Ming Dynasty: My Father Zhang Juzheng

Chapter 133 Royal Bank
After entering August, Beijing city suddenly became hot.

The dazzling sunlight poured down without reservation. The birch trees on the roadside were leafless and drooped weakly. Deep in the woods, cicadas kept chirping.

The stray dogs on the street lay on the ground, panting, looking pitifully at the passers-by who were hurrying by.

The men wore short jackets, and even the women only wore a small shirt with wide sleeves and exposed arms. The children did not dare to run around, but hid in the shade, greedily absorbing the rare coolness.

At noon that day, a horse-drawn carriage slowly passed through the hot long street and headed north towards the Forbidden City.

When they arrived at the Forbidden City, the carriage stopped and Zhang Yunxiu got off wearing a pea green silk shirt.

He stretched out his hand to block the scorching sun, then lifted his crotch robe and walked towards the magnificent Forbidden City.

This was also his first time to come to the Forbidden City after being placed under house arrest by Zhang Juzheng.

Since the day he came back from Liaodong, he was beaten by Zhang Juzheng and had to lie in bed for a month before he recovered.

He was then placed under house arrest for another three months, and was only released today.

Breathing the free wind and feeling the warmth on his face, Zhang Yunxiu finally realized how precious freedom is.

After taking a deep breath, Zhang Yunxiu continued walking and arrived at the Qianqing Palace in one breath.

Before he entered, he saw Wei Qingba waiting outside from a distance. He straightened his clothes and walked up to him with a smile: "Eunuch Wei, you are a noble and high-ranking official, but you are waiting for me here. I am afraid I can't bear it."

When Wei Qing heard the voice, he suddenly turned his head and replied with a smile: "Hey, Zhang Sicheng, you said this to me, which means you don't treat me as your own family. You are being polite."

Zhang Yunxiu smiled and shook his head, then pulled Wei Qing inside.

"Hey, you can't go in now." Wei Qing smiled and blocked Zhang Yunxiu's way.

"Why? Wasn't it the emperor who summoned us?" Zhang Yunxiu was confused.

"Yes, but the emperor hasn't woken up yet."

"You haven't woken up yet?" Zhang Yunxiu looked surprised. He looked up at the sun that had already passed overhead and asked, "Your Majesty, what did your Majesty do last night? Why haven't you woken up yet?"

"What else can we do? Don't you men all like to do that?" Wei Qing grinned, and an indescribable smile suddenly appeared on his fair face.

This guy is quite playful.

Zhang Yunxiu knew it well, shook his head, and stood respectfully outside the palace gate.

After an unknown amount of time, a eunuch quickly came out and shouted in a shrill voice, "Eunuch Wei, Secretary Zhang, the Emperor has risen and is calling you in."

"Please come in, Zhang Sicheng." Wei Qing smiled and turned sideways to make a "please" gesture.

"Eunuch Wei, please go first."

Zhang Yunxiu returned the greeting.

Wei Qing laughed loudly and walked in with Zhang Yunxiu.

The two of them moved to the East Warm Pavilion. Inside, Emperor Wanli forced himself to stay awake, yawned, and said, "Yunxiu, the two birds you gave me are really good. What are their names?"

"The Saker Falcon is a kind of sacred eagle from Liaodong." Zhang Yunxiu replied respectfully.

"Oh." Emperor Wanli nodded and asked, "I heard that you were severely beaten by Mr. Zhang and confined to your home for three months because you helped me get this eagle?"

"Yes, it took me a lot of effort."

Zhang Yunxiu's eyes turned red, and he was about to complain, but the Wanli Emperor waved his hand and interrupted him: "It's okay, as long as you're fine now. You've rested enough, you've wasted a lot of time this year, it's time to go out and make money."

Ok?
You really treat me like a slave, don't you?
Zhang Yunxiu slowly raised his head and looked at Emperor Wanli sitting on the dragon throne.

