Back to the end of Ming Dynasty to be a warlord

Chapter 455 Northern Expedition Bond
"Extra, extra! Metropolitan Yang Chao's northern expedition to Shandong, the entire province of Shandong."

"Selling newspapers, selling newspapers! Loyalty Uncle Yang, the governor of the Northern Expedition, took all of Shandong."

From Huai'an, Yangzhou to Nanjing and Suzhou, Yang Chao printed and sold irregular newspapers under the name of Jiangnan Daily, which immediately spread the news of the war in the north to all the big cities, and then passed it on to each other.

At the same time, the bulletin boards of the yamen in these big cities, and both sides of the city gates, are all covered with various propaganda woodblock prints.

Some are printed with the image of a young and heroic soldier in ragged clothes, and some have a pattern of thousands of troops marching, but they will add the following words:

Buying treasury bonds is supporting the Northern Expedition!
To buy national debt is to be loyal to the country!
Buying treasury bonds is serving the country loyally!
Taking advantage of the opportunity of the Northern Expedition, Yang Chao launched the Northern Expedition Bond, hoping to impress the people with the sentiments of the Northern Expedition, a southern dynasty that has been passed down from the Song Dynasty, so that the people can accept the new thing of bonds.

War is an act of a country that consumes materials in a period of time. China's traditional practice is to store a large amount of goods in peacetime. Only when the treasury is full of food and coins can it be prepared. Save money for emergencies.

Before the Northern Expedition of Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty, his grandfather, father, and emperor Wen Jing had already stored enough grain for him to eat for three years. Emperor Wu was able to fight the Huns for a long time.

But from a modern point of view, this kind of precautionary approach is certainly safe, but it is obviously extremely detrimental to economic circulation when a large amount of money is kept in government warehouses. Westerners have neither such ability nor such conditions, but Westerners There is also a need for war. The large-scale and extremely long-lasting 30-year war has not yet ended in the West. How did those Western countries whose monarchs are poor and rely on debt to survive raise such a huge amount of funds?

debt!
It is precisely because they have a well-functioning financial system that they can receive military support that is several times or dozens of times larger than their fiscal revenue. The debt is used for tomorrow's money today, and the income of the next few years or even decades is used as collateral. Borrowing ten years of fiscal revenue and spending it all at once can support their war.

Westerners are actually forced to. If they follow China's model, they may never be able to fight a decent war. After all, they don't have a unified empire for them to reserve.

But just like people in poorer places are more able to work hard, the potential they are forced out is often amazing. The reason why Shanxi merchants and micro-merchants are famous is related to their hometown’s inability to support them. They have to go out and open up A piece of sky.

Westerners have to borrow money, but forced out a modern financial system.

It is by this trade that the Dutch have made their fortunes, and by lending money to the kings they have mastered the world.

Therefore, this path must be taken. Yang Chao is willing to use Jiangnan's tax revenue for the next ten years as collateral to borrow money from the common people. Of course, the tax revenue is not mortgaged to bankers, but used to pay interest to everyone who buys bonds.

"Bonds, interest is paid monthly, and the principal is repaid at maturity!"

In every bank and pawn shop, the guys are selling bonds to their customers, selling a bond with a monthly interest rate of three cents, and they can get one cent of the interest as a handling fee without taking any risk.

If you have spare money, you trust the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion or wealthy households who are stimulated by feelings, and buy these bonds one by one.

Probably the latter is more likely, because they are all one-two-one-two purchases, even if Yang Chao reneges on his debts in the future, these people will only consider them as donations to the army.

But there are also those who don't buy it.

In the city of Nanjing, the old treasurer of Wanyuan Bank is recommending bonds to a middle-aged old customer wearing a brocade and Confucian uniform.

The old Confucian snorted, "Hmph, serve the country faithfully, the imperial court is gone, so where is the country!"

The shopkeeper sighed: "Master Chen, don't speak nonsense, isn't the imperial court still there, it's just moved to Guangdong."

The old Confucian scholar was even more angry: "Since the imperial court is still there, Yang Chao didn't think about serving the country loyally and went to Guangdong to save the country. Instead, he went to the Northern Expedition. Where does this place the imperial court?"

The shopkeeper sighed: "Master Chen, the affairs of Governor Yang are beyond my control. It is better to go to Shandong than to let the Tartars go to Nanjing. Hey, the prosperity of the people is suffering, and the death of the people is suffering. How many people died this time?"

Someone in the old Confucian scholar's family died, and even his house was burned down. Under the protection of the servants, the main family members escaped, but this could not prevent him from treating Yang Chao badly. He believed that Yang Chao He is a treacherous minister with reckless ambitions.

"Then Master Chen, don't you buy it?"

The old shopkeeper sighed, since the last time he confronted Yang Chao, a financial battle had severely damaged Wanyuan, which was originally the well-deserved No.

