【159】Fortune Plan (2)

Song Youliang took out two silver-white round coins and put them on the table, and said, "These are two silver coins, I call them silver dollars." Both silver coins weigh nine cents, of which eight silver lead two. The one on the left is a coinage. The one on the right is a stamped coin. The pattern of the coin is a little finer than that of the coin. Although the mold of the coin is a bit more troublesome to make. Minting is also not troublesome. It's more cumbersome when casting. Generally. Coinage seems to be better than coinage. Others can't imitate it. Song Youliang explained.

"Silver?" Chen Zhili, a Fujian merchant ganger, took the silver coin, stood it up on his lips, and then blew hard, and the soldier quickly put it to his ears. Sure enough, Qingyue's trembling sound could be heard. I couldn't help but smile and said, "The fineness of this silver dollar is good." With that, he handed the silver coin to the other palms.

Gu Yushan took the silver coin, played it carefully, and saw that the reverse side of the silver coin was printed with four Song characters of "Daming Treasure Banknote", and the front side was printed with the word "one coin", indicating that this silver coin was equivalent to one penny of silver. Near the circumference of the "one coin" is surrounded by several small words: "Daming Chongzhen fifteenth year Dengzhou Foundry Bureau System".

Li Mingsheng, a merchant in Anhui, said: "The lord only plans to promote this kind of silver coin in Dengzhou and southern Liaoning? As far as I know, the silver ingots circulating in the market are not pure silver, and even the fineness of silver eight lead two cannot be reached, and the treasury silver of the imperial court can reach silver eight lead two, which is already considered to be the best fineness. If this kind of silver dollar is minted, it will definitely become a hot item~"

"Not bad~~ Rare is expensive, only by controlling the issuance can we ensure the full value of this silver dollar, and money is money. At present, this kind of silver dollar is only issued in Dengzhou and Sanwei in Liaonan under my rule~" Song Youliang replied: "However, it may be issued in the entire Ming Dynasty in the future, so the next thing I want to discuss with you is the second major event, opening our own money bank." ”

Gu Yushan was interested and said, "Qian Zhuang? It's a money shop, right? People exchange silver for copper coins, or they want to exchange copper coins for silver, and the money shop will earn some rebates from it. This kind of shop is not even as good as a pawnshop, can it make a lot of money? ”

The Chinese History Museum has a colorful Chinese painting, entitled "Ming People Painting the Scenery of the Southern Capital". The "Southern Capital" is Nanjing. The painting is signed "Real Father and Hatred of the British", and experts have pointed out that it is a fake name. This painting was painted in the late Ming Dynasty, and possibly in the early Qing Dynasty. There are two "money bank" shop signs on the painting, both of which are not in the center of the painting. The silver shop on the painting occupies a prominent position, and there is a market sign of "Wanyuan No. Commerce Silver Shop, Fair Access", and the momentum greatly exceeds that of Qian Zhuang. It can be seen that the scale of Nanjing Qianzhuang at the end of the Ming Dynasty is not as good as the silver shop. In "Golden Vase Plum", the wealthy Ximen Qing opened a pawnshop, and Ren Taoist opened a money shop, indicating that the status of the money shop in the Ming Dynasty was not as good as the pawnshop.

Opening a pawnshop in the Ming Dynasty was a sign of a merchant's abundant assets. High-ranking officials were also allowed to open pawnshops, and some opened more, with more than 100 branches opened in one piece. Wang Shizhen, a celebrity in the late Ming Dynasty, opened many pawnshops at home, with an annual profit of more than 300,000 taels of silver. Hui merchants and Fujian merchants are the main forces in opening pawnshops. During the Ming Dynasty, there were more than 500 pawnshops in Beijing, most of which were the industries of Hui merchants and Fujian merchants.

Song Youliang said: "Of course, you can't make money from such a small fight. ”

Gu Yushan said: "Is there a bigger way to do this money shop?" ”

"Why not?" Song Youliang asked rhetorically, "You are a businessman, and you often go to Jiangnan to sell silk and tea in peaceful years, what is the biggest inconvenience when you say you are a businessman?" ”

Gu Yushan thought for a while and said, "The biggest inconvenience is to carry too much cash, which is heavy and unsafe. ”

"That's right." Song Youliang said, "If there are two money houses in Nanjing and Beijing, and you deposit the silver in the money bank in Beijing, and then the money bank in Beijing issues a bill to you, and you take this bill to Nanjing, you can spend the money you deposited in Beijing from the money bank in Nanjing, do you say it is convenient?" ”

"Huh?" Gu Yushan nodded and said, "Isn't this just a meeting ticket?" This kind of ticketing business is a pawnshop and a pawnshop."