Facing Zhang Yunxiu's gaze, Emperor Wanli said calmly, "Anyway, I don't care. Songjiang Prefecture and Tianjin Wei need to speed up. I have a lot of money to spend this year. You should understand my difficulties."

You're having a hard time.

Is it difficult to sleep until noon every day?
After despising the emperor in his heart, Zhang Yunxiu quickly searched for ways to make money in his mind.

Conquer Japan?

No, the current army and warships are still lacking in training. If he attacks rashly and gets defeated, he will be blamed.

I continued to go out and do business, but the leeks had not grown yet.

Zhang Yunxiu was anxious because he couldn't think of a way to make quick money for a long time. Beads of sweat appeared on his forehead.

Suddenly, a fireman came in with a basin of ice.

Zhang Yunxiu felt a chill all over his body, and when he took another glance, the silver medal on the man's waist caught his eyes.

"Hey, Zhang Sicheng, what are you doing?" When the eunuch saw him trying to take off his badge, his cheeks suddenly turned red, and his hand holding the ice loosened, and the ice suddenly fell down.

"boom."

The ice suddenly scattered all over the ground, and the little fireman quickly knelt on the ground, crying and begging for mercy.

"Your Majesty, please spare my life. Your Majesty, please spare my life. I deserve to die. I deserve to die."

Emperor Wanli was also surprised. He pointed at Zhang Yunxiu and asked, "Zhang Yunxiu, what's wrong with you? Why did you try to snatch the badge from that young eunuch? Do you want to enter the palace too?"

"Ah" Zhang Yunxiu came back to his senses. He glanced around and saw Wei Qing and others looking at him in surprise.

Scratching his head, Zhang Yunxiu looked at Emperor Wanli with a red face and said respectfully, "Your Majesty, I have found a good way to help you make money. It is definitely a good business that will make a lot of money."

"Hurry up and speak." Emperor Wanli stood up from his chair and urged Zhang Yunxiu to continue.

“It’s this silver medal.”

Zhang Yunxiu smiled, picked up the badge and walked into the crowd, and asked, "Your Majesty, how heavy is this badge?"

"I'm afraid it's less than two taels of silver." Emperor Wanli estimated.

"What do you think, Eunuch Wei?"

"Your Majesty and I guessed the same thing." Next, Zhang Yunxiu asked the little fire maker again.

Xiao Huozhe tilted his head to think for a moment and gave an answer.

"Okay, you all say it's two taels of silver, but I insist that it's ten taels of silver." Zhang Yunxiu grinned.

"Are you crazy? This silver medal, which is less than half the size of a palm, weighs ten taels?" Emperor Wanli exclaimed, his chubby face full of disbelief and doubt.

"Your Majesty, during the Hongwu reign, Baochao was issued. To put it simply, Baochao is just a piece of paper. Can't it be exchanged for money?" Zhang Yunxiu thought about it in his mind for a while, and then he spoke in a loud voice, "What I want to do is to standardize the size of silver taels."

"What do you mean?" Emperor Wanli urged Zhang Yunxiu to continue.

Zhang Yunxiu nodded and said slowly, "Your Majesty, in fact, this money is also a kind of commodity. It's just that this kind of commodity is recognized and liked by everyone.

Let me give you an analogy. For example, some girls in a brothel cost 500 taels of silver a night, while others only cost 10 taels of silver a night.

"What nonsense! We were talking about money, why are you talking about girls?" Emperor Wanli was already extremely anxious, and when he saw Zhang Yunxiu was leading someone astray, he could not help but shout.

"It's all the same. Look at the girls in those brothels. Aren't they all priced by the madam?"

"You want me to say that this two taels of silver is ten taels?" Emperor Wanli asked in a low voice, then thought it was ridiculous and shook his head suddenly: "Impossible, even if I am the Son of Heaven, I can't force the people of the world to accept it with their noses pinched."

A small card worth two taels of silver is said to be worth ten taels of silver?
This is treating everyone in the world as fools.

After complaining in his heart for a while, Emperor Wanli looked up at Zhang Yunxiu again and saw him nod with a confident look.

