All in all, there are many people who scold their mothers after the silver ticket is launched.

But there are more people who applaud, especially the workshop owners.

Because of the tightening of the bank, there is not enough liquidity in the market, so that most factory owners and workshop owners do not have enough money to buy more raw materials and hire more workers to expand production.

For example, Xu Yingwei's eldest brother Shi Jiuke set up a silk cutting workshop and a silk weaving workshop in Huangtan Town, because the silk produced was of good quality and did not worry about sales at all.

Well, it doesn't matter how good or bad the texture is.

But now, no matter how much silk Daming produces, he will not worry about selling.

Because of the profitability, Shi Jiuke wanted to expand the scale of the workshop.

But if you want to expand, you need to hire more workers, you need more cocoons, you need more looms, you need more embroiderers, but you need silver to do all these things.

Shi Jiuke was not short of silver, but the silver was in the hands of downstream silk merchants.

But the silk merchant had no silver in his hand, oh no, there was silver in the silk account, but there was no cash, because all the silver was deposited into the silver trumpet.

So, the whole business operation is stuck.

The silver trumpet had no money for the silk merchants, the silk merchants had no money for the silk mills, the silk mills had no money for the silk mills, the silk mills had no money for the silk merchants, and the silk merchants had no money to repay the loan of the silver trumpet.

But at this time, the silver trumpet suddenly had silver, and then the operation of the entire commercial closed-loop immediately became smooth, and everyone suddenly had silver, and the triangular debts and even the seven-cornered and eight-cornered debts were repaid.

Because of this, the silver ticket was recognized by the industrial and commercial owners in a very short period of time.

Even the large and small grain merchants such as the Maojia, the Qian family, and the Xu family also vied to borrow silver tickets from the Hubu Silver Account to buy grain, because it was necessary to pay high interest to borrow silver from the landlord to buy grain, but the annual interest rate of the Hubu Silver Account was as low as only one penny, and such a low interest rate was almost the same as the bonds issued by Shiyi.

With a large number of silver tickets entering the circulation market, the money shortage in Jiangnan was easily solved.

The money shortage that has plagued Jiangnan commercial bills for nearly a year has finally been alleviated.

……

The money shortage in Jiangnan has been alleviated, but the "food shortage" has not been alleviated.

This is not even the case because of the easing of mobility, which has made food shortages even more severe.

By the end of the first month, the Nanzhi grain merchants had eaten nearly 10 million stones.

However, the price of grain has also risen again, from six taels during the Lantern Festival to ten taels and one stone.

Then on the second day of the second month of February, that is, the day when the dragon raised its head, the headline on the fourth page of the Huangming Times suddenly published a piece of news about the price of rice: Long Yan was furious, and the saint decided to increase the supply of food.

After Qian Qianyi saw this news, he was stunned on the spot.

Because this article says that since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Internal Affairs has been transferring grain from Huguang to Nanzhi in an attempt to stabilize the price of rice in Nanzhi, but the grain merchants in Nanzhi have been secretly obstructing and eating all the grain transported by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, resulting in the price of rice in Nanzhi still being high.

As soon as this article was issued, the price of rice in Nanjing fell in response.

In just three days, the price of rice plummeted from ten taels to five yuan.

The people of Nanjing applauded one after another.

Thanksgiving for the kindness of God.

……

"After more than three months, it's finally over."

"The people finally don't have to bear the high price of rice."

Chongzhen asked Wang Pingshan again: "Wang Qing, what about the accounts?" ”

Wang Pingshan and Hu Renzhi have already donated to the Wailang, a member of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

"Back to the saint, the accounts are here." Wang Pingshan hurriedly took out the account book.

Chongzhen took the account book, just glanced at it, and felt that one head and two were big.

Because Wang Pingshan still uses old-fashioned bookkeeping, that is, the Chinese characters used, and it is written vertically, such an account book Chongzhen looks like a bucket, and the Internal Affairs Office has now changed to Arabic numerals for bookkeeping, and it is written horizontally.

At that moment, Chongzhen returned the account book to Wang Pingshan: "Wang Qing, you should read it to me, and you don't have to say anything in detail, just pick out the key points and read it to me." ”

"Commandment." Wang Pingshan opened the account book and said, "Let's talk about Huguang's grain hegemony first. ”

"Grain was purchased between three and a half cents per stone and four cents per stone, and a total of seven ,486,000 taels of silver were spent."

"Later, in order to suppress the price of grain, he successively sold 9 million stone of grain, at a price of 3 yuan per stone, and a total income of 2.7 million taels of silver."

"Fifteen million taels of grain merchants from Huguang are borrowed."

"Because the price of grain plummeted to one and a half cents per stone, the grain merchants in Huguang could not pay the principal and interest, so they could only use the grain merchants as an offset, and received a total of 70 million stone of grain, a total of 10.5 million taels of silver."

"The grain merchants of Huguang still owe me more than 4.5 million taels and have not repaid them."

"Let's talk about Nanzhi's grain hegemony, I have trafficked a total of 10 million stone of grain to Nanzhi before and after, and the price is between three taels and five taels per stone, and the total income is 40 million taels of silver."

