Historically, the British have been jealous of the trade interests of the Dutch and have waged three wars for this.

But the war was won, and the Dutch remained the financial center of Europe, licking the cream of the cake of European commerce, while Britain was heavily indebted.

It was not until William III Nassau became King of England and the Netherlands ruled that he brought with him the Dutch commercial and financial model, the way of organizing and operating, and then the British slowly replaced the Netherlands as the European business center step by step, and then started the industrialization model.

The Dutch have completed almost all modern economic systems on the business model that has been running in Europe for thousands of years, from stock exchanges to central banks, and it can be said that their accumulation of financial knowledge has become quite professional, and ordinary people simply cannot copy it with common sense.

That's why Yang Chao felt so deeply when he saw Nassau's report.

Invite Nassau to have a good talk.

This gave Nassau a sense of superiority for the first time, and he took the trouble to tell about the glory of the Netherlands.

"Norway is our forest; The banks of the Rhine and Garonne are our vineyards; Germany, Spain and Ireland are our sheepfolds; Prussia and Poland are our barns; India and Arabia ......"

Nassau was talking rhetorically, and he was still barely conversing with Yang Chao in Chinese, this guy had not wasted this time, it seems that he had worked hard to study, and it must be admitted that he was very talented in languages, plus Chinese he had mastered at least ten languages, English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch, German, Swedish, and Latin.

This story is a cliché, and later generations of Dutch people are still willing to boast of the glory of this history, but Yang Chao sounded from Nassau's mouth this time, but he had a different feeling.

I am afraid that this is the reason why the Dutch were able to suddenly develop and prosper with a population of about a million people, before the establishment of the financial system, they only had trade, and the reason why their trade was successful was so accepted. It is precisely because he frequently uses geographical advantages to carry out cross-border trade.

Timber from Norway, iron ore from Sweden, fur from Russia, wine from France. conAd1(); Grain from the Central European Plains, wool from England and Spain, they frequently transported these goods to various countries and regions in need, and made a profit from the difference.

But the greatest thing about this big trade is that he activated the production capacity of the whole of Western Europe!

It was the Dutch in this century. It really connects Northwest Europe and creates a huge common market!

And the driving force in the process is the precious metals plundered by Spain from the Americas!

Yang Chao's heart couldn't help but move, what a coincidence, the Great Voyage provided a rich supply of money, the Dutch ran a common market, and Europe was not short of manpower, so the three elements of capital, labor and market appeared at the same time in this era, so Europe began to develop rapidly, which lasted for hundreds of years. Only then did the Eastern countries, which had been thousands of years ahead of them, completely leave behind.

Yang Chao felt that he had spied on the secret of the rise of Europe, and this secret could only be seen through with the eyes of hundreds of years, and even the European countries themselves could not see clearly in this era. Isn't it disrupting the common market of Europe!

But then it was denied, without the Netherlands, and without Britain, the Europeans had already mastered the opportunity of the three elements, and it was difficult to take it away from them, compared to the British. The Dutch don't really have much potential, they have a population of just over a million people, and their land area is extremely small, about the size of the island of Taiwan. In addition to commerce, that is, around the development of the shipbuilding industry, there are 200,000 fishermen who fish every year, including the families of fishermen, I am afraid that half of the Dutch labor force is occupied, and half is occupied by trade. They simply simply do not have the ability to develop manufacturing.

And manufacturing is the fundamental driving force of a country's strength, the foundation of an empire, and the Dutch do not have these.

Therefore, the Dutch were able to be far ahead, and finally the British were overtaken, and it was more risky to push the British out than the Dutch.

From the perspective of the country, Yang Chao even felt that the Dutch should always be supported, so that they could firmly control the trade of Europe, and thus control the capital of Europe, so that the British would never get industrial capital investment, so that they would never be able to industrialize. conAd2();

As long as the British do not start the industrialization model, the Europeans will never be able to threaten China, even if the germ of capitalism in China never grows.

"The core of why the Netherlands can do this is our low tax rate, which is enough to prove that we buy shipbuilding timber from the UK is cheaper than the British merchants themselves buy their own timber, so our ships will always be the cheapest, and our freight will always be the lowest!"

