"What? Chancellor Chu, you're not joking with this subordinate, are you? Or did I mishear?"
Qian Jieren, the Minister of Revenue, was utterly dumbfounded.
It was the day for the tri-daily court assembly. After the officials had finished discussing some trivial matters, they were about to adjourn when suddenly they heard Chu Chen exclaim, "Your Majesty, this minister has a memorial to present!"
"Granted!"
Reluctantly, the civil and military officials had to stay.
Though their expressions seemed resigned, their hearts tightened. They all knew that Chancellor Chu Chen, when he spoke, would surely present something that would shock everyone.
As expected, even though the officials were mentally prepared, they were still stunned by Chu Chen's words.
"Your Majesty, I have recently established a new institution in the court, named the 'Qian Zhuang' (Money House), which is directly under my jurisdiction. Its purpose is to issue paper currency for silver and copper, facilitating trade. Currently, within half a month of its promotion, the 'Yun Chao' (Cloud Currency) has been widely welcomed and is already circulating completely within Shuangyue Prefecture. Furthermore, people in surrounding prefectures, counties, and districts are also using Yun Chao."
"Yun Chao has become very popular due to the distribution of monthly salaries by the agricultural estates, and it is gradually replacing traditional gold and silver. I believe that Yun Chao can be used to replace the military pay for soldiers in all units and the salaries of all officials in the court."
After Chu Chen finished speaking, the Empress glanced around and asked, "What do all my esteemed ministers think?"
Silence descended upon the hall. What a joke! Giving everyone paper? It's too coarse even to wipe one's backside! Well, perhaps that's a bit extravagant, as paper is still quite expensive.
But no matter what, they couldn't let their gleaming silver turn into waste paper!
Just as everyone was thinking this, Qian Jieren, the Minister of Revenue, was the first to step forward and exclaim excitedly, "Your Majesty, I believe this is feasible. I strongly agree, Your Majesty!"
Has this old fellow gone mad? He's accepting waste paper as his salary?
While the civil and military officials were grumbling in their hearts, Lü Youwei, the Minister of Commerce, and Zhang Chengzhu, the Minister of Agriculture, stepped forward in unison and declared, "Your Majesty, I believe this is feasible!"
Feasible, my foot! Everyone knows you two are loyal lackeys of that scoundrel Chu Chen!
The officials grumbled incessantly but sensed that something was amiss. These three ministers were all related to money. Could it be that this Yun Chao was truly so useful and convenient?
"Oh? Why do the three ministers agree so unanimously?"
The Empress did not immediately agree but instead asked at an opportune moment.
"Replying to Your Majesty! This Yun Chao is a wonderful thing! Your Majesty, do you know about the 'huohao' (meltage fee) in previous tax collections?"
The excited Qian Jieren seemed to speak without thinking, pouring out everything.
As soon as he uttered these words, the Vice Ministers of Revenue, the Vice Ministers of various departments, and many other officials in the court turned pale.
How dare Minister Qian say such a thing? Is he not afraid of that scoundrel Chu Chen's Imperial Guards investigating the accounts? This 'huohao' is far from clean!
Although metal currency holds its value, it has three disadvantages. Firstly, its weight makes it inconvenient to carry and trade. Secondly, it can be corroded, or more accurately, oxidized. Thirdly, the cost of minting metal currency itself is not low.
The so-called 'huohao' refers to the process where fragmented gold and silver currency circulating in the market, when it reaches the imperial court, is often recast by local government foundries. This recasting process involves melting the metal currency into liquid with fire and then pouring it into molds to reform it into gold and silver ingots.
During this process, there is inevitably some loss of gold and silver. For instance, one tael of fragmented silver might only yield nine mace of silver after recasting, with the lost mace being the 'huohao'.
The 'huohao' is the portion that corrupt officials would slightly increase the proportion of, thus allowing them to 'legally' embezzle hundreds or thousands of taels from the recasting of tens of thousands of taels of silver.
Because this was unavoidable, it was considered 'legal'.
This income was not solely for the Ministry of Works to devour; the profits had to be shared with all officials involved, such as the Ministry of Revenue, which managed the accounts, the Ministry of Personnel, which handled promotions, the Ministry of Justice, which had some supervisory roles, and the local prefects and governors.
Although every emperor throughout history knew the tricks of 'huohao', they were powerless to completely eradicate it. They could only try to control the proportion of 'huohao' within a certain range. If it exceeded this range, the emperor would intervene with severe measures. Within the range, it was almost considered tacit consent from the emperor for officials to profit, a form of 'legal' embezzlement.
Now, with Qian Jieren raising this issue, the Empress became interested and said with amusement, "I am naturally aware of the 'huohao' of silver, but what does this have to do with Yun Chao?"
"Your Majesty, I have some understanding of the general process of making Yun Chao. It is essentially paper, and paper is derived from wood, cotton, and other materials. Wood comes from the growth of trees. Therefore, the first benefit of Yun Chao is that it is inexhaustible, unlike gold and silver, which are limited. The second benefit of Yun Chao is that its production involves no 'huohao,' which can greatly prevent the loss of imperial tax revenue and increase the court's annual income by at least tens of thousands of taels."
"Thirdly, Yun Chao is light and easy to trade, making it convenient for merchants to carry and conduct trade. Fourthly, the production cost of Yun Chao, although I do not know the exact figures, is likely much easier and cheaper than mining gold and silver mines."
"Fifthly, Yun Chao is easy to count; one only needs to look at its denomination, unlike gold and silver, which require recasting and checking their weight and purity."
Qian Jieren became more and more excited, clasped his hands, and bowed, "All the above are advantages that gold and silver cannot possess, and these are all the merits of Yun Chao. Therefore, I implore Your Majesty to promote the use of Yun Chao within the court to replace gold and silver as salaries for soldiers and officials."
"Furthermore, Yun Chao can even be used as a form of currency for tax collection!"
The tax revenue of Yun Yue Kingdom primarily consisted of metal currency, namely gold, silver, and copper coins. However, in addition to these, high-value goods such as grain, silk, salt, sugar, and spices could also be used to pay taxes.
Upon hearing the words of Qian Jieren, the Minister of Revenue, the civil and military officials present were stunned. The benefits of Yun Chao seemed to be so numerous.
However... this thing, after all, is made of paper. Can its value be preserved as well as gold, silver, and copper?
The officials exchanged glances, uncertain and hesitant.
Just then, Zhang Chengzhu, the Minister of Agriculture, stepped forward and said, "Esteemed colleagues, I understand your concerns. Are you worried that Yun Chao cannot be preserved in value like gold, silver, and copper coins? You need not worry about this!"
"From what I understand, to solve this problem, the Qian Zhuang established by the Chancellor uses gold, silver, and copper coins as collateral for the production of Yun Chao. That is, a certain amount of silver will be used to produce Yun Chao of the same face value."
"In this way, can Yun Chao be trusted?"