Chapter 946 1035 Changes in the Price of Gold in the Ming Dynasty

"Crack."

Wei Guangde subconsciously slapped his hand on the desk. The sound was so loud that Zhang Ji, who was waiting outside, even looked inside.

After waving to Zhang Ji, Wei Guangde calmed down for a moment before looking at Liu Shouyou and asking: "Is there any news from spies from other places?"

Just now, the frown on Wei Guangde's face suddenly relaxed, and Liu Shouyou had already noticed it.

But then he saw Wei Guangde's angry face and slapped the table hard.

Although it only happened in a moment, Liu Shouyou still made his own judgment.

It seems that Mr. Wei Ge has figured out the reason that he has not figured out yet.

But now, he had to answer Wei Guangde's question first.

"Mr. Ge, other places are far away. Although manpower has been dispatched, it will take time for them to integrate when they arrive. When will the news come back?"

Liu Shouyou was a little embarrassed to answer Wei Guangde's question and couldn't help but become hesitant.

"I'm not rushing you. Speaking of which, the palace asked about it a few days ago, especially from Myanmar.

You are the commander of the Jinyi Guards. I should not be able to hide this from you. When Li Chengliang arrives in the capital this time, he will not be able to return to Liaodong. The place arranged for him by the court is the Right Army Governor's Mansion. You should be able to understand the intention to some extent.

For generals like this who have been on the battlefield and have made many meritorious deeds, the imperial court will not bury them, but will send them to where they are needed most. "

Wei Guangde said.

Although Li Chengliang's reward has not been officially announced, there are many people in the imperial court and the Ministry of War who know about it.

Of course, they are all officials above the rank of doctor. Officials such as Yuanwailang and those in charge are still not qualified to know these secrets.

In addition, there are many people in the Governor's Mansion of the Fifth Army who they know.

As the intelligence chief of the imperial court, he naturally couldn't hide this from Liu Shouyou's eyes and ears.

Liu Shouyou nodded hurriedly at this time, indicating that he understood.

In fact, after hearing about this incident, Liu Shou had some guesses. After all, he had just sent a lot of men to Myanmar.

However, Liu Shouyou, the commander-in-chief of Jiubian Town, was not very sure whether he really wanted to send Li Chengliang there.

Now listening to the meaning of Wei Guangde's words, he still doesn't understand that the imperial court is already planning for a possible war in Yunnan.

This makes sense. To fight a war, you have to have a veteran like Li Chengliang who has been on the battlefield.

No wonder Wei Ge Lao suddenly asked him to send out a large number of spies to overseas vassal countries to inquire about all kinds of information. It turned out that Wei Ge Lao had sensed a bad trend in Myanmar and was taking precautions.

But until now, Liu Shouyou still didn't understand what problem Mr. Wei Ge found.

After all, if Wei Guangde didn't take the initiative to say it, how could he dare to ask.

There is no news from other directions, so the news in hand must be dealt with as soon as possible.

Wei Guangde stood up and took out a small wooden box from the bookshelf and returned to the desk. Then he opened the box and took out a few pieces of paper. He read each piece of paper carefully before putting it back into the box.

The paper in the box is actually a memo that Wei Guangde made himself.

Sometimes when I think of something, I write it down on paper to prevent forgetting.

His previous thoughts on the currency of the Ming Dynasty were actually recorded in it.

Now he is just looking at what he was thinking about before, and now he is corroborating it with the information in his hand.

Wei Guangde felt that this currency war on gold and silver had actually started quietly. Whether the Yi people did it intentionally or unintentionally, it did pose a great threat to the Ming Dynasty.

Of course, for the Wei family, he has already informed the family to convert all the saved silver into gold for storage, so if a silver crisis does occur, it will have little impact on their family, and it may even be a good thing.

But Wei Guangde knew very well that even if a silver crisis really broke out, it might only happen dozens or hundreds of years later.

"Siyun, do you know how much gold is in the Treasury of the Ministry of Finance?"

Wei Guangde asked for no reason.

"Business Department? Wei Ge always said that there should be four to five hundred taels of gold in the warehouse. I should be grateful for the silver. Counting some of the silver that has not been taken away, there should be more than one million taels."

Liu Shouyou said immediately.

Yes, during the Ming Dynasty, these were taxes and levies submitted to the capital from various places. In addition to the physical goods being transported according to the imperial order, the money was converted into silver and transported to the capital.

After all, it is easy to judge whether it is convenient for one tael of silver or more than a thousand copper coins.

"Not enough."

Wei Guangde sighed.

Who would have thought that there was only a few hundred taels of gold in the central bank of the Ming Dynasty.

"Does the government always have to collect military expenses?"

How could Liu Shou know Wei Guangde's worries? He thought Wei Guangde was worried about the possible war in Yunnan.

"Actually, Mr. Ge doesn't have to worry about it. There are still some money that can be scraped together in various yamen of the imperial court."