Nassau spared a big circle, and then said that all this was because of the low tax rate, which was obviously ulterior motives.

Yang Chao smiled: "I'm afraid there is still a problem with the bank." ”

Nassau smiled awkwardly, and was guessed that he just wanted to fool Yang Chao into adopting a low tax policy, which would undoubtedly be beneficial to the East India Company.

Cleared his throat: "Of course, our interest rates are also much lower than those of the British, probably more than half. ”

This is the key, there is no much lower cost of capital than the British, the Dutch is impossible to get resources at a lower price, after all, the British tax is still very heavy, the Dutch buy their timber also have to pay taxes, how can it be cheaper than the British themselves to buy, but half of the lower interest rate is enough to cover the freight, so that the British timber to the Dutch market cheaper.

"Let's talk about the banks in the Netherlands, what Benjue wants to know most about is the operation of the banks in the Netherlands."

Nassau said, "Okay. The largest bank in the Netherlands is undoubtedly the Bank of Amsterdam......"

Needless to say, the Bank of Amsterdam should be known to anyone with a little common sense of history, this is supposed to be the world's first central bank, although she does not print paper money, but her bank notes and bills play the role of currency.

"The Bank of Amsterdam was not established for profit, but for business. Merchants from England, France, and other countries could only trade their silver coins for a unified guilder through the Bank of Amsterdam......"

The Bank of Amsterdam is only engaged in deposits and exchange business, because the Netherlands is the commercial center of Europe, there are merchants from all over the world, but there are many European countries, each country has its own currency, and even the Dutch themselves used to have dozens of currencies, each currency has a different gold content. conAd3(); Even the strongest silver pound sterling coins, the silver content of which has long been reduced to only one-third of the silver pound that was prescribed in the past, while the silver content of the French silver coin has been reduced to almost five percent. It's no different from broken copper.

Obviously, it was impossible for these various currencies to be recognized by each other, so the Dutch established this bank to facilitate trade, and the bank weighed and evaluated each currency in a unified manner, and then issued guilder bank notes of the corresponding value to the merchants. It could be exchanged for silver guilders at any time, allowing the trade to flourish and maintaining the Dutchman's position as a trading center.

"Under the Earl see the bank established, also roughly the model of the Bank of Amsterdam, exchange and storage. But it is very strange that your bank, Your Excellency, Earl, should be in the business of lending, and it is a high-risk, low-profit personal loan, and IMHO, we Dutch people have established the Bank of Amsterdam only to facilitate trade. Therefore, it is essential to maintain the credit of this bank. For this reason, we even allowed the enemy's deposits to flow freely out of the bank during the war, so that the bank remained neutral at all times, and even the war could not interrupt her business, so as to obtain the strongest credit! ”

In the report, Nassau has already commented on the Jiangnan Bank established by Yang Chao, so Yang Chao already knows this point of view.

But Yang Chao was curious: "If banks don't carry out lending activities, then what about fusion to create money?" ”

Banks release deposits as loans, although the purpose is to earn the difference between deposit and loan interest rates to make a profit, but indirectly promote capitalization, so that idle funds into circulating capital, Yang Chao is to convert the silver stored by the wealthy people of the Ming Dynasty into currency and circulate to the market. If you don't do money lending, you won't be able to do that at all.

"Why? Money is gold and silver, how can money be created! All that is created is a bubble, and once it is run, it is all over! ”

Nassau was surprised that Yang Chao had such thoughts. It's incredible, he thought that Yang Chao established Jiangnan Bank like the Bank of Amsterdam, in order to facilitate exchange and promote trade, but he didn't expect that it was this terrible idea to throw enough currency into the market.

"Then you should have a bank that lends money. How do they work? ”

Yang Chao couldn't help asking, the mortgage bank is much earlier than this kind of exchange bank.

Nassau said with some disdain: "Of course those vampires are using their own money, and of course they may use their customers' funds, but this is obviously immoral." ”

Nassau was talking about usury Jews.

Yang Chao thought to himself, probably the banking industry in Europe is not as developed as he imagined, and now it is just a prototype, although everything has appeared, it must still be as crazy as the group of Yankees on Wall Street.

Then the two talked about the exchange and other things.

