Chapter 295 Money Shortage

Entering the third year of the Jian'an era, Gao Yuan's mood had been very good; the government treasury was becoming increasingly full, and the infrastructure across the Nanyue Kingdom was becoming more and more refined.

As the government office spent large sums of money, the common people also received tangible benefits. Their lives became increasingly prosperous; with enough food to eat and warm clothes to wear, their willingness to have children also significantly increased.

With the graduation of the first batch of doctors trained by the Medical Academy, public clinics in various states began to open one after another starting in May.

These clinics were entirely subsidized by the government office. As long as they were citizens of the Nanyue Kingdom, they could receive free consultations with their household registration. The price of medicine only added twenty percent to the cost to cover basic operating expenses.

If there were truly difficult cases where people could not afford medicine, they could receive free treatment and medicine after verification by the government office; however, their family members had to perform necessary labor at the government office or clinic to offset part of the debt.

At the end of May, with all preparations completed, Liu Rengui led a total of 58,000 troops from the Beiwei Army, Xiaoguo Army, and Xuanjia Army on an expedition to the Indian Peninsula.

For this expedition, a total of more than 20,000 laborers were recruited, over 10,000 slaves were mobilized, more than 5,000 ox and horse carts were used, and the number of merchants accompanying the army exceeded a thousand. The entire contingent could be described as vast and magnificent, a truly spectacular sight.

As the army set out, Gao Yuan clearly noticed that the speed of spending money had increased significantly; the money in the government office's account was decreasing rapidly at a rate visible to the naked eye.

"Fortunately, fortunately, we still have so many spices to sell; otherwise, we would definitely go bankrupt."

Looking at the bill in his hand, Gao Yuan couldn't help but let out a long sigh. Spending nearly two hundred thousand strings in a month—war was indeed the most money-consuming endeavor.

While pouring herself tea, Wu Xu poured cold water on Gao Yuan's excitement.

"Husband, don't be happy too soon. You must know that this is just the beginning. After winning the war, redeeming land and slaves, and rewarding the soldiers—that's when the real bulk of the spending will happen."

Hearing Wu Xu say this, Gao Yuan really couldn't sit still. He wondered if he should take out the last batch of spices and sell them all for money.

Wu Xu saw through his thoughts and gave a gentle smile.

"Alright, alright, you don't need to worry. Currently, there is still enough money in the account, and the work of purchasing grain and fodder in various places is proceeding in an orderly manner. We won't be short of money for a year or two;"

"Also, those precious spices of yours—I suggest you don't sell them for now. Selling too many will cause the price to drop too much, which isn't worth it. It's better to wait until the price goes up before selling."

How could Gao Yuan not understand these principles? Just now, he was simply too anxious and hadn't thought about this aspect.

Because he had vigorously promoted road construction, established academies, popularized medical care, and other projects, the government treasury had to spend up to five hundred thousand strings every month, and at this rate, the speed of spending would only get faster.

Combined with the costs of war, the ten million-plus strings in the government office's account didn't seem like they would last long at all.

Wu Xu smiled as she poured Gao Yuan a cup of tea and said softly,

"Husband is farsighted. Although the government office's current expenditures are large, the monthly tax revenue is also very generous. According to our estimates, this year's tax revenue could exceed thirty million strings."

Thirty million strings—what did this number represent? The annual revenue of the Great Tang Dynasty during its peak was only about fifty-two million strings when converted to copper coins.

One had to realize that the place he currently occupied was the Southwest frontier in the traditional sense, a land of exile. Being able to have this kind of income was already quite remarkable.

Seeing Gao Yuan show a proud smile, Wu Xu couldn't help but roll her eyes at him again.

"Don't be proud too soon. According to Sister Yang Xin's analysis, we are about to encounter a new problem."

"A new problem? What problem?"

"A currency shortage!"

"A currency shortage?"

"In fact, if it weren't for the bank, we would have already experienced a currency shortage. Right now, it's just that everyone is using bank credits for transactions, so this situation hasn't manifested yet;"

"But according to the bank's inventory, the value of the credits circulating in various places has already exceeded the total value of copper coins in the government treasury. Yang Xin said this situation is very dangerous."

Gao Yuan frowned deeply. To be honest, in his past life as a low-level worker, he never had to worry about such things, especially living in China where such a situation would never happen.

Yet at this moment, here, he had no choice but to worry about these things.

However, he soon realized he was just worrying for nothing, because Yang Xin had already provided a solution: adopting silver.

In feudal society, currency had always been primarily based on copper. Gold was always used as a reserve of wealth for the state and the upper class, and never became a mainstream currency.

It wasn't until the Song and Yuan dynasties that the demand for large transactions due to commercial prosperity prompted gold to become a currency for large-scale settlements.

By the mid-to-late Ming Dynasty, with the large inflow of silver from Japan and the Americas, coupled with Zhang Juzheng's Single Whip Law requiring taxes to be settled in silver, silver finally became the mainstream currency.

Scenes in TV dramas where a hero from the Song Dynasty finishes his beef and wine and slaps down a piece of silver to settle the bill can truly only appear in TV dramas.

And now, although the production and stock of silver in Great Qian were not large, they were enough to alleviate the currency shortage problem.

In the future, once he wiped out the Japanese and the Luzon monkeys and emptied their gold and silver mountains, then all problems would be solved.

Regarding the adoption of silver, it quickly received the approval of Gao Yuan and Zhao Xiyao.

Gao Yuan also prepared to take this opportunity to completely reform the currency being used.

The copper coins currently in common use in Great Qian were in the standard form of round on the outside and square on the inside, which secretly aligned with the theory of a round heaven and a square earth.

Such coins had a disadvantage: it was easy for copper theft to occur.

Some people would clip a ring off the outer edge of the coin; this way, it looked the same as the original, but in reality, the weight was far less than before.

At the family meeting after dinner, Gao Yuan took out the drawings he had made.

"Look, for this kind of coin, the edge will have a ring of serrations, which will prevent people from taking advantage of loopholes."

Everyone felt very satisfied upon seeing this design, but only Zhao Xiyao was somewhat worried.

"Husband, this design is indeed very good, but it requires making new coin molds and then casting them. The process will be extremely long, and the smelting wastage will be very high."

"This problem is easy to solve. Look at this again..."

As Gao Yuan spoke, he looked toward Yang Xin and Princess Consort Huang Yueying.

The two women understood and took out another drawing, spreading it on the table.

"Look at this..."

This was a drawing of a hydraulic press. For the next while, Princess Consort Huang Yueying explained to everyone how to use the hydraulic press.

"With this press machine, we only need to cast the gold and silver into strips and sheets, and then we can quickly stamp out the coins."

The women looked at the drawing and couldn't help but ask.

"Husband, is this really useful?"

Gao Yuan didn't answer but gently nudged the woman beside him. Princess Consort Huang Yueying nodded slightly.

"Sisters, rest assured. In fact, the Industrial Research Institute has already completed a hydraulic press;"

"Now we no longer need to continuously forge armor plates like we did before;"

"Although the armor plates produced are not as durable as those tempered a thousand times in the past, they can still achieve seventy to eighty percent of the performance;"

"Most importantly, using this method, our monthly production of iron armor can double."

With factual evidence, everyone naturally had no more differing opinions.

Soon, Zhao Xiyao signed and allocated a large amount of money and grain to Princess Consort Huang Yueying to build a large-scale hydraulic forging workshop.

As brand new coins were produced one by one from the production line, the currency reform led by Gao Yuan was about to arrive.