Chapter Fifty-two: Treasure Bills

  What's the matter? Double-linked? Isn't the cost of lottery supposed to be flipped over? Still need daily archiving? Officialdom? What's the cost? Yang Reform found that his own lottery might not be able to play anymore. This is something that requires officialdom to operate, and efficiency will definitely not go up. The key is also that it needs a double-linked single, needs daily archiving, Yang thinks this is a huge task. How many people are needed for this?

  Here is the translation:

  Moreover, modern transportation was not developed, and it was impossible to network across the country. At most, it could only be a city or the surrounding area selling lottery tickets. In that case, many sets of lottery teams would be needed, almost one set per large city. This would require too many people, really too many. Moreover, each would sell their own lottery tickets and need to prevent them from colluding and cheating together. The difficulty coefficient was simply too high. This is a natural place for corruption! In that case, how could the lottery still be sold? Yang thought about it in his heart and felt that this double-color ball game might not work out after all. Even if he could get the "typewriter" to arrange the lottery numbers, it would still not work out.

  Too many links, too long a journey, and no regulation, apart from corruption and cheating, there is no other possibility, collapse on the road.

  Yang thought about reform for half a day, and finally decided to give up on this colored ball after all. This kind of thing is only suitable for the 21st century, when there are developed transportation and communication systems, now it's absolutely not feasible, and can only be played with in the imperial court to tease the officials. Thinking about this, a sense of disappointment and boredom arose.

  ……

  After a moment of silence, Yang Reform thought it was better to say something, to encourage them, especially that guy named Ah Wu, who had ideas and was clever, a talented person, should be cultivated, or else he would specialize in making counterfeit bills. Who knows, maybe one day he would need him to help with paper money.

  Yang Reform said: "Hmm, Ah Wu, I'll ask you, what's your opinion on Bao Chuan?"

  A Wu was inexplicable, just now still talking about the lottery, how is it now talking about Baoquan? However, without hesitation, he thought for a moment and said: "I beg to report to Your Majesty, please forgive the humble subject's guilt, the humble subject dares to speak." A Wu also prepared to go all out, either being favored by the Emperor and reused, or being killed by others. There are many people who disapprove of commenting on the pros and cons of Baoquan in front of the Emperor.

  "Go on, you tell me."

  "I humbly report to Your Majesty, the problem with the baochao is that too many have been issued... apart from being forcibly used by government offices, ordinary people do not use them. Moreover, they are crudely made and after years of use, they are still in circulation, with blurry characters that are difficult to distinguish. Even a whole sheet of baochao can only be exchanged for one or two hundred coins..."

  "Are there any anti-counterfeiting measures for that treasure note?"

  "Report to Your Majesty, the treasure notes have numbers on them. The recovered treasure notes are arranged in order according to their numbers and bound into a bundle. Then cut off half of them, and search for the same number among these notes. If there is one, it's fake. Then we can investigate the source."

  "Is that all?" Yang Gaizhi thought this was too simple. The money we issued later had many anti-counterfeiting measures, such as watermarks, embossed collars, ultraviolet light, metal threads, and so on, but they were still perfectly imitated, making it hard to distinguish between genuine and fake. Can a single set of numbers really prevent counterfeiting? Yang Gaizhi was seriously skeptical.

  "We respectfully inform Your Majesty that on each banknote is printed: 'Counterfeiters will be beheaded, those who report and capture them will be rewarded with 250 taels of silver, and the property of the offender will also be given to them...'"

  Ah Wu's answer made Yang Reform feel a bit interesting, what is this? It means that the person who reports the counterfeit currency will be rewarded with at least 250 taels of silver, and then return the property to the counterfeiter's family. This guy, it's really tempting, it's a heavy reward! 250 taels can make a fortune, almost enough for someone to jump up to the small landlord class. It's quite enticing, not to mention the counterfeiter's property. This is more effective than any anti-counterfeiting measures.

  "Has anyone ever forged treasure notes?" Yang Reform really wanted to know if anyone had done so. He was very curious. With the current primitive anti-counterfeiting measures, Yang Reform felt that as long as he had a ordinary printer from a later era, he could print and spend money on a massive scale. Wouldn't that be incredibly cool?

