The Human Emperor c1-2382

by Huangfu Qi (皇甫奇)

  “For some reason, many factions have begun to reject the use of gold yuan certificates. If paying with actual gold or silver, they will take the stated price, but if paying with gold yuan certificates for the same thing, they will demand an additional twenty or thirty percent, sometimes even more than that. Gold yuan certificates are losing more and more of their value now; many factions are no longer so happy to take them, and use of gold yuan certificates is avoided wherever possible. They’re even more willing to carry around heavy chests of gold and silver, taking the risk of being robbed by bandits, than accept the gold yuan certificates issued by the Imperial Court.

  “You also understand that the Imperial Court’s promotion of gold yuan certificates is soft in nature, and if they don’t accept it, there’s nothing we can do. Not only that, it was only the noble clans on the borders that were rejecting gold yuan certificates at first, but later on, even the great clans of the capital began to resist them. Privately, some people have already begun to trade gold yuan certificates amongst each other, even though the Imperial Court has stressed again and again that they shouldn’t. If this continues, we’ll have a major problem on our hands! Once you’ve shot an arrow, there’s no getting it back, and the Imperial Court has already expended a great deal of time and effort into promoting the gold yuan certificates. If the gold yuan certificates are completely rejected, the Imperial Court will immediately suffer enormous losses, and this is highly likely to affect the welfare of the people. After all, a problem with gold yuan certificates is a problem of money. Pulling a hair can cause the entire body to move, and this effect isn’t something that can be stopped if the Imperial Court recalls all the gold yuan certificates. This could even have major economic ramifications!”

  The more Yang Zhao spoke, the more worried and depressed he became.

  “Worthy brother, you also know that many people privately aren’t happy that I was made Chamberlain of Palace Revenues. Countless people in the court, even the officials of the Bureau of Revenue, are keeping a close watch on me. If I show the slightest weakness, they’ll immediately drag me off my horse and make sure that I never recover. I feel like I’m sitting on a bed of nails! You were the one who thought up the idea of gold yuan certificates. No matter what, you have to help me!”

  Yang Zhao suddenly clutched Wang Chong’s arm like he was a drowning man clutching onto a straw, his expression fraught with panic.

  Wang Chong said nothing, instead beginning to carefully examine Yang Zhao. He had heard some things about Yang Zhao’s current circumstances. Given his status as cousin to Consort Taizhen, no one in the palace dared to directly criticize him. However, quite a few people criticized him in private, with the majority of the criticisms aiming at his family background and his proclivity for gambling. But Wang Chong also knew that Yang Zhao did not enjoy the favor of the Sage Emperor merely because of his connection to Consort Taizhen. Although he was not born to a very good family and had his various problems, he possessed astonishing talent when it came to numbers and finances. That he could recognize that the problem of the gold yuan certificates was not an isolated problem and could have hidden economic effects was already proof enough of his talents in this field. Moreover, Wang Chong also knew that Yang Zhao had relied on his skill in economics to rise through the ranks of officialdom.

  “Let me ask you, just how many gold yuan certificates have been printed?” Wang Chong bluntly asked.

  “This… it– it shouldn’t be that many…” Yang Zhao immediately began to stammer.

  “Hmph, not that many? If it wasn’t that many, would we have the current situation? If you want me to help you, you have to tell me the truth.”

  Wang Chong’s sharp eyes seemed to bore into Yang Zhao’s soul. No matter what he was hiding, it seemed like it could never escape Wang Chong’s gaze.

  “This… We did print quite a lot. But it’s only around eight hundred million taels of gold,” Yang Zhao said with a trembling voice.

  “If you say eight hundred million, then you’ve probably printed at least one billion’s worth. In not even two years, you’ve printed one billion taels in gold yuan certificates. Did you really think that this was some sort of money tree! That you could print however many you wanted!” Wang Chong coldly said.