Liu Shouyou was also thinking about Wei Guangde and actually said all these things.

Fortunately, this was in the Wei Mansion. If it had been outside, I might have offended all the civil servants of the dynasty.

Wei Guangde knew whether Liu Shou had known the inside story, but because he knew the price of gold in the Ming Dynasty, saw the price of gold in the Japanese country, and connected it with the Yi people's massive purchase of gold, he instinctively felt that something was wrong, so he came here.

"Zhang Ji."

Wei Guangde did not answer, but shouted to the door.

"master."

Zhang Ji, who was outside the door, came in immediately and bowed in front of him.

"Prepare the carriage and horses immediately, I want to go out."

Wei Guangde ordered.

"Master, it's so late, where are you going?"

Zhang Ji asked in a low voice, "The city gate is closed at this time, so you can only walk around the inner city."

Even as the elder of the pavilion, Wei Guangde couldn't open the city gate, but the man next to him had the ability, but the impact was too great.

Zhang Ji said this to remind Wei Guangde.

After all, he had no intention of going out before, but when Liu Shou came, he said he would go out after a few words, and it was better to hitch a carriage and horse instead of sitting in a sedan chair.

"I'm just going to the Chief Assistant to talk about something, not leaving the city."

Wei Guangde just said, "Send someone to go to Zhang Mansion first and say that I want to go over and have something important to say."

Wei Guangde felt that this matter should not be taken openly. If it spread to the government and the public, it would easily cause panic. It would be fine if the cabinet ministers and the palace knew about it.

This matter will inevitably involve the Ministry of Household Affairs and the Ministry of War. When the time comes, just leave a note and let them think about it, and don't say anything else.

"Yes, I'll do it right away."

Zhang Ji breathed a sigh of relief and immediately turned around and went out to make arrangements.

By this time, Liu Shouyou was a little confused. The master was leaving and he didn't know what to do.

So, I wanted to get up and say goodbye.

As soon as he stood up, Wei Guangde waved his hand and said to him: "You can come with me."

"yes."

Liu Shouyou naturally would not refuse. It was not a bad thing to appear in front of the chief minister.

Although he is the emperor's spy chief, the emperor is too young now to be relied upon at all.

Moreover, the Liu family was considered a scholarly family, so naturally they did not disdain to get too close to eunuchs, so they would not lean towards Feng Bao.

Zhang Juzheng and Wei Guangde are both good candidates for seeking refuge, but who knows Wei Guangde, but he has no intersection with Zhang Juzheng, and he can't get in touch even if he wants to.

Following Wei Guangde out of the mansion, Wei Guangde got into the carriage, and he came here on horseback.

In fact, Zhu Yuanzhang had a decree a long time ago that military generals were only allowed to ride horses and not ride in sedans.

But by this time, the generals in the capital, especially the nobles, had long forgotten this, and the imperial censors in the court also selectively ignored the matter.

However, as the commander of the Jin Yiwei, Liu Shouyou was still more cautious and always rode horseback when entering or exiting.

The group soon left the Wei Mansion and headed to Zhang Juzheng's residence.

Zhang Juzheng's residence in the capital is also located in Nanxunfang, so the journey was uneventful and he arrived there quickly.

Greeted by Zhang's housekeeper You Qi, he soon arrived at Zhang Juzheng's study.

At this time, Zhang Juzheng was waiting for his arrival in the study.

Wei Guangde asked someone to deliver a letter to the Zhang family first. In fact, he was worried that Zhang Juzheng was accompanying guests. If there were guests here, seeing him coming would inevitably arouse suspicion.

Send a letter first, and the Zhang Mansion can make arrangements for the people coming over.

"Shandai, please come in. You haven't been to my place for a while."

Zhang Juzheng greeted Wei Guangde at the second door, and across the courtyard next to him was Zhang Juzheng's study.

When he saw the person, Zhang Juzheng looked at the person following Wei Guangde strangely.

He knew Liu Shou and knew that he was the commander of the Jinyi Guards. When the two of them got together and Wei Guangde openly brought someone to him, he was naturally suspicious.

After entering the study room, the guests and hosts took their seats. While waiting for the servants to bring tea, Wei Guangde casually looked around.

Zhang Juzheng understood and immediately arranged for You Qi to guard the door while everyone else went out.

After Wei Guangde and others left, he took out the Japanese intelligence sent by Liu Shouyou from his sleeve and handed it to Zhang Juzheng, saying, "Brother, uncle, let's take a look first."

Liu Shouyou on the other side didn't dare to breathe at this time, for fear of doing something unethical and making the chief minister unhappy, but he was also very surprised.

The news that came out was that Wei Guangde and Zhang Ju were at odds with each other on the front, and they were targeting each other in private.

