The Royal Bank, which is on the right track, is most important at this time to invest the silver, or lend it. Because a large-scale run was highly unlikely, and a small-scale run on the inward amount of silver was easily managed, the Royal Bank's monetary base was tentatively set at 20%.

Of the more than 40 million taels of deposits, only 8 million taels were left as silver, and the rest were all used for investment. After Zhu Youxiao and Yang Guorui set the second phase of the construction project of Huangzhuang, although the Royal Agricultural Company borrowed the most, the Royal Bank still needed to borrow more than 10 million taels at this time.

So Zhu Youxiao called Cao Jinyu over again and asked: "Cao Aiqing, does the grain bank still need funds, and now there are tens of millions of money from the bank." ”

"Your Majesty, for the grain bank, the more funds the better. As soon as the autumn harvest is approaching, if there is enough funds, Weichen can send people to the south to buy grain, which is another profitable deal. Cao Jinyu replied to Zhu Youxiao with some excitement.

"The southern government folds grain, it is indeed a piece of fat! I've done it. Zhu Youxiao thought that so much grain was eaten by merchants, and the annual land tax collected by the imperial court in the south was about fifteen million stones, but the silver in hand was only three or four million taels, which showed that the discount was low. The official discount of one stone of rice is only about 0.3 taels of silver.

The agricultural output value of the Ming Dynasty was at least about one billion taels of silver in a year, but the agricultural tax of the imperial court was only charged so little, which can be said to be unprecedentedly low.

With such a low tax, there is naturally not much money to invest in infrastructure construction such as water conservancy and roads. In the past, the main reason why the north could be maintained was the existence of the conscription system, which allowed the government to have enough labor to invest in construction, thus maintaining water conservancy and road lighting infrastructure.

Nowadays, there is a problem of water conservancy disrepair in the north, mainly because the conscription system is on the verge of collapse. Now people can not go to conscription, just pay some money. And with the emergence of inflation, this amount of money is often only two or three days' wages, and conscription is not only for two or three days. The invisible financial income of conscription has also been gradually eroded. Moreover, the officials who get the money may not spend the money on the construction of facilities, and it may all go into their pockets.

Now, if the north wants to stay out of chaos, it must first ensure the supply of grain. As long as there is food in hand, the north will not be in chaos, and naturally there will be no panic in my heart.

"Your Majesty, the government in the south has about 15 million taels of grain every year, and according to the average price of 0.3 taels, all the prefectures and counties will only need 5 million taels of silver. However, the focus is on how to transport it to the north, if it is transported through guò Cao, there will definitely be some loss, this is already a common practice, and His Majesty Xià also needs to rectify the Cao Yun first. Cao Jinyu said that the loss of transportation is mostly an artificial act of digging the foot of the wall. For example, Cao Ding, when the boat is halfway there, maybe he will pull down a few bags of grain for you and sell it. At the same time, it is extremely common to carry private goods, which is extremely common in Cao Yun.

"Huh! Cao Yunzhen naturally wants to rectify it. As for transporting grain, we take the sea route. Zhu Youxiao showed an elusive smile on his face, didn't Tongzhou businessmen make money by luck? Dare to run on the Royal Bank? Dare to support the Donglin Party? Then they had a good time.

"By sea? This sea route is vulnerable to pirate attacks, and if there is any strong wind and waves, the ship will be destroyed and people will be killed, and the goods will be empty. Cao Jinyu said cautiously.

"Cao Aiqing, the risks of shipping are not so exaggerated. When ships sail along the coast, strong winds and waves are only a minority after all, and as long as they are worn large enough, there is no threat to wind and waves. As for the pirates, when the time comes, just let the sailors suppress them. Moreover, there are few pirates in the south of the Yangtze River and the northern coast, and those pirates are basically in Fujian and Guangdong. Zhu Youxiao smiled and said, pirates are naturally going to the lucrative maritime trade, the maritime trade is basically concentrated in Fujian and Guangdong, and the maritime transportation in the north is basically carried out, so there is basically no need to worry about being robbed by pirates.

"Another is that the transportation cost of sea vessels is lower than that of water transportation, and it is also more convenient, so you don't have to think about the problem of river congestion. Grain is such a thing, rather than being transported in Cao and let those Cao Ding be lost, it is better to transport it to Tianjin by sea. ”

"But we don't have a sea vessel." Cao Jinyu reminded.

"I'll solve this problem, and you're responsible for collecting the grain." Zhu Youxiao said to Cao Jinyu, and Cao Jinyu hurriedly arched his hand and said, "Weichen obeys the order." ”

Being able to go to the southern states and counties to buy discounted grain, such a good thing, naturally made Cao Jinyu excited. I didn't dare to think about it before, but it was because it didn't matter if I didn't have money.

Nowadays the money is not a problem, and the Royal Bank has a large amount of silver to lend to the grain bank. Relationship is not a problem, when it comes to background, who can be bigger than the emperor?

As long as there is a holy decree, basically all the grain merchants who participated in the purchase of discounted grain can be blasted out of the field, so that the Jimin grain store can enjoy the feast exclusively.

After some discussion, the loan scale of Jimin Grain Bank was finally determined, which was directly 10 million taels. It takes money to buy grain, and at the same time, it is necessary to buy grain from the people, and expand the business, etc.

Seeing that the autumn harvest is coming, there is not much time left for Jimin Grain Bank. So Cao Jinyu then said goodbye to the emperor and hurriedly went to make preparations.

Tens of millions of taels of operating capital, which is absolutely astronomical for businessmen in this era, only a few salt merchants can draw such a huge amount of money.

Jimin Grain will quickly become a behemoth.

The grain business is basically a steady profit. The model of Jimin Grain Bank is very simple, and the profit mainly depends on the low price of grain from the government, and during the summer harvest and autumn harvest, it relies on huge capital to eat a large amount of low-cost grain at a low price.

In terms of sales, first, there are official orders. Second, there is a grain retail market that can be monopolized.

It is certainly impossible to lose money in terms of official orders, and the tax bureau is the thug of the market monopoly, and other grain banks cannot compete at all, and the power to set retail prices is in the hands of Jimin Grain Bank.

With such many advantages, it is completely impossible for Jimin Grain Bank to make a loss in business. Moreover, because of the advantages of capital and scale, the cost of grain processing and transportation will be lower than that of other grain banks.

Monopoly means good profits, this is an eternal truth. It's just that grain is the most fundamental demand of the people, and the monopoly operation of Jimin Grain Bank cannot raise grain prices crazily, but to maintain grain prices at a stable price.

At this time, the Jimin Grain Bank will extend its hand to the southern provinces, which will be a huge leap.

The Jimin Grain Bank loaned tens of millions of taels of funds, and the Royal Bank had about 3 million yuan of lending funds left, so Zhu Youxiao immediately called Qian 10,000 yuan over to discuss the establishment of a joint venture to form a maritime fleet.