my wonderful zoo

Chapter 238 Banknote
Back in the east courtyard, Chen Xun met Lu Hui, who had been staying in Guangzhou.

Now that Guangnan East Road has been completely captured by Lu Hui, after the training of the new recruits of the Guangzhou Group Army is completed, they can move towards Guangnan West Road.As the head coach of the group army, Lu Hui has been taking some time off recently.

When they first captured Dongguan County, Chen Xun and Lu Hui discussed the establishment of a bank. At first, they wanted Lu Hui to be in charge, but when Lu Hui thought that he would face a lot of endless numbers in the future, he directly refused. up.

Finally, after this matter was stabilized in Guangzhou, it was handed over to the Financial Secretary under the Ministry of Political Affairs. Looking at the Financial Secretary's report this year, the progress of this work is not very satisfactory.

The Financial Secretary is not short of money. Even if no one comes to the bank to save, the military government's own money can support a wide range of lending needs. The difficulty lies in determining the borrower's repayment ability.

Fortunately, there is a pledge. Based on the value of the pledged fixed assets, it is easy to determine the borrower's loan limit.

Those who have regular jobs in the military government or in factories under the jurisdiction of the military government are also easier to judge. Based on their monthly income, it is also easy to judge the borrower's loan limit.

The most difficult ones are those farmers who are out of work and poor households who are impoverished due to illness.

They really need money relief, but their repayment ability is really difficult to judge.

The bank must minimize the amount of debt collection, otherwise the cost of debt collection will easily exceed the value of the debt itself, and even if it is recovered, the loss will outweigh the gain.

Before Chen Xun came back, he had already told the officials in Guangzhou what he was going to do when he came back, and arranged for them to make preliminary preparations, so today all the relevant officials from the Political Affairs Department came to Chenjiazhuang with Lu Hui.

"Captain, my subordinates have neglected their duties." When Liu Yu, the Minister of Political Affairs, saw Chen Xun, he directly admitted his mistake.

"Where did you fail in your duty?" Chen Xun asked.

"Before you went north, I did not do well in the banking business that you planned to benefit all the people." Liu Yu replied.

It seems that his previous letter caused some misunderstandings among people, thinking that he came back this time to hold people accountable and to wipe their butts.

In fact, Chen Xun has no solution to the problem just mentioned. In later generations, countries are so developed that they can only limit high consumption and transfer bank balances to old people. What can Chen Xun do now to deal with those people who are unable to repay their loans?
Limit high consumption?In this day and age, what kind of high consumption can there be?

Transferring bank balance?How many people have extra money in banks now?It was all cash transactions, even barter.

Even if those people are captured and forced to work to pay off their debts, it will not work. Except for a small number of old people, most of them are the backbone of the family. If they are captured, their small families will collapse immediately.

For its own people, can the military government still watch their families starve to death?In the end, the relief costs exceeded the debt costs, and it was better to turn them into bad debts.

"I don't blame you for this. I am too anxious. You can take your time and relax the conditions. For those who are in urgent need of money to save their lives, it doesn't hurt to have more bad debts. Our military government's bank is not a private bank and we cannot only focus on profits. People's livelihood is also very important." Chen Xun said this, which was regarded as clearing up the matter.

"By the way, how are the banknotes we asked you to make going?"

"According to your instructions, we have tried them all." The name of the craftsman in charge of papermaking is Zheng Zhi. This man's family has been making paper for generations and has superb skills. He was previously controlled by a wealthy family due to debt problems and became a cash cow for the wealthy family.The arrival of Chen Jiajun rescued him and changed his destiny. Zheng Zhi was grateful for the reward and joined the military government. The papermaking technology of the military government improved a lot.

After all, Chen Xun's papermaking skills that he had previously explored on his own still lacked foundation. With Zheng Zhi joining in, he had the confidence to make banknotes.

"I have tried adding cotton, bark, bamboo and other raw materials to the papermaking raw materials, and the quality of the paper produced is indeed very different." Zheng Zhi introduced in detail his development process of banknote paper. "Cotton includes floral cotton and kapok. Paper made from floral cotton is better than kapok, but slightly softer. However, this shortcoming can be adjusted by adding other raw materials. Currently, time is tight and we have not yet fully tried it."

"The bark distinguishes northern tree species and southern tree species. Paper made from northern tree species is better than southern tree species."

"Although bamboo is cheap, it is difficult to process, and the paper produced is not water-resistant, so it can be eliminated."

"Paper made solely from straw, wheat straw, etc. cannot be used as banknote paper because it will be damaged when exposed to water."

In the manufacture of banknotes in later generations, cotton was the most common raw material.

The cellulose content of cotton is the highest, followed by aspen, and straw is the lowest. It can be seen that cotton is the most suitable for papermaking.

However, cotton has wider and more important uses than papermaking, and the cost of making paper will be higher.Therefore, cotton cannot be used to make daily paper, but can only be used to produce some high-value-added high-grade paper.

The bast fiber of tree bark is inferior to cotton, but it comes from a wider range of sources. In later generations, many people used trees to make paper, and some also used bamboo to make paper.

The cellulose content of grass plants is the least among the above papermaking raw materials, but its source is too rich.

China has always been a major agricultural country in history, with inexhaustible straw, so most of the paper in later generations was made of straw pulp mixed with wood pulp.

"After a period of experimentation, I found that banknote paper made of mixed materials may be more in line with your needs. Although it is not perfect in terms of waterproofing and durability, it is sufficient for use, and its cost It can also be accepted." Zheng Zhi finally concluded.

Chen Xun understands that the quality of banknote paper is important, but the manufacturing cost is equally important.Otherwise, the cost of using paper for a penny banknote exceeds one penny, and printing money will become a loss-making business. Who would believe it?

Even if other "high-denomination banknotes" can drive down the cost of "low-denomination banknotes," the cost of the lowest-denomination banknote should not exceed its currency value.

"Is there any finished product? Let me take a look." Chen Xun asked.

"Yes, I brought some banknotes. You can take a look." Zheng Zhi took out several piles of paper from the bamboo box behind him and distributed them to all the officials at the scene.

"This is the paper with the highest cotton content."

Holding it in Chen Xun's hands, the hand feels very, very good, better than some high-end papers of later generations, and the toughness is also very good after being torn.

"This kind of paper is also very waterproof. Even if it is soaked in water for an hour, as long as it is taken out to dry in the sun, the paper will not lose more than [-]% of its toughness."

"It's the paper with the highest kapok content."

“This is the paper with the highest bark content.”

"This is made of bamboo..."

(End of this chapter)