The contents of the meeting held by the 17 shareholders of the three banks in the head office of the central bank were quickly recorded and sent to Chongzhen.

After reading the minutes of the meeting, Chongzhen did not show any dissatisfaction with this. In his opinion, the idea of these merchants chasing gold is really normal, and it is an abnormal thing for a group of merchants to sit together and not discuss how to increase their wealth.

However, from the minutes of this meeting, Chongzhen did see something else. For example, these businessmen are no longer the dirt buns who knew nothing about banks, they have finally begun to have a general understanding of the business and role of banks, and know the difference between money, paper money and wealth.

This astonishing learning speed still made Chongzhen feel a little surprised. To a certain extent, the pursuit of bank profits has caused the shareholders of these banks to slowly transform into bloodless and tearless capitalists. The most notable point is that 11 people at the meeting agreed with Zhang Guoji's proposal that the three banks should give priority to gold reserves in the future, and expel silver from circulation at an appropriate time in the future. Three others abstained and two opposed the claim.

Maybe others haven't realized what these bank shareholders are trying to do, but Zhu knows what they're thinking. This time the gold exchange currency war against silver allowed the three banks to directly plunder tens of millions of Ming Yuan profits from the hands of domestic silver reserves, and the cost they paid was not large.

If silver could be removed from the currency in circulation, the profits of the three banks would be measured in hundreds of millions of dollars. After all, the removal of the circulation status of silver currency with the size of the Ming Dynasty will inevitably cause an earthquake in the entire world economic system, because nearly half of the world's silver output in this era is flowing to the Ming Dynasty.

If the goods exported by the Ming Dynasty cannot be settled in silver, then the Eurasian countries will either look for products from other countries that can replace Chinese goods, or suppress their own demand, or export gold. If they choose the last one, it is equivalent to allowing the Ming Dynasty to establish the Bretton Woods system in the 17th century, and from then on, the Ming Yuan's banknotes will be gold.

However, although this ideal is great, it still has a long way to go in terms of current reality. If you want to establish the Bretton Woods system, you must let the goods of the Ming Dynasty occupy a dominant position in the world market; It has a powerful navy that can reach all parts of the world and can maintain the commerce of the Ming Dynasty; Finally, the amount of gold reserves should not be too low.

For now, the first of these three conditions is barely a little bit of a look, and the last two are not even a shadow. However, judging from the future choices made by these Ming businessmen, it is undoubtedly the right direction.

After Zhu Youzhen put down the minutes of the meeting, he said to Lu Qi on the side: "Go and ask Mr. Guo to come over, and set up a financial monitoring team under the Social Investigation Bureau, which is responsible for monitoring the bank's internal information, and compiling a summary every month for me to understand." ”

Lu Qi agreed and prepared to go down, but unexpectedly, Chongzhen emphasized to him again: "Remember, just monitor the news, don't do anything else." ”

Lu Qi suddenly stopped and replied cautiously to the emperor: "The ministers will definitely select personnel strictly, and will not let outsiders know about the activities of the financial monitoring team." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded with satisfaction, and waved him to go down to pass the word. A moment later, Guo Yunhou, who was also in the Wenhua Palace, was brought to the room by Lu Qi.

With the rise in gold exchange, the gold purchased in advance by the household department earned nearly one million taels for nothing, which made Guo Yunhou, who is the secretary of the household department, also stretched a lot of brows after hearing this report.

Since he took over the household department, the income of the household department has certainly increased, but in terms of expenditure, it is also like fireworks in the first month, all the way to the height that makes it difficult for him to sleep.

Being able to get such a floating fortune without relying on tax increases, for Guo Yunhou, there is really nothing happier for him.

Therefore, when he saw Chongzhen, he had a rare smile on his face. Zhu Youzhen exchanged a few words with him, and then turned the topic to business.

"Mr. Guo, I came to you today to talk to you about some economic issues. I think Mr. I should know the news that gold has soared in the market and silver has plummeted recently, right? ”

Guo Yunhou nodded, and said happily: "Yes, the minister knows about this." The minister thought that this was a good thing, because of the rise of gold, the gold in the treasury had appreciated a lot, and it solved a lot of problems for the household department. If the price of gold rises by one or two more points, Chen thinks it will not be a big problem. ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at him but shook his head and said, "My opinion is not quite the same as that of Mr., I think that if silver continues to fall, it will also bring us trouble."

In the past, the Ming Dynasty was a money shortage, silver was expensive and copper money was cheap, so the price of goods in Jiangnan was too low, which hit the production enthusiasm of various handicraftsmen in Jiangnan. In the past, the decline in the price of silver would be automatically adjusted in the market, reflected in the exchange ratio between silver and copper coins.