Those salt merchants’ banks, pawnshops and even some small salt shops are better than them, because the salt merchant’s industry can get the lowest exchange fee, and Wanyuanhao can also exchange bank notes with Jiangnan Bank, but the handling fee is 100% interest , but the salt merchants are two cents, don't underestimate this interest rate, a big bank has tens of thousands of silver exchanges, every entry and exit is two cents, [-] taels is two taels more than the other party Who can support the interest in the long run, even if the bank can support it, and its own customers don't buy it, why should they pay a penny more interest than others to exchange it with you.

Now the banks in Nanjing are either closed, or relying on the salt merchants, under the name of the salt merchants, to obtain benefits, but every year, they must give those salt merchants some benefits.

It's not that Wanyuan can't afford the benefits, it's just that it can't lose the face. It has taken root in Nanjing City for hundreds of years, and whoever is standing behind it is not a famous person, how could he bow his head to those despicable salt merchants.

"Buy! Why don't you buy it? I'll buy 1000 taels."

What surprised the shopkeeper was that the old Confucian scholar wanted to buy it, and he bought 1000 taels of bonds in one go.

The shopkeeper quickly smiled and ordered the staff to prepare bonds for the old Confucian scholars. They can get one interest rate for 1000 taels, which is ten taels, which is 120 taels a year, and Jiangnan Bank pays them a one-time payment for one year, so the bond business is now a big problem. The most prosperous industry in the bank industry, no matter which bank it is, is aggressively promoting it. With its solid foundation and many big customers, Wanyuan should be able to make a fortune this time.

"Is it going well!"

Yang Chao looked at the information fed back from one place to another, and found that the sales of bonds were extremely good, and they were sold out within a few days.

Yang Chao didn't use his own strength to sell to the outside world, but used the help of large and small bank operators, and let these people act as underwriters. If he sells by himself, I'm afraid it won't have such a good effect. As for giving money to the banks, that's also It should be, how can an underwriter not make money.

Just after the war in Nanjing, it sold 100 million taels, and Huai'an and Yangzhou sold 200 million taels, which is not enough to sell.

Wu Duoyu has already asked for additional printing. As an old printing general, he naturally doesn't understand the secrets of finance, but he is still very happy to see that the paper he printed has been exchanged for real gold and silver.

"Let Lao Wu print 500 million taels of silver and sell them in Suzhou and Hangzhou. Suzhou has not been affected this time, and should be able to sell 300 million taels. Although Hangzhou has been hit, the Qing army did not hit Hangzhou. People in Hangzhou are lucky." Yes, they should be interested in supporting the government."

Yang Chao asked people to send a letter back. He didn't need too much money, but he just took the opportunity to let the people accept the concept of bonds. If something happens in the future, he can borrow money for emergencies, and he won't be like Emperor Chongzhen who wasted money and forced the people to rebel. .

"Lack of people!"

At the same time, Yang Chao couldn't help sighing.

The people who run the Jiangnan Bank were all borrowed from Qiao Chengwang. I really didn’t have a suitable one. The most important thing was that I didn’t have anyone trustworthy. After all, the Yang family is not a business family, and there is not enough business talent reserve at all. .

"Well, take this letter back to Mrs. Dong!"

Yang Chao thought for a while, and asked someone to send a letter to Dong Xiaowan. Dong Xiaowan knew housekeepers very well, but as a woman, she was only taking care of the back house of the Yang family. The men in the front house were all managed by her mother who invited her uncle to come over.

But Dong Xiaowan's management ability is unquestionable, he is proficient in accounting and financial management, and Yang Chao brought back a large group of thin horses who know how to settle accounts from Yangzhou. Dong Xiaowan's presence should be able to make these people feel relieved to come out to work, and their family members would definitely not feel at ease if they were replaced by a male shopkeeper.

Let Dong Xiaowan take over the bond business. As for Jiangnan Bank, those are two completely different businesses from bonds, which are the central bank's idea in Yang Chao's mind, and the debt is a debt note issued by the government. Jiangnan Bank is the only one that can happen to this. All that matters is to buy a batch of bonds.

Yang Chao is still sitting in Xuzhou at this time, and Shandong has been completely taken over. Only Yunhe Yixi, which relies on Henan, the area north of Linqing, and Beizhili, is still in the hands of the Qing army. Most of the rest of Shandong is Has been recovered by Yang Chao.

However, Yang Chao did not advance further towards Beizhili. He just asked Zhao Kang to lead his troops to defeat Dezhou and then marched towards Cangzhou. However, he did not attack Cangzhou.

Now is not the time to attack Beijing. If you don't attack Beijing, it is meaningless to attack Beizhili. Sending troops to go around Tianjin is enough to deter the Qing army.

Moreover, fierce battles broke out in both Linqing and Dezhou. Obviously, although Jierhalang wants to preserve his strength, he still has a bottom line. Shandong can be lost, but Beizhili must not lose, so he strictly guards the front line of Linqing and Dezhou.

Yang Chao paid thousands of casualties in occupying Linqing and Dezhou, so he found out the bottom line of the Qing army, and he didn't want to press too hard, so for the time being, he stayed near Shandong and Beizhili, basically along the The distribution of canals, to the east and south of the canal is the territory of Yang Chao, and to the west and north of the canal is the area of ​​the Qing army.

(End of this chapter)