In late February, just three days after my wedding to Nana Ishitani, Nobunaga sent troops to Iwakura.

Last year, Iwakura lost its troops, the castle town was robbed, the grain was cut, and the vitality was in a mess. Most of the wealthy clans in the territory fell to Cheongju, and the wealthy clans who were more loyal to the Iwakura side were basically wiped out by Cheongju and the wealthy clans supported by Cheongju. Xinxian was not in the right position, and during the siege of the city, he strongly suppressed his retainers, and there was a lot of contradictions in the family. Under Nobunaga's attack, I believe he won't be able to hold out for a few days this time.

However, I didn't have anything to do with this dispatch, Niwa Nagahide stayed in Cheongju, and I was his deputy and served as the secretary of the question, that is, he was responsible for handling disputes and lawsuits in the town.

Nobunaga's family has always focused on business. In the first place, it was able to rise because of the large amount of money brought by business. Nobunaga's father, Nobuhide, originally controlled only a small area of Kaito and Nakajima counties, and the castle was Katsuhata Castle on the border of the two counties. However, there is a treasure trove near them - Tsushima.

Tsushima is a thriving Mozen town and port city, and the Port of Tsushima is one of the largest ports in Tokaido, along with the Suruga Port of the Imagawa family. In addition, there is Tsushima Shrine, which was named after the emperor himself, and the Tsushima Cow Head Tenno Festival is one of the three major river festivals in modern times, along with the Tenman Tenjin Festival in Osaka and the orchestra festival in Miyajima. In 1501, after the establishment of the temple temple in nearby Nagashima, the six sons of Honganji Renru, relied on the support of the Tsushima believers to become an important town of Ichizan Honganji and Kaga Province.

During the Nobuhide period, Tsushima was jointly controlled by fifteen local tyrants known as the "Four Families, Seven Names, and Four Surnames", and the most powerful was the Ohashi family, the head of the "Four Families". Nobuhide extended his power to Tsushima through a marriage with Ohashi Shigenaga, the head of the Ohashi family, and took control of it, leaving it under the control of his uncle Oda Genbo Yohidetoshi. Later, Oda Nobuhide, who received a large amount of money from Tsushima, greatly increased his strength and eventually became the largest force in Owari.

Therefore, after taking control of Kiyoshu, Nobunaga carried forward the "fine traditions" of his family and greatly expanded the size of the castle town, making it a treasury that was even better than Tsushima and Atsuta Jingu in his family's domain.

In the original history, not long after, he even changed the military flag, replacing the original papaya family pattern on the military flag with three "Yongle Tongbao......

However, with the increase in the number of people and the prosperity of business, various law and order problems and disputes and lawsuits have increased significantly. Especially since the destruction of Iwakura last year, a large number of bankrupt merchants, craftsmen, and townspeople have come to Cheongju, and Niwa Nagahide, who is the governor of Cheongju, has spent a lot of his energy on maintaining law and order and dealing with disputes.

After I became his lieutenant, he was happy to leave this part of the matter to me. Not long after I took office, I really realized that this is indeed a tedious job.

For the work of public security, I mainly rely on Xiujing, he has worked under Changxiu before, and he is doing things similar to "chengguan" as a public security officer, and this time I let him serve as the head of the security group. Xiao Xia seems to be angry with me lately, but she and Xiujing get along very well, so I asked her to assist Xiujing in her work.

At the beginning of March, Nobuyo, under the mediation of his father Nobuyan, surrendered to Oda Nobunaga, and the town of Iwakura was largely abandoned. As a result, there were more people who came to Cheongju, and among them there were many Iwakura samurai who had lost their main family. Some samurai still harbor hatred for the lord's family, and from time to time they cause trouble in the town. As a result, the manpower that could still be maintained immediately became overstretched. I had to ask Niwa Nagahide for help, and he supported some of my men, and sent his retainer Ueda Shigemoto and Kuwasan City's younger brother Kuwasama Shigeharu to assist me in my work.

After that, my friend Masada Asai recommended Tatsunosuke Kazutoyo Yamauchi to me. He was the son of the old Yamauchi Moritoyo of the Iwakura Fang family, and since his father and brother were killed by Inuyama Kata at Kuroda Castle the year before, the retainers who lost their lord have dispersed, and he and his younger brother have taken refuge under the family of Asai Takamasa, the lord of Kanyasu Castle. But after he served last year, the retainers in the family returned one after another, and Asai Takamasa had no intention of supporting that large group of people for him. Hearing that I needed a lot of manpower here, and that I myself seemed to have a good income (income from the sorrel), Asai Masadashi recommended him to me, along with a group of retainers of the Yamauchi family, Yamauchi Yoshisuke (younger brother Yasutomi Yamauchi), Goto Junki (another wife, eldest daughter, and two minor sons, known as Goto for the latter and Goto for the heavy), grandfather Ekan Saemon and grandfather Eikhide, father and son (women and children are counted separately)...... It's really buy one get more free.

