In fact, paper money has been used in China for a long time, and Jiaozi in the Song Dynasty is the earliest paper money used in the world. During the Northern Song Dynasty, the Northern Song Dynasty court set up the "Jiaozi Affairs" in Yizhou (a huge area dominated by Sichuan), which was operated by more than a dozen wealthy merchants, with 360,000 guan as a reserve, and issued 1.28 million guanzi, which was regarded as the official approval of the issuance of paper money by the imperial court.

Later, due to the fact that "the rich people were slightly declining and could not repay the burden", it was transferred to the Song court to issue, in other words, due to the problems of these rich merchants themselves, the credit of Jiaozi could not be guaranteed, and the Northern Song court took over the issuance right of Jiaozi.

However, the Northern Song Dynasty could not effectively control the issuance of paper money, and when there was a need for huge financial expenditures, the government often could not restrain its own behavior, and used the power in its hands to abuse public credibility and issue paper money without restrictions, which eventually caused inflation, so that paper money lost its credibility and became waste paper.

"Xinghua, I know what you said, Daming's treasure money is almost similar, right?" Shi Kefa asked.

"yes, you know this better than I do." Luo Jian said with a smile.

Daming treasure banknote is actually a kind of banknote, but this kind of banknote is not reserved, relying only on the credibility of the imperial court, and only issued not recycled, resulting in more and more treasure banknotes in the market, Hongwu years just issued in the year became no credit.

What's more critical is that the production of Daming treasure banknotes has no technical content, and it is extremely convenient to imitate, and there was a whole village to make a living by counterfeiting treasure banknotes.

"We can't issue banknotes like Jiaozi and treasure banknotes, Xinghua, I am also paying attention to this matter during this time. It's a pity that you have too few books on this. But. We have to grasp one thing. The right to issue the banknotes must be in the hands of the government. ”

Shi Kefa said with some regret that he looked up all the information about the relationship with the bank from the book provided to him by Liu Lan, after all, there was still not much professional knowledge in this area.

For this reason, he went to Liu Weimin to study for several days, but after all, Liu Weimin did not study finance before, so he could only tell him a rough idea.

Luo Jian and Shi Kefa held a three-day closed-door meeting for the issuance of banknotes and the opening of the bank, and although the Minister of Finance Zhang Youyu was somewhat resistant, they still asked the Ministry of Finance to prepare six million taels of silver for the issuance of banknotes, which was all that the provisional government could raise.

The reason why Zhang Youyu was a little resistant was that he felt that the issuance of banknotes was indeed a trick for the people. For this reason, Luo Jian also talked to him for one night, and then he basically completed his work.

The publicity work of issuing banknotes is very well prepared, and even the art troupe of the Red Lady has prepared a special performance for this purpose, and the "China Daily" has also continuously published articles explaining the role and significance of issuing banknotes.

Along with the government's announcement, there are also sample coins posted on the streets and alleys, and the exquisite production and durable quality make the people of Nanjing feel that this "Chinese Yuan" is fundamentally different from the previous Ming treasure banknotes.

The largest face value of the "Chinese dollar" is ten yuan, which corresponds to one tael of silver, and under it there is one yuan, five jiao, two jiao, one jiao, one cent, one cent, and five cents.

Some knowledgeable people pointed out that the small face value makes imitation more difficult, and even if someone wants to do it, I am afraid that they will not be able to bear the high cost.

Just when the publicity for the issuance of banknotes was going on vigorously. Both Luo Jian and Shi Kefa received shocking news.

The news came from Hangzhou, just when Nanjing was just beginning to advertise the issuance of banknotes. Zhu Changshu, the former king of Lushu in Hangzhou, and several giant businessmen jointly launched the "new jiaozi".

"Absolutely not! What are they doing here? Shi Kefa held a new Jiaozi issued by Hangzhou in his hand and said very angrily.

Luo Jian also held a "Xinjiaozi" with a denomination of ten taels of silver in his hand, took a closer look, and shook it in his hand, although it was not as good as the "Zhonghua Yuan", but the quality was really good, and some anti-counterfeiting marks were also used, but there was no watermark.

This time they acted so carefully that Laifu's security department didn't even hear the slightest rumor.

Luo Jian felt that the big businessmen in Hangzhou who took the initiative to attack this time were definitely not led by Zhu Changshu, in real history, Zhu Changshu was extremely timid and afraid of things, and now he did this, he must have been taken advantage of.

"Brother Xian, don't you need to worry, haven't we analyzed the Jiaozi of the Song Dynasty? Without the consent of the government, their credit is not guaranteed at all, and in the end they can only 'lose their wives and soldiers'. ”

"Xinghua, their strength should not be underestimated, it is not too much to say that these people are rich and rival the country, right? With the support of silver, I am afraid that this 'new jiaozi' will cause great trouble to the issuance of our 'Chinese dollar'. ”

"It's certain that they will cause some trouble, but businessmen are businessmen after all, and they don't have the strength to do it against the government."

"I said Xinghua, why don't you take it to heart like this? I've read that "Currency Wars" more than a dozen times, and I can recite the names of people who are difficult to remember, and you also want our government to become a puppet of these people? ”

"Hehe, Brother Xian, our situation is completely different from what is written in the book, right? You can't think about it all. Luo Jian said with a smile.

