Chapter 173: The Sage Emperor’s Verdict! (1/2)
Sun Qian came prepared. He carried brush and paper on him, and a servant beside him was holding a tray with inkslab and water. All that was left was for him to jot down Wang Chong’s explanations.
An indescribable feeling welled up within Wang Chong as he looked at Sun Qian.
The matter regarding the jinyuan note was a problem that he brought up at the very end of the memorial he sent to the Sage Emperor. Wang Chong had noticed the issue when he was buying the Hyderabad ores from Ablonodan and Arloja. Huge transactions consisting of several hundred thousand gold taels were conducted on a fairly common basis, and that weighed more than ten thousand jin.
(~5000kg)
Even though it didn’t take up too much space due to the compact size of the gold ingots, it was still inconvenient to carry around.
This made massive cross-border transactions extremely difficult.
Not only so, based on his future knowledge, Wang Chong noticed a potential problem in using gold as a currency.
Gold was a limited resource.
If the rate of gold mining was unable to keep up with the development of the economy, it could severely restrict its growth. In other words, it was possible for Great Tang to run short of ‘money’ in circulation. Based on Wang Chong’s knowledge from another time-space continuum, when dynasties run out of sufficient gold and silver, they would choose to mine and produce copper coins to make up for the deficiency.
Due to the fluctuating quantities of gold, silver, and copper coins in circulation, the currency exchange rate would be highly unstable. A silver tael might be worth a hundred copper coin in one day, but the very next, it might fetch a hundred and ten, a hundred and twenty, or perhaps even more.
This caused instability in the society.
In some dynasties, the royal court had even, to Wang Chong’s incredulity, entrusted the minting of coins to private organisations.
The problem regarding currency wasn’t just limited to the Central Plains, it was a universal one. In the world where Wang Chong was born in, even the powerful ‘Uncle Sam’ had no choice but to rally the entire world to establish the Bretton Woods system.
(A part of the Bretton-Woods agreement was to tie one’s currency to the value of gold)
Eventually, they even went further to remove gold as part of the currency.
The main reason for that was because the gold standard currency would severely limit one’s potential economic growth.
Even a country as powerful as ‘Uncle Sam’ was restricted by the gold standard as well, lest to say, other countries.
The Central Plains was currently at the peak of its strength, and Great Tang was prosperous and affluent. However, after coming into contact with the commercial world and dealing with huge quantities of gold, Wang Chong had acutely sensed a lurking threat hidden beneath the calm surface of the country.
This was also the reason why he brought up the issue of ‘currency’ in the memorial.
During the initial implementation phase of the jinyuan note, the value of the jinyuan note will be tied to gold. At the same time, the royal court would use its credibility to assure the population of its value, and stations will be set up to facilitate the exchange between gold taels and jinyuan notes.
Then, after gradually building trust in the currency, Great Tang would further propagate the use of jinyuan note.
When the jinyuan note finally grows strong enough to become an individual currency, measures would be taken to slowly weaken the ties between jinyuan note and gold. Eventually, when everyone was used to the jinyuan note, the royal court would be able to ban the trading of jinyuan note for gold.
In this manner, gold would be taken out of the economic activities of the country, and it would be safeguarded by the empire. In name, one would still be able to purchase gold using jinyuan notes, and thus, the value of jinyuan note would not depreciate.
Through such an implementation, large business deals would become more convenient. At the same time, the empire could also free itself from the restraints the scarcity of gold could cause, thus furthering the development of the economy.
A reliable currency system was the foundation of a stable society. Only when the value of money was stable could there be economic and, by extension, social stability in the country. This was what Wang Chong believed in.
Wang Chong had only brought the matter up as an afternote, so he didn’t expect the Sage Emperor to pay much notice to it. After all, in this feudal era, such ideas were unconventional and hard to accept, leave alone, implement it.
To Wang Chong’s surprise, not only did the Sage Emperor pay careful heed to his words, he also sent the esteemed finance minister of the royal court, Lord Sun Qian, to pay a visit to the imperial prison to enquire him on the matter.
“I see. This is Gao gonggong‘s true motive here.”
Wang Chong’s heart beat furiously as he looked at Sun Qian. At this moment, he suddenly realized some things.
“Lord, feel free to ask any question. I shall answer them to the best of my abilities.”
Seated cross-legged, Wang Chong spoke seriously.
Sun Qian nodded. Then, he started asking about all of the details regarding the implementation of jinyuan notes, such as how it would be made, what kind of material would be used, how it would be distributed, where it would be distributed, how much would be distributed… As well as all sorts of miscellaneous questions that Wang Chong had never thought of.
Wang Chong couldn’t help but be impressed. The officials in charge of such matters were indeed very meticulous. Despite having archaic thought patterns, they were exceedingly rigorous in inquiring about the details of the policy.
Regarding the matter of the ‘jinyuan notes’, Wang Chong had only written around a few hundred words about it in the memorial. Yet, Sun Qian had spent two entire hours asking about the matter, during which, two hundred pages of information were written down.
“Wang gongzi, thank you. I’ll bring this matter up to the royal court to discuss it with the other officials.”
Sun Qian’s face was still as impassive as before, but Wang Chong acutely noticed that his tone had become slightly more polite, and his eyes had mellowed down significantly.
“Lord Sun, you’re being too formal!”
Wang Chong smiled.
Sun Qian nodded as he left the imperial prison with his gigantic stack of notes.
…
Amidst the silence of the night, a candlelight was lit in the Four Quarters Embassy.
“Father!”
Wang Gen respectfully bowed. It was his first time seeing the old master in recent days.
“Sit down!”
The old master knocked on the seat beside him. Wang Gen hurried forward and sat down beside him.
“Are you still worried about Chong-er’s matter?”
The old master asked calmly.
“Yes! The verdict is going to be announced tomorrow, I don’t think that I’ll be able to sleep tonight.”
Wang Gen said.
This was different from the issue of Wang Chong raping a lady. This time, the trouble that Wang Chong got into was not a small matter. There were simply too many Hu generals demanding Wang Chong’s death. Wang Gen could not help but feel helpless in this matter.
“Hehe, don’t worry. Chong-er will be fine.”
The old master smiled calmly, forming a stark contrast to Wang Gen’s anxiousness.
“Ah!?”
Knowing that the verdict would be out tomorrow, Wang Gen visited the Four Quarters Embassy in the hopes of convincing the the old master to send in a memorial asking for the Sage Emperor to pardon Wang Chong. Of the entire Wang Clan, only the old master possessed this kind of influence.