Chapter 82: The Original Accumulation of the Central Bank.

When Zhu Yunwen emerged from behind the screen, Ma Enhui was standing next to the chest, holding five silver ingots in her hands. Her eyes were slightly narrowed, and she occasionally exuded a gleam of anticipation.

“Empress…” Zhu Yunwen called softly.

Ma Enhui turned to look at him, smiling brightly as she said, “Your Majesty, look here. There are nine thousand eight hundred taels of silver, and with the initial payment of three thousand taels for medicinal gauze, we now have a surplus of ten thousand eight hundred taels. The Central Bank finally has some money reserved for future use.”

Zhu Yunwen watched Ma Enhui putting the silver back into the chest. He knew that though she had a penchant for wealth, her fondness was not driven by personal greed but rather by the desire to make the harem financially independent and no longer rely on the state treasury.

Murong Jing’er was a clever person who knew who the real master of the harem was.

If the revenue of the Arts Troupe were just small profits, it would be fine to leave some for daily expenses. But now, the revenue was too significant, to the extent that it became a troublesome issue. That’s why Murong Jing’er proactively handed over all the revenue to the Empress for disposal.

Ma Enhui was pleased with Murong Jing’er’s decision. She kept seventy percent and allowed Murong Jing’er to take the remaining thirty percent back.

“It’s just over ten thousand taels, which is not enough to support the Central Bank. Recently, the King of Liao and the King of Min discussed the problem of depreciating paper currency and the high value of silver and copper. The treasury note system has encountered significant issues, and I need the Central Bank to have more money to implement currency reform,” Zhu Yunwen whispered to Ma Enhui as he closed the chest.

Ma Enhui called for a eunuch to carry the silver to a nearby temporary warehouse and said to Zhu Yunwen, “I also know about the problem of depreciating paper currency and the high value of silver. I have heard that copper is even more expensive. In the past, one tael of silver could be exchanged for one thousand wén of copper coins, but now it can only be exchanged for eight hundred or seven hundred wén. I wonder where went wrong.”

Zhu Yunwen smiled lightly and replied, “Scarcity makes things valuable. When copper becomes scarce, it naturally becomes more valuable.”

In Chinese culture, copper holds a special significance. Ancient people believed that the color of copper symbolized nobility. Looking at the ancient tripod vessels used in sacrifices, the most revered ones were not made of jade or gold, but rather of copper.

Before the Han Dynasty, and even tracing back to the Shang and Zhou Dynasties, many ancient texts that mentioned “gold” actually referred to “copper.”

For example, the Book of Documents records: “The people of Yin moved their capital eight times before and five times after.” This means that the early Shang Dynasty relocated its capital eight times, while the later Shang Dynasty moved it five times, which meant they changed their residence every few decades, and it wasn’t because the property rights expired after seventy years.

Many historians believe that the frequent capital relocations during the Shang Dynasty were due to reasons such as avoiding floods, power struggles for the throne, and the nomadic lifestyle. However, some also think that the primary reason for these relocations was to search for sources of copper mines.

The brilliant Bronze Age culture was supported by copper mines. Since copper was scarce and valuable, it was suitable to be used as official currency. After all, ordinary people couldn’t produce or imitate it in a blacksmith shop.

During the Tang Dynasty, there were not many copper mines, mainly in the counties of Yian and Yongxing in Xuānzhōu, Longyou, and Jiangxi South Province.

In the Song Dynasty, copper mines were mainly distributed in the three provinces of Jiangxi, Hunan, and Guangdong. Four major copper mining sites emerged: Censhui in Shaoshan Prefecture, Yongxing in Tanzhou Prefecture, Qianshan in Xinzhou Prefecture, and Xingli in Raozhou Prefecture.

However, by the time of the Yuan Dynasty, the number of copper mines decreased significantly. During the Yuan Dynasty, paper currency was prevalent, and gold, silver, and copper took a back seat. A small amount of copper mining was enough for the imperial court and nobles to make wine cups.

After Zhu Yuanzhang took over from the Yuan Dynasty, there were only two copper mines left in Dexing and Qianshan in Jiangxi. The economic system relied on the use of money, but there was not enough copper. Later, the introduction of paper currency also didn’t go well, resulting in a situation where both paper currency and copper coins were in circulation.