  He had seen at a glance the root of the gold yuan certificate problem. The Great Tang pursued a policy of long-term prosperity for the people. Thus, despite the wealth of the country, the Imperial Court brought in little tax revenue—less than one hundred million taels of gold a year. By printing one billion taels’ worth of gold yuan certificates, Yang Zhao had printed off ten years’ worth of tax revenue. The consequences were easily imaginable.

  Yang Zhao had still been too greedy! Although he was exceptionally talented when it came to finances and economics, when he saw a treasure trove like the gold yuan certificates, his gambler nature immediately broke out. He had taken this policy meant to serve as a convenience for the common people and a way to enrich future generations, and made it into a tool to get rich.

  Although the majority of the money he had printed went into the Imperial Court’s treasury and was used for the welfare of the people, his way of doing things had completely ruined Wang Chong’s original intentions when he had made the proposal to the Imperial Court!

  This sort of printing of paper currency that increasingly caused it to lose value and even be speculatively traded on a ‘black market’ was known in another world as ‘monetary inflation’. In more casual terms, it could simply be called printing too much currency.

  When he was making this proposal to the Imperial Court, Wang Chong had stressed the need to be cautious when printing gold yuan certificates and that they could not be excessively printed. Alas, all of this had still occurred.

  “You were too greedy!” Wang Chong sternly said, his expression cold and aloof. “It would be fine if you hadn’t distributed the gold yuan certificates, but now that they’re out there, it’s too late to take them back. It’s hard to gather up spilled water, and there are some things that, once done, are impossible to reverse. Do you know what will happen if the matter of the gold yuan certificates is not handled properly?”

  Yang Zhao said nothing, but his face paled.

  “You don’t seem to understand the specifics, so I will tell you. First of all, you said that when using gold yuan certificates to purchase items, you need to pay twenty to thirty percent more than you would with actual gold. Let me tell you that this is only the beginning.” Wang Chong closed his eyes and began to slowly narrate the future disaster. “Gold yuan certificates will soon begin to rapidly shed value, and a gold yuan certificate nominally worth one hundred taels of gold will only be worth fifty, and that’s a conservative estimate. Once this occurs, the great clans will start to purchase gold yuan certificates en masse and then go to the Imperial Court to exchange them. The common people might not have the channels to do this, but the great clans will. The gold yuan certificates were issued by the Imperial Court, and in order to preserve the Imperial Court’s reputation, the Imperial Court will have to honor the face value of the gold yuan certificates no matter how many the great clans want to exchange. Meanwhile, gold yuan certificates will become more and more worthless.

  “By the end, gold yuan certificates will be worth no more than the paper they were printed on. The one billion taels’ worth of gold yuan certificates you have printed will throw the currency markets of the Great Tang into chaos. The common people would have products that they couldn’t sell while the merchants would have money that they couldn’t use to buy anything… The efforts of decades, of generations, of hundreds of thousands of people working day and night, would become nothing. And that would be an absolute calamity. The prosperity of the Great Tang would go up in smoke in a single night!”

  Buzz!

  Before Wang Chong had even finished speaking, Yang Zhao had already broken out in a cold sweat. As the Chamberlain of Palace Revenues, he was the primary director of the empi
re’s financial policy. If such a thing really happened, not even Consort Taizhen would be able to protect him, and popular discontent would mean that his death would be imminent. The Son of Heaven would be punished the same as a commoner if he committed a crime. For small problems, Consort Taizhen would be completely capable of protecting him, but not for something like this.

  “Worthy brother, save me! No matter what, you must save me!”

  Cold sweat trickled down Yang Zhao’s forehead as he grimly clutched Wang Chong’s arm, the veins on the back of his hand bulging from the force he was applying.

  No one understood more than him the situation he was in. He had managed to maintain some of his composure in front of Wang Chong, but the true situation was far more severe than he had said, and the situation was worsening much faster than he had first imagined. Three months ago, Yang Zhao had barely paid any attention to the reports he was receiving.

  But three months later, Yang Zhao was forced to seek Wang Chong’s help.

