The winter of Chongzhen's ten years is obviously earlier than in previous years, and the first snow fell in Beijing in mid-October, although the snow is not big, and the snow does not even cover the ground for a long time before it melts, but the trees in the capital are covered with a layer of hoarfrost, which looks very pleasing to the eye.

For ordinary people, an early winter will naturally not be a good thing, and the cost of heating and the daily increase in the price of food and vegetables will greatly increase their burden. But for the wealthy businessmen and gentry who don't have to worry about firewood, rice, oil and salt, such a season is a good day to invite guests to gather and talk about poetry and poetry.

In the Furong Garden on Wangfujing Street outside the Donghua Gate, there are many wealthy dignitaries who call friends here and set up banquets to enjoy the snow. So tonight, the entire seventeen courtyards of the Furong Garden are brightly lit, so that these dignitaries of the capital can take advantage of the lights to watch the snow scene, and from a distance, it is like falling into a fairyland on earth.

On the Bitao Tower in the northwest corner of the Furong Garden, there is also such a group of young people having a banquet, but these young people with serious expressions are obviously not here to enjoy the poems tonight. The musicians and singers who had been arranged for them by the store were all sent away, and several young people closed the windows on the second floor, and the sound of silk and bamboo outside was also cut off.

The Bitao Building, which could originally enjoy the entire view of the Hibiscus Garden, suddenly became a quiet small building that could be used for conversation. Wang Yuanyi and Hu Qingquan, who initiated the meeting, looked at the more than a dozen young people present and were also extremely satisfied.

These people are the sons and nephews of the shareholders of the four banks, but they are not the heirs of these shareholders, although they are not lacking in use on weekdays, but there is always a gap between them and the core of the banks. If it was in the past, under the strict family rules and etiquette, there would be nothing wrong with everyone being a second ancestor gangster. Anyway, even if he inherited the family business, he was just a businessman who kowtowed everywhere, far less than the reading seeds cultivated in those families.

However, with the encouragement of industry and commerce by the imperial court and the establishment of a merchant congress to improve the status of merchants, these merchant children who had no hope of inheriting the family business and could not study suddenly found that they still had a bright future. Whether it was Su Yue, a model who went from a businessman to a businessman overseas, or those maritime merchants who ventured overseas to obtain a knighthood from the imperial court, it opened the door to a new world for these merchants' children, and made them realize that they didn't have to eat at home and wait for death.

Unlike their fathers and ancestors, these young merchant children did not feel so deeply in the Chongzhen era, the almost desperate oppression of power over money. They believe that although power is supreme, in the current Ming Dynasty, money is also respectable.

You don't see, the big taxpayers in various places now receive awards from the imperial court every year, and many people have also been received by the emperor and awarded medals. Under the direct protection of the emperor, these big merchants were even able to fight against the local officials, after all, they also had direct channels to complain to the emperor.

The case of Qian Shisheng has made many businessmen realize that when money and public opinion are combined, they also have the ability to defend themselves, and money is power.

Wang Yuanyi, the concubine of Wang Fengyuan, governor of the Central Bank, and Hu Qingquan, the younger brother of Hu Guangyuan, governor of the Bank of Communications, are among the more outstanding figures among the sons of businessmen. They finally couldn't bear to become the foil of the heirs of the lineage, trying to create a foundation for themselves, which led to the convening of this dinner.

The people invited by the two were mainly young people from the four major banks, and these people were no less talented than the heirs of each family, but they had to be driven by those heirs just because of their own background, which made them as unwilling as Wang Yuanyi and Hu Qingquan.

It is precisely because of this common ground that these ambitious young businessmen will be summoned by Wang Yuanyi and Hu Qingquan to try to unite the forces of everyone and find a new world for themselves.

After closing the window, Wang Yuanyi knocked on the glass in front of him with chopsticks, focusing everyone's eyes on himself, and then he cleared his throat and said: "I have gathered all my friends to gather today, mainly because Qingquan and I want to talk to you about the future of the banking industry.

As we all know, the Ministry of Household officially issued a document in June, requiring that in addition to the Export-Import Trade Bank, the other three banks apply for the issuance of banknotes, and for every 1 Ming Yuan issued, they must reserve gold and silver worth 033 yuan, which means that if there is no gold and silver reserves in the future, it will be difficult for domestic banks to increase the number of banknotes.

According to the profit of the banking industry this year, about 6% of the money interest will be paid for every 10 million banknotes issued, which is the net profit after deducting all expenses. According to our statistics, the four banks have issued a total of about 600 million banknotes, of which nearly 80 million yuan have been issued abroad.

As for the 5.2 billion yuan banknotes issued in China, theoretically 1.7 billion yuan worth of gold and silver reserves are needed. We all know that this is about 120 million taels of silver. According to the estimates of the Ministry of Households, the domestic gold and silver reserves are about 400 million taels of silver. But the gold and silver reserves owned by the three banks were only around 100 million taels of silver.

Even if the current shortfall in gold and silver reserves is filled, banks must first absorb 20 million taels of silver before they can meet the regulations on the issuance of banknotes formulated by the Ministry of Households.

