ntire East Palace, and even the entire imperial palace, began preparing for tomorrow's grand wedding.All procedures, including decoration, etiquette, security, and so on, were handled by officials fro...Chapter 1316: A Rare Treasure

“The value of goods in the world depends on one hand on its material, texture and use, but this is only the most basic foundation for calculating value. There is a more important foundation, which is the degree of scarcity.”

"Rare items are more valuable."

"Anything, even if it is good, loses its value if it can be obtained easily and everywhere. For example, the air we breathe every day."

Nan Gong Shou Zhong's eyes lit up, and he grew more confident with each word. At one point, he even looked directly at Li Chen as he spoke with pride, "Everyone needs to breathe to survive. Without air, it's like drowning; no matter who you are, you'll die. Therefore, if we're talking about value, air is the most precious thing."

But just because air is everywhere, filling the heaven and earth, no one would pay money to breathe it. There's only one reason for this: it's too easy to get.

“On the other extreme, there are antiques.”

"I once owned a celadon porcelain vase from the Ru kiln, dating back centuries. To be honest, it was just a vase, with no practical use. But because of its history, it was worth thirty thousand taels. Furthermore, it was the only complete celadon vase from that period still in existence, making it unparalleled and increasing its value by another seventy thousand taels."

“A full one hundred thousand taels of silver, still a preferential price given because I knew the seller. But after buying it back, is it useful It’s utterly useless! It only represents that I could afford one hundred thousand taels of white silver. With so much money, this porcelain vase itself has absolutely no practical use.”

"But even if it's worthless, now that the commoner is selling it, people are still willing to buy it for over 120,000 taels. That's what makes it a rare and valuable item."

The same principle applies to national debt.

“In my humble opinion, at the very beginning, national debt should never be rampant or purchased indiscriminately. There must be a certain threshold. For example, each household could only purchase one bond, and the minimum purchase amount for one bond would be ten taels of silver. For wealthy households, the maximum purchase amount would be one hundred taels of silver. Combined with the first point, this is how its value would truly be realized.”

Li Chen asked, "Isn't the limit of one hundred taels of silver for wealthy households a bit too low"

Lord Protector, this is just an example. The limit could be one hundred taels or two hundred taels, but the commoner believes that one hundred taels is sufficient. After all, only in this way can it be shown that national debt is not something the court begs people to buy, but rather something people scramble for. Once such a concept takes hold, then those wealthy individuals will find ways to purchase several more shares. The court turns a blind eye, everyone gets what they need, and it's a win-win situation.

Li Chen, hearing this, suddenly realized. He smiled and said, “Not bad, really not bad.”

"Nan Gong Shouzhong's face flushed as he continued, "We could also add some smaller perks, like selecting lucky individuals and doubling their interest. These methods aren't particularly clever, and the probability of success is low. The court wouldn't spend much, just a little bit on interest. But for the people, who wouldn't want to be that lucky individual"

At this point, Li Chen completely understood Nangong Shouchong's whole train of thought.

He pondered for a moment, then said, “I think your suggestions are excellent.”it to the eunuch.Zheng Baorong took the edict in both hands and looked at it carefully."Your Highness, please have some tea." At this time, Wan Jiaojiao brewed a pot of tea and sent it to Li Chen's ha...