prosperous age

"Master, this is the dividend issued by the Grassland Chamber of Commerce this year, two thousand taels of silver."

Madam Xu Jianglan, who was sitting in the room, stood up, walked up to him and spoke to him. As she spoke, she took off his official uniform, handed it to the maid beside her, and then took casual clothes from another maid for him to change into.

Wei Guangde returned to the mansion after finishing his work today. He went to the backyard and entered the main room, where he saw two boxes placed in the middle of the room.

He was still wondering why there were four guards from the mansion outside the main door of the backyard. Usually the guards patrolled the outer courtyard and would not enter the backyard.

"Oh, didn't you say before that if you increase the number of textile machines, maybe there will be no dividends in the next two years?"

Wei Guangde asked as he changed his clothes.

“That’s what they said, but the raw materials are selling well this year, and there are also those nobles who are willing to give money to invest.

Even with the addition of a workshop, there was still a lot of extra silver, so after the final discussion, it was decided to share the dividends of 20,000 taels of silver."

Xu Jianglan said slowly.

Originally, Wei Guangde was responsible for coming up with ideas and building connections among the nine frontiers. There was no one more suitable to do this than him, as he was in charge of the Ministry of War.

Furthermore, most of the garrison commanders in border towns have close ties with the nobles, so when he gives the order, it is naturally difficult for the generals leading the troops to stop him.

With the right to invest, Wei Guangde directly received 20% of the shares.

However, with the emergence of woolen textiles, the nobles who had known about this matter in advance became extremely enthusiastic and had previously discussed the matter of investing with Duke Xu Wenbi of Tuoding.

In order to enable the nobles to shift their focus from land to business, Wei Guangde agreed to their investment.

Of course, this kind of Series A financing is naturally costly, and a high premium is inevitable.

The influx of a large amount of equity has enabled the Grassland Chamber of Commerce to have a huge cash reserve even though it is vigorously expanding its workshops.

Why keep the money piling up? It would be better to distribute it as dividends directly.

Of course, due to the investment of these nobles, Wei Guangde's share capital was also diluted, and now it only has one percent.

"Manager Huo and his team have done the math, and from now on, the annual dividend of 20,000 taels of silver can be used as a base. If the profit is high and the Chamber of Commerce does not have other major expenses, they will get more."

Xu Jianglan said again.

Although she would not show up in public and directly contact those businessmen to negotiate business, that was the job of the housekeepers in the mansion, but she kept a book of accounts to record the specific circumstances.

Men are in charge of external affairs and women are in charge of internal affairs, that's generally the case. Although Wei Guangde was in charge of the things in the mansion and foreign investments, they were all handed over to his wife in the end. Wei Guangde had no intention of taking care of the business operations.

In his previous life, Wei Guangde was just an employee of a public institution who lived a life of idleness and waiting for death. He had no desire for money or power, so he could neither be an official nor do business.

When I first came here, all I wanted was to go into the city, find a job at Jiujiang Chaoguan, and live a life of idleness and waiting for death.

I just didn't expect that I would reach this point without realizing it.

In other words, they act based on what they have learned in their previous life and what they have read on the Internet.

But it must be said that this extraordinary vision still brought him good benefits.

All the industries in which he leads the investment make money.

Whether it is the Liaodong merchants and Jiangxi merchants who first cooperated with him, or the merchants who are now surrounding him, they have already formed a huge capital group that can compete with the salt merchants.

Both boxes were open. Wei Guangde changed into casual clothes and walked to the boxes. He reached out and picked up a cylindrical envelope wrapped in red paper. He broke it in the middle and saw white silver dollars on both sides.

The Ming Tong Bao coin was minted by the Ministry of Revenue and was worth one tael of silver each.

Now the various silver coins minted by the Ming Dynasty have completed circulation from north to south, replacing the silver ingots and broken silver among the people and becoming the main circulating currency among the people.

There was no other way. Originally, there were very few silver ingots circulating among the people. Most of the silver was ingots and broken silver. The purity and weight varied greatly. Even special scissors were needed to cut the gold and silver, which was very inconvenient.

Wei Guangde asked the Ministry of Revenue to mint one tael of silver, as well as small silver coins of one cent and five cents, and supplemented them with copper coins, which made transactions among the people very convenient.

In order to make local governments more enthusiastic about collecting loose silver on the market, there will be a certain percentage of return reward after the exchange.

Of course, the bulk of the profits from coin minting still remain in the Ministry of Revenue, including the collection and redemption of gold.

Wei Guangde simply took out two Tongbao coins, weighed them in his hand, and threw them back into the box.

"Send it to the warehouse after inspection."

Wei Guangde gave an order.

"Tell them to come in and send them to the outer warehouse for entry."

Xu Jianglan immediately gave an order, and the guards who had been standing at the door came in. Two of them carried the box out, and with them also came the manager who was responsible for contacting the Grassland Chamber of Commerce.