However, the low gold and silver production in my Ming Dynasty is ridiculous, and the production of tens of thousands of taels of silver a year is already quite an outstanding achievement. Although the private sector still has nearly 300 million taels of gold and silver reserves, under the current situation, those who are willing to deposit them in banks or buy treasury bonds have already done so. The rest of the gold and silver may not be able to be handed over to the bank by the people in a short period of time.

Therefore, if banks want to continue to absorb gold and silver reserves, they have to look overseas. According to our assessment of overseas gold and silver inflows, first, gold and silver from Japan and the Americas are the majority, and the inflow of gold and silver last year was worth about 10 million taels of silver; The second is the mining of overseas gold and silver mines, with Taiwan's gold mine being the most, with the gold output mined last year reaching 680,000 taels, which is higher than the total mining of all gold and silver mines in Borneo, Sakhalin and Primorsky Krai. The third is the reparations from overseas defeated countries, which are too unstable and there is nothing to say.

Ladies and gentlemen, Japan, Taiwan, Borneo and other places are already under the control of our Ming Dynasty, so the gold and silver in these regions will not be our turn to interfere. But the gold and silver in the Americas were different, and until now the imperial court had not exercised control over the gold and silver mines in the Americas. It is said that the annual inflow of gold and silver from the Americas into China is only about one-fifth to one-sixth of the gold and silver production in the Americas. In other words, the annual output of gold and silver in the Americas is between 20 million and 30 million taels of silver, and such an annual output has been mined for hundreds of years, which shows how rich the gold and silver mines in the Americas are..."

"The gold and silver ore production in the Americas, this is information that even the imperial court has not been able to count, I don't know where Brother Wang heard the news? Is this news really reliable? ”

Someone couldn't help interrupting Wang Yuanyi's words and questioned him. Wang Yuanyi looked at it and found that it was Li Jingsheng of the Quwo Li family who questioned him, so he couldn't help but smile at him and said: "The news is naturally reliable, in addition, the imperial court has not failed to count the gold and silver production of the Americas, but has not disclosed it to the public."

According to what I have learned, the highest concentration of gold and silver mines in the Americas is in Mexico and Peru. Among them, the Potosi silver mine in Peru is the largest among all mines. Discovered in 1545, the ore is said to contain more than 50% silver, making it almost usable as silver.

It is said that the annual output of the Potosi silver mine has not been less than 250 tons since 40 years ago, and although the output of the Potosi silver mine has fallen in recent years, it has not fallen below 200 tons a year. ”

Wang Yuanyi's words finally moved everyone present, just a silver mine has produced more than 6 million taels of silver, which is really an amazing wealth.

Li Jingsheng couldn't help but swallow a mouthful of saliva, and then continued to ask Wang Yuanyi: "If I'm not mistaken, whether it's Mexico or Peru that Brother Wang said, they should all be colonies of the Spaniards. The relationship between the imperial court and the Spaniards is not bad now, and the Sihai Trading Company led by the Ministry of Internal Affairs is also developing the Philippine region with the Spanish colonial government in the Philippines.

In addition, the Americas are tens of thousands of miles away from our country, and the Spaniards have been operating in the Americas for more than 100 years, so it may be difficult for us to shake the rule of the Spaniards in the Americas, right? Not to mention trying to plot those gold and silver mines. ”

Hu Qingquan, who was sitting next to Wang Yuanyi, spoke at this time: "It seems that the cooperation between the imperial court and the Spaniards has reached an impasse. Since the arrival of the new Governor of Manila, there has been an attempt to overturn the cooperation agreement signed between the former Governor and my country.

The new governor not only severely limited the trade quota of Manila galleons, but also ordered restrictions on the use of our banknotes in the Philippines. It has also taken advantage of the opportunity of China's increased grain purchases to adopt a high tax system for Philippine grain exports. Although our smuggling trade with the Americas remains unaffected for the time being, the legal trade in Manila sailing ships has shrunk by nearly one-third this year compared to last year.

The new governor also shamelessly extorted bribes from the Four Seas Trading Company, claiming how much effort he had put into protecting our trade interests in the Philippines. If the company does not pay him fairly, then the trade volume between the two sides will continue to decline next year. And the land reclaimed by the company on Luzon Island will also be subject to land tax as appropriate. ”

Hu Qingquan's words suddenly made everyone present feel indignant, to this day, every inch of the expansion of the Ming Dynasty's overseas influence means that these Ming businessmen have been provided with room for the growth of interests.

The Spaniards' crackdown on the Four Seas Trading Company was no different from the suppression of the interests of all Ming merchants overseas. Even if many of them have no interest in the Four Seas Trading Company, the anger they feel is the same.

Wang Yuanyi clapped his palms, and after calming down everyone's anger, he said calmly: "You don't have to be too angry, this new governor of Manila is obviously killing himself by eating such a bad appearance.

However, all this is handled by the Four Seas Trading Company, and it is not our turn to worry about it for the time being. But the rivalry between the Spaniards and the imperial court gave us an excellent opportunity.

Before anyone else turns their attention to the Spanish colonies in the Americas, we can take the lead and see if we can grab something for ourselves..."