The ruthless emperor in the late Ming Dynasty forced Chongzhen to abdicate at the beginning

Chapter 134

The main reason why Zhu Cilang wanted to print banknotes instead of copper coins was that copper coins and silver were too troublesome to use.

Whether it is to pay salaries to soldiers and officials, or to collect taxes in the future, it is too troublesome to use silver and copper coins.

No, with the successive establishment of the head office and ten branches of the Daming Royal Bank in the city, the salaries that were in arrears for nearly half a year were reissued to all officials at once.

The salaries of the yamen and craftsmen in the inner court were also replaced with new types of treasure notes, which were distributed.

Although notices have been pasted up outside the banks and at the gates of the city, stating that fifty taels of sterling silver ingots can be exchanged for five taels of pure silver ingots in full without any handling fee, and one penny will be charged for every extra tael the handling fee.

And broken silver and copper coins go to the bank to exchange precious banknotes, no fee is charged. From now on, the royal shop will only accept precious banknotes, not copper coins and broken silver. However, countless officials, craftsmen, maids, and eunuchs rushed to the bank immediately. branches in the city.

Apparently, Baochao was already a rotten thing in the Ming Dynasty. It was simply a matter of talking about it, and it was feared like a tiger, so no one was not afraid of it.

Even when the people who sent them said that they were giving out hype, everyone was still worried that the precious banknotes in their hands would become worthless paper, and wanted to exchange them for real money as soon as possible.

Apart from the head office, there are only two branches in the inner city, and the head office is not responsible for the exchange. At this time, the two branches are already crowded with people.

The eight branches in the outer city were also overcrowded, and the civil servants were embarrassed to go by themselves, and most of them sent servants to line up to exchange.

If there is not enough five taels of denomination in hand, several people get together.

Perhaps knowing that such a run on would happen, each branch sent ten shopkeepers, twenty shop assistants, and fifty imperial guards to maintain order.

"Everyone is lined up, don't worry, there is a lot of money..."

"Look at how anxious you all are. This is the Royal Bank, and it's easy to be fooled. Stand up for me one by one."

"Don't jump in line!"

The gate outside a branch in the inner city was not dared to open at all, because thousands of people were crowded outside, and more people kept coming.

The fifty imperial guards were hoarse, and managed to maintain order. Then the gate was slowly opened, causing commotion in the crowd, many of whom were craftsmen and eunuchs from the Baochai Department.

Seeing this, the Imperial Forest Army had no choice but to draw their swords one after another, and then completely calmed down the scene. Thousands of people lined up in a long line of ten. .

This branch is obviously remodeled from a large family's mansion. When you enter the gate, you will see the courtyard, the main hall is also used as a reception and rest place, and the exchange window is the wing rooms on both sides.

The previous wooden windows were also replaced with lattice windows. A court lady sat behind the window, and a maid waiter stood on the left and right. On the table in front were account books, pens, ink, paper and inkstone, abacus, and a small scale.

As the top ten people were let in, under the guidance of the clerk at the door, they rushed to the ten windows immediately.

Regardless of the looks of the maids and maids sitting inside, she directly said anxiously: "I want to exchange ingots, and all of them will be exchanged for ingots. See how much you can exchange?"

"There are 58 taels of denomination in total, but there is no exchange for loose silver here, so I can only exchange eleven ingots for you, and then return three taels of treasure notes, but a handling fee of [-] taels will be deducted, and the total exchange will be eleven. Yuanbao, two taels and nine cents and fifty cents, are you doing the math right?"

The shopkeeper, the palace maid, counted the treasures and put them away leisurely, then fiddled with the abacus for a while, and finally wrote it down in the account book and said.

"One ingot is five taels, right? Is it pure silver?" The visitor was obviously a servant of an official's family, who also knew some arithmetic, and said after counting on his fingers.

"Of course they are all [-]% sterling silver, you can check."

The palace maid shopkeeper said, she picked up an ingot of ingot and handed it to him, seeing that he was about to bite when he opened his mouth, he hurriedly said: "Don't bite..."

But the famous house slave ignored her, took a bite, looked at the color again, then nodded in satisfaction, pointed to the small scale on the table and said: "Can you weigh it?"

"No! This is said to be used to collect money, not to issue money, but don't worry, the ingots exchanged by the bank are all five taels a piece, and there is no deception."

Seeing him biting a brand-new ingot, the palace lady didn't show a good face anymore, she shook her head coldly, and then made another statement.

"Okay, then change it quickly." The house slave didn't say anything more.

