I stole divine power in Daxia

Chapter 470 Debt-to-Equity Swap

Use central bank notes to pay officials’ salaries!

Shi Changsheng's eyes lit up when he heard the first solution given by Zhou Tieyi.

Although the central bank's silver bills are now circulating in the market due to stock trading, only a few people can buy stocks, and they are not widely circulated among ordinary people.

Now officials use central banknotes to pay their salaries. On the one hand, the use of banknotes can be further spread through officials. On the other hand, officials are more informed. After they get the banknotes, if they are not sure about them, they will most likely buy stocks at the first opportunity, further pushing up the current stock price.

This is really killing two birds with one stone.

Shi Changsheng finally understood why Zhou Tieyi mocked him for not having the experience of selling things twice during the small court meeting.

Although Zhou Tieyi is very arrogant, people are very tolerant of capable people being a little arrogant.

pity……

Shi Changsheng sighed in his heart. After all, this was not just a matter of arrogance among officials, but a dispute over the holy way.

Shi Changsheng's mind was full of thoughts.

Seeing that Shi Changsheng did not answer, Zhou Tieyi asked, "Minister Shi, do you have any doubts about this matter?"

"This is very good advice, Lord Zhou!"

Shi Changsheng put a check mark behind the 10 million taels, which immediately solved the shortfall of 18 million taels of silver. The remaining 8 million taels suddenly did not seem like much.

Zhou Tieyi looked at the remaining 8 million taels of expenditure, and asked Shi Changsheng for another audit for this year, saying, "Move this part of the silver here."

Another major support this year is the 6 million taels reported by the Ministry of Works, which will be used to build new water conservancy facilities to cope with next year's drought. This money had already been sourced in the earliest plan, but Zhou Tieyi made some adjustments and prepared to make up the Ministry of Works' expenditure in another way.

Zhou Tieyi wrote after the silver, "Issuing one-year Daxia Railway and Water Conservancy Bonds of 8 million taels, using the construction of railways and water conservancy facilities as collateral. Issuing one-year Daxia Steel Bonds of 8 million taels, using next year's iron and copper notes as collateral."

This is 16 million taels of silver!
Shi Changsheng's eyes widened. With this calculation, not only could this year's financial crisis be solved, but there would even be a surplus.

However, Shi Changsheng also knew the risks involved and said softly, "The stocks are selling so well, I'm afraid the bonds will be hard to sell, and silver may be expensive and goods may be cheap."

Zhou Tieyi smiled slightly. Although Shi Changsheng had not studied modern economics, he had been the Minister of Revenue for so long that he also knew the basic economic laws.

The "not easy to sell" in his sentence has two meanings.

The first idea is, when stocks are selling so hot and the returns are so high, why would people be willing to buy bonds with lower returns?
The second meaning is that although Tianjing is peaceful, major events have occurred one after another this year, including commercial tax reform, seizure of property of big merchants, and stock sales. These have already taken away the silver from Tianjing three times. If the silver continues to decrease, there may not be enough silver in the market, causing deflation.

Zhou Tieyi smiled. Modern economics has proposed solutions to what Shi Changsheng was worried about. It's just that he has not really experienced the changes of the times. Shi Changsheng, a Minister of Revenue who still lives in the worldview of balanced income and expenditure, simply cannot understand that deflation can only be solved by the government's large-scale debt infrastructure construction.

Moreover, the decrease in the circulation of silver in the market can just promote the use of silver bills to replace silver. This is indeed a debt game in itself, but as long as the entire society is liberating and developing productivity and there is sufficient market absorption, then this debt game can continue.

Now the Daxia society just meets this situation. The new production technology has become complete, and people's consumption desire is still at an extremely low level. As long as the two are connected, Zhou Tieyi will naturally be able to borrow money from the people's future wealth in the name of the country and use it now. Isn't this a case of putting the cart before the horse?
He even couldn't help but think about it a little more. This money didn't necessarily need to be repaid. Cause and effect were not necessary. It didn't necessarily need to be repaid in the future. As long as the chain of cause and effect could be broken, it would be fine.

Thinking of this, strange phenomena of Taoism appeared around Zhou Tieyi. Countless golden fortunes gathered towards him from all directions like rolling smoke and dust. If he wanted, he could naturally use this to establish a new business path, and raise his business path to one or two levels above the third level in this life.

However, business was not the path Zhou Tieyi wanted to take after all. The vision of this Taoism disappeared in a flash, and Zhou Tieyi broke away, leaving this Taoism to the right person.

Shi Changsheng also saw this vision. Although Zhou Tieyi had not yet answered his doubts, since the Taoism had already manifested, it meant that Zhou Tieyi's solution was practical, because the Taoism was originally a possibility for the future.