Mr. Guo also knows that this time gold rose too fast and silver fell too sharply, so the market's reaction was not timely enough, so the exchange rate between copper and silver has not changed much. However, I have made reference to the curves of domestic prices recorded by Western missionaries after the discovery of silver mines in the Americas in Spain, which led to the collapse of silver prices.

I thought that soon the Ming Dynasty would also enter a price revolution similar to that of their country. A period of general price increases due to the fall in the value of silver, I call this economic condition: inflation. ”

Guo Yunhou took a booklet handed over by Chongzhen and looked through it carefully. After a long time, he looked up at the emperor and said with some disbelief: "In the past hundred years, prices in Spain have risen fourfold, prices in Britain have tripled, and prices in other European countries have risen in between. With such an increase, haven't there been riots in these countries? ”

Zhu Youzhen looked at Guo Yunhou and said: "These countries in Europe are different from our Ming Dynasty, although the rise in prices has made the lives of some civilians very difficult.

But for the upper nobility, the great merchants, and the industrialists and merchants of these countries, the gold and silver obtained from the Americas almost free of charge gave them almost unlimited financial resources, which they had enough money to suppress the revolt population, and they could also provide some materials to pacify the other part of the population.

In addition, the colonization and plundering of the Americas, Africa, and Asia by the Europeans, who opened new routes, also needed to be exploited by the proletarians at home.

As a result, European countries were able to continue to dominate after the price revolution in which prices skyrocketed. But even so, over the past few decades, European countries have been engaged in wars to deplete their surplus populations, and this war shows no end in sight.

And our Ming Dynasty has neither a continent of America that can plunder gold and silver materials, nor a land that can be stably colonized, and even if we want to start a war to eliminate domestic instability, we cannot afford to start a war.

Therefore, if we watch the price revolution happen, and stand idly by like those European kings and aristocrats, then the people of the Ming Dynasty, especially the people of the north, will inevitably rise up.

In today's declining price of silver, the wealthy merchants who once hid it will try to put it on the market and replace it with something that preserves its value.

In today's Ming Dynasty, what can maintain value is nothing more than gold and real living materials. Gold is already scarcer than silver, and in this situation, people will definitely choose to keep gold and sell other currencies first, just as they did when they hoarded silver.

Once the silver from the cellar that has flowed into the Ming Dynasty through overseas trade in the past few decades begins to flow to the market, the price of the Ming Dynasty in the market will be pushed up to an unbearable price in a short period of time.

These supplies did not go to the consumers who needed them, but to the merchants who wanted to hoard them. I summoned Guo Shangshu to come over, just to ask, is the household department ready to deal with such a situation? ”

Regarding Chongzhen's question, Guo Yunhou could only be silent, and after a long time, he gave up thinking and looked at Chongzhen and asked: "The minister is stupid, I really can't think of any good way." However, since Your Majesty has foreseen this scene, I think there is always a way to deal with it, I wonder if Your Majesty can make it clear? ”

Zhu Youzhen clasped his palms together and covered his lips, as if he was thinking about something, and after a while, he put down his hands, looked at Guo Yunhou and said, "To be honest, I actually didn't think of any good way, but there was a stupid way I thought I could give it a try." ”

Guo Yunhou replied without hesitation: "Please tell Your Majesty to come out and listen to it." ”

Zhu Youzhen spread his hands forward, and then said: "If you want to intervene in the price of goods in the market, but you don't want to disturb the people's livelihood, it is natural for the imperial court to come up with a sum of money and hoard a batch of materials first."

When the price of goods in the market rose, the imperial court threw out the materials in their hands to stabilize the prices, so as to stabilize the market price. ”

Guo Yunhou suddenly replied: "I'm afraid this is unlikely, the imperial court does not have so many funds in its hands, and if the situation is really as bad as Your Majesty imagined, those merchants can completely eat the materials in the hands of the imperial court, making our interference useless." ”

Zhu Youzhen nodded and said, "What Mr. said is good, so we have to improve this plan." The food stamp system implemented in the disaster-stricken areas of Shaanxi last year and the year before last has enabled the majority of the victims in the disaster-stricken areas to receive relief. In the siege of Zunhua last year, the wartime rationing system adopted by the Zunhua army and civilians also achieved good results.

If we want the supplies of the imperial court to flow into the hands of the commoners, not the profiteers, then it may be more appropriate to issue a system of rationing in kind.

For the people, the most important thing in daily needs is to dress and eat. It is obviously not enough to control all the materials in the market with the financial resources of the imperial court, but under the protection of the imperial court's policy, there is still a chance to intervene in grain, cotton, cotton cloth, and coal..."