Can you live forever

Chapter 393 Financial Harvest, Currency Hegemony

Songjiang Mansion, Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau.

After inspecting the latest guns, artillery and warships, Xu Jie was quite satisfied with the progress. Since Zhan Ruoshui came to ask him two months ago, he has been promoted to a member of parliament.

It's just that the Senate is examining him.

It doesn't matter whether you have that title, what matters is that you have that power and strength. The Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau he led and established has already caught up with the court's Military Staff Bureau in technology in just two months.

Finally, a percussion gun like the Hokuto God Gun was produced.

Not only that, but several new muskets were tested, and the results were gratifying.

He originally planned to attack Zhoushan and make this free port exclusive to Jiangnan, but the Wang family seemed to have expected that the Xuande, which had just been launched and had not been equipped with weapons, was sent back to Yizhou.

The withdrawal of the Mohism forces from Zhoushan certainly brought Zhoushan's steel, machinery, and shipbuilding industries into a serious standstill.

But not irreparable.

The Ming Dynasty did not lack smart scholars to do research, nor did it lack master-level craftsmen. What it needed was cultivation and digestion. If it took two years, Zhoushan would be able to return to its previous grandeur.

It doesn't matter whether it's the Jiangnan Manufacturing Bureau or the Raiders of Zhoushan.

All of these are under the competition of the system, the guarantee means for the competition of military power, and it is also the preparation for the construction of the new army.

Jiajing took advantage of, no, it was the First Emperor who helped to complete the military reform of Daming. The establishment of the Five Army Commander's Mansion not only represented the adjustment of the war zone and strategy of Daming, but also the difference between the new army and the old army.

The new army has completely broken away from the framework of cold weapon combat and entered the era of pure hot weapons.

Rifles, pistols, squad machine guns, artillery.

The mechanized truck has been developed. The new fuel engine is the result of the three-month scientific research of Mojiao and Jingshi University, and the design and experiment of the first generation truck have also been completed.

Correspondingly, tanks have also begun to be manufactured.

Even trying to imitate war horses and manufacture so-called motorcycles is in full swing, and in order to allow troops to move forward better, overhauling roads and railways across the country is also a major move of the imperial court.

Rather, when the first emperor was in power, the first thing he did was infrastructure.

Now that the railway and highway projects have started, a major transportation network will be built north of the Yangtze River in about two years, and the water system in the south is well developed. As long as we can control the waterways, we don't have to worry about logistics.

It can be said that Jiajing's strategy was originally oppressive to the south.

Under the exertion of the first emperor, this oppressive force reached its limit in the past three months, which also forced the south to hastily complete the equalization of land and exempt taxes, and faced the risk of being overtaken by the north in terms of transportation network.

Nanjing proposed to build a railway as early as the 14th year of Jiajing.

So when Zhang Zhixiang first came down from the mountain, he saw the news that the railway was being repaired to Jiangxi. Nanjing took the "momentum", but because of efficiency problems, he was overtaken by the court, and then he had to chase after him in a hurry. It can only be said that he was embarrassed.

The focus of the Jiangnan New Army lies in the Donglin Lecture Hall.

Also known as Donglin Military Academy.

Xu Jie had an idea long ago, but he only started recruiting privately in July, and officially listed in August. In the past two months, the students of Donglin Lecture Hall are still in military training, and they are nowhere near graduation.

The most accelerated non-commissioned officer training also takes six months.

But time waits for no one. Ever since they attacked Zhoushan, the imperial court has used the name of "suppressing bandits" to attack the "Japanese pirates" along the southern coast.

In the Southern Expedition Army, Zhu Wan made a lot of contributions. This time, he was specially assigned to take charge of the bandit suppression work.

Facing Zhu Wan's offensive, the old army in the south of the Yangtze River was obviously not enough to deal with it, and was beaten back steadily. However, because of the limited war, even if it had an advantage for a while, it could not advance or anything.

It's not difficult if you really want to break into the world of flowers in the south of the Yangtze River.

But it also means an all-out war, and it will be won by then, and it will also be a world riddled with holes. Not only will the south of the Yangtze River be destroyed, but the north of the Yangtze River will definitely not be much better.

If it is really a confrontation between the two countries, then the last drop of blood must be shed.