  “…Is it because I printed too much? I’ll stop printing the gold yuan certificates right now, and if I need to take some of them back, I’ll have them back immediately!”

  Yang Zhao was in shambles, seeking out any remedy for his illness.

  Recalling the gold yuan certificates was something that Yang Zhao only wanted to do as a last resort. After all, it was money! But he no longer had any options.

  “This will only treat the symptoms. Even if it solves the problem in the short term, the problem will still break out in the future.”

  Wang Chong shook his head, rejecting the idea.

  Chapter 1260

  Chapter 1260: The Great Tang’s Chamberlain of Palace Revenues, a Master at Currying Favor

  Translated by: Hypersheep325

  Edited by: Michyrr

  “Ah!”

  Yang Zhao was immediately struck dumb, his face turning the color of a sheet of paper while the cold sweat poured out at an even faster rate. At this time, he finally felt a little regret over his excessive avarice when taking the position of Chamberlain of Palace Revenues.

  Wang Chong said nothing, but his finger began to lightly tap against the table. No matter the generation, or what parallel universe or alternate spacetime one occupied, monetary inflation was always a very significant problem. A minor consequence would be to drag a prosperous country into a recession while in more serious cases, the country would collapse. In the end, the ones who were burdened the most were the common people.

  All their wealth would have been plundered and they would only be left with a pile of worthless paper currency.

  The tapping of Wang Chong’s finger echoed through the study. After some time, Wang Chong finally spoke.

  “Relax. The situation hasn’t gotten that bad yet. Fortunately, you were able to realize these potential problems beforehand, giving us enough time. There’s no need for you to recall the gold yuan certificates just yet. Dredging the river is superior to building dams, and that’s what we should aim to do.”

  “What do you mean by ‘dredging’?” Yang Zhao immediately asked, his eyes brimming with hope.

  “It’s very simple. The great clans and common people don’t accept gold yuan certificates because you printed too many. There are so many circulating in the marketplace that the Great Tang momentarily can’t digest them all. So if this money is spent and digested, the problem can be solved,” Wang Chong confidently said, his eyes shining with profound light.

  “Ah?”

  Yang Zhao was befuddled. Wang Chong himself had said that there were too many gold yuan certificates for the system to digest. In this situation, how could the money be spent?

  “Heh, of course, the Great Tang isn’t digesting it, but you’ve forgotten that the Great Tang has many countries on its borders: Ü-Tsang, Arabia, Goguryeo, the Eastern and Western Turks, the Xi, the Khitans, Mengshe Zhao, and the many kingdoms of the Western Regions. Aren’t these all potential markets?”

  Wang Chong’s eyes blazed as he answered the question on Yang Zhao’s mind.

  “In this past, we might not have been able to do anything, but haven’t the surrounding countries all signed treaties with the Great Tang now? Since they’ve signed treaties, they shouldn’t be able to refuse the gold yuan certificates. Countries probably wouldn’t do something that would show such a lack of trust, right? Since that’s the case, we’ll just push the gold yuan certificates to the countries bordering the Great Tang!”

  The many countries were sitting on the sidelines as the Great Tang’s militarists and Confucians battled it out, and some were even fueling the fire. It was about time that they paid the ‘price’.

  Buzz!

  Wang Chong spoke very nonchalantly, but his words were like a peal of thunder in Yang Zhao’s ears.

  The countries around the Great Tang…

  For Yang Zhao, Wang Chong’s words had opened a whole new door. Not even at his greediest and craziest would he have ever dared to think of such an idea. He had always heard that Wang Chong’s art of war was abnormal and unconventional, causing all other generals to seem dim in comparison, but Yang Zhao had never been interested in war. Now, however, he had a firsthand experience of Wang Chong’s unconventional style of thinking.

  This truly was the case!

