The financial industry in ancient China was inferior to that of the West, which is purely a stereotype.

Let's talk about the exchange business in different places, the Tang Dynasty called flying money, the Song Dynasty called the exchange, and the Ming and Qing dynasties called the meeting ticket. That is, it is commonly known as the ticket number and ticket bank.

Specifically, the Ming Dynasty of the Zhu family and his son, the private financial system continued from the Northern Song Dynasty.

In the city, the silver shop is also engaged in the deposit and loan business, and also does the gold and silver jewelry business.

For example, Li Bangyan's father is engaged in this thing, and he is a silversmith, but in fact, he belongs to a wealthy party.

In towns and villages, there are money rice shops and money cloth shops, where they can exchange money, rice, and cloth, and can also deposit and borrow money.

When the Northern Song Dynasty collected various taxes, the local officials deliberately harmed the people, collecting only taxes in kind for a while, and only collecting money for a while. For example, the summer grain collection will suddenly only collect silk cloth this year, and next year it may only collect other things.

In order to pay taxes, ordinary people have to go to money rice shops and money cloth shops to exchange.

If the small township shop can't exchange it, haha, you have to go to the designated store in the county to exchange it, and the officials and the store take the opportunity to make a profit.

In areas with developed business, saving money is also giving interest, don't think that you have to charge a storage fee for saving money!

In addition, there are pawnshops, which were called longevity warehouses and quality warehouses in the Song Dynasty.

This thing is very ruthless, and it can pawn not only dead things, but also livestock, slaves, and other living things.

In addition, pawnshops are also engaged in deposit and lending business.

……

Imperial Council.

Today, we will discuss the rectification of the country's financial industry.

The important ministers of the cabinet came one after another, drinking tea and chatting, waiting for the emperor and the crown prince to arrive.

The conference table, which was several meters long, was empty, and everyone was waiting in the lounge next door.

The lounge consists of two side halls, with tables, chairs, benches, and sofa-shaped wooden couches.

"Hey, what is this?"

Qin Hui, who has been promoted to the secretary of the Ministry of Industry, touched the fabric on the couch and carefully tasted the touch: "It should be a kind of velvet, but it seems to be thicker, softer, and warmer." ”

As soon as these words were spoken, the ministers all turned their attention to the chairs and beds, and all the furniture that could sit was paved.

Mengqing, the head of the household, said: "Zhangrong (velvet)." ”

Everyone went to pet the experience, especially the elderly, and the more they touched this thing, the more they liked it.

Cabinet minister Zhao Yan asked, "Where can I buy it?" How much does it cost? ”

Fang Mengqing said: "The production is scarce and the price is expensive. The water vapor in the south is heavy, especially in Guangdong and Fujian, and the copper mirrors must be covered with flannel mirrors to prevent moisture. In the past two years, more and more cotton has been planted in the south of the Yangtze River, and some people have sold cotton yarn and cotton cloth to Fujian. Zhangzhou flannel mirror clothes are the best, after Zhangzhou craftsmen saw the cotton yarn, so they had a whim, using silk and cotton to blend flannel. ”

"Just made this kind of velvet?" Li Hanzhang asked.

"Not bad." Fang Mengqing nodded and said.

The basic craft of velvet is ancient, starting at least in the Western Han Dynasty on the Chinese side and even earlier in Ancient Egypt in the West.

But the process belongs to the process, and the product belongs to the product.

In China, until the Yuan Dynasty, as cotton became common, craftsmen naturally used cotton yarn in ancient crafts.

Silk and cotton are combined, and real velvet is born!

And with the Great Voyage, Chinese velvet spread to Europe. It's better than silk, and the crowns of European kings, including the crown of the British Empire at its height, used velvet as the base material.

Even European writers often describe women's skin as "velvety smooth and soft".

