I am always called "ancestor", and my mentality seems to be brought to some subtle elder mode.
But think about it from another angle... It seems to be a lot of fun to have Hetty, who has always been calm and elegant, show such a dull expression.
Looking at Hetty’s dumbfounded and then at a loss expression, Gawain felt inexplicably better. The stress caused by seeing a large number of documents also disappeared in an instant. Then the expression of the eldest granddaughter in front of him continued. Before he collapsed, he waved his hand: "It's okay, I just said casually - what are these documents?"
Although Hetty didn't know what happened, she felt as if she had escaped a bullet, so He secretly breathed a sigh of relief and placed the document on his ancestor's desk: "It is a preliminary report on the construction of the Imperial College and the construction of a new school in the Holy Spirit Plain. There are also documents related to the Western Region Railway Project - the Government Affairs Department has processed it in accordance with the procedures. , but you still need to see the key parts in person."
Gawain thought for a while, and suddenly wanted to ask about Hetty's life events...
Two seconds later, he said. Condensing these somewhat scattered thoughts, he reached for the thick documents and asked casually: "Have the mages and scholars who moved from St. Sunil last week settled down? What do you think of them?"
"Everything is settled well," Hetty nodded and said, "As for my evaluation... From the perspective of personal knowledge and ability, those who can be loyal to the royal family or enter the Royal Capital Scholars Association are the best masters. There is no doubt about their ability, but each of them still has a long way to go before they can integrate into Cecil's new order, and many of them will face elimination."
"... It's an inevitable process," Gao Wen said while flipping through the paper in his hand, "but we still need to transform and fight for it as much as possible - as long as it can be transformed, we must transform it as much as possible. We still lack intellectuals, but we must pay attention. , the admission standards for personnel in all education departments cannot be relaxed, and the standards for two trials and two examinations cannot be changed. Those old-school intellectuals who have passed the preliminary transformation but failed the two trials and two examinations can be allowed to do research and go to factories. Be a technician, but you must not enter the school. This must not be forgotten."
Hetty lowered his head: "Yes."
The empire has been established and the land ruled by Cecil. From a cramped and barren land to a vast country, unprecedented huge resources and manpower were flowing on the desks of Hetty and the various departments of the Government Affairs Department. But after the initial excitement and excitement, Hetty realized Under the surface of this seemingly abundant resource are still the facts of various shortages - the ancestors want to build a brand new country, rather than taking over a decadent kingdom and then becoming a comfortable monarch. Those legacies from the homeland of Ansu are It needs to be transformed and selected before it can be used again.
A large number of intellectuals from the northern region will solve the key talent shortage problem in the development of magic technology, but before that, these intellectuals must not only establish a new knowledge system, must also accept ideological changes, and the so-called two trials and two examinations are Gao Wen's rigid standards for the education department to absorb talents: review of major taints and misdeeds, review of personal information, academic ability assessment, and ideological transformation assessment. Only those who pass all After these tests, they were allowed to enter various new academies established by the empire.
The strict assessment and admission system is also one of the factors leading to the current serious shortage of teachers in new schools. However, our ancestors’ standards in this regard are not allowed to be relaxed at all. Fortunately, those who graduated from the first phase of Cecil General College in the past Students and some of the down-and-out intellectuals who were the first to follow the construction of the southern border have grown up in the past few years, and the talents they have returned are gradually easing the gap in schools in various places. Although the gap is still huge, at least it is no longer despairing.
Hetty understood why the ancestors valued this aspect so much.
Because in the early days when the system was still flawed and the implementation was not yet in place, she had seen with her own eyes how a teacher from a collateral noble family taught children to prostrate and kiss the ground in school. - that is just a small nobleman from a collateral lineage, with no inheritance rights, no titles or fiefs, and the only connection with the "aristocratic society" is his thin bloodline, but just for this thin connection, for the "rightness" in his heart And the only law" and the "honor" of the family, he can risk jail time to make the children remember the rules of kneeling again.
