Prime Minister Bizen

Chapter 376 Japan's Financial System

Hideyoshi was originally interested in this mysterious new weapon, but after witnessing its power and hearing its cost, he questioned its cost performance.

And after Hideyoshi lost interest in artillery, there was no need to stay in Shishan. He explained to Hideyoshi to deal with the affairs in the territory as soon as possible, and then went to live in Osaka, and then took everyone on the way back.

After sending Hideyoshi away, the Hide family immediately recruited Osafune Sadakin to explain to him about Iyo's copper casting that Hideyoshi had explained to him in the city yesterday, and asked him to send someone to contact Osaka about this matter.

At the same time, let him confirm the shape of the new coins and the content of various metals as soon as possible, and prepare to open a blast furnace in Yiyu to mint coins.

Minting coins has been a profitable business since ancient times. Due to the lack of labor productivity in ancient times, the ancients always had a fixed quota for metal mining, so metal was called the most important currency in ancient times.

Taking Japan as an example, there are many kinds of currencies such as Jinpan, Jindou, Yinpan, Silver Cake, and Copper Coin for circulation.

Some of these various financial currencies were uniformly printed by the ancient shogunate, but a large part of them were minted by the powerful daimyo in the territory themselves.

Since each country has a different ratio of adding different metals to the currency, this will cause a lot of inconvenience in the exchange of these currencies.

This has made money exchanges popular all over the place. The silver money trading centers opened by these merchants with the lord's license will charge a lot of commission every time they replace coins.

These "royal merchants" made use of the differences in currencies in various regions and the lord's charter to earn a lot of money in daily exchanges and commerce, and then handed over a considerable part of it to the lord in exchange for protection.

At that time, there was no concept of finance, and the lords generally did not know how to do business. In their view, this part of the profit was part of the output they should have in their territory, so they also protected the money-for-money business.

But they don't know the reason that wool comes from sheep. A considerable part of the cost of the goods they buy from merchants every day is taken away by money houses in various places.

In Xiujia's view, these cash-for-money houses that make no output but make a lot of profits are social cancers that really hinder social development.

In fact, even in later generations, the foreign exchange earning business is still popular all over the world. The simplest example is that in the 21st century, if you have the opportunity to go abroad, you can exchange RMB for Japanese Yen at home, then exchange for US dollars in Singapore, and then go to China. If you exchange the U.S. dollar into RMB, there will be an interest rate difference of more than 20% between rounds. This is a truly costless transaction.

But this kind of business is still understandable between countries. After all, it is to maintain the stability of the country's financial system, but you can understand that there are multiple currencies of different purity in a country, and the connection between states and counties will also be taken away. "Internal foreign exchange difference"?
Such an obvious problem in the society, of course, cannot be the first discovery by the Xiu family, but in the past due to the melee of warlords, the shogunate was unable to take back the right to mint coins. no.

As for the following daimyos, whether it was the Hosokawa family who was the leader of Kinki or the Ouchi family who was the prefect of Yinyang, the income from replacement money was their main source of monetary income.

The time came to 1569. At this time, Oda Nobunaga had just taken control of the emperor and the Muromachi shogunate, and he couldn't wait to issue the "Order to Make Money".

It stipulates that gold and silver must be used for large-value transactions (including foreign trade, such as trade with China, importing raw silk and silk fabrics from China, etc.), and at the same time formulates the official exchange rate between gold, silver and copper coins, among which high-quality copper coins are specially formulated The exchange rate with inferior copper coins at the time of use.

当然优质铜钱依旧按照传统，1枚当1文钱使用。而一些私铸、磨损、破损的劣质铜钱，则将其法定价值打折使用，如以2枚/5枚/10枚当1文钱使用。

However, the "money writing order" issued by Oda Nobunaga did not have any practical effect, because the political situation was still in a state of division at that time, even if his decree could be implemented within the scope of his own control, he could not control other people in the world. daimyo.