The credit voucher of the Ming Dynasty was the first to recommend the "meeting bill", which is equivalent to the current bill of exchange, which is a non-local remittance certificate. In the Ming Dynasty, it was the home of wealthy merchants who undertook the exchange business, and the exchange was completed through the joint stores in other places. Xu Jie, a famous prime minister during the Jiajing period, was originally a poor scholar, and after becoming a big official, he was still relatively upright politically, but he was very good at collecting money, and his family opened a lot of shops. His family's shop undertook foreign exchange business. In addition, there are "silver tickets" and "money tickets", which are all withdrawal vouchers. If you deposit money at a pawnshop or money shop, the shopkeeper will give you a silver ticket or money ticket, and you can get it here at any time. The money deposit business of money shops and pawnshops was the germ of the later "money bank", that is, the germ of the "Chinese-style bank".

Song Youliang said: "If you deposit silver from a certain place and then spend money on other grounds, this is called non-local exchange." In that case, the money bank is called the money bank, and the bill is called the silver ticket, and you can go to the whole country with only that silver ticket, do you say that it is convenient or not? Let's say the bank wants to charge you 1% of the water. Would you like to? ”

"Yes, of course I do." Gu Yushan Road, "What is one percent of the catchment?" If you escort the cash on the road. Not to mention the high risks, just hiring a dart master to protect the bodyguard requires a lot of silver. There were also dart men, mules, and camel caravans to eat and drink, which was also a large expense, and if the money shop that issued the ticket was reputable, who would not want to deposit silver in such a bank? But how much does that one percent of the water make to make? ”

Song Youliang said: "Don't underestimate this one percent of the water, the merchants of the Ming Dynasty are all over the world." Silk from the south of the Yangtze River, tea from Fujian, and medicinal herbs from Yunnan are all best-selling goods sold in Kyushu Wanfang. Every year, hundreds of millions of dollars are paid to and from the land, and one percent of them is extracted, which is several million taels

Gu Yushan said: "Will there be such a situation, for example, the money bank in a certain place only sees people to deposit silver, but does not withdraw the silver, while the money village in another place only sees people to pay the silver, but no one comes to deposit the silver." Then we don't have to transfer money between banks. Do you have to risk having your silver robbed? ”

"Probably not." Song Youliang said, "Our Ming Dynasty is rich in products. There are local characteristics in various places, such as Jiangnan is rich in silk and tea, but there is no sorghum and vinegar there, we are rich in sorghum and vinegar in Shanxi, but there is no porcelain, Jiangxi is rich in porcelain but no medicinal materials, Yunnan is rich in medicinal materials but no silk, so there are businessmen who do business here and there, there will inevitably be businessmen who do business here, silver only goes in and out of the money houses in various places, and more is the change of the numbers on the books, and there is no need for large-scale adjustment between places under normal circumstances. ”

Wu Zhizhi, a merchant in Jiangsu, suddenly realized: "No wonder the lord wants to mention these two things together, the lord means that our major chambers of commerce will set up a money village, and then when the merchants come to Dengzhou and Liaonan to do goods, they will settle with this kind of silver dollar." At the same time, money banks in various places also recognized this silver dollar and accepted the exchange of this silver dollar. Where will our bank be used in the future? ”

Gu Yushan also understood, and said: "This kind of silver dollar is in good condition, and there are nearly 10 million taels of silver from our major chambers of commerce and the lord as a guarantee, and there must be many people who are willing to use it." Then we will receive the money and send out the silver dollars. In addition to the catchment, you can also make a big profit on the difference. ”

"Then it's decided, everyone go back and prepare, and our money bank will open in a month." Song Youliang said: "Come on, bring the wine~~"

Fujian businessman Chen Zhili smiled: "This thing is worth a drink to celebrate, but we~~ We still have a small request, I hope the lord can help me and wait." ”

"Oh? What's the matter? Song Youliang asked.

"Actually, this matter is also good for the lord, that is, we want to work together and get involved in the business between Japan and Nanyang."

"It's a good thing to develop overseas trade, if you don't say it, I will support you." Song Youliang smiled.