His mission was not completed until the silver was delivered to the warehouse and recorded in the account.

"Oh, by the way, Madam, I remember that there were still quite a few Yuanbao in the mansion. Let's see when we can take them to the Ministry of Revenue to exchange them for Tongbao. It's easier for these things to circulate outside now."

Wei Guangde said.

The Wei family had accumulated a lot of gold and silver in their early years, most of which they hired others to refine and cast into silver and gold ingots with a purity of more than 90%. These gold and silver had been kept in the treasury and had never been used.

It is really because the government gives money too quickly. Once it enters the inner treasury, there is basically no possibility of using it, and it is all stuck in the warehouse.

As for the expenses of the mansion, the income from various places could not be used up, and a lot of it would be accumulated every year and stored in the inner and outer storehouses.

It is said that a clean magistrate can earn 100,000 silver coins in three years, so Wei Guangde's income was no less than that.

"I don't need that thing, and I'm too lazy to find it from the warehouse."

Xu Jianglan did not agree, but said casually, "Actually, this silver dollar is convenient to use, but it is not as pleasing to the eye as the ingot when placed at home, hehe."

Xu Jianglan laughed cheerfully and said, "I heard that some big businessmen directly dug cellars to store silver, that is, they just poured the silver directly into the cellar after it was heated red.

In the future, if the family needs money, just send people down to smash those silver lumps.

Some people from local government offices went to these families to lobby them to exchange their silver ingots for an equal amount of Tongbao coins, but they were exhausted and it seemed that they didn't make any money after calculating the accounts, haha."

Wei Guangde had heard this news before. The storage of silver was not uncommon in the Ming Dynasty. After all, there were too many wealthy businessmen.

How much can be spent on buying land and building a house?

After all, the investment channels are narrow and there is no soil suitable for doing business, so one can only find ways to hide some gold and silver at home.

But they were afraid that it would be stolen, so someone came up with the idea of ​​hiding it in a cellar.

It is troublesome to take it at home, let alone steal it.

As for the local officials' enthusiasm for this matter, it is also because of the rebates from the Ministry of Revenue, which they think is profitable.

"Yes, it's really hard to put money in a bank and pay for the storage fee."

Wei Guangde said with a smile.

It’s not that Wei Guangde didn’t consider taking the lead in setting up a bank, but it is still mainly the bank that has to do it, and the risks involved are still quite high.

Of course, the most important thing is the bank you have set up. You can't continue to lend money at an annual interest rate of 3%.

Let’s not talk about how big the credit market is in Ming Dynasty now. What if it can’t be supported? Wouldn’t that be a loss?

After all, if you store gold and silver, you have to pay interest, and there are also costs for space, labor, etc. In the final analysis, Wei Guangde still doesn't trust silver bills enough, and he doesn't know how the bankers in Venice or Genoa conduct their business.

In fact, what Wei Guangde didn't know was that early banks were just like the money houses and pawnshops across the Ming Dynasty at that time, with their main business being exchange, or to be more precise, foreign currency transactions.

European countries minted their own standard currencies early on and their businesses were relatively active, so they often needed to exchange their own currencies into foreign currencies to facilitate their purchases of goods in various places.

As for money custody and collection, payment, settlement, lending and other businesses, these are new projects that were gradually added after the development of banks, and they were not there from the beginning.

Even now, there are no real banks in Europe. Although some large merchants with good credit are engaged in foreign exchange-like businesses, they cannot be considered banks.

For example, in the early years, the Wei family used merchants from Jiujiang to directly obtain silver in the capital using slips, instead of transporting the silver all the way from Jiangxi to the capital. It was actually a similar business.

It was about a year later that the first specialized bank appeared in Venice.

There was another hidden concern why Wei Guangde did not consider setting up a bank. He was worried that the bank's bills were not safe, and he was even more worried that they would be exploited by people with ulterior motives.

I have to say that Wei Guangde has read a lot of miscellaneous books and knows a lot of things. At least he has seen the origin of the earliest paper money.

It is not about Jiaozi and Baochao that appeared in the Song and Ming dynasties, but the paper money in the West. In fact, it was not the currency in circulation at all, but the certificate for the gold and silver deposited in the bank.

With the certificate, you can withdraw gold and silver receipts from the bank.

The earliest documents of this type circulating in the market were those in which merchants took gold and silver to mints and goldsmiths and commissioned them to mint standard coins. With these documents, they could receive the commissioned coins at any time.

However, merchants discovered that when they needed money, they did not need to go out to get coins, they just needed to hand over the receipt to the other party.

This was the earliest paper currency circulated in the West. It was issued by mints and goldsmiths, and was a certificate backed by physical gold and silver. It was not endorsed by the state, but was backed by the state's credit.

