The development of any civilization is inseparable from the three themes of politics, economy, and military. Historians have studied the development of modern human civilization and have also carried out detailed analyses around these three basic themes.

It has to be said that economic issues have always been the core research object of historians on the development of civilization, because the progress of productive forces is the core element of civilization progress. The related social and economic activities reflect a number of iconic characteristics of the times.

Since the beginning of the second millennium, whether it is in the dark Europe of religious fanaticism, or in the East of high social prosperity, the development of commerce has given birth to "commercial credit", which has developed over the centuries and has become the most powerful weapon to end the barbaric economic ecology and guide the progress of modern civilization.

The new productive forces have evolved into the modern financial system with the help of the modern financial system, breaking through the control and monopoly of the feudal political system over the old productive forces of society from the bottom up, opening up a new battlefield that the latter is completely unable to parry, and finally replacing it.

At the end of the 16th century, a Dutch captain named Barents, with a shipment of goods, rode the east wind of the Age of Geographical Discoveries to embark on the road of no return from the north of Europe in search of Asian routes.

Barents discovered the Spitzbergen archipelago, and he happily continued his route within the Arctic Circle, despite the dangers of the bitter cold, and was trapped by the frozen seas without any suspense. Barents and 17 Dutch sailors survived eight months of bitter winter, dismantling the planks to fuel their boats and hunting.

In the terrible danger, many people died one after another. But Barents and his crew did something unimaginable: they did not touch the cargo entrusted to them. And among these goods are clothing and medicines that can save their lives.

Barents finally died in this harsh disaster, and the surviving crew brought the cargo back to the Netherlands almost intact and handed it back to the client.

Perhaps Barents was one of the many obscure Dutch merchants of his time, and his tragic act of making the "Barents Sea" appear on the world's charts, probably not in the first place. From earlier times, generations of Dutch merchants paid the price of their lives to watch over their business beliefs, created the law of commercial credit that has been passed down to future generations, and developed a variety of financial means that have been handed down to this day.

The obvious benefits of this consistent approach throughout the Netherlands are that business credit is deeply rooted in the hearts and minds of the people. And let the Netherlands win the world market for seaborne trade.

End of the 16th century. The Netherlands, which had just declared independence, even legislated that its bankers should be strictly protected when providing financial services to hostile countries in order to ensure the commercial credibility of its own country. In the 17th century, the Netherlands established an unassailable economic supremacy for other countries. Amsterdam's bank notes could make any European feudal monarch bow his head and gnash his teeth helplessly.

At the end of the 17th century, England ushered in the Glorious Revolution. The neo-bourgeois aristocracy chose William III, Prince of Orange, the supreme consul of the Netherlands, as their new king. Accompanied William III on English soil. Except for tens of thousands of Dutch soldiers. It also included a large group of financiers who brought the advanced financial system of the Netherlands to England, which had been hungry for a long time. Because from the beginning of the 17th century, the Netherlands was the object of great envy of England. He is also a teacher who is extremely learning to emulate.

The result is a classic episode of the modern rise of England's constitutional system, industrial capital, and the commercial capital of the Dutch Golden Age. The Bank of England was born, and the Dutch law of commercial credit was carried forward, using financial means such as "cheap money" to make the country's industry and commerce grow.

When William III came to power, there was a strategic shift in the center of the European economy, and the Netherlands, which had been corrupted by huge wealth, lost their historical advantage and England took their place.

……

Monday, October 30, 1641.

In the middle of one of the largest business districts in the western part of Long Island, next to the Manchester Cathedral and the headquarters of the state-owned import and export group, the square in front of a palatial Oriental-style building is bustling with people.

Now that the sky is bright, it seems a little strange that there are brightly dressed or unpretentious people intertwined early in the morning. The people in the square excitedly and nervously exchanged their heads, or pinched the paper in their hands and frowned in thought, while a few looked calmly at the gate of the building that had not yet opened.

The Manchester State-owned Stock Exchange, which was expanded and renovated only last year, has been a central landmark in the development of the American economy since 1632. The sprawling Oriental Palace-style building is divided into several functional areas, where a series of financial activities such as stock trading, securities trading, and upcoming futures trading are concentrated.

"Today's newspaper is out!"

A carriage came galloping from the far corner of the street, and before it could get steady, several young men ran towards the crowd with a stack of newspapers.

The crowd seemed to have received some instructions, and they all brushed out of the way, allowing the young men to run all the way to the steps of the stock exchange building.

"Marshal Tolstensen of Sweden has won another victory in Bohemia and is advancing on Vienna!" The young man wiped the sweat from his forehead and excitedly raised the newspaper in his hand, his face filled with irrepressible excitement.