After all, one is the first assistant and the other is the second assistant. If the first assistant wants to keep his position, he will inevitably suppress the second assistant. If the second assistant wants to rise to the top, he must cause trouble and find fault with the first assistant.

However, when I saw the two of them tonight, they seemed to have a good relationship.

"Okay, let me take a look."

Zhang Juzheng chuckled and took the note from Wei Guangde's hand and glanced at it, then looked at Liu Shouyou next to him, then lowered his head and looked at the things in his hand seriously.

He already understood how these two people got together, and the thing in his hand was probably the result of Jin Yiwei.

As for Liu Shou sending the information to Wei Guangde first, he didn't find it strange. The palace had already informed him that all foreign-related news would be sent to Wei Guangde, but the palace also had to submit a copy.

Naturally, it won’t take long to read what you have in hand.

However, Zhang Juzheng was also surprised. How could Wei Guangde come to him in a hurry after seeing something that was very ordinary to him.

"Good loan, this."

Zhang Juzheng asked, wanting to know the reason.

"Brother Uncle, have you ever noticed that at the end, it mentions the gold price of Japan?"

Wei Guangde said bluntly.

"I saw it. It's more expensive than our Ming Dynasty. I remember it's about seven taels of silver to one tael of gold now."

This is common sense, and Zhang Juzheng naturally knows it.

Although it may be difficult for ordinary people to save a few taels of gold in their lifetime, and they naturally don't know the price of gold, Zhang Juzheng is not an ordinary person, and gold is not uncommon to him.

"What? What's the significance of this?"

Zhang Juzheng asked again strangely.

In his opinion, the amount of gold and silver in Ming Dynasty and Japan is different, so it is normal for the price of gold and silver to be different, and it is not worth investigating.

But seeing Wei Guangde's solemn expression, and the fact that he came to him specially, Zhang Juzheng had to think about it carefully.

"It is mentioned in the article that the barbarians in my Ming Dynasty used silver to buy the products of my Ming Dynasty, and the remaining part would be exchanged for gold.

In Japan, the situation is similar. They just ship the products of Japan to my Ming Dynasty for sale, and the two sides sell them to each other to make a profit. The remaining part is shipped to Southeast Asia or even shipped back to Western countries for sale.

However, they have one characteristic in both places, that is, they bring a large amount of silver and exchange it for gold from my Ming Dynasty and Japan."

At this point, Wei Guangde pointed to Liu Shouyou next to him and said: "Commander Liu is very sensitive and feels that something is wrong, but he just can't figure it out, so he quickly handed the document to me.

At first, I didn't figure it out either, but."

"Good loan, tell me what you think quickly, is it urgent?"

Zhang Juzheng urged.

"The exchange rate of gold and silver in the Ming Dynasty is 1:7, and that in Japan is 1:10. The barbarians are willing to accept it, which can only mean that the exchange rate of gold and silver in the barbarians, that is, in the West, must be higher, perhaps 1:15, or perhaps 1:20."

Wei Guangde was just guessing. With his limited historical knowledge, he really didn't know the exchange rate of gold and silver in Europe during this period, but he could make a reasonable guess.

After hearing this, Zhang Juzheng nodded after a little thought, approving Wei Guangde's judgment.

"This shows that in the West, the barbarians have less gold and more silver, and the situation in Japan is slightly better, while in our Ming Dynasty..."

Zhang Juzheng didn't think so at first, but after talking about the situation in the West and Japan, when he came to the Ming Dynasty, Zhang Juzheng suddenly got stuck, and his careless eyes suddenly widened.

At this time, Liu Shouyou, who was sitting on the side, also suddenly looked up at Wei Guangde, with a look of shock.

In fact, the truth is easy to understand, but the ancients' thinking was limited, their horizons were not open, and they could not think of the global market at all.

In their eyes, the gold and silver of the Ming Dynasty are in the Ming Dynasty. Doing business with the barbarians and having them bring silver to buy things is a good thing, and the silver will stay in the Ming Dynasty.

However, the meaning of Wei Guangde's words and the intelligence sent by the spies in his hands all show that while the barbarians are transporting a large amount of silver to the Ming Dynasty, they are also quietly buying gold from the Ming Dynasty.

The gold price of the Ming Dynasty shows that the Ming Dynasty has more gold than silver, so the exchange rate of gold and silver is so low.

"Brother Shu, you have been in the Hanlin Academy, so you should know the exchange rate of gold and silver during the Hongwu period."

Wei Guangde suddenly said again.

"Shan Dai, are you saying that the gold of my Ming Dynasty has been flowing out all these years?"

Zhang Juzheng actually had a basis for saying this, that is, there is a clear record in the documents sealed by the government that the exchange rate of gold and silver among the people during the Hongwu period was one to four, that is, one tael of gold was exchanged for four taels of silver, and now it is one to seven.

"It is certain that there is outflow, but the reason may not be all this. There should also be a large amount of silver coming in."

Wei Guangde said.