Business and finance are twin brothers who can never be separated, as early as the 25th year of Daoguang, a British bank opened a branch in China. The British bank Liro first set up a branch in China. Its predecessor was the Bank of the West India, which was established in 1842, and in 1845 it expanded its scale, changed its name, and moved its head office in Mumbai, India, to London, England, and in April of the same year, it set up branches in Hong Kong and Guangzhou, and in 1847, it set up a branch office in Shanghai, indicating that the aggressive force of foreign capital began to advance from the south to the north.

At the same time as Liru Bank, the British government received the "Royal Charter" from the Asian Chartered Bank, the predecessor of Beneficial Bank. The Chartered Bank of Asia established an agency in Shanghai in 1854. After the occupation of Shanghai by the Taiping Army, the bank's agency in Shanghai was converted into a branch in 1856 due to the further development of industry and commerce.

The so-called chartered banks, the colonial banks, represented the desire of the rising British industrial bourgeoisie to expand outward. At this time, the Asian chartered bank was quite different from the historical one, because of the Rothschild family member Clifford, the Rothschild family was very optimistic about the achievements of the Taiping army in the civil war in the East, they believed that the Taiping army would complete the unification of China within a few years, so the Rothschild family quickly adjusted its investment strategy, so a large part of the capital of the Asian chartered bank originally came from the British Rothschild family.

In 1856, the French were not willing to be lonely and opened a branch of the Banque de France in Shanghai, but compared with the well-capitalized English banks, the French had little banking influence. During this period, foreign banks took over the exchange business in Sino-foreign trade, bought and sold usance bills, and at the same time absorbed deposits, handled loans, and issued banknotes in Hong Kong.

Although at this time there are already foreign banks involved. However, in general, it has little impact on China's financial system, and China's financial industry is still in a highly free market form at this time, that is, private capital and money banks occupy the entire Chinese financial industry. Neither the Qing court nor the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had any real means for the government to influence finance.

As early as the time of the Sufu New Deal, Xiao Yungui and Hong Yuner had actually considered the reform of banking, banknote issuance and financial business, but at that time, the Sufu New Deal involved too many affairs, and the West Hall had not yet obtained control of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, so it was temporarily shelved. After entering Tianjing and taking over Jiangxi, Anhui and other places, the people of the West Hall devoted themselves to stabilizing the local area and eliminating the impact of the Tianjing Incident. This aspect has not been mentioned.

Now, months have passed, and the localities have stabilized and order has been restored. The Sufu New Deal also gradually began to be promoted within the Heavenly Kingdom, and the reform of the old military and political system of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was also carried out steadily, so it can be said that the conditions and time are ripe for the national financial reform of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Hong Renji's just a few words on the Golden Dragon Hall woke up all the far-sighted people in the palace, Xiao Yungui, Hong Yuner, Zuo Zongtang and others are not without financial understanding. but for months. They are always entangled in complicated affairs, and after the fiscal deficit, Xu Naizhao and others are also obsessed with the authorities, only thinking about how to reduce expenditure, and open source is only limited to considering the existing taxes and food taxes. Perhaps this is the saying that a wise man must make a mistake in a thousand thoughts, and a fool must gain a thousand thoughts.

Hong Renji didn't wait for others to answer, and then continued: "Although my subordinates have recently come to Tianjing. However, I have also learned about the coins circulating in the Tenkyo market. Ever since I established my kingdom in heaven, I have begun to mint coins. The materials used are gold, silver, copper, iron, lead, etc. The face value is divided into one coin, five dollars, ten dollars, fifty dollars, etc., and the style of the book is also quite messy. Among them, there are all kinds of money, and the largest money is actually four catties, which is extremely inconvenient to use. In the old jurisdiction of Shanghai and other Sufu, silver taels and copper coins were the mainstay, and the foreigners Yingyang were used as coins, which was also quite messy, and foreign merchants relied on the convenience of Yingyang's circulation, inflated the price of Yingyang's money, and damaged the commercial interests of the Heavenly Kingdom. His subordinates thought that when the time was ripe, they should follow the example of the foreigners, open banks, collect gold and silver, issue banknotes for the unity of the kingdom of heaven, and have the banks set a rate of exchange with foreign merchants for silver and foreign currency, so as to prevent foreign merchants from profiting from it. The bank is established, the coins issued can be circulated, and the floating wealth of the people can also be collected, and the conquest of the king of the west can be temporarily borrowed, that is, the issuance of treasury bonds, and after the victory, after taking the rich land of the two Guangzhou, it can be repaid. ”

Although Hong Renji's idea is still a little superficial, although the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom has been established for several years, it has also minted its own coins, but the people have always been accustomed to using gold, silver and copper and other coins, collecting gold and silver, and issuing currency is not something that can be achieved by moving the skin. At the same time, unlike other reforms, the financial reform involved many aspects, such as the forced issuance of paper money, which would inevitably lead to social unrest, or be treated as rotten papyrus like the Qing Dynasty's treasure banknotes.

