for profit when they buy salt tickets, and then sell them to salt dealers from other places to seek benefits from them. Some big investors even join forces to raise funds to buy out the blue tickets sold by the imperial court every month, and then resell them for each additional price of two to five cents of yuan, which makes a lot of profit!" Zhuang Shilin said.

"No businessman is not a traitor!" Zhao Bing figured out the joints and listened to Zhuang Shilin's explanation of the operation method. This is no different from speculation in later generations, buying and selling short selling, he said with a smile.

"Young Master thought we should take some measures and let them develop may push up the salt price and cause unsalable sales, affecting the court's income!" Zhuang Shilin blushed and said whispered.

"There is no need for the time being. Merchants are in nature to seek profit. If they don't make money, wouldn't Qiongzhou be in a state of depression? How could so many commodities come across the sea?" Zhao Bing smiled and waved his hand, but he also thought about it.

"Young Master's clarification!" Zhuang Shilin bowed.

"Don't be so hypocritical, come and have some affordable things." Zhao Bingxu helped him down, "Think about it, is it unfair to think about this young man earning millions of dollars a year but not spending time!"

"Young Master, the Zuozangku has already exceeded one million this year, and now it has more than ten million yuan!" Zhuang Shilin whispered.

"Oh, there are so many!" Zhao Bing touched his nose to cover up his surprise, but the smile on his face betrayed him. The other people were laughing when they saw this. Unexpectedly, the smart little emperor could not figure out the accounts, but he also secretly admired his wealth and thought that three years ago, they were still worried about how to fill their stomachs and worrying day by day!

"Of course, this is all because of the young master's plan!" Zhuang Shilin also said with a smile.
Chapter completed!