Chapter 725 Real Gold and Silver

Always being called "ancestors" by people, it seems that his mentality has also been brought to some subtle elder mode.

But think about it from another angle... It doesn't seem like it's a lot of fun to let Heidi, who has always been calm and elegant, show such a dull expression.

Seeing Heidi's stunned expression and then at a loss, Gawain felt inexplicably better, and most of the pressure caused by seeing a large number of documents dissipated in an instant. Then he waved his hand before the eldest granddaughter's expression in front of him continued to collapse: "It's okay, I just said it casually - what are these documents?"

Although Hetty didn't know what was going on, he felt as if he had escaped a catastrophe, so he secretly relieved and put the document on his ancestor's desk: "It's about the construction of the Imperial College and the early stages of building a new school in the Holy Spirit Plain. The report, as well as the relevant documents for the railway project in the western region - the Government Affairs Office has already handled it in accordance with the process, but you still need to see the key parts in person."

Gawain thought for a while, and suddenly he thought about Heidi's life-long affairs...

After two seconds, he restrained these somewhat scattered thoughts, reached out to take the thick documents, and asked casually: "Have the mages and scholars who moved from Saint-Sunil last week settled down? What do you think they are? Sample?"

"It's all set up properly," Hetty nodded, "As for my evaluation... From the perspective of personal knowledge and ability, those who can be loyal to the royal family or enter the Royal Capital Scholars Association are the best masters, and their ability is not necessary. Doubtful, but each of them still has a long way to go before they can integrate into Cecil's new order, and many of them will face elimination."

"... an inevitable process," Gawain said while flipping through the paper in his hand, "but we still need to transform and strive for it as much as possible—as long as it can be transformed, it must be transformed as much as possible. We still lack intellectuals. However, it should be noted that the admission standards for personnel in all education departments cannot be relaxed, and the standards for the two trials and the two exams cannot be changed. Those old-school intellectuals who have passed the preliminary reform but failed the two trials and two exams can be asked to do research. Don't forget to go to the factory to be a technician, but never to go to school."

Hetty lowered her head: "Yes."

The empire has been established, and the land under Cecil's rule has changed from a cramped and barren land to a vast country. After the excitement and excitement, Hetty realized the fact that there were still various shortages under the surface of this seemingly abundant resource - what the ancestors wanted to build was a brand new kingdom, not to take over a decayed kingdom and be comfortable Sovereigns, those heritage from their native Ansu, need to be transformed and selected to be used again.

A large number of intellectuals from the northern region will solve the key talent shortage problem in the development of magic technology,

But before that, in addition to the establishment of a new knowledge system, these intellectuals must also accept a change in thinking, and the so-called two trials and two tests are Gao Wen's rigid standards for the education sector to absorb talents: major stains and bad deeds Censorship, personal information review, academic ability assessment, and thought transformation assessment, only after passing all these tests are they allowed to enter the various new-style colleges established by the empire.

The strict assessment and admission system is also one of the factors that lead to the severe shortage of teachers in the current new-style schools, but the ancestors' standards in this regard are not allowed to be relaxed at all. Fortunately, the students who graduated from the first phase of Cecil General College and some of the first to follow the construction of the southern border The poor intellectuals have grown up in the past few years, and the talents who have fed back are gradually easing the gaps in schools around the world. Although the gaps are still large, at least they are no longer desperate.

Hetty understands why the ancestors valued this so much.

Because in the early days when the system was still flawed and the implementation was not in place, she had seen with her own eyes how a teacher from a collateral aristocracy taught children to prostrate and kiss the ground in the school - it was just a A minor aristocrat from a collateral line has no right of inheritance, no title or fief, and the only connection with the "aristocratic society" is his thin blood, but it is because of this thin connection, for the "correct and only law" in his heart and his family. "Glory", he can risk jail time to remind children of the kneeling rule.