She knew from that day that some rotten things would never be completely eliminated by a gravel ridge bombardment and a signing ceremony, and they would not purify themselves. Those things that could not be swept away would never be completely eliminated. Residues will lurk in various corners, and if there is a one in ten thousand chance, they will rush out like mud from the cracks.
Perhaps even if a strict access system is implemented, some of the mud will still seep in - this is almost certain, after all, the new Government Affairs Department system's control over the remote areas of the empire is still seriously insufficient. We can only rely on the other two great consuls and their vassal system for temporary control - but there is no such thing as perfect in the world. As the ancestors once said, this will be a long-term undertaking and may require It’s not just one or two generations...
Hetty was lost in thought for a while, while Gawain had hurriedly scanned the end of the document and then placed it on the right hand side: "I have roughly read it, and there is no problem. ——I will take a closer look tomorrow morning and give you a reply then. Is Padrick in the Government Affairs Office now?" Hetty woke up from her thoughts and nodded: "Yes, he was there yesterday. Just returned from Carroll and has returned to the Government Office this morning."
"Let him come to see me - I want to hear about the currency pilot."
"Yes. , Ancestor. "
...
In front of Gawain, there are several temporary currencies (substitute coins) of different denominations, as well as coins minted by the Cecil Royal Mint. of several coins.
Coins include standard copper coins, silver coins and gold coins, while paper currencies are"Silver banknotes" with denominations of one and five feenhams, and "gold banknotes" with denominations of one and five gold pounds - fenham is a word in common language, which means "thin" "Silver foil", and the so-called gold pound is also different from the currency of the same name that has appeared on the earth. Here, it is equivalent to the thinnest gold coin of the smallest size that Ansu has ever circulated, which is almost equivalent to the upper limit of currency that civilians can have access to in the past. .
The banknotes are beautifully printed and have textured patterns that glow wonderfully in the sunlight.
Just from the denominations and the meanings of the names of these banknotes, we can see that this is just a superficial attempt to transform precious metal currency into banknotes.
“After about half a year of trial operation, the pilot areas have successfully replaced more than 70% of precious metal circulation with temporary currencies, maintaining the normal conduct of business and the normal settlement of local finances,” said Patrick Wiping his forehead that had gradually broadened over the past two years, he reported meticulously, "People didn't understand and trust banknotes at the beginning, but later discovered that they can indeed be used to purchase goods, and now they have gradually become accustomed to its existence. . From the perspective of simply promoting banknotes and forming habits, the pilot is successful.
“But the flaws of the pilot are also obvious. As you can see, we still have not fundamentally gotten rid of gold and silver settlement. In essence, the currency circulating in the pilot area is still circulating gold and silver, and because of this, the coexistence of 'gold banknotes' and 'silver banknotes' is equivalent to the denomination exchange between banknotes, which will still be affected by the price of precious metals. , there will be a phenomenon of bad money driving out good money. However, we have recently successfully cut silver banknotes from silver, so that they can only be exchanged for gold banknotes, but not directly for silver. This is equivalent to turning it into a 'subordinate unit' of gold banknotes, which can be regarded as a solution to the bimetallism system. The problems brought about..."
Gawain frowned and looked at the several currencies on the table, flipping through the detailed report brought by Padric in his hand, and couldn't help but mutter softly: "It's a mess..."
Padrick immediately wiped his cold sweat: "...Your Majesty, I am extremely sorry..."
"No, I am not scolding you," Gawain quickly waved his hand, " You did a great job and did all the testing and sampling I asked you to do, these messes are just what happens when rolling out new things...the laws of nature, not your fault. "
Padrick breathed a sigh of relief: "Yes, Your Majesty. ”
“There is no obvious skew in the empire’s gold and silver reserves. Whether it is based on silver standard or gold standard to issue currency is feasible, but whether to continue to use precious metals as the basic standard to issue currency is the biggest Question," Gawain said slowly while thinking, "Padrick, you must be aware of the hidden dangers of directly linking gold or silver to banknotes. "
"...Yes, Your Majesty, and after hearing your theory about the currency trap, I confirm that the hidden danger is real and extremely dangerous," Padrick nodded immediately, "From now on. From a long-term perspective, as well as from a practical perspective,I think the 'credit currency' you once mentioned is a better option. "
"...Credit currency..." Gawain frowned again, "Padrick, you should know that the basis required for issuing credit currency is much higher than that for issuing substitute currency - - Because essentially, we want to define paper without any use value as 'money', and the biggest prerequisite for people to use these 'papers' to purchase goods and make settlements is that they believe that the empire can honor all 'paper currencies'. The value represented, this 'trust', must be as reliable as real money. "
Padrick met Gawain's gaze and sat firmly with his slightly fat body. He nodded and gave a brief but powerful answer: "Yes, I understand. ”
He had thought about it a lot before he came here.
