In the eight-character system of destiny, a wife represents wealth, while a mother represents protection. Women are the one essential force guarding a family’s fortune and nurturing its children. The series Goddess of Wealth tells the extraordinary stories of women who found happiness through exceptional bookkeeping skills and financial acumen. As the empress of Emperor Zhenzong of Song and the mother of Emperor Renzong, how did Liu E stabilize and advance the prosperity of the Northern Song Dynasty? During the Northern Song, commerce thrived in Sichuan, but metal currency was inconvenient to carry and could not meet the needs of trade. This led to the creation of the earliest paper money, jiaozi. However, when some merchants went bankrupt, privately issued jiaozi suffered a crisis of confidence and could no longer be redeemed. Liu E, the de facto ruler at the time, helped transform jiaozi from a private instrument of credit into legal tender issued by the state, bringing it under the government’s financial system. It was the world’s earliest official paper currency.