In view of the fact that this was the first Warring States celebrity to defect to me, I generously gave him an annual salary of 100 guan, as well as a service allowance of 2 guan per person, raising his family completely, and at the same time raising Xiujing and Xiaoxia's annual income to 150 guan.

For the time being, I will be responsible for the rest of the litigation and mediation matters. In the process, I deeply felt the lack of rules and regulations. For example, many of the economic disputes I have encountered have been over coins, especially the exchange ratios of gold and copper, yongle and iron.

The relationship between China began in the Tang Dynasty, when China abandoned the five-baht coin and recast the Tongbao coin, and the advanced coinage process was controlled by the imperial court. Therefore, it is said that Ben only got the process of forging, but not the process of casting. For a long time, although the country could make sharp and sophisticated katanas, it was not possible to mint square-hole copper coins with clear characters and neat patterns.

In January of the 5th year of Keiyun (708), Watong was discovered in Chichibu-gun, Musashi Province (now Kurotani, Chichibu City). At that time, it was the time when the imperial court was preparing to move the capital (Heijo moved the capital in 710). A lot of money is needed. After getting this report, the political axe hyped it, changed the era name to "Hetong", and learned from the Tang Dynasty to mint copper coins. This is the earliest coin of this book - and the same Kaiju.

However, at that time, the economy was basically based on rice and cloth, and people did not immediately accept money issued under the name of political axes. In the 4th year of Hetong (711), in order to break this situation of no one using it, the political axe issued a large number of policies, the most "powerful" of which was the "Order of Saving Money and Claiming the Position", and the magistrates (county divisions, young leaders) needed to accumulate more than 6,000 coins, otherwise they would not be hired; And after accumulating 10,000 coins and Tongkaijing, you can be promoted, and civilians can be awarded official positions after accumulating 1 million coins (but you don't need to pay tribute if you accumulate them...... Since then, it has gradually been used and circulated in copper coins. However, due to the low quality and high cost of the coins minted, he gave up his own coinage in the 2nd year of Tiande (958) and imported them from China instead. This process lasted from the Song dynasty to the Ming dynasty, reaching its peak during the Yongle period. The currency of Yongle Tongbao was specially minted by Chengzu for foreign trade and rewards, but in China it was not much because of the vigorous promotion of paper money in the early Ming Dynasty "Ming Tongbao Banknote".

In this way, he received a large number of Yongraku Tongbao from the Ming Dynasty (in 1636, the shogunate issued Kannaga Tongbao, and in 1640 he began to use it to recover the money represented by Yongle Tongbao, and by 1658 a total of 2.75 billion pieces had been issued). At the same time, some of the local guardians who owned copper mines minted their own copper coins, known as iron coins. These two kinds of money were treated very differently in Kanto and Kansai. Kansai controlled the trade with the Ming Dynasty and obtained an excessive amount of Yongle Tongbao, so he was very unpopular. For this reason, in 1485, the Ouchi family, which dominated Kansai, issued a special "money writing order", ordering the people not to refuse to use Yongraku Tongbao out of disgust; The Muromachi shogunate began in 1500 and until 1513, and every year it issued money writing orders...... However, Yongle Tongbao in Kanto was warmly welcomed. As a commercial center that controlled trade routes, Owari was located between Kanto and Kansai, which caused a lot of disputes.

After discussing this issue with Niwa Nagahide, I decided to ask Nobunaga to impose an exchange rate.

In fact, it was not until 1569 that Oda Nobunaga issued a similar order. Now, as a result of my proposal, it is quite possible that the issuance of this order will be brought forward by 10 years......

As for the exchange ratio, my suggestion is to use 1 Yongle coin as 4 coins, which is also the exchange standard of the Edo shogunate, but this still needs Nobunaga's support.

At this time, an incident suddenly occurred in the Chita Prefecture Domain, and the main family's Odaka Castle and Tsukake Castle were rebelled by the Yamaguchi sect of Narumi Castle and took refuge in the Imagawa family. If left unchecked, the entire province of Chita is in danger of falling. Nobunaga hurriedly summoned his ministers to start the assessment. However, most of the family's energy, manpower, and money were spent on controlling the newly acquired territory of the upper four counties, and it was impossible to send troops for a while. In desperation, Nobunaga could only hand over the matter to Takigawa Kazuyi and let him carry out the strategy.

