When he received Zhu Yunwen's summons, Guo Zizheng was very busy, although he had been rolling in the household department for a long time earlier, and in the past two years, he took over the position of secretary of the Ministry of Commerce, but he still felt that Zhu Yunwen's instructions to open a bank were tricky.

Absorbing deposits and granting loans to the private sector?

The latter can also be understood, after all, when the state finances were tight a few years ago, the household department did not turn around much money from the Imperial Chamber of Commerce, and one loan was borrowed and one loan was paid interest.

But can this be done by absorbing deposits from the private sector?

Can ordinary people be willing to put the money in their pockets anywhere but in their own pockets?

The common people have a deep understanding of the habit of managing money Guo Zi's family background when he was a teenager, even if there are dozens of copper plates left, his parents are eager to dig a hole in the wall to store them, and then at least three times a day.

Not to mention the landlords who liked to bury their silver in the ground.

This kind of hidden worry and question, Guo Zi said it directly in front of Zhu Yunwen.

"Banks have to be established, and without them, there can be no thriving business practices."

Zhu Yunwen said firmly: "In the early stage of the establishment of the bank, there will be difficulties, and there will be doubts, these are not big problems, the only thing I am worried about is how to regulate my Ming Dynasty's monetary system." ”

After all, this thing has created an embarrassing achievement of depreciation several times in just ten years, and the people dare not admit it, and if they don't stop, those who print counterfeit banknotes will suck the blood of the people dry.

The use of silver and copper plates, which involves the problem of weighing and composition, because there are a lot of broken silver horns in the folk, some are very doped with many other metal components, not pure silver, the value can not be comparable with the same weight of pure silver, the purchasing power is generally in the commercial behavior, by the buyer and the seller to agree.

To build a bank, it is necessary to unify the currency.

And once the currency is unified, then the seigniorage rights will be directly linked to the economic lifeblood of the country.

The coinage right is inherently owned by the central government, but it can't stand the people from stealing strange things.

"Your Majesty, or do we also learn from Europa to make gold and silver coins?"

Gold coins, silver coins and copper plates of the Ming Dynasty can barely be regarded as building a monetary system.

"Do you think Europa's monetary system is perfect without the slightest bit of risk?"

As soon as he heard this, Zhu Yunwen was angry: "I tell you, as far as I know from this group of Europa merchants, there are at least hundreds of coins circulating in the Europa market right now!"

The feudal aristocracy they engaged in led to the central government's inability to maintain the monopoly of coinage, and many local nobles kept reducing the quality of their currency in order to make personal gains, resulting in a serious credibility crisis in the monetary system and a setback in trade.

At present, the merchants of the Apennine Peninsula, facing the merchants of Western Europe, are even asking for credit in kind, asking for the crops on the land. ”

It's not absolutely safe to make money, because it's hard for people to know what's going on inside the silver-plated layer on the surface.

Moreover, the biggest threat to the currency system is the decentralization of coinage, as long as private merchants have cash in their hands, they can secretly open the furnace and mint coins at any time.

Taking 10,000 steps back, even if there is no risk of being imitated, how can this monetary system change?

It is all about the central government issuing as much currency as there is in reserve silver, and what is the purpose of running a bank, isn't it still so that the state can spend one tael of silver as two taels or even three taels?

The central government must not take the lead in making counterfeit coins.

"After so many years, hasn't there been a little progress in anti-counterfeiting technology?"

As soon as he mentioned this, Zhu Yunwen was a little angry, although he ordered the suspension of the Daming treasure banknotes back then, but he never thought about giving up on the matter of printing money, he just kept waiting.

We are waiting for the birth of anti-counterfeiting technology that can maximize the difficulty of counterfeiting.

Guo Zi was reprimanded, so he had to defend himself: "Back to Your Majesty's words, the Ministry of Household has been entrusting the Ministry of Industry to do the anti-counterfeiting work a few years ago, but there is still some progress. ”

This group of bureaucrats, except for a good kick of the ball, has nothing else in itself.

"Europa merchants now mainly use gold coins, because the quality and fineness of gold are easy to identify and detect, and the higher value of gold can meet the needs of those merchants for large-scale commercial buying and selling."

Zhu Yunwen pondered for a moment, and had to say his thoughts: "At present, my Daming's commercial trading activities are often tens of thousands of taels, or even hundreds of thousands of taels, but our gold reserves are not high, so we have always relied on the cash silver of Nanyang to support, and it is unrealistic to issue gold coins, so let's make silver ingots." ”

The quality of sterling silver is significantly different from that of doped metals.

"Don't make those small things that weigh one or two, but create more than five taels of official ingots, so that if you want to imitate, once adulterated, the difference between the real and false two ingots of silver will be seen immediately after being put on the scale.

By the way, let the Ministry of Industry stamp the belly of the ingots when supervising the production, and if the people want to imitate, they will add some workload. ”

"The official ingots start from five taels, and the small-scale trading behavior of the people can only be traded through copper plates."

Regarding Guo Zi's concern, Zhu Yunwen asked rhetorically: "Is there a private copper plate?" ”

"I don't."

The cost is almost on par with the purchasing power, how can anyone be stupid enough to privately cast copper plates.

"Then print the bronze ticket."

Zhu Yunwen put forward a corresponding idea: "According to the way of the Ming treasure banknote to print copper tickets, the denomination is composed of 50 Wen, 100 Wen, 500 Wen, of which 500 Wen copper tickets can be outlined around a layer of silver, which will increase the cost."

There is no printing press in the people, they need a little bit of research if they want to imitate, the imitation of each piece, the cost itself is several times that of our center's own printing, we will control the cost of a 500 copper ticket in the range of 80 to 100 yuan, even if the people imitate it, there is no meaning. ”

Engaging in official ingots and printing and distributing copper bills can be regarded as the only solution to the monetary system that Zhu Yunwen can think of now.

"Your Ministry of Commerce should not be lazy all day long, the technology of the Ministry of Industry is not comparable to the people after all, printing banknotes is nothing more than the process of paper and patterns, so that the Ministry of Industry can seize the time to overcome these two technical difficulties, study and study more on the printing press, carve out some more detailed and cumbersome patterns, to ensure that the banknote paper after printing is still clear and clear, and the quality of the paper can be enhanced by rolling multiple sheets of paper into a sheet.

Solving these two points can basically eliminate the risk of forgery among the people. ”

If you can't print money on a large scale, then the bank won't be able to open for a day.

For large deposits and loans, you can't run around the streets with dozens of silver cars.

"First of all, when the copper tickets are printed and printed, I will take a look at the quality, as long as they can be passed, the provinces will first open banks in the provincial capitals, and at the same time, they will exchange those broken silver horns for copper tickets for the people, and return to the furnace to smelt official ingots."

Zhu Yunwen also deliberately emphasized: "The fire consumption will be returned to the public, and the burden on the people should not be increased." ”

After all, the cost of a copper ticket of 500 wen is only a few tens of yuan, and the excess shorts want to be earned by the imperial court.

Zhu Yunwen is naturally unwilling to let the people bear the loss of fire consumption.