But Xiao Yungui still said approvingly: "Although Renji's idea is not very mature, it also provides a direction to solve the problem. The king has often said that we who govern must not act arbitrarily, but also need to brainstorm in order to find the best way to solve the problem. Banks can be opened, but paper money does not need to be issued for the time being, which involves a wide range of issues and should be considered in the long run. But what Renji said, it is indeed a problem that there are too many types of coins in my heavenly kingdom and are too messy, what does Zuo Xiang think? ”

Zuo Zongtang thought for a while but said cautiously: "Since ancient times, the country has been circulating with gold, silver and copper coins, but now domestic commerce and trade are gradually connected with foreign countries, and the imported things of last year are easy to produce silver up to one million taels, so for a long time, domestic silver will gradually dry up and there will be no silver barter." The subordinates thought that they should collect the gold solidity first, although gold is also a kind of coin, but the value is quite large, it is rarely used in transactions, and it is also scarce, and it is feasible to collect most of the gold. Subsequently, the silver two ingots can be changed to silver coins, which can be slightly the same color as the eagle ocean, and some of the heavenly treasure banknotes can be appropriately issued, and the value of the banknotes is equal to the value of gold. In this way, the newly minted silver coins are used for domestic circulation, and the exchange of paper money with foreign currencies such as eagle ocean and pound sterling may alleviate the outflow of silver, and silver dollars and paper money can also be exchanged for equivalent value. ”

Although Hong Yuner is erudite in literature and history, he also has a vague understanding of finance, and he can't say anything, and although Xiao Yungui has done some business and knows some financial knowledge, he is not sure what kind of currency reform is the most suitable and best choice in this historical environment. But listening to Zuo Zongtang's suggestion, it seems that the gold and silver double standard system is implemented, or the same as in ancient times, but the only difference is that on the gold standard, due to the scarcity of gold, the corresponding paper money is issued, and silver is changed to silver dollars to circulate in the country, which seems to be able to alleviate the problem of silver outflow and domestic currency chaos to a certain extent.

Wang Minyun, another secretary of the Shanghai Military Administration who has been in contact with foreigners for a long time, said: "The reform of the yuan and the abolition of the two can be implemented, and there are quite a lot of eagles and oceans of foreigners circulating in Shanghai and other places, and his subordinates suggest that they can be tried in Shanghai and other places first. The opening of a bank can absorb private assets, but it is bound to conflict with private banks, in other words, depending on who the people trust more, they will deposit their money. At present, the treasury of the Kingdom of Heaven is empty, and it is difficult to use a large amount of money as bank reserves, and if there is a run, and the money cannot be exchanged for a while, it will cause great damage to the reputation of the new bank, and the bank will not be able to establish without credit. ”

Hong Renji suddenly said: "Regarding the matter of bank reserves, my subordinates have heard that there are quite a lot of rare treasures collected by the people in the East Wangfu, the North Wangfu and other royal palaces, and they can be taken out and auctioned, and a large amount of money can be raised. ”

Zhu Changling, director of the Department of Commerce, also said: "The common people and businessmen are also people who look out for the wind, and many of the private banks are depositing silver without profit, just to ensure the safety of money and facilitate large-scale transactions in different places." The new banks of the Kingdom of Heaven can be allowed to make small profits, and the common people and businessmen will definitely deposit large sums of money to make profits. The large merchants under the Department of Commerce must also transfer the money to the bank, and the household department and even the holy treasury silver can also be deposited into it, and the common people and merchants will definitely follow suit when they see this. ”

Wei Heling, deputy director of the Department of Commerce, also said: "The bank is opened, there is a deposit and there is a loan, and now the private and local governments need money for investment in many projects, and I believe that after the bank is opened, the loan profit is enough to support the end of the war between Guangxi and Guangzhou." ”

Xiao Yungui thought for a moment, and then looked at Hong Yun'er, but Hong Yun'er smiled and shook her head slightly, indicating that she had no better ideas. Xiao Yungui also knew that she was not good at this, so she stood up and said: "Since this is the case, this king has decided to start preparing for the Central Bank of Heaven and set up a financial department, which is subordinate to the Ministry of Households, with Zhu Changling, director of the Department of Commerce, as the director, and Hong Renji transferred to the financial department as the deputy director. The Department of Commerce was succeeded by Wei Heling, and the deputy director was Yu Songnian. ”

Since Yu Songnian captured Songjiang by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, he saw that the Western King of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom had always protected private property, and at the same time did not replace state-owned Confucianism with the so-called Western religion, but skillfully linked the two together, and the Yu family has always maintained a cooperative relationship with the West Hall of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. The Yu family's collection of books has also been protected by the Public Opinion Department of the West Temple, which is even more satisfying to Yu Songnian. In the ensuing reforms of the government and a series of Sufu New Policies, Yu Songnian saw the hope of the revival of the Han people, and gradually began to agree that the Kingdom of Heaven would replace the Manchu Qing as Zhengshuo. The Yu family runs a large shipbuilding and shipping industry in Shanghai, and Yu Songnian was elected president of the Shanghai Shipbuilding and Shipping Chamber of Commerce last year. Subsequently, Wang Minyun visited many times, and Yu Songnian finally took the position of president of the Shanghai Chamber of Commerce, which can be regarded as a large number of domestic private businesses in Shanghai.

This year, Yu Song began to accept the official position of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and Xiao Yungui always wanted Yu Songnian to get on his thief ship, and now he had the opportunity to promote Yu Songnian to the position of deputy director of the Department of Commerce.

After the people were selected, Zhu Changling, Hong Renji and others selected officials who were good at financial affairs to join the Financial Department, and then came up with specific regulations. And the East Palace, the North Palace, and the many rare treasures in the Heavenly King's Mansion that Hong Renji did not mention were handed over to Wang Minyun for planning and auction, anyway, those things can't be turned into money and grain, but it is better to really exchange them for gold and silver, if the people can have a thing that the prince has used, it can be regarded as a great honor, and this move will definitely raise a lot of money.

After solving the problem of the fiscal deficit, the next step is another important goal this year, which is the deployment of troops to Liangguang and Lianghu. (To be continued......)

PS: Because something happened at home, the update was interrupted a few days ago, I'm sorry, and the update will be resumed from today, thank you for your support.