The clerk at the side handed him ten ingots of brand-new ingots, the maid returned the remaining treasure notes to him, and the shopkeeper picked up a pen to record the transaction, including the date and amount in Arabic numerals.

"You have to bite aside to bite, don't get in the way."

Seeing him biting and checking one by one, the guy at the side shouted angrily.

Only then did the servants step aside, and the other windows were similar, and the people who came later also took a bite of the brand new silver ingots for inspection.

Seeing that someone finally came out with real gold and silver ingots, which were still fine ingots, the people in the queue were finally not so anxious, and their hearts were relieved a little.

The people who came out did not leave, but started to find someone to cooperate with, and prepared to make up the change in their hands to exchange for five taels.

In an attic opposite the bank, Princess Kunxing stomped her feet angrily when she saw such a hot scene below.

Especially when he heard that all the ingots that were exchanged had been bitten, his face turned blue with anger.

Because the bank will only exchange ingots that are intact in the future, that is to say, in the future, these ingots that have been bitten will have to be minted again after they are returned to the bank.

"Brother Huang, what if everyone doesn't believe in Baochao?"

"Don't be impatient, imperial sister. The imperial brother has expected this situation. When they have no salt and food at home and go to the royal shop to buy it, they will understand the importance of the treasure banknotes. They will definitely come back with the silver at that time." Exchange money."

Zhu Cihong said calmly with his hands behind his back.

"But it's too troublesome to change back and forth like this? It took so long to change dozens of people. If you want to change them all, you have to exhaust the shopkeepers. Why don't you limit it?"

Princess Kunxing still said angrily.

"No, there must be no restrictions. As long as anyone can exchange it during business hours, the reputation will naturally be established after a long time. Once the reputation is established, everyone believes that they can go to the bank to exchange Yuanbao at any time, so they will not be in such a situation. Hurry up."

Zhu Cihong waved his hand, although it was troublesome, it had to be experienced.

"Okay! But Brother Huang's good ingots have been bitten and have to be recast. After this, the loss is not small. It would be better to collect some procedures when recycling."

Princess Kunxing suggested again, obviously she still wanted to help the emperor make money instead of losing money.

But judging from the current situation, it is definitely going to lose a lot of money.

"It's better not to collect it. When the follow-up silver coins are produced, this problem can be solved and it can be profitable. Also, the Bank of Treasures and the Bank have nothing to do with the bank. The accounts should be kept separately and cannot be confused."

Zhu Cilang thought about it, and still didn't plan to charge a handling fee when recycling silver and copper coins.

"Sister Huang, after the run on the bank for a while has passed, the bank will be able to carry out lending business in addition to recovering and exchanging silver, which is also a major profit."

Zhu Cihong injected a total of 1000 million taels of start-up capital into the bank, including 500 million treasure notes and 500 million yuan treasure. In the future, the bank will operate independently.

That is to say, the bank takes the recovered silver, copper coins, and precious banknotes and exchanges them with the same amount of ingots and silver coins at the Banking Bureau, and he has the final say on how many precious banknotes to print.

In fact, the bank is equivalent to helping the court recover the spent banknotes, and the scattered silver and copper coins on the market, earning some handling fees, and then paying interest on loans.

At present, there are only these two functions. As for remittance and deposit, it is too complicated and cannot be used for the time being. Of course, there will definitely be more in the future.

Now Zhu Cihong only wants to use the bank to promote the treasure banknotes as soon as possible. When the branches in various places are fully spread out and the reputation is established, the circulation of copper coins is completely prohibited. Even after the silver coins are made, even the broken silver and gold are also prohibited To prohibit circulation.

"Well, Brother Huang, you can do big things with peace of mind. My sister will definitely help you with these trivial things."

Princess Kunxing nodded quickly, she would be happy as long as she could share the worries of the emperor, and it would be even better if she could help the emperor make money.

"Okay, then I will leave all the bank affairs to the imperial sister, and you will also be in charge of the banknote department and the bank bureau. You can mint as many ingots as there are silver coins. The banknotes should be printed on a one-to-one basis, preferably half a year." Branches will be opened in all counties and Acropolis within a short period of time, and the postal supervisor will be responsible for the transportation of silver and banknotes.”

Zhu Cihong nodded, and then instructed.

He really had too many things to do, and he couldn't devote all his energy to a bank.

As for the idea of ​​letting Xungui buy shares to save money, he has given up now, because he is not short of their little money now, so it is unnecessary.

When the industry develops, the productivity increases, the issuance of precious banknotes expands, and inflation will naturally shrink the wealth of the local rich who have buried all their money in the ground.

(End of this chapter)