CHAPTER 995: CHAPTER 952: COINAGE

"Why are they notifying us?" Liu Ye also came over after hearing about Chen Zhen’s news, and happened to hear Fa Zheng’s words, so he smiled and responded with a counter-question.

"At least have peace of mind!" Fa Zheng said resentfully, "By the way, I’m about to get married. Have you prepared your gifts?"

"Two bottles of homemade good wine were prepared when I accepted you as my junior." Guo Jia replied casually.

"So stingy." Fa Zheng looked at Guo Jia disdainfully, though he was quite satisfied inside. Regardless of whether Guo Jia’s homemade wine was good or not, at least the sentiment was there!

"Then how about I give you a pair of Golden Suanni?" Guo Jia smirked, lowering the tone significantly.

"So miserly." Fa Zheng raised an eyebrow and looked at Guo Jia with extreme displeasure.

"Alright, stop bickering. Guess what Zichuan wants to announce at the end of the year?" Liu Ye brought the distorted topic back to focus.

"Better leave it be. In terms of political strategy, though I don’t want to admit it, no one can deny his extraordinary foresight in governance." Li You directly cut off the topic.

Li You didn’t want his curiosity piqued, since if he got interested, he might ask, and Chen Xi would tell him if he asked.

Judging by Li You’s understanding of Chen Xi, it would likely conflict with his knowledge again, and then repeat the situation where many people disagreed, only to have Chen Xi overturn them all, which was very disruptive.

"Matters of political strategy, I think we should not get involved. We should just do our own jobs, and Zichuan will handle his matters." Lub Su directly nipped the budding curiosity; he didn’t want another embarrassing incident like the last time.

Different from Liu Ye’s direct confrontation with Chen Xi, others at most watched from the sidelines without directly intervening. As for Liu Ye, although he didn’t intervene directly, he did fan the flames, which was the difference.

"I’m really just curious..." Liu Ye helplessly said.

"Curious about what..." Chen Xi, who didn’t hear the earlier conversation, entered the room and asked Liu Ye, hearing his curiosity without context.

"Curious about what political strategies you plan to announce at the end of the year." Liu Ye quickly spoke, and seeing that Lub Su didn’t stop him, he also looked at Chen Xi. Everyone else also showed a curious look.

"What’s with minting coins and Special Drawing Rights." Chen Xi casually answered.

While Chen Zhen sent a letter to Mount Tai, he also notified all senior officials in Ye City, but the generals went to various places in Jizhou to eliminate bandits, and Liu Bei went out for a stroll, so naturally, Chen Xi was the last to arrive.

As for Xu Shu, he also had decent martial arts skills and took five hundred men to fight the bandits.

"Minting coins?" Everyone frowned, what a feeling of wanting to curse. In the Han Dynasty, you want to mint standard Five Coin Money? The cost of minting six or seven million coins is one million money, and generally, a country that isn’t strong enough would firmly not undertake such a thing.

"Well, it’s indeed time for us to mint coins." Li You thought for a moment and slowly said, and since Jizhou also has copper mines, it is indeed time to mint some coins to prove our strength.

However, Li You’s words ignored the Special Drawing Rights, and others also only focused on the minting coins issue, not contemplating other matters, which saved Chen Xi from wasting a lot of words.

"Well, then what denomination of coins?" Lub Su sighed and asked.

Minting coins is inevitable; once your power reaches a certain level, you definitely need to mint money to enhance the people’s recognition of your authority. However, minting money means losses, around forty percent - thinking of this is enough to be troubling.

"Five Coin Money!" Chen Xi proudly said, the Five Coin Money minted during the peak of the Han Dynasty had very high recognition, and it was still used during the Tang Dynasty - that’s the advantage of weight money!

"The cost is too high, and if you mint Five Coin Money, everyone in the world will use it, no matter how much we make, it won’t be enough." Jia Xu said, covering his face, this Five Coin Money has no concept of counterfeiting; even if its text is blurred, it isn’t considered fake, as it only measures by weight.

"It’s meant for everyone to use." Chen Xi smirked, "Forget it, we’ll understand in time. Who knows how far Xingba has gotten in his preparations. The first time without a marine chart cost a lot of time, but it won’t next time, right?"

In fact, Chen Xi didn’t know that after Gan Ning returned from his first visit to Luzon Island, he realized it was a strategic location. After Guann Hai went to Yiizhou, Gan Ning instructed him to use Qiongzhou as a base for traveling between Luzon and Yiizhou, collecting copper mines.

A large amount of copper mined from Luzon Island was refined into bronze blocks and transported by Guann Hai to Yiizhou for storage. After dozens of trips, Yiizhou already had thousands of tons of small copper blocks stored.

Think about it - a cubic meter of copper weighs over eight tons, and bronze, being denser due to tin and lead, actually doesn’t spread over much length, width, and height...

But all of these are indeed the main materials Chen Xi will use for coin minting later; anyway, since it’s not their own resources, Chen Xi isn’t worried about wasting them. By the way, when it comes to bronze smelting and minting capability, China seems to always be historically advanced.

As for those personal soldiers Gan Ning left on Luzon Island, they’ve now become enlightened and view money very lightly, probably because anyone would become indifferent if they constantly saw whether there were tens or hundreds of billions worth of money beneath them. Besides, in this godforsaken place, there’s no one to buy things from, so taking copper is pointless.

Even though Chen Xi doesn’t know the copper for minting coins is ready, he knows he has an island with abundant copper production available for wasteful spending, so minting coins is a necessary task.

However, before starting the minting process, Chen Xi needs to fixate the value of the coins; they may appreciate or depreciate, but it definitely can’t be determined by the aristocratic families who don’t understand economic principles. Currency must be calculated officially!

"With this minting, we lose quite a bit. A million money worth of copper can only mint six hundred fifty thousand money. This is the cost of state production at scale; for us, even with research on this topic, it’s probably just as much." Liu Ye replied helplessly, not stopping Chen Xi, as it’s indeed time for minting coins.

"So we have to gather all the families; we must establish a clear value for each Five Coin Money, stabilize market prices for various goods and ensure price stability." Chen Xi said helplessly, "Grain, salt, cloth - these essentials need to be under our control since it relates to long-term peace and stability."

"Though poverty and wealth can’t be eliminated, what we need to do is ensure that the poorest have food and clothing; merely achieving this means our system is flawless." Chen Xi swept his gaze across the crowd, smiling.

Though it’s not entirely true, before the awareness of equity rights awakens, Chen Xi estimates that this system could maintain long-term stability for at least five hundred years! (To be continued. If you like this work, please vote for recommendations and monthly tickets at Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users, please read at m.qidian.com.)