On the first day of April, Li Zhi's third branch of Jinqi Bank opened in the Tianjin Acropolis. From the first day of April www.biquge.info the first day of April, more than 20 bank branches opened in various prefectures and counties in Tianjin. At the same time, in Jinan Province, Shandong's first Jinqi Bank branch was opened.

As soon as the Jinqi Bank in other prefectures and counties in Tianjin and Jinan Prefecture opened, it ushered in a large number of people who exchanged money, and the crowd was surging.

But in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin, there are not as many people exchanging money as there were at the beginning, and the counters of the three branches have been empty.

Nowadays, there are more than 200,000 taels of banknotes in Fanjiazhuang and Tianjin, and banknotes and silver play the role of currency at the same time, and the demand for banknotes has been basically saturated.

If banknotes want to completely replace silver, it will take a longer time to accumulate before the people can trust this new currency more and more.

Li Zhi's three branches in Tianjin had spare counters and began to attract deposits from the public.

For a bank, deposits are an important source of funding for loans. It is safer to use funds from other sources than to use deposits for a longer period of time.

However, no matter what source of funds is used to make loans, as long as the loans are made, they will increase the total amount of money in the market. Even if physical silver is used as currency for loans, the effect of the currency multiplier will expand the amount of money in circulation. When Li Zhi said that the "silver standard" does not increase the monetary aggregate, he is talking about the "silver standard banknote system" that does not increase the monetary aggregate, not the loan business.

On the one hand, lending to customers who start businesses increases the total output of society, increases the demand for money, and on the other hand, increases the supply of money.

Fortunately, the silver standard is self-adjusting. Li Zhi's banknotes and silver were freely convertible, and once prices rose, merchants would take the silver to other places to purchase goods, and silver would flow out of Li Zhi's territory, reducing Li Zhi's physical silver reserves, thus forcing the banks to shrink credit, and eventually controlling the monetary aggregates of Tianjin and Shandong.

Therefore, under the silver standard, the monetary aggregate and the social demand for money are always roughly matched, and there will be no significant inflation.

In the 19th century, countries used the gold standard, and inflation was not sustainable. The same is true for the silver standard. The rapid depreciation of the Ming treasure banknotes is due to the fact that the treasure banknotes and silver are not freely convertible.

However, to attract people to deposit money in the bank, it is necessary to provide convenience to customers who deposit and withdraw money. There was a long queue of people who came to exchange money before, and it took an hour to queue up to deposit and withdraw money, and no one wanted to deposit money in the bank. Now that the counter is empty, it is easier to come to the bank to do business, and it has become possible to absorb deposits.

Li Zhi gave a one-year fixed deposit with an interest rate of 3 percent. For people who have small savings but no investment projects, this interest is still attractive. If you put more than 30 taels of silver in the bank for a year, you can get one tael of silver interest, which is more cost-effective than hiding the silver in your own home.

Moreover, Li Zhi asked the depository customer to leave his fingerprint when he handled the passbook at the bank, and when he withdrew money in the future, he had to show the passbook and press his fingerprint at the same time before he could handle it. In this way, the money in the bank cannot be withdrawn by others, and it is safer to keep the money in the bank than to hide it at home.

As soon as the deposit business was publicized in the newspapers, people gradually came to the bank to deposit money. It is believed that with the continuous development of this business, more and more people will come to deposit silver, and even completely eliminate the ancient way of saving money "keeping silver at home".

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On the tenth day of April, Li Zhi took Li Laosi, Zhong Feng and others to inspect Shandong.

Last year's winter wheat in Shandong was not planted due to drought, and the people relied on the sweet potatoes provided by Li Zhi to survive the year. Li Zhi passed through the villages along the way, and the people were very thin. Obviously, eating one and a half pounds of sweet potatoes a day is not enough, and the people have lived the year half-starved.

But even if they are half-starved and half-fed, as long as the days can pass, the people will not raise their banners to rebel. There were no large-scale thieves in Shandong last year, which is the credit of sweet potatoes. In contrast, Henan and Huguang, which are also not doing well, have become a mess.

Compared with Henan and Huguang, Shandong, which has sweet potatoes to eat, is already like paradise.

As he walked, Zhong Feng suddenly said: "Division commander, I heard that the thieves have surrounded Kaifeng again this month, and they have gathered 200,000 hungry people, and the momentum is violent. Huguang was not peaceful either, and Zhang Xianzhong's righteous son Li Dingguo also captured four county seats. This Li Dingguo played the slogan of distributing grain, equalizing the field, and exempting the tax, and the people everywhere he went ate pot pulp. ”

"The imperial court took Sun Chuanting as the prime minister of the six provinces and transferred 100,000 border troops to the south to fight the thieves, but the thieves were powerful and difficult to extinguish for a while."

Listening to Zhong Feng's words, Li Zhi nodded.

Now it is the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, in the original history, this year the thieves attacked the city in the Central Plains of Guanshaan, Li Zicheng invaded the city of Beijing in March, and the son of heaven Zhu hanged himself.

However, now because of the emergence of Li Zhi, history has turned a corner. The peasant army was beaten down a few years ago, and now the momentum is not as great as it was in history. Therefore, Li Zicheng still attacked Kaifeng in Henan, and the imperial court had 100,000 border troops, which was comparable to the rebel army.

Zhong Feng said: "The last time the Son of Heaven transferred us to fight Tartars, the division commander ate Shandong. For example, today's son is afraid of the teacher's appetite, the thief is so powerful, and the Son of Heaven has never adjusted our tiger master to level the thief. ”

Everyone laughed when they heard this, and felt that the court was very funny.

Zhong Feng said with a smile: "Division Commander, when will we start to pay in Junping Tianfu in Shandong?" Kill these tax evaders! ”

Li Zhi didn't answer Zhong Feng's words, but just rode all the way to the east, observing the living conditions of the people all the way.

After walking dozens of miles, Li Zhi also saw a small water conservancy project under his command of the "Water Conservancy Bureau" under his command. It was a small reservoir that could be built to store water to prevent drought and raise the water level to irrigate the fields.

Li Zhi walked to the periphery of the construction site, sweating a little, and was about to stop his horse to rest, when he suddenly heard an angry shout from the commander of the personal guard company: "There are assassins!" Protect the country! ”

The company commander gave an order, and dozens of guards surrounded Li Zhi's horse like a human wall. The commander of the personal guard company didn't care about the courtesy, and pulled Li Zhi off the horse and pressed him tightly to the ground.

Only three soft sounds were heard, "pop", "pop", and three assassins on a mound more than a hundred meters to the west opened fire. The two guards who were protecting Li Zhi were immediately shot and fell down screaming.

Twenty guards rode toward the mound. Li Zhi looked over there, and sure enough, he saw a cloud of white smoke floating on the hillock, and three assassins with arquebuses were hidden in the grass. At this time, they saw that the guards were protecting Li Zhi, and immediately stepped on the horses behind them and ran.

Li Zhi's guards chased after him on horseback, getting closer and closer to the fleeing assassin.

Li Zhi frowned, secretly saying that the forces were bold enough to dare to assassinate him.