Printing paper money is based on a sufficient money supply, needless to say, Zhou Lang got 80 million taels of silver from Lord He, and silver is not all of China's currency, but only a statistical currency for large-scale trade and government taxation.

In terms of making money, there is a steady stream of copper imported by Zhou Lang from Japan, and the Japanese gave a transaction quota of 5 million catties per year, which is enough, because Yunnan, the largest copper mineral in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, has a maximum annual output of 14 million catties during the Qianlong period, and the lowest is more than 900 catties, and the Manchu Qing Dynasty occupies the entire world, and Zhou Lang is limited to the southeast corner, with 5 million catties of copper in hand, which is enough to control the supply of copper coins. In addition, there was no ban on the circulation of money made in the Manchu era, and the supply of copper coins was also abundant.

With both silver and copper in abundance, even if the issuance of banknotes fails, there is room for maneuver, and it is a big deal to return to the era of the metal standard.

In fact, the main thing that affects the progress of the issuance of banknotes is the strict preparation.

When printing banknotes, Zhou Lang's first consideration was to put an end to counterfeiting, which is not exclusive to the Chinese. Rather, it is flooded all over the world, and the US dollar (some bank notes) is even counterfeited by someone who draws it by hand.

The anti-counterfeiting methods of paper money in various countries are not as advanced as those of later generations, and even in later generations, counterfeit money can still not be eradicated. Therefore, Zhou Lang attaches great importance to this, once the counterfeiting of counterfeit money cannot be eliminated, then the issuance will be meaningless.

The best way to prevent counterfeiting is to make counterfeiting unprofitable, and this is how Japan uses it, and it is said that the cost of each of the delicate yen is equal to or even higher than the denomination, so no one wants to imitate this currency, so the yen is said to have no counterfeit money.

In order to increase the cost of imitation, Zhou Lang's design of currency is very complicated.

The first is the choice of paper, the ancient paper used for banknotes is mulberry paper, because this kind of paper is thick and wear-resistant, but also absorbs ink, and is easy to print. This paper is still popular today and is the preferred paper for deeds, which can be used to print contracts and can be stored for many years.

Zhou Lang also chose this kind of contract paper, which is made from mulberry bark as a basic raw material, but asked some large workshops in Fujian and Guangdong to help improve it, allowing them to try out more wear-resistant paper by adding other raw materials. These workshops have carried out a large number of trial productions, adding various raw materials to blend, and fibers such as cotton, linen and silk have been added to the test. In the end, a paper mill in Fujian Province produced the best quality samples, asked them to keep the recipe secret, and then purchased large quantities from them. Among them, the government sent people to closely monitor the production and transportation process to prevent any raw materials from flowing out.

The second is to make a special design for the printing process. In order to increase the cost, of course, we must use the best printing method, that is, the current overprint, the advantage of overprinting is that it can be printed many times, printing different colors of patterns, making the pattern more vivid. This technique was already widespread in the Ming Dynasty, and many beautiful books even used three-color overprinting.

Zhou Lang hired a workshop of Foshan New Year paintings to help with printing, and the reason why he came to them was because they were very good at printing characters. Zhou Lang found that in this era, there were no portraits on the banknotes of various countries, because the printing of the portraits was very complicated, the cost was too high, and the process could not meet the requirements. The higher the process requirements, the higher the imitation cost. So Zhou Lang asked the old craftsmen of Foshan to help carve a set of the most complex patterns for color printing.

Finally, the determination of the face value, in this era, most of the paper money in the West is also a large denomination, and various coins are used in ordinary transactions, and Zhou Lang's purpose is to replace metal currency, so he chose to make the denomination very small.

The first banknotes came in three denominations, namely 10 Wen, 50 Wen and 100 Wen.

Why use copper coins as face value instead of silver, Zhou Lang also hesitated for a long time. The silver standard was obviously more in line with the direction of development than the copper coin standard, so Zhou Lang initially planned to use silver as a banknote reserve, and did not intend to print small banknotes at that time.

