New Book Collection: The Rise of Great Powers 1900

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Just after the Chinese New Year, the financial crisis broke out, which was completely a man-made crisis, and it was naturally Hui businessmen who caused the crisis, but the initiator was Yang Chao.

Yang Chao then understood that it was all caused by his own forcible intervention in the market, and he thought that he could sell low-interest bonds to Huizhou merchants, but he didn't know that the trust of Huizhou merchants in the government was not enough to let them take out the cellar silver and exchange it for bonds, and that kind of low-interest bonds could not impress them at all, and they were not very relieved to hold the silver in their hands, and only when they put the silver in the hidden silver cellar would they feel steady.

"There are less than 10 million taels of silver in the silver stock, and at least 1 million taels are being exchanged every day. Your Excellency, if this situation is allowed to go, there is probably only one way to go bankrupt. ”

Nassau was very frustrated and very angry, in his opinion, this was all because Yang Chao had made a bank note that far exceeded the deposit through the Jiangnan Bank, if it was the Bank of Amsterdam, this would not have happened, because the Bank of Amsterdam, every guilder bank bill, has a corresponding guilder silver in the treasury as a guarantee, and will never print an extra guilder.

However, Jiangnan Bank only had 20 million silver, but it printed 50 million silver tickets.

"Don't be in a hurry. Continue to redeem. Many small silver bills are impossible to cash, and no one will cash them with a penny note. The people must always keep the silver tickets for their daily expenses. ”

Although Jiangnan Bank has branches in every city to deal with acceptance business, it is only in Suzhou, Nanjing, and Yangzhou, and there are no branches in the county, and the business in each county is not opened. It is often run by local pawnshops and money banks, who exchange silver tickets, and then use the silver to exchange silver tickets from Jiangnan Bank.

Jiangnan Bank does not exchange change, and the minimum exchange amount is ten taels, which means that ordinary people can't redeem Jiangnan Bank, only big businessmen. And these pawnshops that collect small amounts of silver bills together and then accept them together are the main force of exchange from Jiangnan Bank.

But even if it is a small money village that exchanges small banknotes in the hands of the people, it is generally impossible to exchange a cent of silver to the people, because it is impossible to weigh at all, and the minimum exchange amount of the general pawnshop is a penny of silver, although the people can save up the small banknotes and exchange them together, but there will always be some such small bills of one cent denomination left in their hands.

"We have printed 20 million taels of silver for one cent of silver, and even 10 million taels of small bills will not be cashed. The deposit of silver in the treasury cannot be sustained. ”

Nassau said coldly.

Yang Chao couldn't help but be big: "What else is in the bank treasury besides silver?" ”

"Bonds! Lots of bonds! ”

Nassau said sarcastically, everything was expected for him, and the run really began.

"Then redeem the bonds! These high-yield bonds have always been very popular. ”

Nassau said: "On the exchange, bonds have fallen below half of their face value. ”

The bond market on the exchange has always been very deserted, but during this period of time, it suddenly broke out, and with the tens of millions of taels of bonds sold by Huizhou people, the price began to plummet, causing others to sell. What started out as low-interest bonds has now begun to plummet even three-year bonds with a monthly interest rate of three cents.

Yang Chao said: "Exchange!" Just exchange bonds. We don't have anything else in our hands other than bonds. As long as you see the silver ticket, you can always redeem something. The silver ticket will not be wasted. The silver ticket is the last. And we still pay interest every month, so the bonds don't become waste paper. ”

Although Nassau was dissatisfied, he had no good way at this time, so he could only agree.

But he made new demands.

"I need the government to issue a patent that allows Jiangnan Bank to exchange bonds for silver bills. At the same time, the government needs to grant a patent to Jiangnan Bank, and the taxes of various places are remitted by Jiangnan Bank. ”

In fact, taxes everywhere. It has always been handed over to Jiangnan Bank, but there is no explicit text, and Nassau believes that a written power of attorney can improve the credit of Jiangnan Bank.

Yang Chao quickly agreed, and announced it to the world through a guarantee.

However, the move did not stop the run, but caused a further decline in bond prices. The largest number of bonds of 10 taels of denomination has fallen by 3 taels of silver.

Yang Chao called on everyone to buy bonds in the newspaper, saying that buying bonds is to lend money to the country, and to lend money to the country is to serve the court and be loyal to the country.

At the same time, they united with the salt merchants' money banks and pawnshops, hoping that they would guarantee that they would not sell their bonds within a year to stabilize the market.

However, this demand caused panic in the money industry, and the sell-off became more violent, and within a month, the price of bonds fell to one or two pieces of silver, and bonds almost became waste paper.

At this time, Du Shouchang, a salt merchant in Huai'an, found Yang Chao and said that he was willing to organize the Huai'an Salt Merchant Group and lend the government 10 million taels of silver.