However, the difference in government orders between him and other daimyos not only did not eliminate this phenomenon, but instead made the money exchange business in his territory more prosperous.

Because the exchange rate he should stipulate is a dead number, and the exchange rate for money between countries fluctuates according to different currencies, which creates a profit difference.

In the past, the money store only made profits by exchanging bad money with Yongle Tongbao, but now it can even make profits between bad money, and suddenly there was a wave of confiscation of bad money in its territory.

Of course, in Nobunaga's own opinion, it is also beneficial for him to do so. At the very least, it will greatly reduce the proportion of bad money in the countries under his control, and strengthen the circulation between the Tianxia Buwu Tongbao and Yongle Tongbao that he forged.

Do you think this is a good thing?wrong!
Because of the high copper content of the "Tianxia Buwu" built by Nobunaga and the Yongle Tongbao he earned from the trade with Ming Dynasty, it has been sought after by businessmen from all over the world.

They brought the copper coins transferred from Nobunaga's side to the territory of other daimyos, exchanged them with the local family names for the bad money minted in the local area, and then used the local exchange rate to exchange the bad money for gold and silver, and then used the gold and silver to return Trade in Nobunaga's territory.

In this way, Nobunaga became completely taken advantage of, and began to be sucked financially by other forces.

Among them, the most popular ones are the merchants in Sakaicho. This kind of behavior reached its peak when Nobunaga was encircling the net, until Nobunaga broke the encirclement net, completely determined his status as the overlord of Kinki, and came to Sakaicho as the overlord. Threatened to level Sakai, the incident was basically eliminated.

After Toyotomi Hideyoshi took power, in order to consolidate his regime, he carried out a series of political and economic reforms, including some new measures in the currency field.

Overall it includes:

[-]. In order to obtain financial resources, they directly govern the important gold and silver mines within their sphere of influence. For gold and silver mines that are not directly under their jurisdiction, they levy a high amount of "transporting gold" (equivalent to mineral resource tax) to control Raw materials for coinage;

[-]. Appoint the Goto family (the Goto family was a famous goldsmith family in Japan at that time, and was the royal goldsmith of the shogunate during the Muromachi shogunate) as the person in charge, and specially cast the "Tianzheng Dagan" gold coins for them

Note: "Tianzheng" is the year name, "Dapan" is the official name, and the word "Tianzheng" is added as a prefix to distinguish it from other Dapan gold coins;
[-]. Appoint Yuasa Zuobingwei (later renamed Dahei Changshi, a famous silversmith merchant at that time) as the person in charge, and set up "Changshisuo" as the minting institution to mint "Daheijiyin" Dingyin for it

Dingyin refers to a long strip of silver coins. There were several kinds of long strips of Dingyin circulating in Japanese society at that time, and "Dahei Jiyin" was just one of them;

Fourth, ordered the casting of several other gold and silver coins, such as "Tianzheng Tongbao" money and silver coins, Wenlu Tongbao silver coins, Hakata Royal Silver, etc., and stipulated the official exchange ratio between all currencies.

Hideyoshi's doing this is like issuing currency in later generations. Copper coins are similar to "cents" and are used as a unit. Gold and silver with different regulations are like one-yuan, five-yuan, ten-yuan, 20-yuan and hundred-yuan bills, making Japan's financial system take shape. .

Although Toyotomi Hideyoshi did complete the unification of Japan's national regime and territory, it may be a problem of the limitations of its time. It did take measures related to currency, but Hideyoshi's reforms in history were not thorough and did not achieve unification. The role of currency.

Because he did not formulate a unified decree on the casting, issuance, and circulation of currency, but only controlled the raw materials of gold and silver mines and minted several new currencies.

Moreover, these types of new currencies are generally used to reward soldiers or military expenditures, and the amount of minting is very small. Their original purpose is not to be used as currency in the market.