"Lord Zhou is going to make great progress in business. I'm afraid it won't be long before his business becomes one of the top nine. By then, it might even be called the top ten."

Shi Changsheng said half jokingly.

Zhou Tieyi nodded and said, "Don't be afraid of being laughed at by Minister Shi. My original ambition was to be a rich man, with beautiful maids to accompany me, and to be able to spend a lot of money in a high building."

Shi Changsheng didn't believe this.

······
After midnight, the lights were lit in the Xuanfa Hall.

Now, any information concerning Zhou Tieyi will be sent to His Majesty the Great Xia as soon as possible, not to mention that what is being dealt with today is a major financial matter concerning the court.

Now that the Emperor of Daxia has been practicing Taoism, he has not notified his concubines to sleep with him for several months, so he has more time to handle government affairs.

Shi Changsheng got the plan from Zhou Tieyi and secretly sent it to the palace as soon as possible, not daring to delay it for even a moment.

The Great Xia Emperor read Zhou Tieyi's proposal to make up for the fiscal deficit of 26 million taels with an expressionless face. He then handed the memorial to the Queen Mother before reading it sadly.

Only then did he raise his head and look at Shi Changsheng with his shining eyes, "Are these methods feasible?"

Shi Changsheng said respectfully, "Although I don't know how Zhou Tieyi made the people willing to buy bonds, after he said this, I felt the strange phenomenon of the business tradition, which means that this method is feasible."

"Is there anything wrong with these methods?"

The Great Xia Emperor did not let Shi Changsheng off easily and continued to ask. Shi Changsheng hesitated for a moment, "If you want to say something inappropriate, I think it is inappropriate for him to allocate funds to prepare for the war in the west."

The Great Xia Saint raised his eyebrows and finally smiled, "What's missing?"

Shi Changsheng gritted his teeth and said, "Military affairs have never been something the Ministry of Revenue can comment on."

His words were ambiguous. On the one hand, he said that he was only the Minister of Revenue and should not overstep his authority to talk about military affairs. On the other hand, he implied that Zhou Tieyi was now in charge of money and grain, so he should not use money and grain to interfere in the deployment of the front-line troops.

They are all old foxes who have lived for thousands of years.

As Ke Anran was looking at the memorial sent from the Queen Mother, he thought to himself that there was no easy target in the court. Out of the 26 million taels, Zhou Tieyi seemingly only transferred 3 million taels to his 'trusted' Zhushensi, but in fact he used the 3 million taels to test the deployment of the army.

The most interesting thing is that Zhou Tieyi's deployment of his troops was not random, but rather very wise. Now that chaos in the western provinces is inevitable, instead of going in to quell the rebellion with great fanfare and getting stuck in the mud, it is better to let the troops build a good front, suppress the provinces that are not yet in chaos, and then slowly advance through the Zhushen Division like picking out an abscess.

Although this method is a little slow, at least it will not cause greater chaos in today's turbulent times. As long as Zhou Tieyi can continue to make money for Daxia and complete what he calls industrial reform, it can be foreseen that both Western Buddhism and Northern Yuanmeng are problems that can be solved.

The Great Xia Emperor did not continue to embarrass Shi Changsheng. Shi Changsheng was a Confucian. Although he was against Zhou Tieyi, the Great Xia Emperor would not completely believe in the words of Confucianism. He looked at the Queen Mother and asked, "What do you think?"

The Queen did not answer the question directly, but asked, "If it is a direct statement, even if it is raised by a treacherous minister, will Your Majesty ignore it?"

"Your Majesty is only worried about the ministers' reckless behavior. However, the whole world belongs to the king, and the people's hearts cannot be won over by money. Your Majesty's "Ming Ji Edict" has won the hearts of the people. All the brave men and generals are willing to sacrifice their lives for the country. You only need to select brave men to enter the God-Slaying Division, and they will immediately wipe out the enemy for Your Majesty!"

Although the Queen was wearing a palace dress, she had a masculine aura when she said these words.

Her words were well-reasoned, and the solution was also very simple. The Emperor of Great Xia always held the righteous position. If Zhou Tieyi wanted to make friends in the God-Slaying Division, the Emperor of Great Xia only needed to throw sand in to easily block Zhou Tieyi's idea.

The Great Xia Emperor pondered for two breaths, nodded, and said, "Draft an edict. The God Punishment Department will have an additional 5,000 strong men, small flags, and general flags. Those who quell the evil spirits will be rewarded according to their merits, and may even be granted a title of nobility."

"Holy Saint!"

