"Although it has been implemented for many years, the current circulation of currency in various parts of the country is still relatively chaotic!" At the Imperial Finance Council, the current Minister of Finance, Tae Jok-chi, was explaining to Lin Zhe the current state of the empire's currency.

"In the coastal treaty ports and surrounding areas, the circulation of silver coins, copper coins and paper money issued by the empire is relatively large, but it is worth noting that there are also a large number of foreign silver dollars in circulation in this area, especially the Mexican silver dollar in circulation, and there are also a large number of silver and gold coins in circulation from other countries, and paper money mainly in British pounds is also in circulation!"

"According to the survey, in Shanghai, people still use metal money on a daily basis, and the daily use of paper money does not exceed 30%. In the metal currency, the people's daily life is mainly used by small denominations of copper yuan and even copper coins in the pre-Qing Dynasty and even longer, and the current silver yuan has not completely replaced the use of silver two, even if it is a silver dollar, there are also imperial silver dollars and foreign silver dollars. ”

"In the inland areas, especially in the areas where the industry and commerce are not developed, the penetration rate of silver and copper yuan is relatively small, and copper coins and gold and silver are still used as the main means of payment in inland places!!"

"However, it is worth noting that in large-value commercial transactions, bank cashier's checks, bank checks and other bank bills have begun to gradually replace precious metals, which brings certain convenience to commercial trade, especially international trade!"

"But the current overall chaos of the currency has also brought great trouble to the current industrial and commercial economic development!"

Qin Zhuzhen continued: "The chaos of currency is also not conducive to our implementation of the gold and silver standard system in the future, and it is not conducive to our implementation of the gold standard system in the future!" ”

When Qin Zhuqi said this, he could basically announce the core theme of today's meeting, that is, the empire is currently promoting the gold and silver standard, and the future is to promote the gold standard.

As to whether the empire will continue to adopt the silver standard or the gold standard, or whether it will adopt a double gold and silver standard. This topic has been discussed within the Ministry of Finance since the founding of the Empire, but due to various practical factors, it has not been determined.

As a result, the empire has continued to practice the ancient silver standard until now, as can be seen from the silver coins issued by the empire.

But it is not a good thing to have been on the silver standard all the time.

The first is that China's silver production is actually not very high, although China currently has a lot of silver. But this silver is basically a foreign product, and where are the main sources of silver in the world? in the Americas.

From the Ming Dynasty to the present, countless amounts of silver have flowed into China from all over the world.

And there is also a more serious problem, that is, the global production of silver is now greatly increased, compared to gold, silver has been degraded.

In the sixties of the nineteenth century compared with the fifties, the exchange rate between silver and gold had fallen by about 0.12, i.e. one gram of gold could be exchanged for 15.36 grams of silver, but now it can be exchanged for 15.48 grams of silver. Although this increase of 0.12 grams may not be noticeable to the general public, it has a significant impact on international trade.

More importantly, from the Americas, especially in North America, and other major silver producing regions, the production of silver is increasing significantly, and in this case, silver will be further compiled, and in the coming decades, the depreciation of silver will be greater than ordinary people think.

Historically. In the fifties and sixties, the ratio of gold to silver remained at about 1:15, but after a few decades. The ratio of gold to silver would climb to 1:30, or even more than 35, and by the time of World War I, no one would want silver.

At that time, when countries adopting the silver standard engaged in international trade, the purchasing power of their silver coins would be equivalent to disappearing several times out of thin air. Countless wealth will be evaporated, which will cause a series of problems such as inflation in the country.

Therefore, the bureaucrats in the finance department do not want to use the silver standard all the time.

But if the silver standard is not used, is it feasible to use the gold standard now?

The prospect of using the gold standard is good, but it is also very difficult. Why?

Because China's gold reserves are not enough!

It is naturally difficult to count how much gold there is in the private sector, but it can be counted, and at the same time, how much gold reserves can be used to carry out the implementation of the gold standard?

The total is about 60 tons, of which 25 tons are in the Central Bank, 30 are in the Royal Bank, and about 5 are in the Royal Asset Management Office.

And relying on these gold reserves alone is difficult to replace the target silver!

You must know that not counting the silver dollars that have been issued and the silver that is still circulating in the market, the central bank and the Royal Bank alone have more than 300 tons of silver reserves.

And this also proves from another perspective how large the current domestic silver stock is!

As far as the Chinese Empire, which has a large population and a huge economy, is concerned, the total amount of silver, which is currently the main currency, is quite large.

In the face of this current situation of the empire, the measures taken by the Ministry of Finance have always been more cautious, according to the policy formulated in the early years, the Ministry of Finance's idea of the currency standard is to maintain the stability of the financial system, as far as possible to collect the two precious metals of gold and silver from the people, and gradually use bank notes, that is, paper money, to replace precious metals in the domestic market.

The current international trade is dominated by the United Kingdom, and the current international currency is not the US dollar, francs, but the gold standard pound, or simply gold, in general, there is no foreign exchange control, the pursuit of a free monetary policy.

After all, you can't force foreigners to ask for silver, right?

However, this situation cannot continue indefinitely, and that is what needs to be addressed today.

"At present, we are further increasing the issuance of banknotes, and if necessary, taking administrative measures to promote banknotes, such as taxes can only be paid with banknotes, and stopping the direct circulation of precious metals in the country as soon as possible! By collecting the precious metals of the people through the exchange of paper money, we estimate that the reserves of both gold and silver will be greatly increased! ”

Whether it is the implementation of the gold and silver standard or the direct implementation of the gold standard, it is inseparable from the support of a large number of gold reserves, and what if the country does not have so much gold in its hands? Relying on gold mining? When will that go?