Du Shouchang is a capable person, he used to be the largest salt merchant in Huai'an, and at this time he has been publicly elected as the head of the line by Huai'an merchants, and has been negotiating with the government on behalf of Huai'an merchants.

"Okay. What do you Huai'an salt merchants want this time? ”

Du Shouchang said with a smile: "Colleagues from all walks of life in Huai'an want to be a matchmaker for the metropolitan governor. ”

Damn, what are you kidding, be a matchmaker at this time.

"Marry whom?"

But Yang Chao is very decisive, at this time, what else do you want, that is, marry a sow to him, he can only accept it.

"My sister Du Hongying has always been in the boudoir, and she will never forget the governor."

Nima, Du Shouchang, an old turtle gong, sold his sister to Yang Chao again.

"Okay, married!"

But Yang Chao had no reason not to agree.

However, Yang Chao also sighed that in later generations, Chairman Jiang married the daughter of the Song family and won the trust of the Jiangsu and Zhejiang consortiums, but he did not expect that he also needed to marry a Huai'an daughter to get the trust and support of Huai'an businessmen, and the marriage was indeed an inevitable political transaction.

Du Shouchang couldn't help but be happy, he knew Yang Chao's momentum very well, this was already the momentum of the emperor, he could get close to the Yang family, the Du family was the emperor's relatives, and the future would be unspeakably expensive, compared to a little wealth, it was not enough to worry about.

In fact, this 10 million taels of silver was used to buy bonds. His Du family alone paid three million, which was used in exchange for this family business.

"But the Metropolitan Governor still has to promise the villain one thing."

Du Shouchang has to inch in.

Yang Chao said impatiently: "Say it." You are now selling Ben Du, and Ben Du still dares to say half a word. ”

Yang Chao couldn't help but feel a little depressed.

Du Shouchang hurriedly said in fear: "The governor of the capital forgives the sin, the villain is by no means coercing the governor of the capital, it is just the good intentions of the merchants of Huai'an." ”

Du Shouchang was using the Huai'an merchant group to achieve his political goals, and of course, the Huai'an merchant group also felt that the Du family could marry the Yang family. It will give them a greater advantage.

Yang Chao sighed: "Say it." We're all in-laws. ”

Du Shouchang said: "The governor of the capital can promise the villain not to marry the merchants in Yangzhou." ”

Yang Chao felt that his face trembled, the Huaiyang Merchant Gang was juxtaposed in later generations, and they all thought that they were a group of businessmen, but they didn't expect that now they are so differentiated, and they have still become two business groups that are so fierce that they are red with bayonets.

But to be honest, Huai'an has Du Shouchang, and Qiao Chengwang, the commercial leader of Yangzhou, is a gentleman who is keen on gardens, calligraphy and painting, and he really fights. Yang Chao is really not optimistic about Yangzhou Merchant Group, although now Yangzhou Commercial Group is relying on stronger capital to suppress Huai'an Commercial Group, but the situation of being pressed by Huai'an Merchant Group step by step has appeared.

"Good!"

We have to hurry up and get the 10 million taels of silver of the Huai'an Group in our hands, the bank's treasury has bottomed out, and the largest bank vault, Nanjing Xinjiangkou Bank, has less than 1 million taels of silver left, and Suzhou, Songjiang and other places have long been suspended. As a result, the credit of silver tickets has been greatly reduced, and the exchange of silver tickets for silver in the black market has reached the price of one or two pairs of three coins.

This financial crisis is more dangerous than the last financial war with the Xungui group. The opponent last time was very clear, it was the financial industry with a noble background, but this time the opponent was himself, and it was the credit problem of paper money and bonds, and if it was not solved well, something would happen.

Yang Chao immediately published a newspaper and highly praised the behavior of the Huai'an Business Gang. The news that the Huai'an merchant gang was willing to buy 10 million taels of silver bonds was made public, and the people were advised not to sell the bonds, telling everyone that the price of bonds would rise, and now the loss from selling was too great.

After the news of the Huai'an Business Gang was issued, the bond market stabilized the next day. The ten-tael face value bond once rose to three taels, but in the end it fell to two taels of silver, the next day it fluctuated between two and three taels, and on the third day it suddenly fell another tael of silver.

But the other merchants also took action immediately, and they soon inquired about the news that Yang Chao had reached an agreement with the Huai'an merchant gang, and the rival Yangzhou merchant gang immediately ran over, and like last time, they also promised to invest 10 million taels of silver to stabilize the market, and also put forward a request for marriage.

But Yang Chao didn't agree, he had already reached an agreement with Du Shouchang, so he had to abide by it.

Qiao Chengwang, on behalf of the Yangzhou Business Gang, has repeatedly followed in the footsteps of Du Shouchang, always being so passive, it is really unproductive.

did not promise Qiao Chengwang, which made Qiao Chengwang even more panicked, and finally tremblingly agreed to the Yangzhou Merchant Gang to contribute 20 million taels of silver.

