Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 440 Financial War

Instead of minting money, the bank industry bought copper coins in the market. As a result, within half a month, the price of silver in Nanjing fell by half. This situation really caught Yang Chao unexpectedly.

Yang Chao thought about all kinds of resistance from the bank and the forces behind them, from secretly making money to publicly making people noisy, and even being prepared for their rebellion, but he didn't expect that the way they used was to disrupt the financial market.

"Sure enough, he is an expert. Although he didn't make a bank, he has been playing with money for hundreds of years. It is impossible that he has not accumulated financial knowledge."

Finance is definitely something that will only appear when the economy develops to a certain extent. The era of barter obviously does not require too complicated financial services.

The reason why Westerners are so slick with banks is firstly because they are fragmented and has frequent trade exchanges, and secondly because despite the long-term turmoil, the wave of bank usury always survives. If Italy fails, they go to Spain. If Spain messes with them, they go to France, and if France messes up, they go to the Netherlands. They have been accumulating knowledge since before the birth of Christianity, and it might be weird.

Although China's economic scale is the largest in ancient times, the law of rise and fall every two to three hundred years makes it difficult to pass on this kind of knowledge smoothly. After all, this is a unified country, and there is no place to run if you want to. This is how folk houses also appeared in the Song Dynasty Jiaozi that kind of thing.

Although the Ming Dynasty has not yet developed to the level of the Song Dynasty, the main factor is the sharp decline in government management capabilities, not the economic decline. The population of the Ming Dynasty is two or three times that of the Song Dynasty, and the economic scale is even smaller than that of the Song Dynasty, but it is the same It's still doable.

It’s just that the management of the Ming Dynasty government is too conservative, and the restrictions on commercial activities are too great, but even so, the financial industry of the Ming Dynasty has smoothly evolved to the stage of usury, which is the level of the Jewish Middle Ages. Although it has not yet evolved to the banking industry, it is obvious that These bankers who have accumulated for 200 years already have much higher financial knowledge than ordinary people.

Yang Chao welcomes this kind of knowledge, but using this kind of knowledge to mess up the order and mess with Yang Chao is unbearable.

"Li Liang, go to Yangzhou immediately and tell Qiao Chengwang, I don't want to see too much silver exchanged for copper coins!"

With Yang Chao's support, Qiao Chengwang's group of Yangzhou salt merchants recovered quickly, and because Huai'an was occupied by the Qing army for a long time, and Haizhou, the sea salt producing area of ​​Huai'an, was under Yang Chao's control, so these Yangzhou salt merchants not only stabilized their Tongzhou and Yancheng sites, but also took the opportunity to extend their hands to Haizhou.

Now Huai'an has begun to recover, but Du Shouchang's group of Huai'an salt merchants have obviously been eroded by Yangzhou salt merchants, and they are fighting frantically in Haizhou. They want to drive Yangzhou people out of Haizhou. Yang Chao lobbied, hoping that Yang Chao would come forward to attack the other party.

But Yang Chao is happy to see them fight, because in this way, the price of salt will be very low, and the common people will benefit a lot.

Qiao Chengwang's group of salt merchants are actually experts in the pawnshop and bank industry. Their usury capital has reached 3000 million taels, and the annual interest is 900 million taels. They can be called big players in the bank industry. If they also join at this time Coming in, it would be even more difficult for Yang Chao to stabilize the situation.

Compared with the pure money industry, the main business of salt merchants is the salt industry after all. For them, it is more secure to control the salt industry, an industry that can be passed down from father to son. Not because land assets are more stable.

Now that Yang Chao has spoken, since you have been asking for me all this time, it's time for you to express it. Whether you want to fish in troubled waters and plan to fight against Yang Chao, or are you willing to form a united front with Yang Chao for the profit of the salt industry, it depends on you. show.

"Kang Xiaobao spread the word, saying that Yangzhou salt merchants are collectively optimistic about silver and would not throw a tael of silver on the market for copper coins."

Places like the Qinhuai River are the gathering and distributing centers for news exchanges, so if Kang Xiaobao let out the news, it would take less than a day for it to spread throughout the city.

"Wu Duoyu, hurry up and print a batch of small bank notes. I will see them within three days."

"This is a tael pattern, this is a coin, this is a cent, and this is a cent."

A tael of silver is roughly a thousand coins, a penny is a hundred coins, a penny is ten coins, and a centimeter of silver is equal to a penny, which is considered a very small denomination. Can't buy anything.

Wu Duoyu saw the pattern given by Yang Chao, and his hands trembled a little: "Uncle, I'm afraid this is inappropriate, this pattern is forbidden."

"Breaking the ban? What kind of ban!"

"This, this, this is Taizu!"

Wu Duoyu said tremblingly.

"What's wrong with Taizu? It is Taizu who is worth money. If my head is valuable, I would rather use my head."

"Villains don't dare to print."

Wu Duoyu was still trembling, knelt down and begged for mercy.

No wonder he didn't dare to print it. The image drawn by Yang Chao is exactly the head of Ming Taizu Zhu Yuanzhang, and he intends to use it on this batch of small banknotes. Let the group of local turtles in the bank take a look. I dare not even Ming Taizu Move out, one by one or stop.

