Chapter 634 Military Notes 3
"Yes, we also need to consider the difficulty in allocating various materials and whether it is fair."
Catherine also added: "I think the soldiers who were given apples felt that they were being treated unfairly compared to the soldiers who were given salt, because salt holds its value more easily."
"Look." Paul said with a smile: "If you directly use materials as a means of paying military salaries, there will be many problems in the actual operation."
"In the ancient times of ignorance, people's trading method was to barter. However, as the scale of trade expanded and the complexity increased, it was too inconvenient to directly exchange items. So-called coins appeared, and coins were used as a medium for transaction valuation. By connecting all the trade goods, real commerce was born and the prosperous world we have today is possible.”
"So..." Paul finally said the immature thoughts he mentioned at the beginning.
"We can create a new type of trading medium that does not rely on scarce metals such as gold, silver, and copper, but still has the properties of money. This trading medium is only for internal use by the army. It can be called [military coupons]."
"You know, the shops under the control of the royal family are all over the country of Aldo. As long as the king issues a decree, when holders of military tickets purchase goods in the shops of the royal family, their effect is equivalent to metal coins of the same face value. Then use the military tickets To pay the soldiers, isn’t it equivalent to paying them metal currency? This will get rid of the current lack of money of the royal government.”
Catherine thought for a while, "This is indeed a good idea. But what should this kind of military coupons be made of? According to you, since it still has currency properties, its raw materials need to be scarce but not too rare. A rare attribute. Use diamonds? This is very expensive!”
Paul shook his head and replied: "Use paper! Use uniform printing methods to print complex patterns on the paper, just like the gold and silver coins currently circulating in the kingdom, such as the portrait of His Majesty the King, and the corresponding coins. "
Paul's words surprised Catherine, and then she frowned, "This seems to be easily copied. I can immediately imagine the scene of fake military tickets flying everywhere."
Paul nodded, "Well, I'm almost certain that fake military stamps will definitely appear, but we can reduce the risk of counterfeiting by increasing the difficulty of production. We might as well make the pattern on the military stamps more complicated to make it difficult to draw. Ask a skilled seal engraving master to engrave the master plate for printing military stamps. Some seal engraving masters often have unique skills to prevent counterfeiting. "I think there is no shortage of such talents in the royal family."
Catherine nodded. The royal family does support such sculpting talents. When the king issues an edict, he will stamp it with a seal that represents the royal power. The pattern on the stamp will naturally have a way to identify the authenticity, otherwise the king's edict will be flying all over the sky.
Paul continued to suggest: "The engraved master plate should be kept strictly confidential. In addition, severe penalties can be imposed on those who forge military stamps, such as a direct sentence of death, to deter potential lawbreakers. In addition, we can also use materials texture to prevent counterfeiting.”
"Use parchment? Parchment is not easy to make."
"No, although parchment paper is not easy to make, the production technology is known to everyone around the world, so I use the kind of paper made from plant fiber produced in the northwest bay."
"Are you kidding?" Catherine couldn't help it. "The kind of paper you invented is everywhere in the streets and is not scarce at all. And I heard that some underground workshops that are unwilling to pay patent fees have already copied it."
Paul said confidently: "But the paper from the Northwest Bay is still of the best quality, and we can change the formula, add something else, such as cotton lint, and develop a special paper for making military stamps." The texture of the paper is different from that of ordinary paper. It is more wear-resistant and more resistant to folding. It does not break into pieces like other papers. Because it is specially used for military tickets, we artificially control its output and artificially make it. It is scarce, and it is forbidden for the public to buy this kind of paper.”
"There is another advantage of using paper to make military stamps. After all, paper is still paper. It is not as easy to store as gold and silver. Paper will decay, so it will not be stored for generations, so it will be stored for a certain period of time. was spent promptly within the time frame.”
A new question came to Catherine's mind, "Would members of the military accept it?"
Paul replied, "Of course it is impossible to accept it all at once. To gradually promote military stamps in the army, we must first target the soldiers at the bottom. Soldiers at the bottom and their families have little need for material life. As long as they can Purchasing enough daily necessities - food, salt, cloth, wine - can basically satisfy their lives, and these can be easily purchased in the shops opened by the royal family with military tickets."
"It's not easy to face officers. Officers need a high-quality life and social interaction. Some of the luxuries they need cannot be redeemed anytime and anywhere with military tickets - after all, at the beginning we could only let the royal family The store accepts military stamps.”
"Even for soldiers, I don't recommend forcing them to accept military notes by force. We can reach an agreement with them that those who are willing to accept military notes can receive one and a half times or even two times the salary, or pay the soldiers with half metal coins and half military notes. We should target soldiers from poor families. Many soldiers have never even touched coins since childhood. For them, as long as they can buy the necessary supplies, it doesn't matter whether the money is made of paper or metal."
"As long as the supply capacity of the royal shops can meet the demand for purchasing various daily necessities with military notes, military notes can establish a strong reputation among the lower-level soldiers."
"Once the reputation is established, the acceptance of military notes will increase and gradually spread to the officer class."
As Paul talked, Catherine nodded constantly. She even felt that Paul's ideas were quite mature.
"In addition, military notes cannot completely replace coins in the initial stage, so I suggest that the royal government prepare a sum of money. When soldiers and their families have special needs and have to use coins, they can use military notes to exchange for coins of equal value."
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"Please note that all the above contents are based on sufficient material supply. If soldiers cannot exchange the materials they need with military notes, all promises are meaningless."
Irene suddenly became happy and suggested eagerly: "In this case, why should we limit the use of military notes to the army? Can't it be promoted to the whole society?"