The news that the brave Swedish artillery chief, who had worked hard after the death of King Gustav and had finally returned to the heart of the Holy Roman Empire as commander-in-chief of the Swedish army, rejoiced most of the people of Manchester, who had bought Swedish bonds underwritten by the state-owned Banco Nacional Nacional Ultramarino. Swedish government bonds, with quarterly interest rates of up to 10%, are enough to provide profit margins for the transfer of copybooks by Chinese and American people.

"Damn, why are the generals of the Holy Roman Empire so idiotic?!"

There were also a number of citizens who had purchased the treasury bonds of Spain or the Holy Roman Empire, and after hearing the news, they angrily and frustrated tore up the vouchers for the transfer of the treasury bonds that had been filled out long ago, and the snow-white shredded paper fluttered in the wind. It caused a strong dissatisfaction among the cleaners who were cleaning the square.

"There is also news that the Spanish army has routed the French army north of Milan, and the situation in Italy is once again tilted in favor of Spain!" Another young man also waved his arms to cheer on some of the depressed citizens.

"Haha, well done! I knew they were going to do a good job! ”

A wave of citizens in the corner, who had gloomy faces, jumped up in an instant and applauded in celebration. Because they all buy shares in the Atlantic Fund, which is the main investor in companies that trade with the Kingdom of Spain. Every move of the Kingdom of Spain will directly affect the rise and fall of the share price of the Atlantic Fund.

Today's securities trading has not even opened, and the crowd in the square is experiencing all kinds of joys and sorrows, and the securities brokers who aim to collect trading commissions are hyping up the stocks they represent. Every bit of detail of the Great War in Europe. All of them affect the feelings of the people here.

……

Affected by the overall world environment, Huamei had to adopt the gold and silver standard after the founding of the country. However, compared with the parallel standard system that is more likely to lead to chaos due to the instability of the gold and silver price comparison in European countries, Huamei's monetary policy has chosen a dual standard, that is, Huamei stipulates that the legal ratio of gold and silver is 1:15. and allow normal circulation.

For this purpose, the Central Bank of China has also minted a small number of gold coins with a denomination of 10 US dollars for bulk settlement. But in the vast majority of cases. The dollar and the ten-cent silver coin are still the most important currencies in the United States.

With the advent of Huamei, much more silver than at the same time in history left Europe and entered Huamei and the Far East along the Atlantic trade. Plus the impetus of Dutch businessmen. The silver shortage in Europe was more than a decade ahead of its original history, and the European currency crisis was beginning to emerge. So when the gold-silver ratio between Amsterdam and London became 1:13.5 in 1636, millions of gorgeous silver dollars began to pour out from all sources. The absurdity of England's vast overseas profits at the end of the 17th century while silver became scarce at home began to be replicated in China.

A large amount of arbitrage gold poured in, and the outflow of US dollar silver coins, which are the main circulating standard currency, accelerated, and the shortage of silver coins began to appear in China. In addition, the private storage of currency by the Chinese nationals, who account for the majority of their own nationals, has not been fundamentally eliminated, and the domestic silver shortage is quietly spreading, and some European silver coins that are not worth enough have appeared in China and the United States in a grand and strange way.

In the long run, the implementation of the gold-silver ratio policy is a necessary means for Huamei to stabilize domestic economic development and establish national currency and credit, even if it has to endure the impact of the external environment, whether it is legal or practical, it must grit its teeth and adhere to it.

In China, the use of cheap bookkeeping currencies such as bank bills to replace complicated and high-cost physical gold and silver currency settlements and increase the currency circulation rate has actually been implemented early and accepted by various enterprises. However, in overseas trade settlements, currency losses caused by exchange rate fluctuations cannot be prevented, and they have not been effectively resolved.

In order to keep the currency catastrophe out of the country, Huamei initially established an operational bill discounting and foreign exchange settlement system in the American Concession of the Azores in 1636, and began to prevent arbitrage of gold imports and silver outflows. However, large quantities of silver were still struck by domestic or foreign merchants in gold through international trade settlements, and in 1640 the Central Bank Mint of China and the United States had an average mint of only 30% of the silver coins of the previous year for six consecutive months.

The major trading companies in China and the United States also became increasingly dissatisfied with the state's policy of tightening the control of the Azorean trade currency, especially from the liberals, which had been staged in Congress every year since 1638, and even some of the private banks or trading enterprises controlled by some of the emerging progressives were complaining.