As for the forbidden matter, Yang Chao didn't even think about it. He printed Zhu Yuanzhang's head on the banknotes.

"Okay, take it and print it! The lord is responsible for everything, if you can't get the bank note within three days, I will take your head!"

Yang Chao said viciously, he couldn't help but be ruthless. Even if there is a war now, it is just a financial war without blood, but the degree of tragedy is even worse than the battlefield. On the battlefield, it is clear how many people will die. If you lose this financial war Well, the market collapsed, not just killing a few people, but getting out of control.

At this time, due to the out-of-control price comparison between silver and copper coins, the trading situation of ordinary people has become chaotic, because copper coins have become more expensive, and people are more willing to keep copper coins and use silver to trade, just like when the dollar appreciates in later generations, everyone likes to save money. Same as the dollar.

But those who can afford silver are generally richer people, at least the middle class, and the poorest group of people often only have copper coins in their hands, and they will never see a few big ingots of silver in their lives, so they are the most affected It is these people who are the most concerned, but everyone has not panicked, because the copper coins in their hands are rising in price. When the price of silver rises, the copper coins will soon rise in value compared to other prices. For those who use copper coins, It looks like prices have dropped.

But silver has depreciated by almost half, but the price has only depreciated by three levels relative to copper coins, which is equivalent to silver. The price of goods has increased. If Yang Chao promotes the silver standard at this time, it means that prices have skyrocketed and inflated.

Yang Chao does not believe that these bank experts are strategically attacking silver. They may just want to disrupt the market to force Yang Chao to change his mind and allow them to continue minting private money so that the price of money will come down. Tide to promote the silver standard plan.

"Report, my lord, Du Shouchang, master Du, please see me!"

Because of the financial war, Yang Chao temporarily placed his headquarters in Jinchai Building, which is closer to the market. If he was in the military camp, he would not have time to experience the fastest market changes so quickly.

Yang Chao also gave Du Shouchang a chance in Jinchai Tower, otherwise he would not have been able to meet Yang Chao.

"Let him in!"

"Xiaomin met Uncle Yang."

Du Shouchang saluted in a regular manner, and he looked a lot haggard.

Huai'an was handed over to the Qing army by Liu Zeqing. Du Shouchang fled to Nanjing with his family. Later, Huai'an was recovered, and the Du family moved back. However, the family business withered and most of the wealth was confiscated by the Qing army.

While reopening the business, Du Shouchang tried his best to restore the family business, but he didn't have the romantic attitude of the past. He was busy all day like a boy, so it's no wonder he didn't look haggard.

He has been in Nanjing these days, representing Huai'an salt merchants, hoping to get Yang Chao's support and drive Yangzhou merchants out of Haizhou.

"You came to see me, but because of the Haizhou Saltworks?"

Yang Chao didn't want to agree to the salt merchants in Huai'an. Daming has always insisted on the salt monopoly system, but under this system, the government functions get 100 million taels of salt tax every year, but the salt merchants' profits are as high as tens of millions, and the common people still eat high-priced salt. They are all taken up by salt merchants, this system is simply too bad.

It's good now, Yangzhou salt merchants and Huai'an salt merchants are at odds, Yangzhou people have crossed the line, and Huai'an people plan to snatch it back, both groups of people started fighting crazily in the market, trying to squeeze each other to death, ordinary people eat salt Much cheaper.

Yang Chao didn't want such a good thing to end like this.

"No, the villain is a little upset when I heard that the uncle, the villain was originally to share the worries for the uncle!"

Du Shouchang licked his face and smiled.

"Sharing? How are you going to share my worries?"

Yang Chao laughed, but he didn't deny that he was indeed in a little trouble.

Du Shouchang said: "The salt merchants in Huai'an are no worse than the salt merchants in Yangzhou. At this moment, the colleagues in Huai'an are united and willing to throw out all the copper coins in their hands and raise the price of silver. Where is your father worrying?"

Yang Chao smiled and said: "Okay, okay, it's rare that all the salt merchants in Huai'an have the heart, can take care of the overall situation, and heart to the imperial court, I will definitely ask the imperial court to give credit to everyone."

Du Shouchang said: "There is no need to ask for credit. I beg my uncle to be sympathetic to us and drive those black-hearted salt merchants from Yangzhou out of Haizhou!"

Yang Chao pondered for a moment. These salt merchants came to do business on their own. The price they paid was really high. Yang Chao only asked Yangzhou salt merchants not to throw out their money, but this group of Huai'an salt merchants were willing. Throw the copper coins out when the price of copper coins is rising sharply.

But Yang Chao still didn't agree with them: "Let's do this. Some of the salt fields in Haizhou have been taken over by Yangzhou people. It's not easy for these nobles to intervene. After all, the salt quotations have been distributed. But I will give you salt stickers, let you How about opening a salt farm by yourself? And the number of arguments is unlimited!"

Du Shouchang was taken aback for a moment, and was overjoyed immediately: "Is this really true?"

Yang Chao nodded: "Of course it is true! But this salt sticker cannot be given for free. A salt sticker is 10 taels, no less. At the same time, salt merchants who want to get salt stickers have to throw at least 100 million copper coins !"

Du Shouchang nodded fiercely: "It's a deal!"

(End of this chapter)