"It is strange to borrow 20 million taels of grain merchants from the south through the royal silver, the household silver, and the shipping and shipbuilding silver."

"Because the price of grain plummeted to five cents per stone, triggering the protection clause of principal and interest, the grain merchants in the south could not pay the principal and interest, so they could only use the grain as an offset, and received a total of 30 million stone of grain, which was converted into 15 million taels of silver."

"The debts are offset, and the grain merchants in the south still owe five million taels and have not paid them off."

"The income and expenditure of Huguang and Nanzhi are offset, with a total income of 200,000 taels of silver, 100 million stone of grain, and there are still 9.5 million taels of silver owed by Huguang and Nanzhi grain merchants who have not been repaid."

After reading the last sentence, Wang Pingshan gently closed the ledger.

"Finished?" Zhu Cijiong asked in disbelief, "No?" ”

"It's over, it's gone." Wang Pingshan said, "All the accounts are here." ”

Zhu Cijiong said in a loud voice: "That is to say, this time the water conservancy grain silver number did not spend a tael of silver, and got 200,000 taels plus 100 million stone of grain for nothing?" ”

"There are still 9.5 million taels that have not been recovered." Wang Pingshan said with a smile.

"Oh yes, there are still more than 9.5 million taels of silver owed that have not been recovered." Zhu Cijiong said in disbelief, "This thing is really evil, that is, there are 10 million taels of silver and 100 million stone of grain in Pingkong?" ”

"These 10 million taels of silver and 100 million stone of grain are not extra out of thin air." Chongzhen snorted and said, "It's squeezed out of hundreds of large and small grain merchants in Huguang and Nanzhi." ”

"This time, the grain merchants of Huguang and Nanzhi are really squeezed out of the oil."

After a pause, Wang Pingshan said again: "However, these people are also innocent, they are a group of businessmen, who dare to disobey the holy order to hoard Juqi, who will die if they don't die?" ”

"Wang Gong, is there really so much grain as there are 100 million stones?"

Zhu Cihong also couldn't believe it, this is 100 million stone grain.

Seventeen years ago, the annual grain tax collected by the Ming court was less than 30 million stones, but now, only 100 million stones were squeezed out from Huguang and Nanzhi, which is really a bit scary.

"Prince, there are really as many grains as 100 million stones."

Wang Pingshan said solemnly: "Among them, 30 million stones are in the general warehouse of the Internal Affairs Office, 20 million stones are in the Wuchang warehouse, and the other 50 million stones are in the official warehouses of Changde Mansion, Yuezhou Mansion and Changsha Mansion. ”

"No, no, there is no intention of trusting Wang Gong." Zhu Cihong hurriedly said.

"Hong'er and Jiong'er, now you know that the lake is wide and the world is full, isn't this nonsense?"

Chongzhen smiled and said: "Relying on Huguang Province alone to feed hundreds of millions of people in the entire Ming Dynasty must be nonsense, but it is more than enough to feed half of the Ming Dynasty." ”

Zhu Cihong frowned and said, "But father, Huguang didn't have so much official food before. ”

Chongzhen said: "In the past, Huguang only levied a grain tax of three liters and five spoons per mu, and the fields under the names of each domain did not need to pay grain tax, so naturally less than a few stones of grain were collected. ”

"But now all the cultivated land in Huguang is distributed to the people."

"This year, the people of Huguang have harvested two more seasons of grain."

"So you can take out half of the surplus grain and sell it to the imperial court."

"Originally, this half of the surplus grain, that is, 80 million stones, would flow into the granaries of the feudal clans and local gentry in the form of tenant rents, but now all of them have flowed into the official warehouses of the Ministry of Internal Affairs."

"Oh, I see." Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong all understood now.

Zhu Cijiong said with a dark face: "Father, so it is really hateful to say that the vassal kings and local gentry in various places have been eroded by them?" ”

"Or else?" Chongzhen's expression cooled.

"Where do you think the vast wealth of the feudal domains comes from?"

To this day, Chongzhen is deeply impressed by the more than 8 million taels of silver and 50 million taels worth of rare treasures that Sha Dingzhou snatched from the Qianguo Mansion.

In addition to the lords of the clan, there are also evil gentry and profiteers.

……

Qian's back garden.

"Master, don't be impulsive."

"The silver is gone, and we can save again."

"As the saying goes, stay in the green mountains, don't be afraid of no firewood."

Liu Ru was running briskly, and at the same time shouted loudly at the top of the rockery.

On the top of the rockery, Qian Qianyi hung a white silk on the top of a willow tree, ready to hang himself, but after trying a few times, he found that the willow tree was too thin to hang at all.

After another failed hanging, Liu Ru finally arrived.

"Sir." Liu Ru hugged Qian Qianyi and said with tears in her eyes, "It's just a few taels of silver, why can't you think about it, master." ”

"Ma'am." Qian Qianyi sighed and said, "That's not a few taels of silver, but a million taels, and it's all the savings for the life of the husband and eunuch!" ”

(End of chapter)