The most important thing is that Hideyoshi did not tighten up the right to mint coins. Mori, Shimadzu, Tokugawa, Date, Mogami, Uesugi and other daimyos all had mint licenses, and copper coins across the country were still in chaos.

Since ancient times, minting coins has been a profitable business. Gold, silver and copper are mixed with other metals in different proportions to earn a certain interest rate difference, which is more than a huge profit.

Hideka has now obtained the license to mint coins from the Besshi Copper Mine. With Oda Nobunaga's lessons learned before, he will not be a fool to be a winner, minting good money for no reason to suck the blood of those daimyo who minted bad money.

Even the copper mines mined by Xiujia may not necessarily be traded in Japan. The purpose of Xiujia’s mining of Besshi copper is to transfer it to Daming and trade copper coins with officials, and then use these copper coins to buy silk, porcelain, ginseng, etc. in Japan. products, brought back to Japan for sale.

The profit of minting coins is at most 2 times, but the profit of cross-sea business is more than 5 times.

In the past, there was no shortage of copper in the Ming Dynasty, but regardless of the royal family or the landlords and squires, they always liked to put these things that are not easy to corrode. For thousands of years, most of the copper mines in the Ming Dynasty have been exhausted, so that the copper coins on the market lack of liquidity.

Zhang Juzheng once wanted to replace copper with silver to carry out reforms, but ordinary people could not save a tael of silver all year round, and copper coins were more practical, so the purchasing power of copper coins in the Ming Dynasty was very high.

At this time, the main copper production in the Ming Dynasty came from Yunnan, and it could only be transported to the capital after a long journey across mountains and mountains. It can be seen that the demand for copper ingots in the dynasty was very high.

The Xiu family could have transported the copper ingots to Ningbo to trade with local officials. For the local officials, this was a political achievement, and there was absolutely no reason to refuse it.

It is true that the Xiu family did not have a seal of approval for the Ming Dynasty's exploration and cooperation trade. Normally speaking, it is impossible for Ningbo to call at the port.

But the Xiu family was not worried about this matter. If the Ming Dynasty officials were so serious about Zhu Yinzhuang, the tragedy that happened to the Ouchi and Hosokawa fleets in Ningbo would not have happened.

What the Xiu family carried could be called political achievement copper ingots. Generally, such a large number of copper ingots would definitely be listened to in the heavens, and it would not be impossible for Yu Xiduo to give Yu Xiduo a special seal.

But the Xiu family also has risks. After all, Hideyoshi has granted the Matsuura family a franchise for the prospecting and cooperation business with Ming.

Fortunately, the Xiu family had always had an agent for Ming trade in the past, and that was Li Dan, the leader of the Japanese pirates entrenched in the five islands of Kyushu.

After all, he was born in the Ming Dynasty. Although for some reason he committed himself to being a thief and is now the overlord of the East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, Li Dan, who was born as a scholar, still has a longing for the Ming Dynasty.

Otherwise, Zheng Zhilong, his land, would not have fought against the Netherlands for the territorial integrity of the Ming Dynasty and recovered Wanwan.

Although the deal with Li Dan would inevitably result in him taking part of the resignation, but after all, his fleet now spans the two seas, and the Xiu family does not have the strength to rashly go to the Ming Dynasty.

Moreover, the official deal with the Ming Dynasty still depends on Li Dan, who will come forward to show off the copper ingots of the family so that the local forces will not be slandered.

As far as Li Dan is concerned, although he has some identities in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces, after all, his official identity is a wanted criminal by the court. He urgently needs a chance to clean himself up and walk on the land of Ming Dynasty with dignity.

And the copper ingots that the Xiu family gave him was a good opportunity. He would come forward to exchange for the imperial court's franchise status, and he would also take advantage of the opportunity to exchange for an official status. It could be regarded as selling him a favor. too powerful.