  The normal trading activity of the Great Tang would not be able to digest one billion taels’ worth of gold yuan certificates. Even the Arabian Empire’s one billion taels of gold had been paid out from the treasury of Mutasim III and had not actually been circulating in the marketplace. But if these gold yuan certificates were circulated to Ü-Tsang, Arabia, the Eastern and Western Turks, Goguryeo, Mengshe Zhao, and all the other countries, digesting them would be no problem at all.

  If those prosperous Hu merchants accepted the gold yuan certificates, then even one billion was just a drop in the bucket, vanishingly insignificant. Moreover, if this happened, not only would they not have to recall the gold yuan certificates, they could print even more—two billion, three billion, five billion, perhaps even more.

  Yang Zhao had to admit that he was tempted.

  Wang Chong had been watching Yang Zhao this entire time, taking in the shifts on his face. Finally, he smiled, and took a sip of his tea, knowing that Yang Zhao had completely understood. Probably only someone of Yang Zhao’s talents could promote the gold yuan certificates and allow them to exhibit their full might, and he also needed proper motivation to do so.

  “Notice! Under user’s full support, a special historical incident has taken place, unlocking the special mission ‘World Currency’! User is rewarded 2000 points of Destiny Energy. In addition, starting from now, for every ten million taels’ worth of gold yuan certificates printed, user will be rewarded with 100 points of Destiny Energy. When the total value of gold yuan certificates reaches five billion and ten billion taels, user will obtain an additional reward!

  “The wheels of history roll forward, and since ancient times, no one has ever circulated a currency that was accepted by all the countries of the world as a ‘world currency’. Anyone who controls the ‘world currency’ will hold an endless stream of wealth and grasp the lifelines of all other empires. Upon mission completion, user will be granted an immense reward!”

  At this moment, the Stone of Destiny’s voice resounded in his mind. Wang Chong was taken aback by the voice, but his lips quickly curved into a smile. It had always been his goal to make the gold yuan certificates into a ‘world currency’.

  “Worthy brother, many thanks! Wonderful… I just knew that you would be able to help me out!”

  Yang Zhao had no idea what had happened to Wang Chong. His eyes were shining and his face was red with excitement.

  But Yang Zhao quickly realized something, and the passion in his heart died down. “But Ü-Tsang, Arabia, and the other countries aren’t fools. They’re used to using gold and silver in their transactions and might not accept this money. In addition, if not even our own people will accept it, they’re probably
even less likely to.”

  Ü-Tsang, Arabia, and Goguryeo were intelligent countries, and they wouldn’t accept anything that would adversely affect them. Moreover, the Great Tang had fought with all these empires before, giving them even less reason to accept the gold yuan certificates.

  “Heh, even if they don’t want to accept the gold yuan certificates, their opposition is pointless. Starting from now, you can issue an order that for any goods being brought out of the country, at least half the price must be paid in gold yuan certificates. Moreover, all deals must be verified at the local government office and provided with a proof of certification. In addition, anyone who pays with gold yuan certificates will have their customs duties waived!”

  Wang Chong gently smiled as he took a sugared fruit from a dish on the table and ate it. He then confidently continued, “In addition, the primary goods being traded are tea leaves, silk, porcelain, and salt. Starting from now, they can only be paid for with gold yuan certificates. Anyone who privately uses gold or silver to exchange for these products will be heavily punished and stripped of their right to trade. In addition, all the Hu merchants engaged in business within the Central Plains must exchange for a certain number of gold yuan certificates at the government office to obtain a permit for trading within the Great Tang. They will also have certain customs duties waived.

  “Of the Hu merchants who come to do business in the Central Plains, eighty percent come for tea leaves, silk, and porcelain. If they can only buy these things with gold yuan certificates, they cannot refuse them. In addition, human nature tries to avoid harm. Once they realize the benefits to exchanging for gold yuan certificates, they’ll definitely accept them! Moreover, with the wealthy Hu merchants as models, the Hu of the various countries and the ordinary people will follow their example. Once using gold yuan certificates becomes a habit, they will soon spread to all the other empires. And the convenience that comes with carrying around gold yuan certificates will cause it to be accepted on a large scale by all the other countries.