Chapter Seventy-Five: Indefinite Treasury Drugs
"What is emerging now is the great indefinite treasury bonds, which have an unlimited maturity, that is to say, if you buy them, you will not repay the principal, but you can receive a fixed 5% interest every year, and you can return the principal in 20 years, and then you will make a net profit. The only risk is the abolition of this national debt as a result of the demise of the state. That is to say, this kind of national debt can be received forever, and when you die, you can pass it on to your son, and when your son dies, you can pass it on to your grandson; Can be divided and merged; Inheritance can be transferred; The state can buy back and write off. When purchasing, you need to pay a full amount of coins, and an indefinite treasury bond with a face value of 100 yuan needs to pay 100 yuan of copper coins, but when the state buys it back, it can only be repurchased at the market price. If the price falls below 100 guan due to defeat, natural disasters, deflation, etc., the state can pay less to buy back, and if the price rises above 100 guan due to victory, economic prosperity, inflation, etc., the state will have to pay more to buy back. This is basically the same as other government bonds, the only difference is that you can flexibly choose the time to buy back. This kind of treasury bond is more conducive to the allocation of funds by the state than ordinary treasury bonds that are repaid at maturity, so they are also called patriotic bonds by buyers everywhere. Liu Xin and Chen Guanxian presided over the unprecedented issuance of treasury bonds, and then explained the origin of patriotic bonds to other travelers.
"How much profit did we make in this underwriting and buying of Treasury bonds? How many percent of the total debt of the Great Song Empire do we hold now? "Qian Jin has high requirements for the accurate surname of the numbers, and every time he wants to know the progress of the completion of the plan.
"I only made three million yuan, and this profit is still the difference in the premium issuance caused by our hard work and hype, and the officials of the three divisions are too to refuse to give a penny of discount. We crossed the Great Song Empire issued a total of 1500000000 treasury bonds, and we only held 4 million guan, and all of them were the shortest-term three-year local government axe bonds. Although they have no financial education, they basically know that the risk of the debt of the central government is much lower than that of the local government. We didn't deliberately guide us, no one should be able to see our intentions, and they all took the bait. ”
"Very well, then we will issue more indefinite Treasury bonds, so that those fools will fall into the illusion and pleasure of not having to pay back, as long as they get used to this easy method of getting money and the method of quick addiction to money with very low financing costs, they will be at our mercy like addicted drug addicts. The local government bonds we underwrite are all short-term industrial investment bonds of less than five years, and the funds raised are basically used for road construction and investment in agriculture, industry and commerce, and these investments are fast-yielding, short-term, high-profit, and actually very low-risk.
The indefinite debts of the central government are all used for national defense and military projects, rewarding hundreds of officials, building royal gardens, allocating carriages to major yamen, establishing a post station system, building schools, and harnessing the Yellow River.
Because they see that the pressure to repay the principal is very small, most of the investors who think that the risk is very small are investors such as princes and nobles. They thought to themselves that anyway, the treasury bond funds they spent money to buy would not be returned to them through corruption and rewards in a short time. You can drive political decisions yourself. If you see a risk coming, let the treasury buy back the indefinite treasury bonds in its hands. Making a lot of money by yourself is a windfall. "Chen Guanxian, as the main maker and executor of financial plans, has always tried to override the financial power of the central political axe of the Great Song Empire.
The indefinite treasury bonds that were hotly discussed in the court were used to raise funds to build a nationwide network of highways and bridges over major rivers, or were they mostly used in areas needed by powerful civil bureaucratic groups, such as building schools to increase the reserve force of civil servants ---- the treatment of scholars. Improve the post station system to improve your comfort on the road, whether it is up or down.
The use of money in armament warfare will strengthen the strength of the military generals, and it will also arouse the suspicion and dissatisfaction of neighboring countries; If it is used in the river engineering or political axe functional departments, it will lead to the strengthening of civil power and [***]; If it is used in the construction of royal gardens and palaces, it will damage one's own reputation if it consumes national funds
As a result, the Empress Dowager decided that in order to continue to maintain the balance of power between civil and military officials, almost half of this batch of funds would be used for the social welfare of the Chenji system, and half would be used to solve the problem of the diversion of the Yellow River and the siltation of sediment. The establishment of shelters, re-employment centers for displaced people, women's maternity insurance, and other systems is the benevolent choice of the Wenwu Group. The means of inflow is that the imperial court will give the money to the Chenji Group in the form of loans, and the interest rate is 0.5~1% higher than that of the national debt. All the officials are admired and numb to the fact that Chenji Group can always make a loss-making business that others do to make money if they do it themselves. The demand that the interest rate be higher than the indefinite treasury bond was also put forward by the public, ostensibly to share the country's worries, but in fact it was to plug the mouths of the princes and nobles and cover up the fact of digging the corners of the country. In the past, the displaced people would be transformed into an army, but now they can only become Chenji's employees or overseas colonizers who are unwilling and unnecessary to bear the financial burden. This money is destined to flow into the field planned by the traversal, and become a help for the traversal to grab manpower and displaced people.
In order to create a bubble of false prosperity at the top of the Great Song Empire, to empty the power of the central political axe, and to make the central political axe of the Great Song Empire heavily indebted and feel fine, the public used indefinite treasury bonds to launch an interest rate illusion dumping. At the local level, a large amount of investment has been made in the technological transformation and division of labor in agriculture, industry and commerce. Increasing local finances and the prosperity of the periphery and strengthening local strength against the central government's looting will create the outrageous illusion that the local government has a large debt burden. In order to keep the central authorities from being interested in the localities, it is necessary to do a very poor job in the financial accounts of the localities. For example, a large part of the reason why the tax revenue of Fujian Road has not increased but decreased is due to the huge interest on the local government debt. The high-ranking officials who had large debts were shocked when they were transferred. A small Xinghua army issued 1.5 million yuan of local government axe bonds. The annual interest on this money is as high as 60,000 yuan, which is 20,000 yuan more than the total tax revenue in the year before the debt is issued. If it weren't for the fact that after the money was in hand, it would immediately be invested in agriculture, industry, commerce, and other fields to earn profits, resulting in a large increase in the tax revenue of the Xinghua army to 120,000 yuan per year, and there was a trend of increasing year by year. In other words, the issuance of debt by the political axe has led to a cycle of good surnames. The necessary expenses of the local government are 10,000 guan per year, and the surplus and the fiscal taxes that can be paid have increased from 30,000 guan per year to 50,000 guan after deducting interest. Local officials at all levels of the Xinghua Army brazenly used a large number of debt bills and varieties to fool their superiors and changed the tax payable from 50,000 yuan to 28,000 yuan. This is the reason why tax revenues are not increasing but decreasing. As for the difference, it is paid to the bondholder in the form of interest. The holders are generally officials at all levels and head snakes, or they are handed over to the holders and then returned to the officials at all levels for kickbacks. In short, in terms of accounts, ostensibly through the issuance of bonds, the local political axe of the Great Song Empire became poor. The central political axe has become rich; In fact, the local political axe became rich, and the central political axe was heavily indebted.
The core of the money printing machine plan is to take the route of local encirclement of the central government, in order to increase the strength and influence of the local government extensively, constantly attract investment and political achievements for local officials, and at the same time infiltrate grassroots economic organizations ---- cooperatives through economic means.