In this way, it is no wonder that the people in the finance department have paid attention to the people.

The Chinese have a bad habit that financial scholars hate. That's the love of saving money. In the era of paper money, saving money was only stored in the bank, but in the current era of precious metals, people often save money directly to bury the precious metals such as gold and silver.

In particular, the gold and silver hidden under the bed or underground by the landlords and old fortunes are countless.

These hidden precious metals are of no use to the economic development of a country. Even if the disadvantages are great, those landlords and old fortunes will bury the money they have earned when they make money, which means that the gold and silver will not continue to circulate in the market.

Why is it that since the Ming Dynasty, a huge amount of silver and even gold has flowed into China every year, but until the end of the Qing Dynasty, there was so little gold and silver in official hands

Because all the gold and silver are precipitated in the people, and they will not see the light of day under the cellars of those landlords and old wealth.

What the Finance Department wants to do in its dreams now is not to implement the silver standard or the gold standard, but to collect the precious metals of the people.

And what is the need to do to collect precious metals?

This. Lin Zhe also considered the experience of later generations, well, that is, the experience of the early days of New China, the simplest, most direct, and most violent way was to forcibly ban the circulation of precious metals through administrative means, and forcibly promote paper money in an all-round way.

So through the issuance of banknotes. Let the people take the precious metals such as gold and silver in their hands to the bank and exchange them for paper money, cashier's checks, checks and other bank notes. In turn, precious metals are collected from all over the country.

However, this simple and crude model has great risks, and if it is not done well, it will cause a large-scale backlash, and after the large-scale backlash and even rebellion caused by the agricultural tax reform that year, Lin Zhe maintains a highly cautious attitude towards any policy that will cause a large-scale backlash, and will not do it lightly.

Therefore, the finance department is a combination of various factors. A series of measures have been developed!

First of all, the most important thing is to increase the circulation of paper money, and while promoting the circulation of paper money, it is not to forcibly ban the circulation of precious metals, but to force the people to exchange the precious metals in their hands for paper money through some indirect methods.

One of the most important points is that the Empire's fiscal revenue and expenditure will be fully paper money. Precious metals are no longer accepted or issued.

Specifically, all official institutions of the empire must collect taxes, certain fees, fines and other administrative revenues, and can only collect paper money, not precious metals.

All kinds of expenditures of the empire, including all kinds of procurement, such as the purchase of ordnance by the army, etc., and the salaries of all kinds of personnel, including soldiers, and the salaries of officials were all issued in paper money.

In a country, in fact, the government is the largest economic entity, if a country does not collect precious metals, then the people want to pay taxes, they must go to the bank to exchange the precious metals into paper money, and then pay the tax, so that the promotion of paper money is very natural.

In order to ensure the full promotion of banknotes, the central bank and the Royal Bank are comprehensive and in-depth cooperation, first of all, as the issuer of currency, the central bank will print the latest contemporary international technology, directly copy the new version of the banknotes made by the pound sterling banknotes.

The new banknotes will come in denominations of one cent, five cents, one dimes, five cents, one cent, and five cents, for a total of seven types. It is exchanged for a circle equal to ten cents, a corner equal to ten cents, and one cent equal to ten cents.

In order to ensure the issuance and credit value of the new banknote, its exchange value still follows the old banknote, and is directly linked to the Imperial Silver Dollar, which can be exchanged for an Imperial Silver Dollar, and a penny banknote can be exchanged for a copper dollar.

In addition, due to the fact that in daily transactions, the value of one cent of copper yuan is relatively large, according to the current exchange of copper coins and copper yuan, a penny of copper yuan can be exchanged for about five to ten copper coins of varying quality.

When the lower class people use currency, in fact, many times it is a penny, two pennies, and a copper round with a face value is a relatively large amount, as for a round of silver coins, in fact, ordinary people can rarely use it, and it is generally used in large-scale commercial transactions.

In people's daily life, copper circles and copper coins are mainly used.

Therefore, a one-cent banknote was also issued, and a copper coin with a denomination of one centi will be appropriately issued in the future.

The issuance of banknotes is not just printed, but also has to have a well-established banking network for issuance, and this responsibility can only be undertaken by the Royal Bank.

There are not many other Royal Bank, that is, there are many branches, basically the country is mainly where there are official county-level institutions, then there will definitely be branches of the Royal Bank.

The opening of the branch of the Royal Bank was not based on the so-called commercial factors, but on the political side, and basically when the power of the empire spread there, the branches of the Royal Bank would be opened there.

In some towns and villages with economic development, the Royal Bank will also take the initiative to open branches, and generally speaking, the local Royal Bank branches will become the main local financial institutions to serve the local government and ordinary people.

Nowadays, if a new version of the currency is to be issued, and to prepare for the full promotion of paper money, the cooperation of the Royal Bank is very important, without the Royal Bank, it is simply impossible to make the new version of the paper money circulate throughout the country in a short time.

Beginning in late July 1866, the empire began to publicize and promote the new version of the banknote on a large scale.

And it was also at this time that the Battle of Lisa broke out in the Austro-Prussian War, and together with the Battle of the Pearl River Estuary that broke out in early April, it set off a wave of discussion about ironclad ships! (To be continued.) )