At the end of the Ming Dynasty and the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, Dutch Malaysian money began to flow into the southeast coastal areas, because of its high silver content, large, and widely popular, at the same time in the southeast coastal area is widely circulated Spanish dollars, as for other small amount of foreign silver in circulation, there are more than a dozen kinds of forests.

Without waiting for Zhenwu to ask again, Zheng Shichang continued: "The Dutch Malaysian sword Ku Ping eight coins and six cents, the fineness of the ninety-four, the Da Qing minted silver coin Ku Ping seven coins and two cents, the silver nine bronze one, the weight and fineness are not as good as the Dutch Dama sword, but it is not much different from the Spanish dollar, the Spanish Yuan Kuping seven coins and three points, and the fineness of ninety-three." ”

Zhenwu nodded slightly, what he wanted was this effect, slightly worse, in line with the principle of 'bad money driving out good money', which was convenient for the unified market of silver dollars in the Qing Dynasty. ”

Hearing this, Zheng Shichang couldn't help but be overjoyed, in this way, the popularization of silver dollars will inevitably be greatly accelerated, the profit of minting silver dollars is not a small number, minting a hundred silver dollars, there will be five taels of profits, the number of silver dollars in the Qing Dynasty is at least hundreds of millions, this alone, is tens of millions of profits.

Zhenwu glanced at him, saw that his face was full of joy, and had already guessed his thoughts, so he said slowly: "The minting of silver dollars is not for profit, I have been in Jiangnan for a long time, and I know a lot about the situation on the southeast coast, and the European silver dollars are not as good as official silver, but they are more popular than official silver. ”

Since the middle of the Ming Dynasty, although silver has been officially determined as legal tender, there are three major drawbacks, that is, the silver ingots in various places are uneven, the weight is easy to come and go, and it is not convenient to circulate, especially in the journey or trade in other places, which is extremely troublesome. This is also the reason for the prosperity of silver money banks in various places. The reason why the silver ticket exchange business of the 'Four Constants' is so popular can also be said to be due to this drawback.

For example, if a Shanxi merchant brought cash to Shanghai to do business, the first problem encountered was the exchange of cash silver in other places, and the imperial court set up a special appraisal agency for silver ingots in various places, the Public Adjusters Bureau, that is, to determine whether the silver ingots met the specifications in terms of weight and fineness. This is also the "treasure" in the mouth of businessmen.

The public adjustment bureaus in various places have a strong local protectionist color, only recognize their own identified silver ingots, foreign silver ingots want to enter the local market trading, they need to look over, so Shanxi silver ingots carried by Shanxi merchants. First of all, it must be sent to the Shanghai Public Adjustment Bureau for "approval".

The Adjusters is more stringent and will directly reject silver of inferior quality or too much stamp, even if it is successfully approved, and a stamp is made on the silver ingot.

It still cannot be used directly, because the specifications are different, and it is necessary to pay for the local furnace to re-melt to the local specifications before entering the market trade. Otherwise. Silver ingots from other places could not be circulated locally at all.

Batch treasure and smelting are not free, and the handling fee for batch treasure is about two dollars and four cents. The cost of silver furnace melting treasure is not small, this is the so-called silver two circulation in the loss, if the silver two are not used up, back to Shanxi, all this that happened in Shanghai in Shanxi will be repeated again.

Of course, there is a simpler way, that is, to hand over the silver ingots to the local silver number bank in Shuohai in exchange for the same amount of Shanghai silver taels, and naturally this fee will not be lower than the legitimate way.

The reason why the European silver dollar is so popular is that its standards are uniform, there is no exchange between local currency and foreign currency, and there is no need for these cumbersome procedures.

Hearing Zhenwu's words, Zheng Shichang's heart couldn't help sinking, Zhenwu promoted the silver dollar not for profit, but to unify the currency? Wouldn't the silver ticket business of the 'Four Great Constants' be dealt a big blow? The joy in his heart immediately turned to uneasiness.

After a slight groan, Zheng Shichang bowed down and said bluntly: "Your Majesty, the implementation of a silver dollar with uniform standards and appropriate size is really beneficial to the country and the people, and it is more conducive to the circulation of silver, but in this way, the profits of the 'Four Constants' are bound to be greatly affected." ”

Seeing that Zheng Shichang was worried about the profits of the 'Four Hengs', Zhenwu couldn't help but smile slightly, and said: "You are a businessman, and you don't forget to make profits, I am not only the major shareholder of the 'Four Hengs', but also the Son of Heaven of the Qing Dynasty, the Son of Heaven has no selfish affairs, how can I only count small accounts and not big accounts?"

I have heard that a Spanish dollar containing only more than six coins can be exchanged for up to one or two pieces of silver, which will not only stimulate unscrupulous merchants in Europe to make illegal profits with silver dollars, but also stimulate European countries to flock to follow suit, have you ever thought about it? What happens when a large number of foreign silver coins circulate in the Qing Dynasty?

The first thing to face is inevitably the currency system chaos, followed by a large inflow of silver, which not only destroys the money law of the Qing Dynasty, but also causes the depreciation of silver, and is more worrying that the large circulation of foreign silver dollars will gradually become the legal tender of the outside world. ”

Hearing this, Zheng Shichang couldn't help but be shocked, Zhenwu's words are not unfounded, the popularity of foreign silver dollars is still above the silver tickets of the 'Four Heng', real money and silver in the hand after all, it is more down-to-earth than silver tickets, as far as he knows, Guangdong, Fujian, Jiangsu and Zhejiang, and even Beijing, many people are proud of using foreign silver dollars.