Before the attack on Nanking by King Sanshun, Nassau went to see the exchange in the Golden Hairpin Building, and he concluded that the exchange was very chaotic, and there was no grading of the traded goods, and the East India Company itself had a detailed classification of oriental goods, and even the furs were divided into upper, middle and lower grades, and the prices were different.

And there is really no grading in the exchange, and there is no grading, because in a handful of raw silk, the workers who reel the silk always like to mix defective products in it, as for the overall quality, it depends on the situation of the year, if there are fewer defective products in this year, then the overall grade is high, if there are many defective products, the overall is poor.

Of course, there are really pure silk, but that needs to be picked in person in the spot shop, and in an invisible place like the exchange, that group of people likes to play a little bit.

Then Nassau talked about the grading method of the East India Company, in fact, in the list of goods of the East India Company, Chinese silk is divided into two kinds, one is the silk produced in Jiangnan, and the other is the silk of Guangdong and other real estate, which is the Central China silk and South China silk that later generations said.

Jiangnan silk is the highest quality, pure white and translucent, with the best luster, Guangdong and other silk is yellow, Japanese ribbon gray, Indian Bengal silk is yellow, as well as French and Italian raw silk, but not as good as Indian silk.

The overall ranking is the best Jiangnan silk, the second Japanese silk, the second raw silk in Guangdong and Vietnam, the second best in India and Bengal silk, and the worst in Italy and France.

This is the reason why Europe produces its own silk, but they are eager to oriental raw silk, because their silk cannot be woven into high-grade silk at all, and even the Japanese have a soft spot for Jiangnan silk, let alone the West.

As for the reason for this result, maybe it's the climate, maybe it's silkworm seeds, maybe it's technology, Yang Chao is not a professional, and he doesn't know the reason, he only knows that Jiangnan silk is the best, but the businessman is not very honest, which leads to a decline in the overall quality.

"Also, I have found that His Excellency the Earl has issued a large number of bonds, but why don't you build a bond exchange so that holders in need can cash out at any time, in that case, I believe your bonds will be more popular."

Nassau asked when he talked about bonds.

This Yang Chao naturally knew that he had planned to allow the bonds to be traded on the Jinchai House Exchange, but the Jinchai Building was destroyed and had not yet been built, and the exchange was temporarily closed.

But at this time, Yang Chao had a new idea: "Dear Duke of Nassau, this lord has a suggestion, why don't you stay and work in my Daming for a while, maybe it will make your career develop to a peak here." ”

Yang Chao seduced with a devilish tone, he knew that money could not impress a person like this, only career.

"I stay in Daming and stay in China to work! For you? ”

As Yang Chao expected, Nassau was a little surprised.

Yang Chao said with a smile: "That's right, this lord hopes that your excellency can stay and help, of course this lord is willing to pay your rich salary, I don't know how much salary the Duke of Nassau thinks can be worthy of your knowledge and status?" ”

Nassau's blue eyes flickered twice, and then he said, "This needs to be considered later, and I also need to ask the East India Company for advice, and then reply to His Excellency the Earl." ”

Yang Chao smiled: "It should be." ”

With the status of the Nassau family, it would be a bit unreliable to ask the East India Company, but if he can stay here, it is estimated that the East India Company will be eager to do so.

Nassau added: "I would like to ask, if I am willing to stay and work for you, how much support can I get, I mean how much power will I have?" ”

Yang Chao sighed in his heart: This guy is tempted!

Then he said magnificently: "If Your Excellency agrees to stay and work, you will be fully responsible for helping Benjue establish an exchange, and have the power to run her." And will be responsible for the improvement of Jiangnan Bank. You will be in charge of Jiangnan's economy! ”

Then he added: "At the same time, my Ming Mansion will hire Your Excellency as a Tartar, well, it is a guest secretary!" ”

The position of Keqing was extremely common in the Warring States Period, and the Great Qin Empire almost relied on Keqing to fight the world, from Shang Ying to Lü Buwei, almost all the famous Xiangbang were foreigners, called Keqing.

However, the Ming Dynasty did not call officials who were not nationals Keqing, but very rudely called them Tartar officials, so Yang Chao planned to hire Nassau as a Tartar official in charge of the construction of the financial system in Jiangnan. To be continued.

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