It also takes money to adjust it. Nobunaga turned his attention to Kiyoshu as Niwa Nagahide and Tsushima as Oda Hidetoshi.

Niwa Nagahide reported on the income and internal affairs of Kiyoshu Town, and then took the opportunity to submit the money writing order that we had discussed earlier.

"Can this increase your monthly income?" Nobunaga asked, touching his chin.

Niwa Nagahide looked at me, and I hurriedly put my hands on the ground and leaned over to report to Nobunaga: "My lord, it may be difficult to achieve this effect in a short period of time, but in the long run, my income can definitely be improved." Moreover, in this way, a lot of disputes about coins can be reduced. ”

"Then issue the order! Just according to the proportions that you have agreed with. Also, try to find ways to increase your monthly income. Nobunaga said.

When I heard Nobunaga mention of income, an idea suddenly occurred to me. Since the exchange ratio has been stipulated, is it possible to charge a certain fee for buying and selling in terms of bulk exchange, as is the case with modern foreign exchange trading? As far as I know, there is a considerable difference in the proportion between the Kanto and Kansai coins in the exchange of Yongle money and iron money. I believe that merchants who left Cheongju for Kanto and Kansai were happy to pay a little money to exchange their currency for the high-quality currency at their destination.

"Your Majesty, Your Majesty has a way to get an extra income."

"Oh?" Nobunaga's upper body leaned forward slightly.

"You can follow the practice of other industries and set up a 'money seat' to provide currency exchange and then charge a fee. Due to the money habits of Kanto and Kansai, His Majesty believed that many merchants who left Cheongju would be happy. ”

"If you offer an exchange...... It takes a lot of money. Nobunaga thought for a moment.

"It's true that you need some Yongle money and iron money as reserves, but there will be an income every month after that......"

"Well, let's leave this matter until after the autumn harvest!" Nobunaga interrupted.

I think he may think that the income of the money seat will not be too much, so it is really not cost-effective to withdraw the funds that are currently stretched.

……，……

"Your Highness Changxiu, because the suggestion just now came to me temporarily, I didn't put it forward to discuss it before...... I beg your forgiveness for the rudeness. "Walking out of the evaluation room, I said to Niwa Nagahide.

"His Royal Highness Xuanjing is too worried." Niwa Nagahide said generously.

"What does His Highness Changxiu think of this proposal?" I asked.

"His Royal Highness Xuanjing's proposal is good, but the lord's handling is also very reasonable. At present, the focus of this family is the control of the four counties, and even the affairs of Da Gao and Yu can only be dealt with by adjustment...... It is true that there is no financial and human capacity to provide support. ”

"Then His Highness Changxiu, what if we do it ourselves first?"

"Do it yourself?" Niwa Nagahide asked rhetorically.

"Yes, I think I might as well try it out for a while. After that, if the lord asks us to set up the money seat, there is also a ready-made experience to learn from. In the next house, there is a surplus of about 200 yuan per month, and you can take it all out. ”

"I didn't expect His Highness Xuanjing to be so good at managing ......," Niwa Nagahide exclaimed. As an expert in internal affairs, he knows that this income is really considerable. It's about 200 kan a month, and it's 2,500 kan a year, which is about 8,000 koshi Zhiyuki's harvest when converted into Naritafu. However, this income of mine is not subject to military service or annual tribute, but is a net profit after deducting expenses, such as costs, taxes, and salaries. Although his family has 20,000 stone of knowledge, if he doesn't count his own money, the annual surplus is not as much as my family's.

"It's all in the lower side room. As a samurai, it really made His Royal Highness Changxiu smile. I said modestly.

"Since His Royal Highness Xuanjing has this intention, then I Changxiu will also do my part. There are more than a thousand taels of gold in the next house, and you can take them all out. Seeing my management ability, Niwa Nagahide readily agreed.

"Please rest assured, His Royal Highness Changxiu, I will definitely let this investment get enough returns." I promise.

"It's all about serving the Lord." Niwa Nagahide waved his hand.

At the beginning of May, we issued a "money writing order" in the town: Yongle money or iron money are valid currencies in the town, and all townspeople are not allowed to refuse to use either one; At the time of the transaction, the conversion between the two is made according to the ratio of 1:4; If someone refuses to use a certain currency, the law enforcement will impose certain penalties.