After thinking about it for a long time and discussing with people from all walks of life, I finally decided to use the copper coin denomination. Because copper money is the currency used by the common people, silver is the currency of the government tax and denomination, either the government or the rich are commonly used, if Zhou Lang only decides to print paper money for the rich, then of course it is best to use silver as the subject matter, but Zhou Lang's purpose is to use paper money to gradually replace the circulation of metal money, then it is still the subject matter that the most users are used to, so in the end they chose to use copper money to denominate, and also chose the small face value that the people can use.

There are three denominations, different sizes, the smallest is ten wen, only the size of a palm, almost the size of a hundred yuan bills in later generations. The printing is so large, mainly due to technical reasons. The front of the banknote is a portrait of the God of Wealth, and the north side is a hole square copper coin, even the best old craftsmen in Foshan say that it is impossible to print a clear portrait of the God of Wealth on too small paper. The size of a 100-dollar bill is already a limit. Fifty Wen is larger than Ten Wen, about the size of half a sheet of 4K printing paper, the pattern on it is more complex, one side is also the God of Wealth, but this time it is a bust, the face is still a copper coin, the copper coin is printed with the words "When Fifty Wen", and the edge of the banknote is printed with a circle of rice ears. The size of a hundred Wen is about the same as 4K paper, the God of Wealth is not only a full-body portrait, but also with two scattered wealth boys, the copper coin on the back is very large, in addition to the words "when a hundred Wen", there are rice ears around, and there are two mountains of white and yellow respectively printed on both sides, implying gold and silver.

Due to the complexity of printing, the exquisite materials used in papermaking, and the low face value, in this set of banknotes, the cost of ten cents is basically the same as the face value, which is still the cost of large-scale printing by the government. Fifty and one hundred will definitely not be equal in denomination, but the technical difficulty is high, and no one will master all the imitation technology for a while and a half, so the safety can be guaranteed.

After this set of banknotes was printed, it began to circulate through the bank, and the public bank was responsible for providing a guarantee behind the back, and all the money banks that obtained the government's license could directly exchange gold and silver coins and money with the public bank, and the public bank provided them with a three-point discount, and when they exchanged gold and silver coins with the bank, the public bank did not deduct any fees, and paid them in full. Therefore, as long as they can keep exchanging, they will have a fixed profit of three points.

The huge volume of private transactions made the business profitable, and the money bank was revitalized.

Not only Qian Zhuang has come to life, but with Zhou Lang's standardized management of the commercial market and financial system, the entire Guangdong business has come to life.

It's just a little unexpected that makes people endure it, that is, because these currencies are circulating in Zhou Lang's control area, and Zhou Lang is shocked by the name of "Generalissimo of the Ming Dynasty", which leads to the provinces to occasionally get these gold and silver coins and coins called Dashuai coins, which sounds like scolding.

But the appearance of this name means that the colorful currencies minted by Zhou Lang have not only circulated in Fujian and Guangdong, but have entered the control areas of other forces, especially those controlled by Chen Zhouquan's forces.

It's just that Chen Zhouquan's current situation is very bad, not to mention the systematic project of minting money, it is difficult to say whether he can keep a corner of southern Zhejiang in the continuous strangulation of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

In order to occupy the favorable conditions for confrontation with the Manchus after the Manchus drove Chen Zhouquan away, Zhou Lang had a serious discussion with his subordinates, and everyone agreed that they should fight out, eliminate Chen Zhouquan in the Manchu Qing Dynasty, attack Zhejiang from Fujian, and occupy Chen Zhouquan's current territory first.

Beating Chen Zhouquan, Zhou Lang didn't have any psychological burden, but he felt a little indebted to his wife, after all, Chen Zhouquan is her own brother, on one side is her brother, and on the other hand, she is her husband, and it is estimated that this woman is the most difficult.

Zhou Lang decided to talk to his wife about this issue, because politically, he would break with Chen Zhouquan sooner or later.

Because there is only one in the world, and they all want it!