······
It was just dawn at noon when there was already a crowd of people outside the Tianjing Stock Exchange. However, after seven days of trading, everyone had gradually figured out the rules of stock trading.

Now the highest-priced Railway Chamber of Commerce stock has risen to twelve taels of silver per share, but at such a high price, the trading volume is getting smaller and smaller. Those who bought it are unwilling to sell it as if they were holding a golden doll. Those who want to buy look at the Railway Chamber of Commerce at twelve taels of silver per share, compare it with other stocks, and are more willing to buy those at three or four taels of silver. Anyway, if the Railway Chamber of Commerce can be worth eighty million taels of silver, there is no reason why the shipyard and steam airship factory, which Zhou Tieyi is also involved in, will not increase in value.

The only stock that kept hovering around its initial price was the Baizhishan Coal and Steel Plant. This was because the data it published at the beginning of its listing were extremely poor, and it suffered huge losses every year, making it the only stock in the market that fluctuated around its issue price. The more this happened, the more ordinary people dared not buy it, because with such a good example before it, who would be willing to buy coal and iron?

"Morning news, morning news! The Railway Chamber of Commerce's stocks are in short supply. The people have petitioned, and Lord Zhou has expressed his opinion. There is another way to make it possible for every citizen to buy stocks!"

The headline of today's newspaper is enough to shock people. Even though there have been news one after another in the newspaper recently, about the war on the front line, about the winter recruitment of various martial arts schools, and about new models of steam engines, what everyone cares about most is stocks!
"Have some!"

"Two here!"

······
The people who got the newspapers lined up and waited for the crowd to slowly enter the exchange, while sipping soy milk and fried dough sticks, unfolding the newspaper with both hands, skipping the front pages such as the imperial edict, and going straight to the business page.

Everyone knows that the people are petitioning for their lives. The stock market skyrocketed the day before yesterday, and ordinary people did not have enough spare money to buy a share of the Railway Chamber of Commerce, so someone tried to use the petition system set up by Zhou Tieyi and put the letter into the mailbox of the Zhushen Division.

With the first person brave enough to eat the fish, the merchants behind him became bolder when they saw that Zhou Tieyi did not come out to rebuke them, and began to organize people to write a petition of 10,000 people and put it in mailboxes.

Because the businessmen know that in order to stabilize the stock price, Zhou Tieyi has secretly organized the aristocratic families to invest another 10% of the Railway Chamber of Commerce stocks. That is to say, Zhou Tieyi and the aristocratic families still hold 80% of the stocks.

In the past, they would never dare to look at the meat in the pot of the wealthy and powerful families, but with public opinion in hand, the businessmen became more daring.

It is said that with three times the profit, merchants dare to sell the rope with which they can hang themselves. This statement is absolutely true.

Everyone thought that Zhou Tieyi was already willing to make another concession, so if he continued to take the second or third step, it was possible. After all, they were pleading for the people, and they were still using the rules set by Zhou Tieyi. Even if Zhou Tieyi was unwilling, he would not make an example of someone to scare the monkeys and slap himself in the face.

This is the method that everyone has figured out to deal with Zhou Tieyi, that is, once Zhou Tieyi has decided on something, he will grit his teeth and complete it even if it is harmful to the Zhou family. This is also the reason why many businessmen are willing to believe that Zhou Tieyi can make money out of nothing!

Everyone read it carefully and couldn't help but communicate with the people around them, "I understand this bond, but it doesn't seem to be as valuable as the stock?"

Zhou Tieyi briefly mentioned bonds when he was formulating the exchange rules. Compared to stocks, bonds are actually better understood by the public because it is a process of simply borrowing money with collateral and then repaying the debt with interest.

However, there is something different about these railway bonds. The railway has not been built yet. Daxia only uses the revenue from the future railway as collateral to borrow money from the people, and then entrusts the Railway Chamber of Commerce to continue the construction, while paying an annual interest of 60%.

Although 60% is already a very reasonable interest rate, and even in Zhou Tieyi's previous life, it was already a top investment project, but compared to stocks that can increase tenfold in seven days, everyone is still not interested.

The only thing that interests everyone is the following one.

The state is preparing to establish the Daxia Railway Corporation. Under certain conditions, the railway bonds issued by Daxia can be converted into shares of the Daxia Railway Corporation.

Originally, debt-to-equity swaps were intended to deal with non-performing assets and improve operating conditions. However, everything in finance is in a chaotic period and is extremely irregular. Therefore, before complete rules are established, all rights of interpretation belong to Zhou Tieyi and the Great Xia court, and there are naturally many more things that can be manipulated in the middle.

Just this one sentence gives everyone unlimited room for imagination.

(End of this chapter)