If Cecil wants to enter a higher social stage, he must complete the currency reform as soon as possible, and Even without considering the long-term future, judging from the current situation, the messy monetary system left over from the old Ansu era has reached its limit -
The private coinage behavior of various nobles during the feudal era, coupled with the The frequent recasting of currency caused by the political turmoil in the Upper Kingdom itself has made the old currency system chaotic. Only in the Holy Spirit Plain and parts of the Western Territory, the officially circulated currencies include silver shields, long silver coins, short silver coins, gold shields, royal twill gold coins, There are dozens of metal currencies such as round copper coins and small round copper coins, and the quality varies, and the exchange relationship is confusing.
The complicated currencies and exchange ratios not only make businessmen overwhelmed, but also make it difficult for ordinary people to carry out large-scale transactions. Trading has even spawned the profession of "changers", and these exchangers with local aristocratic backgrounds have become a kind of "extra tax officers" in disguise, exploiting civilians and small businessmen who are not many. Money.
The chaotic currency also hinders commercial exchanges across the country. Due to inconvenient exchange and huge settlement risks, trade between regions can often only be monopolized by specific groups, even when the currency is most chaotic. , areas that are seriously saturated with bad currency, commercial activities have reached the point where it is almost impossible to carry out...
Even if there are trains and new economic policies, as long as this quagmire-like "currency garbage dump" remains , then Cecil's reconstruction and development will inevitably be difficult.
Therefore, the most important thing Gawain did when taking back the power of the nobles was to ban the coinage rights of all nobles and consolidate them. The Imperial Mint (formerly the Cecil Mint) has classified private coins circulating in various places as illegal, and will be gradually recycled, recast, and exchanged by the Government Affairs Office within a certain cycle.
Due to the old coins. They are all precious metal currencies. As long as their quality is up to standard, their value will not be reduced due to recycling and recasting (if losses are not taken into account). Therefore, this step of currency unification has been implemented relatively smoothly.
And in currency unification. Under the general premise, the promotion of banknotes is also a must.
In the era of magic industry, the growth rate and abundance of commodities far exceeded that of the previous era.As anyone can imagine in the old days, precious metal currencies with limited unit value, inconvenient transportation and complicated settlements will soon be out of date. The Typhon Empire next door has begun to implement new currencies, and Cecil must immediately enter the next stage of currency reform.
This is a drastic change, and Padrick believes that since such a drastic action is already being carried out, it is necessary to put the changes in place at once.
Nothing is perfect, and credit currency also has its fixed shortcomings, but at least in the long run, it can avoid the biggest hidden danger of substitute currency. He has also thought about the prerequisites for issuing credit currency - he needs a A highly centralized and sole authoritative core political power requires the people's trust in the national system, the strong executive capabilities of the Supreme Government Affairs Office, and effective means and early warning measures to control unlimited currency issuance. However, no matter how great these difficulties are, plug Sirdu must issue credit currency.
He has his own considerations, and he believes that the emperor in front of him will support him after hearing those considerations.
Gawain maintained his frowning posture.
Of course he knows the advantages and disadvantages of credit currency, and he also knows the fatality of substitute currency. However, he also knows that if you take too big a step, you will get hurt.
Worry that the direct issuance of credit currency would cause all kinds of chaos was the biggest reason why he was unable to make up his mind.
He looked at Padric in front of him.
This Kant scholar, who is extremely talented in the economic field, is not a person who likes to talk nonsense.
"Give me your reasons, Padraic."