After thinking about all this, the Xiu family wrote a letter in time, writing the cause and effect of the matter on it, and asked Changchuan Zhenqin to pass it on to Ming Shang on Li Dan's side, and he would forward it on his behalf.

The Xiu family specifically told Changchuan Zhenqin that the issue of minting coins should not be left behind on the surface. After all, this is also laying the foundation for the subsequent unification of national copper coins.

The Xiu family has already made up their minds that once they control the national political power, they will take back all the coinage rights in various places, and set up five major mints all over the country, only controlled by themselves.

First, one or two years of bad coins are allowed to pass through in order to cast enough copper coins to flow out, and when the time is ripe, all these copper coins will be released, and everyone is allowed to exchange them at the official money exchange house, but it is stipulated that all must be exchanged within one year, 1 After the year, the original bad money will be abolished in time.

In fact, this is exactly the operation of replacing gold coupons and legal tenders with new coins after the founding of New China. However, during this process, ordinary people are most likely to be incited, thinking that this is the imperial court taking the only money in their hands, and it is easy to be taken advantage of by those who want to Raise a stick.

Just like the abolition of currency in India two years ago, the common people were instigated by criminals to take to the streets.

You must know that the Japanese people in this matter are different from the Indian people in later generations. At this time, the Japanese people are full of martial arts, and Ichikui can beat off the lord and establish the existence of a land Buddhist kingdom.

Therefore, if the Xiu family really decides to abolish coins, they must make sufficient preparations to prevent ambitious elements from taking advantage of it.

Of course, now that the right to mint coins has been withdrawn, the Xiu family can learn how to operate paper money in later generations, and write different denominations on copper coins, gold coins, and gold coins of different shapes and sizes, so that they can be traded as different currencies of equal value.

The simplest example is that the cost of making a $100 banknote is only US$0.36 in future generations. Once this banknote starts to circulate, the profit of US$99.64 will be taken away by the Federal Reserve in time.

This is the real no-cost business!
Of course, the financial body in this era is still the era of metal currency. The government cannot earn as much as it did in the era of credit currency in later generations, but it is still possible to grab 70% of it. Isn’t this more profitable than opening copper mountains?
Of course, in order to prevent inflation from being overissued, the imperial court must do a good job in recycling, replacing, and destroying old coins.

This is also part of the cost of the real money spent by the Federal Reserve in later generations. In this part, the Fed needs to use a sufficient amount of new currency to recover the old pen and then destroy the old pen. The cost reaches 100% of the cost of the old pen of $112.

In order to make this part of the comprehensive cost less than the income from printing new coins, the speed of printing new coins must be higher than that of recovering old pens, which is the origin of CPI.

But what era is it now?It was the era of the Warring States Period in Japan, an era when those in power made decisions with one word, and an era when the ruling class completely ruled the lower classes.

Xiujia can recycle the old coins not in the same amount, but in accordance with the fineness of the old coins, starting from 95% and gradually reducing it. Isn't this another profit?
You ask me what is this called?
To collect money legally, with royal franchise, this is finance!
After the Japanese government of later generations closed the country, the reason why it seemed a little powerless in the face of British and American foreigners was that the problem was that 40% of the country's land and 60% of its handicraft income were used to bear 100% of the country's national defense pressure.

Because the Tokugawa shogunate did not have the right to collect taxes from the vassals, it only handed over part of the income in the name of He Gong every year.

Since ancient times, the purpose of enfeoffment was to protect the central government, but in modern times, Japan's enfeoffment system has become a national defense burden for the Tokugawa shogunate in the face of foreign enemies.

The Xiu family's policy can be applied after the world is peaceful and passed down from generation to generation.Because Japan at this time did not have the soil of the county system, it could only rely on this policy to earn profits from the whole country in disguise to strengthen the economic strength of the central dynasty.

　This chapter may be a bit rough and difficult to understand, but if you don’t write it clearly, you will be confused about your reforms later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)