From that day, she knew that some rotten things will never be completely eliminated by a gravel ridge shelling and a signing ceremony, and they will not purify themselves, and those unclean residues will lurk in various places. In such a corner, as long as there is a 1 in 10,000 chance, they will pour out desperately like mud in the crevice.

Perhaps even if a strict access system is implemented, some of the mud will still seep in - this is almost certain, after all, the newly-born Council of State Administration system is still seriously insufficient in controlling the remote areas of the empire, and can only rely on the other two majors. The consuls and their vassal system are temporarily controlled - but there is no perfect thing in the world. As the ancestors once said, this will be a long-term business, and it may take more than one or two generations. ...

Hetty was lost in thought for a while, but Gawain had hurriedly scanned the end of the document, and then put it on his right hand: "I have roughly checked it, there is no problem - I will take a closer look tomorrow morning, and I will reply to you when the time comes. Is Patrick in Council now?"

Hetty woke up from his thoughts and nodded: "Yes, he just returned from Carroll yesterday and has returned to the Government Affairs Hall this morning."

"Have him come see me - I want to hear about the currency pilot."

"Yes, ancestor."

...

In front of Gawain, there were several temporary currencies (tokens) of different denominations, as well as several coins minted by the Cecil Royal Mint.

Coins have the basic standard copper, silver, and gold coins, while paper currency is "silver notes" in denominations of one and five fenhams, and "gold notes" in denominations of one gold pound and metal pound - fee Nam is a word in Common Language, which means "thinned silver foil", and the so-called gold pound is also different from the currency of the same name that once appeared on the earth. Here, it is equivalent to the smallest currency that Ansu once passed through. The size of the thin gold coin is almost equivalent to the upper limit of currency that civilians could access in the past.

The banknotes are beautifully printed, with textured patterns, and the patterns glow with a wonderful streamer in the sun.

Only from the denominations of these banknotes and the meaning of their names, it can be seen that this is just a superficial attempt to reform precious metal currencies into banknotes.

"After about half a year of trial operation, the pilot areas have successfully replaced more than 70% of the precious metal circulation with temporary currency, maintaining the normal conduct of commerce and the normal settlement of local finances," said Patrick rubbed the past two years gradually. The widened forehead reported meticulously, "People did not understand and distrust paper money at the beginning, and later found that it can indeed be used to buy goods, and now they have gradually become accustomed to its existence. From simply promoting paper money, forming From a habit standpoint, the pilot was successful.

"But the defects of the pilot are also obvious. As you can see, we still haven't gotten rid of the essence of gold and silver settlement. The currency circulating in the pilot area is still in circulation of gold and silver. The coexistence of ' and 'silver banknotes' means that the exchange of denominations between banknotes will still be affected by the price of precious metals, and bad money will drive out good money. However, we have recently succeeded in cutting silver banknotes from silver, so that It can only be exchanged for gold notes, but not directly for silver, which is equivalent to turning it into a kind of 'subordinate unit' for gold notes, which solves the problems caused by the double standard system..."

Gawain frowned and looked at the several currencies on the table, flipping through the detailed report brought by Patrick, and couldn't help muttering softly: "It's a mess..."

Patrick wiped his cold sweat immediately: "...Your Majesty, I'm very sorry..."

"No, I'm not scolding you," Gawain quickly waved his hand, "You've done a great job, you've done all the testing and sampling according to my requirements, these messes are just things that are bound to happen when new things are implemented. It's the law of nature, not your fault."

Only then did Patrick breathe a sigh of relief: "Yes, Your Majesty."

"There is no obvious skew in the reserves of gold and silver in the empire. It is feasible to issue currency on the silver standard or the gold standard, but whether to continue to issue currency on the basis of precious metals is the biggest problem," Gawain said. Slowly said, "Patrick, you must have realized the hidden dangers of pegging gold or silver directly to paper money."

"...Yes, Your Majesty, and after hearing your theory about the currency trap, I confirm that the hidden danger is real and extremely dangerous," Patrick nodded immediately. "From a long-term perspective as well as a practical perspective, I think the 'credit currency' you mentioned is the better option."