Therefore, Zhu Wan won the military victory, and the imperial court pressed Nanjing to fight. They could only "wait" for the opponent to make a comeback. To completely cure the root cause, the Changsheng Revolution must sweep Jiangnan.

And this battle over the system is like a close-to-body fight, with fists to the flesh, and the fight is inseparable.

War is nothing but a point of bloodletting for both sides.

It depends on who can't support it first, and the side that gains the advantage will naturally get the right to trade, not to mention the Xiluo people. Regarding Fusang, North Korea, and Nanyang countries, the trade volume is also quite large.

Daming has been accustomed to the convenience brought by ocean trade all year round. Various spices, medicinal materials, and special products from Southeast Asia are in great demand.

In addition, the air route with Shangzhou has been opened.

On the other side of the Atlantic Ocean, the Xiluo people are fighting to the death with Shangzhou, and the shipping routes are chaotic, but the shipping routes in the Pacific Ocean have been restored, and large-scale trade can be carried out.

Xu Hai betrayed more than [-] Xiluo pirates and arrived in Tianzhu as he wished.

After he integrated Tianzhu, in order to build and develop, he needed to import many things from Ming Dynasty. This is a very huge trade order, but unfortunately, the trade in the west of Manciga can only be decided by the imperial court.

The establishment of the Old Port Proclamation and Consolation Department represented that half of the ocean world had returned to the embrace of Daming.

It can be said.

Jiangnan was already at a disadvantage in the maritime trade. If they were still at a military disadvantage during the "Japanese Bandit Rebellion", the maritime trade would have nothing to do with them, and they would lose hundreds of millions of taels of silver in revenue every year.

Even if this money is used for governance and construction, it is a huge sum of money.

No matter how rich Nanjing was in the past, and no matter how rich Jiangnan was, they could not always bear such a big ebb and flow. They must desperately regain their military advantage. Only in this way can they re-plan the sea power.

December.

During this period of fierce struggle, Jiajing made another move.

The imperial court announced the abolition of metal currency, the implementation of the gold standard, and the issuance of Daming banknotes with gold as the anchor. However, it took a year as a window to allow silver to be converted into gold at a ratio of 30:1 to exchange for precious banknotes.

The knife cut directly to the aorta.

Whether it's from the south of the Yangtze River, from the Xiluo people, or from other countries.

During the long-term trade, they have become accustomed to the Ming Dynasty's silver standard. Although some countries had anticipated that silver would be abandoned in advance, when this day really came, panic broke out.

In an instant.

All trade in the world has turned into silver trade, and almost everything possible is done to transport silver to Ming Dynasty to exchange for precious banknotes within the window period.

If you don't seize this opportunity.

The imperial court closed the exchange window for banknotes and silver, so what is the use of silver?A beautiful metal for trinkets and decorations?But that was in the past. It was a currency, so it was worth money. Is it not a currency anymore?

As for the use of so much silver by the imperial court, not to mention the ballast stone properties of the precious metal itself, silver will also be very valuable as an industrial raw material in the future.

Anyway, paper money is exchanged for metal, why not do it?
In addition to silver, there is also a large amount of gold being transported to Daming to exchange for precious banknotes. There is no way but to reserve precious banknotes. Only in this way can we continue to trade with Daming and buy goods from Daming.

The loss of gold, silver and precious metals in various countries has caused them to lose their currencies.

As a last resort, banknotes were also issued.

But there is not enough gold as an anchor, so they can only use Daming banknotes as anchors, and use foreign exchange reserves to issue currency, which is tantamount to handing over the lifeline of the economy to Daming.

As such.

The Ming Dynasty had never been so rich, or in other words, the Ming Dynasty was extremely rich, and the court finally achieved the financial capacity to match the country's strength.

In the past, the gentry destroyed the precious banknotes in order to prevent the imperial court from having sufficient financial capacity and to prevent the imperial court from gaining financial hegemony.

In this way, gold and silver without an issuer become currency, allowing the gentry to have absolute capital.

But it also pushed Daming into the abyss. Originally, in international trade, it was Daming who used banknotes to buy all resources, but it became foreign countries who used gold and silver to buy Daming’s commodities.

In essence, it was Daming who replaced useless metals with commodities, and it took 200 years to replace them, and then the Manchu Qing’s nearly 300 years.

In the end, it was directly hit by financial means and dimensionality reduction...

(End of this chapter)