After Qiao Chengwang, the Huizhou Merchants also came, the Huizhou Merchants and the Huaiyang Merchants Gang are connected, almost a force, but it is not exactly the same, the salt industry capital is indeed the largest capital in the Huizhou merchants, but the amount of capital only accounts for less than one-fifth.

Among the four major industries of Huizhou merchants, salt industry, pawn industry, tea industry, and wood industry, the reason why the salt industry ranks first is because it is a highly capital-intensive, highly monopolistic industry, and a profiteering industry, but the total capital and total profit are not as good as pawns, nor as good as the wood industry, but only higher than the tea industry.

Since this run was caused by the Hui merchants, so the Hui merchants have been sincerely afraid, after the Huai'an and Yangzhou merchants took action, they also found Yang Chao, Yang Chao only borrowed 15 million taels from them last time, and now they are willing to take out 30 million taels of silver at one time.

In the end, the new force of 30 million taels of silver entered the market, and finally completely pulled up the bonds, and the ten taels of bonds finally stabilized at 9 taels, that is, the cost price of the underwriter. With the stabilization of bonds, the silver bills guaranteed by bonds finally returned to stability, and the stock of silver in Jiangnan Bank began to grow, although it only recovered to 10 million taels of silver, but it was finally able to cope with the exchange business of commercial operation.

It was not until April of the fifth year of Longwu (1651) that the financial market, which had been crazy for more than three months, began to stabilize.

After the impact of this round of financial turmoil, prices in the market have plummeted, many shops have closed down, the price of rice has dropped to one or two silver, and other prices have also fallen by more than half.

Yang Chao was also honest, and he no longer dared to directly intervene in finance, so he obediently issued new bonds with a three-cent interest, and was very careful to issue only 10 million taels, which was only used to pay the interest on bonds in previous years, not as an expense this year.

The credit of the Ming Dynasty's government in the past was negative, then you can only borrow money at high interest, this is the law of the market, vainly trying to destroy, there is only a dead end, Yang Chao's credit of the Metropolitan Governor's Mansion is under careful care, higher than the Ming Dynasty's official government, but it has not yet reached the extent that you can borrow with three annual interest rates.

Not only did prices plummet and people's livelihood withered, but Yang Chao even had to stop his military offensive.

In Guangdong, Song Kun sat in Guangzhou, incorporated the peasant army, the Ming army and the surrendered army, eliminated the old and weak, and expanded to 100,000 people.

Many men have been in Zhaoqing, rectifying training, and did not dare to launch an offensive against Guangxi, so that Kong Youde firmly controlled Guangxi and deployed heavy troops to defend the border.

With Yang Chao's economic situation, this year's tax revenue will be greatly affected, and I am afraid that he will not even be able to collect last year's 30 million taels of tax silver, and he will not be able to take a new offensive this year, and he can barely pay the salaries of nearly one million troops, and the training of artillery and bird guns cannot be guaranteed.

However, Yang Chao's defensive position gave another force a chance.

The strength of the Great Western Army has risen.

Under the leadership of Sun Kewang, Li Dingguo, Liu Wenxiu and Ai Nengqi, the remnants of the Great Western Army annexed Prime Minister and Empress Zhang Xianzhong, twisted the Great Western Army into a rope, and then retreated to Yunnan.

Sun Kewang and others have been very effective in their management of Yunnan.

First, severe punishment was adopted, and corrupt officials were punished with capital punishment, and the rule of officials was quickly eliminated.

Second, the minting of copper coins banned the shellfish coins used in Yunnan for thousands of years, raising Yunnan's financial system to the same extent as other regions.

Third, to encourage production, for the same land annexation situation in Yunnan as in other parts of the country, Sun Kewang issued a decree that all the people who rented land and cultivated land would receive an equal share of the income with the government, and the government would give 10% to the landlords, that is, the land output would be 5 for the people and 4 for the officials, and the landlords would get a share of the distribution ratio.

Obviously, Sun Kewang's various systems have made the distribution of wealth more even, the people's enthusiasm for production has been greatly improved, and the weather has been smooth, and in three years, Yunnan's economy has been stable and there has been a bumper harvest every year.

With stable economic support, the Great Western Army had the conditions to reorganize and incorporate the original Ming army, and at the same time recruit local Tusi troops.

Tens of thousands of migrant workers were requisitioned and dispatched in Kunming, teaching grounds were expanded, and "soldiers were trained day and night, and the third, sixth, and ninth major drills were conducted." With the elite soldiers of the Great Western Army as the core, the army's combat effectiveness was greatly enhanced.

With a stable economic base and a well-trained army, after three years of dormancy, the Great Western Army has been reborn as a force to be reckoned with.

Known as Shisatie, Ma Teng is actively preparing to expand outward. (To be continued......)