For no other reason, in order to target the naked arbitrage of gold imports by the major private banks and trading groups, which are mainly liberals, the trade settlement related to European imports and exports has been forcibly allocated to the state-owned Banco Nacional Ultramarino. Any bill discounting settlement related to import and export trade must be carried out at the state-owned Banco Nacional Ultramarino, and a single outbound transaction of more than $100,000 in silver coins is prohibited.

In the eyes of the nouveau riche, who are gradually equating their money with murderous parents, the death policy led by the conservative Senate is undoubtedly a stumbling block to "hindering economic freedom". Even if many people understand the Senate's good intentions, there are still people who feel uncomfortable.

The implementation of the de facto gold standard of the lame standard, which changed silver from a standard currency to a secondary currency, thus avoiding the loss of silver price changes, seemed to be the next solution that Huamei had to accept. But with a beautiful body and bones, it will take a long time and material preparation.

……

Beginning in 1638, there were several rounds of intermittent negotiations between China and the Netherlands on the establishment of an international settlement center for Atlantic trade.

Huamei had another purpose of trying to alleviate the dilemma of the continuous outflow of the country's silver dollars due to the exchange rate difference by borrowing the cheap currency means of the Dutch commercial credit in Europe and the international bill settlement business, and through the strict international credit currency settlement system. It also foreshadowed the establishment of a gold standard that was conducive to the stability of its own monetary economy, and prepared in advance for the large-scale economic chaos caused by the currency crisis after the end of the Thirty Years' War in Europe.

The Netherlands, on the other hand, has long been ambitious in its sights on the booming Atlantic trade, and Dutch financial capital is also wary of the United States' attempt to unilaterally implement another set of bill settlement models in Europe.

Negotiations continued until the autumn of 1641, when the Dutch wanted the "International Settlement Center for Atlantic Trade" to be located in Amsterdam at all, on the grounds that the Dutch money supply was stable and that the Bank of Amsterdam could provide the best guarantee and acceptance services.

In Huamei's view, although the Bank of Amsterdam had more capital, the "battlefield initiative" could not be handed over to the Netherlands. A number of private banks in China also do not want the huge interest profits of bill discounting to be unilaterally earned by the Dutch, and strongly demand that the settlement center be set up in Qingcheng City, Haizhou, and that a number of banks designated by the two countries jointly undertake the international bill discounting and settlement business of Atlantic trade.

Eventually, on November 1, 1641, a new round of negotiations was held, and a compromise was reached between Huamei and the Netherlands. Within the next year, Porto Heroísmo Azores will be the site of a new international ticket settlement center for Atlantic trade. Huamei is led by the state-owned Banco Nacional Ultramarino, plus several large private banks in China, jointly established the "Atlantis Bank", which takes over the international ticket settlement business of transatlantic import and export trade controlled by the state, and sets up branches in Manchester City, Qingcheng, Bermuda Overseas Consulate and the Caribbean overseas state of Butterfly Island Twin Ports.

Correspondingly, the Dutch Bank of Amsterdam became the second and only European bank in the new international bill settlement center, and also carried out the ticket discount settlement business for European trade with China and the United States in Amsterdam and the Azores.

Tickets issued by the Bank of Ramé Atlantis can be settled at the Bank of Amsterdam and vice versa. Both parties share in the profits of this bank bill discounting business, and all trade settlements are done in strictly full value currencies, and the specific business details are defined in more detail to prevent possible conflicts of interest.

Although neither Huamei nor the Netherlands have achieved the goal of hegemony, and even Huamei has given up a larger share of interests, for Huamei, it has at least taken a milestone step towards establishing its own financial hegemony in the future, and it is also the only way to solve the unstoppable historical trouble.

It will take another year for the opening of the Atlantic Trade International Ticket Settlement Center, but China and the United States cannot wait to carry out another round of reform and adjustment of the financial system.

On Monday, November 4, 1641, major national newspapers such as the Manchester City Weekly, the North American Times and the Manchester City Financial Newspaper published the amendments to the National Banking Act. For the first time, the annual interest rate of domestic bank loans was legally limited to a maximum of 8%, while the interest rate on domestic bank loans in China, which had been generally high at more than 12%, was officially abolished on January 1, 1642.

Lower interest rates on bank loans, as well as the wider use of domestic bank credit notes and other bookkeeping currencies, can facilitate the circulation of money by cheaper means and also allow more funds to be used for industrial and commercial development.

This is the wisest decision made by the Bank of England decades later, and it is the result of the development of the Chinese and American economy that can be directly applied to the current situation. For ordinary citizens, the subsequent reduction of bank deposit interest rates can also curb savings behavior in disguise and promote the circulation of money in the hands of the people. (To be continued......)