"...Credit currency..." Gawain frowned again, "Patrick, you should know that the basis for issuing credit currency is much higher than issuing proxy currency-because in essence, we are It is necessary to define paper without any use value as 'money', and the biggest premise for people to use these 'paper' to buy goods and make settlements is that they believe that the empire can accept the value represented by all the 'paper money', this 'trust' ', it has to be as reliable as real money."

Patrick met Gawain's gaze, his slightly fat body sat firmly, he nodded, and the answer was short and powerful: "Yes, I understand."

He had thought a lot before coming here.

If Cecil wants to enter a higher social stage, he must complete the currency reform as soon as possible, and even without considering the long-term future, from the current point of view, the messy currency system left over from the old Ansu era has come to an end. limit--

The private coinage of various nobles in the era of enfeoffment, coupled with the frequent recasting of the currency caused by the political turmoil in the kingdom itself, made the old currency system chaotic. There are dozens of metal currencies such as silver coins, short silver coins, gold shields, Wangjia twill gold coins, round copper coins, small round copper coins, etc., and the quality is uneven, and the exchange relationship is chaotic.

The intricate currency and exchange rate not only made the businessmen devastated, but also made it difficult for ordinary people to conduct large-scale transactions, and even gave birth to a special "exchanger" profession, and these exchangers with local aristocratic backgrounds became one. A kind of "extra tax officer" in disguise, ripping off ordinary people and petty merchants their very little money.

The chaotic currency also hinders business exchanges across the country. Due to inconvenient exchange and huge settlement risks, trade between regions can often only be monopolized by specific groups, even in areas with the most chaotic currencies and serious saturation of bad currencies. It has reached the point where it is almost impossible to unfold...

Even if there is a train and a new economic policy, as long as this quagmire "money dump" remains, then Cecil's reconstruction and development will inevitably struggle.

Therefore, when Gawain regained the power of the nobles, the most important thing was to ban the minting rights of all nobles, and put them into the Imperial Mint (formerly the Cecil Mint), and the private currency circulating in various places was classified as illegal. And within a certain cycle, the Government Affairs Office will come forward to gradually recover, recast and exchange.

Since the old coins are all precious metal currencies, as long as the fineness meets the standard, their value will not be reduced by recycling and recasting (if the loss is not counted), so the policy of currency unification in this step has been implemented relatively smoothly.

Under the premise of currency unification, the promotion of banknotes is also a must.

In the era of magic industry, the growth rate and abundance of commodities are far beyond anyone's imagination in the old era. The precious metal currency with limited unit value, inconvenient transportation and settlement, will soon fail to catch up with the times. The Typhon Empire next door has begun to implement new currency. Cecil must also immediately enter the next phase of monetary reform.

This is a drastic change, and Patrick believes that since such a drastic action is already underway, it is necessary to have a change in place.

The world is not perfect, and credit currency also has its fixed shortcomings, but at least in the long run, it can avoid the biggest hidden danger of substitute currency, and he also thought about the premise of issuing credit currency-the need for a highly centralized and only authoritative The core regime requires the people's trust in the national system, the strong executive ability of the Supreme Government Office, and effective means and early warning measures to control the unlimited over-issuance of currency, but no matter how difficult these difficulties are, Cecil must issue credit currency. .

He has his own considerations, and he believes that His Majesty the Emperor in front of him will support him after hearing those considerations.

Gawain kept his brows furrowed.

Of course, he knows the advantages and disadvantages of credit currency, and also knows the fatality of substitute currency, but he also knows that if you take too much steps, you will get into trouble.

Worrying that the direct issuance of credit currency will cause all kinds of confusion is the biggest reason for his delay in making up his mind.

He looked at Patrick in front of him.

This Kant scholar, who has a very high talent in the economic field, is not a person who likes to talk nonsense.

"Tell me your reasons, Patrick."

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