  "I humbly report to Your Majesty, a humble subject dare not speak..."

  "Don't worry, I pardon you and consider you innocent, just speak..."

  "I dare not speak, Your Majesty...". Ah Wu also wilted this time and begged for mercy with a sorrowful face. This matter really cannot be spoken of!

  Yang thought it was strange, "You're not even willing to say you're innocent? What's the big deal about this? If you don't want to say anything, then forget it. I'll ask Master Sun later, he's a walking dictionary, he should know something."

  ……

  Everything has been clarified, and the Double Color Ball cannot be played for the time being. Yang's reform plan fell through, and the "pain reliever" was not successful, which is quite frustrating. However, a talented person who makes precious notes has been found, and it may come in handy when making paper money in the future.

  Yang Reform is ready to fulfill his promise and give some rewards to this group of people. As for Ah Wu, he will be trained a bit and have some ability.

  "All of you withdraw, each take two taels of silver as your labor fee. Ah, yes, that Wu, reward twenty taels..."

  As soon as Yang's reform speech fell, the people below knelt down on the ground, shouting "Long live" in unison. Today is a good day to visit the imperial palace and broaden one's horizons. Not only did they see the world, but also saw the emperor. From now on, when they return home, they can brag about it to others. We have capital! Have you seen the emperor? No? Well, I've seen him, and he even gave me two taels of silver. This is the capital for boasting.

  A group of people were in high spirits, beaming with joy. Only Ah Wu was not too pleased, having thought he could do something for the emperor and get a official position, thus escaping his miserable life as an artisan, but things didn't go as planned, so it was scrapped. Although he got twenty taels of silver, which is a lot of money, it was far from what he had hoped for.

  "Hmm, add another 100 taels of silver to Ah Wu... Ah Wu! After you return, use this money to research anti-counterfeiting measures for the lottery, such as special ink and paper. Make multiple sets of hidden marks and so on, to prevent future lottery tickets from being counterfeited. Although I'm not doing the lottery now, who knows when I'll start again? So, after you return, you must work hard to research this matter, understand?"

  Yang reform blabbed a lot, on the surface talking about lottery tickets, but in fact, he was talking about "money". Special ink, paper, secret notes, anti-counterfeiting measures - isn't this what money is today? Yang Reform found that his lottery tickets weren't selling well, but discovered someone with talent for making paper money, so he decided to invest and have him research the manufacturing method of paper money. Anyway, it didn't cost much, just treating it as a "venture investment".

  "A humble subject obeys the imperial edict. A humble subject thanks Your Majesty for recognizing my talent..." Ah Wu immediately knelt down on the ground, loudly thanking the emperor, and was so excited that he couldn't calm down. Getting such a good job today is like a salted fish turning over! Haha... The Emperor even remembers me, now I'm going to be prosperous.

  "Alright, this... you have to remember, keep it confidential. The things we research, except for you, no one else has the right to know, understand? Yang was about to respond with a 21st-century polite phrase 'no need to thank me', but instead reminded himself to keep it confidential."

  "I humbly report to Your Majesty, I will definitely remember it in my heart and not disappoint Your Majesty's expectations..." Ah Wu was overjoyed. It's confidential, which means this thing is important, right? That's saying that one day in the future, he'll be the emperor's confidant! The emperor's confidant, oh my god! Tomorrow I'll hurry back to take a look at our ancestral tomb, has it started emitting auspicious smoke?"

  "Alright, Da Ban, let them all go back." Yang Guifei was tired from the reform and was preparing to rest for a while, going to find Sun Chengzong.

  ……

  Everyone left, no one disturbed Yang's reform of this emperor. Yang's reform lay alone in bed, broad daylight, couldn't sleep, and thought wildly that he didn't make a fortune with the double-color ball, but got a talented person who made money, which was also a bit of a harvest.

  Yang Reform seemed to recall that the West had paper money in the 17th century, which means that the West also had "paper money" similar to modern currency. In other words, studying paper money now doesn't have any major technical difficulties, and thinking of this made Yang Reform feel much more at ease.

  "Uh-huh, sleep for a while, and then go to Master Sun's place after waking up. Yang thought of the secret reform plan vaguely."