Hearing Song Youliang say this, Chen Zhili was relieved, and several other shopkeepers were also relieved, and helped Chen Zhili and said: "Dengzhou and southern Liaoning are close to North Korea and Japan, not to mention North Korea, I heard that Japan is now only doing business with Dutch Hongyi and my Ming Dynasty." ”

"En~That's called closing the country~" Song Youliang nodded, "Since he has trade contacts with Daming, you can set sail to sea, if there are not enough ships, the boats in the Dengzhou shipyard can be bought or rented." ”

Chen Zhili said with a smile: "The lord may have been on land for a long time, and he is not familiar with things on the sea, but now it is the Ming Emperor who has the final say on this land, and it is Zheng Zhilong, the chief soldier of Fujian, who has the final say." Those who are not allowed to order the flag of the Zheng family cannot come and go, and each ship will receive 3,000 gold. Even if the Dutch Hongyi wants to ship the goods to Japan, it also needs to be transported to Taiwan by Zheng Zhilong, and after changing hands, it will be shipped to Japan by the Dutch side for sale. ”

"What do you mean?" Song Youliang asked.

"What we mean is that we are only doing business with North Korea and Japan at the moment, and we will not get involved in the South Seas. Sir, you and Zheng Zhilong are both members of the official family, and they should be able to talk~~" Gu Yushan interjected with a smile.

Song Youliang thought about it and said with a smile: "It's not impossible, but if you dredge the joint~~" Song Youliang deliberately paused.

"That's that~~ The Zheng family is also doing big business, if you need to prepare any greeting gifts, the lord just tells us to be~"

Song Youliang waved his hand lightly and said, "I'll leave the matter of negotiating with Zheng Zhilong to me, but you also have to do two things for me." ”

"Don't say two, even ten will do it." Gu Yushan smiled.

"Don't say it too early~" Song Youliang said solemnly: "First, it is necessary to officially strengthen the collection of commercial tax and mining tax in the entire Dengzhou Town, and merge the original taxes of various names into one - called the source tax. ”

"Tax at source?" Gu Yushan began to regret that he had agreed too quickly.

"Yes, source tax~" Song Youliang explained: "The so-called source tax is to tax from the source of production, such as porcelain kilns, 10,000 pieces of tax for an annual output of 10,000 pieces, and 5,000 pieces of tax for an annual output of 5,000 pieces, such as silk, a tax of 200,000 horses on an annual output of 200,000 horses, and after the tax is paid, the products produced by merchants can be sold in the market." ”

Zhejiang businessman Tong Jinying said: "Sir, as soon as this goods come out of the workshop, there will be a lot of checkpoints in various states and provinces along the way. ”

"I can't control other places for the time being, but as long as it's in Dengzhou Town, I'll order all internal checkpoints to be removed. Only collect taxes once~~" Song Youliang gave them a reassurance.

"That's good~That's good~" Tong Jinying smiled and breathed a sigh of relief.

"However, the checkpoint on land has been removed, and I will raise another checkpoint at sea." As soon as Song Youliang said this, everyone became nervous again, "In fact, it's not a new thing, it's just the establishment of a city division in Dengzhou Town." ”

It is true that the City Bosi is not a new thing, as early as the Tang Dynasty there were similar institutions. During the Kaiyuan period of Xuanzong of the Tang Dynasty, there was a city envoy in Guangzhou, which was generally served by a eunuch, which was the predecessor of the city ship.

The Song Dynasty attached great importance to overseas trade, and in the fourth year of Kaibao (971 AD), he set up a city envoy in Guangzhou to take charge of maritime trade. In July of the first year of Huizong Chongning, he set up city shipping offices in Hangzhou, Mingzhou (now Ningbo), Mizhou (now Jiaoxian County, Shandong), Xiuzhou (now Songjiang County, Shanghai) and other places, which were responsible for inspecting the commercial goods entering and leaving the ships, purchasing monopoly goods, and managing foreign merchants.

Yuan and Song system, Shizu, in Guangdong City Bo Tiju Division, Wuzong to the Great Time (AD 1308-1310) stop. Renzong relaxed the ban and set up the three cities of Quanzhou, Guangzhou, and Qingyuan, which were in charge of issuing public inspections and public certificates for ships going to sea, inspecting ships going to sea and managing ships at ports under their jurisdiction.

The Ming Dynasty followed the system of the previous dynasty, and the city department managed the tributary and trade affairs of overseas countries, and promoted one person, from the fifth grade, two deputy promotions, from the sixth grade, one subordinate officer, and one from the ninth grade. Promotion, or special assignment, or by the inspection and the salt section of the promotion of the division of the promotion of concurrently. The Municipal Department is subordinate to the Department of Administration. As a result, the power of taxation is entirely in the hands of the Chief Secretary and other governors.