Even the U.S. dollar currently circulating around the world actually belongs to this type of paper currency. The U.S. government will not endorse the U.S. dollar, and only the Federal Reserve will bear the consequences.

The reason why the US dollar has become the "main" currency in circulation in the United States is that the federal government and states accept notes issued by the Federal Reserve to pay taxes.

In other words, as long as the currency of other countries or notes issued by banks are approved by the federal government and the states and used as receipts for tax payment, they can also become "dollars."

Under such circumstances, Wei Guangde would never dare to introduce the banking model, as he didn't know how he would be played by others at that time.

The Ming Dynasty Baochao is a precedent, it was too difficult for the imperial court to supervise.

He doesn't want to resign because of a financial crisis. It would be too embarrassing.

During dinner, Xu Jianglan talked about Mrs. Wang from the Zhang family who came to their house in the afternoon.

"What is she here for?"

Wei Guangde asked curiously.

The Mrs. Wang mentioned by Xu Jianglan is actually Zhang Siwei’s legal wife.

Don’t think that in ancient times women would take their husband’s surname after marriage. In fact, that is not necessarily the case. It depends on the family background of both sides.

Madam Wang is the niece of Shangshu Wang Chonggu. Her family background is not ordinary, so naturally she would not change her surname to Zhang Wang.

Wei Guangde and Xu Jianglan did not become Wei Xu just because they married into the Wei family. They were still Mrs. Xu outside.

In fact, the tradition of taking the wife's surname as the husband's does exist, but it is not popular, at least before the Qing Dynasty.

It is estimated that it was in the late Qing Dynasty that, as the country opened up and was influenced by Western ideas, more people chose to change their surnames to their husband's after marriage.

Because of such traditions, which even fall into the legal category, in Europe and Japan there are clear laws requiring the name to be changed.

The laws of these countries stipulate that a woman changes her surname to her husband's after marriage, and a man takes his wife's surname after marrying into the wife's family.

"Her family owns a chamber of commerce, and they want to buy two large Fu ships from the South China Sea Navy."

Xu Jianglan said with a smile.

"hehe."

Wei Guangde just smiled. Zhang Siwei and he did not have a good relationship in the cabinet, but he did not expect that he did not come to him directly, but let his wife pass the word first to see his reaction.

Putting away his smile, Wei Guangde said calmly: "You didn't agree."

"Without the master's permission, how dare I make this decision?"

Xu Jianglan replied, "In the next two days, Lord Zhang will come to discuss this matter with you.

Sir, are you selling this boat?

"Of course I sold it, but the price won't be cheap. It will definitely be the same price as a new ship."

Wei Guangde smiled.

In fact, even if we add a little more, there are still many people who want the boat.

After all, business doesn’t wait for you.

A year's delay would result in a considerable loss of profits.

The ships given to the nobles were sold at cost price minus depreciation, mainly because the navy is also an army, and the nobles have a lot of say in it.

They came to him just to give him face and didn't want to cause any unpleasantness.

As for the others, those with good relationships will sell them at the cost price of new ships. Anyway, most of those ships have only been used for a few years and are not much different from new ships.

Who would have thought that the Fu ships, which had been wasted in such large quantities, would be snapped up by people just by the news of the opening of the sea, and people would be willing to pay a higher price to buy them.

"Master, Zhang Ji was talking today about whether we should also open a shipyard in Jiangnan?
With the master's connections in the Ministry of Industry, I think it should be possible.

I heard that several shipyards in Zhejiang and Guangdong are expanding and want to build larger Fuzhou ships. "

Xu Jianglan suddenly said.

Wei Guangde was stunned, then put down his chopsticks and thought about it.

This idea was definitely not thought of by Zhang Ji. He could not think of setting up a shipyard.

It’s funny to say that although the Ming Dynasty once banned maritime operations, it did not ban private shipyards.

After all, inland shipping and fishermen need that stuff too.

However, in terms of scale, the government-run shipyards are definitely larger, especially the large ships, which are almost the signature of the Ministry of Industry’s government-run shipyards. Usually, the huge shipyards are supported by canal transportation.

Although the Ming Dynasty had not built large ships for more than a hundred years, its strength was still preserved.

Not to mention that in the late Ming Dynasty, even Zheng He's treasure ship could not be built, it was said that the level of Ming Dynasty shipyards had declined. In fact, there are many reasons for this, and materials are one of the main reasons.

Don’t forget that the Ming Dynasty shipyard was still capable of building tribute ships, extra-large Fu ships.

When diplomatic missions were sent to overseas vassal states such as Korea and Ryukyu, tribute ships were used for transportation.

"I'll ask him about this later and then make a decision."

Once the maritime ban is lifted, Wei Guangde will not close it again, which means that the demand for seagoing ships will gradually increase, and shipbuilding is really a profitable business. (End of this chapter)