By the time of Zhu Yunwen’s reign, the Ming Dynasty had an even greater demand for copper, but copper production couldn’t keep up. Naturally, the exchange rate between silver and copper would become imbalanced.

Zhu Yunwen looked at the map of the Ming Empire and set his eyes on Raozhou Prefecture in Jiangxi.

In later generations, this place would become a super copper mining base, with “six mines and two smelters,” and its copper abundance would surpass that of the entire country. If he arranged for people to start mining copper in Dongxiang and Yongping in advance and expanded the mining scale in Dexing, there shouldn’t be any objections.

After all, everyone was a descendant of Huaxia, sharing the same heritage…

Besides Jiangxi, there were also rich copper mines in Yunnan, Gansu, Anhui, and other places.

However, Yunnan was currently in turmoil with too many elephants and ivory not being valuable. There were also many unruly people, so it might be better to wait for a while before starting mining.

Gansu was too far away and occasionally faced threats from the Mongols. They couldn’t dig copper mines today and find them taken away tomorrow, wasting their efforts.

It seemed that he could only mark the copper mines in Jiangxi and Anhui, which were scattered in the later generations, and send people to mine them.

“Your Majesty, Your Highness, King of Liao, and King of Min are requesting an audience,” Shuangxi came in to announce.

“Let them in,” Zhu Yunwen said while looking at the map.

King of Liao and King of Min arrived with quite a commotion. A group of eunuchs carried over twenty redwood boxes into the courtyard and placed two of them inside the room.

“Empress, it seems we can afford to add some extra dishes to the Royal Kitchen tonight,” Zhu Yunwen chuckled at the sight.

Ma Enhui glanced at Zhu Yunwen but remained silent, trying to maintain her composure.

After the two kings paid their respects, Zhu Zhi, with a smile on his face, presented a ledger, saying, “Your Majesty, horses are scarce in the capital these days, and the income has been abundant these past two days. This silver belongs to the palace, and here is the ledger.”

Zhu Yunwen didn’t bother examining the details and flipped to the end, where he was astonished to find a balance of fifty-eight thousand taels. He couldn’t help but ask, “you sold the horses for golds?”

“Your Majesty, with so many people leaving the city urgently and delivering messages, the price of a horse has risen to one hundred taels. Even if we rent ordinary horses, it costs two or three taels per day. It’s highly profitable now,” Zhu Zhi sighed.

The Emperor had informed them in advance about the scarcity of horses in the capital. So Zhu Zhi and Zhu Geng invested several thousand taels, mobilizing all their subordinates to gather most of the scattered horses in the capital, renting them out at double the usual price. To prevent any disputes and ensure fairness, they even signed contracts.

Now, those people wanted to break the contracts and take back the horses, but the two kings had already rented them out, and there was nothing they could do.

Zhu Yunwen acted like a skillful trader, using the horse situation as a tool to extract wealth from officials and the wealthy.

“Have you paid taxes on all this?” Zhu Yunwen pointed to the ledger and asked.

Zhu Geng looked somewhat dejected and said with a hint of grievance, “Your Majesty, we have paid taxes, nearly four thousand taels. A tax rate of 1/15 is a bit too heavy.”

Zhu Yunwen shook his head and smiled, “A tax rate of 1/15, is it not profitable?”

Zhu Geng was left speechless.

Zhu Yunwen continued, “In my opinion, a tax rate of 1/15 is still light. Even if it were 1/10, you would still make a great profit. As long as there’s profit, your livelihood won’t be affected. Besides, the tax revenue of nearly four thousand taels will be deposited into the national treasury. This money will be used to pay officials’ salaries and soldiers’ rations. As kings, it’s your contribution to the country. Shouldn’t you be content with that?”

Zhu Zhi and Zhu Geng hurriedly shook their heads, who dares to complaints.

Zhu Yunwen nodded slightly and asked, “Has Uncle Yan approached you?”

Zhu Zhi and Zhu Geng nodded repeatedly.

Zhu Zhi said, “Your Majesty, it seems King of Yan is interested in engaging in business.”

Zhu Yunwen laughed heartily, took out a book titled “New Army Policies” from the desk, and placed it in the box containing the silver. He said to the two kings, “Send these two boxes of silver to King of Yan’s residence. He will understand my intentions.”

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