"Then what do you think we should do next?" Shi Kefa asked anxiously.

"Step by step, what should we do!" Luo Jian replied lightly.

Luo Jian said easily, but the government's actions are very fast, and it is no longer good to act quickly, if the "new jiaozi" in Hangzhou is really circulated, the government will be really troublesome.

The three-storey central bank on Xi'anmen Street has been completely completed, and the richly decorated central bank is extremely eye-catching on Xi'anmen Street, Shi Kefa feels that it is a little too extravagant, but Luo Jian said that if the central bank does not show strong strength, it will make the people have no confidence, so Shi Kefa agreed to spend tens of thousands of taels of silver to decorate.

The huge plaque is directly embedded, the "Central Bank of China" written on it is written by Mr. Wang Duo, the most famous calligrapher in the late Ming Dynasty, Mr. Wang Duo himself, six gilded block characters are both majestic and strong, and appear ancient and heavy, even the calligraphy layman Luo Jian feels pleasing to the eye.

In addition to the completion of the central bank, the three branches in Nanjing and Yangzhou were also completed one after another, and the silver vaults of several branches were already full of silver and copper coins, and the Nanjing garrison had sent a large number of soldiers to live next to the banks.

Although the new Jiaozi issued by Hangzhou Daqian Zhuang has not yet begun to circulate in Nanjing, the topics it has caused have begun to be overwhelming.

Clear-eyed people know at a glance that these money banks in Hangzhou want to compete with the government for the right to issue banknotes, is this unclear? Everyone has exchanged the silver in their hands for Xinjiaozi, where is the silver to exchange for Chinese dollars?

Lu Zhenfei was already a little dissatisfied with Luo Jian's approach, he thought that the "new jiaozi" issued by these money banks in Hangzhou was purely a challenge to the Nanjing government, and the government should take action to impose severe sanctions on them, and he felt that Luo Jian was too weak.

In fact, Luo Jian also thought about it for a long time, and also had some discussions with Liu Weimin and Liu Lan, if it was solved by strong means, there would definitely be no problem now, but in the long run, the three of them felt that the gains outweighed the losses.

Just like the Senate, if the government still adopts the method of physical elimination of some dissidents like the previous emperor, it will inevitably make a bad start in the future, and behind the toughness is actually a manifestation of weakness, in the long run, once there is a change in the domestic political arena, it will inevitably be cruel and bloody, which is the last thing Luo Jian wants to see.

The same is true of the current economic warfare, with the continuous progress of various technologies, the development of industry and commerce has become unstoppable, and this is already a situation beyond the control of the Nanjing government.

Based on this situation, various economic conditions may arise in the future, and if the government adopts strict administrative measures or even military means to solve the problem at this time, then it will inevitably form a kind of inertia, and always want to use these means to solve the problem when it arises.

Regardless of whether these measures are reasonable or not, from the perspective of economic development, they are also extremely unfavorable, because the economy and the market have their own laws, and forcibly changing the rules of their operation will inevitably form a kind of deformed industry and commerce, which is not conducive to social development.

Knowing that there are many people in the government who think similar to Lu Zhenfei, Luo Jian specially published an article in the "China Daily" to make some analysis of the launch of several big money houses in Hangzhou, and the article believes that the issuance of a currency must have excellent credit, and this kind of credit is not a year, two years or even more than ten years, but needs long-term and stable credit to support

In the short term, it is not a big problem for Hangzhou Qianzhuang to maintain a certain amount of credit, but in the long run, with the continuous progress and development of society and the continuous emergence of new industries, the businessmen who invest in these Qianzhuang may not necessarily be able to have greater development in industry and commerce, which makes it possible for them to not be able to maintain good credit for a long time.

The government is different, with the progress and development of society, the government's fiscal revenue will only increase steadily, and the government issues banknotes to go through a lot of research and investigation, according to the needs of the society to issue banknotes, and will set up a special department to do these things in the future.

While these banks can do the same, they can't do as well as the government in terms of depth and breadth and in terms of the resources at their disposal.

Luo Jian's article also caused great repercussions, and even "Ming Pao" published a commentator's article expressing support for Luo Jian's views.

The issuance of the Chinese Dollar began with the salaries of government officials and the salaries of the military, followed by the announcement of state-owned factories and Liulan's personal enterprises that they would only trade with the Chinese Yuan.

Subsequently, the General Administration of Customs, headed by Zhu Yujian, also issued a notice stating that the customs will use the Chinese dollar as the basic currency in future taxes.

Three days later, in addition to the six branches in Nanjing and Yangzhou, the provisional government also opened more than 50 exchange points to facilitate the exchange of Chinese dollars for the common people, and the introduction of paper money was both safe and fast.

In less than a week, the 30 million Chinese yuan prepared by the central bank was redeemed, and it seems that the implementation of the banknotes in Nanjing and Yangzhou is extremely smooth.

Shi Kefa, Ren Minyu, Yuan Jixian, and others were extremely satisfied with the smooth issuance of banknotes, and they all believed that if this continued, there should be no problem in fully implementing it.

Although the situation was very good, Luo Jian really began to worry at this time. (To be continued.) )