At the same time, the money writing house jointly opened by the two of us was established. Niwa Nagahide offered 1,000 taels of gold at a time, and I provided 400 taels of copper coins, and continued to provide 200 taels of copper coins every month in the future (there were Yongle coins and iron coins) until Nobunaga officially established the money seat, and the profits were divided equally between the two parties once a month. In terms of operation, according to the ratio of 1 tael of gold = 1 guan of money = 1000 yuan of Yongle money = 4000 yuan of iron money, the exchange is provided to the outside world, and a fee of 2% (2%) is charged. The manpower of the money house was recruited by both parties, and his official (agent) was Ota Munekiyo, and I sent Kira Hidekei, and Ueda Shigemoto was the head of the security team, and arranged for Konatsu to be by my side.

The money house is located next to Niwa Nagahide's office, and I think everyone can see its relationship with Niwa Nagahide. Because of their official background, many merchants who left Cheongju were willing to come and exchange the coins they were happy to accept. In addition, there are also people from the town who come to the town, some of them are exchanged for gold for storage convenience, and some are exchanged for copper coins for small amounts of money. The money house has been doing very well.

And if there is any more question about the currency, I will send them directly to the money writing house, and both sides will pay 1% for the exchange of acceptable coins, otherwise they will wait for the fine according to the "money writing order". This percentage is already very small, and being able to avoid arguments and penalties is something that both parties are happy to accept.

A month later, Niwa Nagahide was almost stunned when he looked at the surplus of 280 kan in the accounts, excluding various expenses and salaries. Not only him, but I was also a little surprised, this is only the first month.

"Isn't there only two hundred copper coins in the money house? How could it be ......" Niwa Nagahide was a little puzzled.

I can understand this: "If there is out, there will be in!" For anyone, the cost of a money house is more than 1,400 yuan. ”

"Your Royal Highness, my brother, we ran out of money in mid-May, but for two days, we couldn't cash out the money, and we couldn't continue to operate until a merchant who was bound to the Kanto region gave us fifty pieces of money." Xiujing reported.

"That's a problem...... Niwa Nagahide mused.

"Or else? In the future, on the first day of every decade of each month, we will initiate free exchanges as needed to supplement the single copper coins with a high proportion of redemption? I proposed.

"Yes, His Highness Xuanjing has a good idea." Niwa Nagahide agreed.

After dividing up the two hundred and eighty yuan, I continued to inject two hundred copper coins according to the contract, and then, the two of them left the money writing house very happily and satisfied.

The next day, Nobunaga suddenly sent Nakagawa Shigemasa to deliver the order that Niwa Nagahide and I should immediately go to the North Castle Tower.

"I guess Nobunaga knew about the money house, right?" I think.

Sure enough, as soon as Niwa Nagahide and I met, Nobunaga immediately asked, "I heard that you two have opened a money house together and made a lot of money." ”

"Yes. Because the lord wants to set up a money seat after that, the two ministers try to run it first, so as to accumulate experience and better manage the money seat for the lord. Niwa Nagahideki reported.

"Well, it's commendable for your loyalty!" Nobunaga nodded, "But, have you two paid your taxes?" ”

"This ...... Your Majesty will make up for it immediately! Niwa Nagahide hurriedly said.

"That's it for this month. However, from the following month, the tax must be paid monthly, which is set at ...... Eighty percent of the total profit is good. ”

"Eighty percent of the profits?" Niwa Nagahide and I looked at each other. This is a tax, it's a robbery!

"In addition, I allow you to use my name and my family's crest in the money house...... After the autumn harvest, your principal will be returned, and the money house will take care of the matter! Nobunaga said.

At this point, Niwa Nagahide and I both understood that Nobunaga was turning our money house into a money seat in Cheongju. After that, we were the only one in Cheongju who was engaged in a money exchange business, and the rest were not allowed to open similar houses.

Although the proportion of each person's share will be 10% of the profit, but if you get the official status and exclusive right to operate as a "seat", you don't have to worry about competition from other companies. Moreover, since this is the arrangement of Nobunaga as the lord, we can only accept it anyway. One percent of the profit is considered to be a gift from us for holding on to this matter!

"Yes, Your Majesty obeys." Niwa Nagahide and I glanced at each other, and the two of us bowed down together.

"Then I'm going to send a ...... It's Ji! This monkey is very much admired by both of you. ”

"But my lord, Yu Ji is just a handyman." Niwa Nagahide questioned.

"Then promote him to a samurai!" Nobunaga patted the folding fan, "He has been with me for three years, and he has always made no mistakes, and he is loyal and honest...... It's time to give yourself the status of a samurai. ”

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