Coinage

Shen Yan, a graduate student in economics, became the magistrate of "Yongfeng County", the poorest county in the Northern Qi Dynasty. There are thirty-two thousand people in the county, but less than ten thousand are alive. Copper coins have not been distributed in salary for three years, and the people have not a penny in their hands. The price of rice in the next county is 1,000 yuan per dou, and in Yongfeng County, it is 3 yuan per dou - but no one can afford it, because the whole county cannot even afford 3 yuan. Shen Yan found that the fundamental problem was not "no food", but "no money". He did a crazy thing: using three thousand shi of old grain in the county government granary as collateral, he issued a "tax and grain coupon" - a piece of paper that said, "This coupon can be used to offset the grain tax of three coins." Paper is not money, but it can be used as money. This novel and its characters are purely fictitious. Any similarity is purely coincidental and should not be imitated.