"Do you really have any idea?"

"Yes, Your Majesty, have you heard of money shops?" Zhang Yunxiu nodded to the emperor and said in a persuasive manner.

"Nonsense!" Emperor Wanli was irritated and put on the emperor's majesty, "Explain the whole story to me quickly. If you keep talking about wild cotton and asking me to guess lantern riddles, I will punish you for deceiving the emperor!"

"Your Majesty, most of those banks are owned by the people. Their banknotes are just pieces of paper, but they can be circulated throughout the country.

It all depends on two words: "credit."

At this point, Zhang Yunxiu paused for a moment, and then spoke in a deafening voice: "The emperor and the imperial court are the most credible people in the world. The way I make money is for your majesty to work with the Ministry of Revenue to recast silver dollars and standardize the world's currency!"

"Recasting silver coins is recasting silver coins, but what does it have to do with making money?" Emperor Wanli asked suspiciously.

Wei Qing, who was standing by, was also confused and looked at Zhang Yunxiu eagerly.

"Just think about it. The face value of a coin minted from one coin of silver is set at one tael when it is put outside. A coin minted from one tael of silver directly becomes ten taels of silver."

"Your Majesty, the money in the treasury will increase tenfold. Isn't this a great thing?"

Although the total amount increased and the money of the wealthy families remained the same, the interests of the wealthy families were slightly damaged. However, this was a very meaningful thing for the prosperity of commerce.

The biggest problem facing the Ming Dynasty at present is that the amount of silver and money in circulation is far less than what is needed.

That is deflation.

After selling goods overseas, those merchants earned a lot of money, but very little of this money entered the market for circulation.

"Great, this is a good idea. Let's quickly mint all the silver in my treasury into the coins you mentioned. In this way, wouldn't my treasury have millions of taels of silver?" Emperor Wanli suddenly realized, clapped his hands, and jumped up from his chair excitedly.

“No, no, no, we can’t issue too many at once, otherwise it will be bad for ordinary people.”

"Why?"

"Your Majesty, think about it. If you use your method of minting coins, plus the money in the national treasury, that would be several thousand taels of silver. If this were to flow into all walks of life in the Ming Dynasty, it would inevitably cause prices to soar."

"Then how much silver do you think is appropriate to supervise the production first?"

"Based on the current annual income of the national treasury, seven million taels is the most appropriate," Zhang Yunxiu replied.

"Okay, I'll let the cabinet discuss this matter tomorrow."

Emperor Wanli nodded and stood up to leave, but Zhang Yunxiu stopped him and said anxiously, "Your Majesty, I haven't finished talking about the way to make money."

"You haven't finished yet?"

"Yes, minting coins is just a prelude to making money." Zhang Yunxiu smiled and continued, "The real way to make money is for the court and the royal family to open money houses."

"If people deposit their money in our bank, we will give them 2% interest every year. If they borrow money from us, we will charge them 9% interest every year."

"One round trip, there is a 70% profit."

Don't underestimate this 7% profit. If all the Ming Dynasty had money houses, the amount of money they could earn each year would be a terrifying number.

Private lending is often usury.

It is common for nine out of thirteen to return.

The annual interest rate he charges this year is only 9%, which is very generous.

There is another great benefit of opening this bank - it will revitalize business.

If some businessmen really encounter difficulties, this money house may be able to save their lives.

Of course, as a vulnerable group, money houses naturally cannot take too much risk. If they want to borrow money, they must be assessed. If there is no collateral, the interest must be recalculated.

"Okay, I'll let the cabinet discuss this matter." Emperor Wanli seemed to understand and nodded slightly.

"I will go out of the palace first and have someone prepare two sets of coin molds for His Majesty to take a look." Zhang Yunxiu walked to the center, bowed to Emperor Wanli on the stage, and said respectfully.

"Go."

Emperor Wanli yawned and said tiredly, "I have nothing to do these days, so don't bother me. I will have a good rest. Come to see me again when you have some idea of ​​making money."

"Yes."

(End of this chapter)