Not only is the silver dollar used for overseas trade, but most of the daily consumption on the southeast coast is also paid in silver dollars, and the appointment ceremonies, ceremonies, banquet expenses, rewards, and even filial piety to officials in the academy are all paid in silver dollars, not to mention maritime merchants, but most of the cash silver is used in silver dollars.

If the Qing Dynasty did not issue its own silver dollars, it may be decades before the European silver dollars could be widely circulated in the Qing Dynasty, deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, and become the legal tender of silver.

Thinking of this, Zheng Shichang hurriedly bowed down and said: "The emperor's holy thoughts are far-reaching, and the ministers are blind and short-sighted, so I am really ashamed. However, Wechen is worried that the popularity of silver dollars will affect the issuance of banknotes. ”

Zhenwu glanced at him quite appreciatively, nodded, and said: "The impact must be there, but the impact is not very great, the amount of silver circulating and stored in the Qing Dynasty is huge, and forcibly launching paper money will inevitably encounter strong resistance, because the treasure banknotes of the three dynasties of the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties have made the people lose confidence in paper money, and the reason why I let the 'Four Great Heng' issue silver bills in equal amounts is for the credibility of silver bills."

The popularization of paper money is a matter of time, but it must be gradual and gradual, not in a hurry, now the use of silver tickets, are all official eunuchs, gentry and businessmen, ordinary people rarely use silver tickets, far from reaching the point of water to the point of success, no need to worry. In addition, the paper and anti-counterfeiting technology of banknotes are still not satisfactory, and more manpower and material resources should be invested in research and continuous innovation.

The Qing Dynasty is now the world's commercial center, but silver is not stable, there is a big difference between Europe and the Qing Dynasty, far less stable than gold, only gold can be called the world currency, the paper money issued by the Qing Dynasty must be backed by gold, in order to become the world currency, this matter is not in a hurry. ”

Zheng Shichang couldn't help but be stunned when he heard it, the paper money of the Qing Dynasty wants to become the world's currency? The ambition of this master is really speechless, no wonder he is not allowed to move the huge gold indemnity and the gold handed over by the customs, it turned out to be to hoard gold, think about it, come and not be rude, since Europe dares to issue silver dollars to the Qing Dynasty, why can't the Qing Dynasty issue paper money to Europe?

After a slight pause, Zhenwu turned the topic back to the silver dollar, "The implementation of the silver dollar is of great significance, not only to unify the currency of the Qing Dynasty, facilitate the circulation of silver, and benefit the economy of the Qing Dynasty, but also to the national economy and people's livelihood of the Qing Dynasty, the money law of the Qing Dynasty, and the dignity of the Qing Dynasty.

The Baoquan Bureau of the Ministry of Households, the Baoyuan Bureau of the Ministry of Industry, the Baoguang Bureau of Guangzhou, the Baoning Bureau of Jiangning, the Baoyuan Bureau of Shanxi, and the Baotong Bureau of Shanxi Province have made every effort to assist the 'Four Great Hengs' in casting the Qing Dynasty silver dollars in Beijing, Guangzhou, Jiangning, and Taiyuan, and quickly popularize the silver dollars throughout the country and expel foreign silver dollars. ”

"Wechen obeys." Zheng Shichang is completely relieved at this time, Zhenwu is authorizing the 'Four Hengs' to exclusively mint the Qing Dynasty silver dollar, that is, based on 200 million pieces, this profit is also 10 million taels, not to mention that the entire Qing Dynasty is only 200 million silver dollars? This is also a loss of the East's harvest, at least for three years, there is no need to worry about the profits of the 'Four Constants' will be affected.

"Also." Zhenwu picked up a silver dollar as he spoke, and said, "There are Manchu and Chinese on the front of this silver dollar, but there is no Mongolian, Tibetan, or palindrome on the back. I want to integrate all ethnic groups, and it should also be reflected in the silver dollar of the Qing Dynasty. Besides, there should be a lot of secret marks on this, right? ”

Listening to the words of the other three clans on the back, Zheng Shichang couldn't help but secretly slander himself, how could he not say it when he designed it earlier, and it would take a few days to waste his efforts, besides, this palindrome can be divided into east and west, and the belly slander is the belly slander, but he didn't dare to reveal it slightly, and hurriedly bowed down and said: "Back to the emperor, in order to prevent forgery, there are indeed a lot of secret notes on the silver dollar, including graphic secret notes, point bead secret notes, internal tooth secret notes and bent mang secret notes. ”

After a slight pause, he continued: "Your Majesty, the Hui are very complicated, if they are divided by writing, then Shaanxi, Gansu, Gansu, Donghui, and Hehui are one category, and Arabic and Persian are used, and the Western Hui of Xinjiang is one category. ”

Zhenwu glanced at him and said, "The Hui people in Shaanxi and Gansu have long been assimilated in culture, and they use the Hui palindrome of Xinjiang, that is, Uyghur. ”

"Wechen obeys." Zheng Shichang secretly breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly bowed down. (To be continued.) )