Fang Mengqing said: "The prefect of Zhangzhou sent this kind of flannel, although the official family did not allow the local tribute, but still spent money to buy this batch of Zhangzhou velvet. Some of them are paid by the royal family for private use, and some are paid by the household department for public use. The officials also encouraged Zhangzhou craftsmen, saying that they could produce more of this flannel. ”

Everyone understands that this kind of Zhangrong has just emerged, and the output is really very scarce, even if you have money, you can't buy it.

Liu Ying couldn't help but ask: "What price did the household buy it?" ”

Fang Mengqing said: "One or two pieces of velvet, twenty yuan." ”

The lounge was full of bigwigs, and they couldn't help but be shocked when they heard the price.

All fabrics, usually in "horses".

A piece of silk is about two or three dollars.

A piece of silk is about three or four dollars.

A horse of silk, about four or five dollars.

All of the above are normal retail prices.

A high-grade Shu brocade costs more than 100 yuan.

Only the best brocade will be weighed and sold, with "tael" as the unit of calculation.

Fang Mengqing said that one or two zhang velvet twenty guan, then it is probably more than two hundred yuan a horse. This thing is sold for more expensive than the finest Shu brocade!

Of course, the price will definitely go down.

Because the craft is so old, it's not an exclusive secret.

With such an expensive price, someone must buy it for analysis, as long as it belongs to a professional, it is easy to know how it was spun.

The output increased, and the price fell, until it fell to a much cheaper price than Shu brocade.

But the velvet can be improved to enhance its brightness and weave a variety of patterns. The top-grade velvet will not be cheaper than Shu brocade at that time.

Everyone sat on velvet blankets, stroking the velvet cloth and chatting and joking.

"Those profiteers, this time it's very miserable." Li Hanzhang gloated.

Xiao Chu said: "The prince is wise. Wang Jinggong wanted to crack down on profiteers, but he ended up giving up. However, the prince was bloodless, and only transferred some military cloth to clean up the rich merchants. With the Tokyo Exchange, as long as the imperial court keeps an eye on it, it will not be easy for them to monopolize it in the future. ”

The futures turmoil during this period made the ministers dizzy.

None of the officials in their right minds were involved in futures speculation.

They firmly believe that the prince will make a move, and once they follow the trend, they will lose all their money if they don't pay attention to it.

Although they guessed the ending, the whole process was unexpected.

The crown prince did not use administrative power, but just smashed orders at the highest point. There are not even many military cloth bills smashed, and after luring retail investors to sell orders, the prince's people will quickly withdraw, and the market cloth price is still plummeting by inertia.

If you have to use one sentence to describe it, it is "four or two thousand pounds".

Wang Anshi was ousted and the problem was not solved, and he was solved by the prince in a daze.

It is not difficult to understand the reason for this, Wang Anshi is facing a whole interest group. And the core of these interest groups has long been eliminated when the dynasty was changed, and the remnants of last year's major case have been cleared up.

What the ministers didn't expect at all was that when the prince was wrapping up, he actually cracked down on usury by the way, giving countless loss-making retail investors an outlet.

"Alas, I'm old, and I can't keep up with the prince." Zhai Ruwen couldn't help but sigh.

In fact, he is not old, he has not yet reached the age of 60, and he can be called a young prime minister.

But including Zhai Ruwen, many ministers of the cabinet and the court really feel that they can't keep up with the times, and they seem to be being pushed by the emperor and the crown prince.

First of all, academic and conceptual innovation, a large number of "miscellaneous studies" were introduced into the imperial examination, and even astronomy and geography were opened to the people.

This was followed by the reform of tariffs, the apportionment of the land to the acre, the reform of servitude, and the establishment of an exchange......

A series of new things in a mess have dazzled the old bureaucracy.

You must know that when Song Huizong promoted arithmetic schools and medical schools across the country, countless officials shouted outrageously. These are placed in the Ming Dynasty, which is just a basic operation.

Although the medical school has not been fully rolled out, four medical schools have been established in Kaifeng, Luoyang, Hangzhou, and Chengdu. In the future, it is planned to be set up in Guangzhou, Nanchang, Guizhou, Yangzhou and other places.

The research content and learning courses of the medical school have also been seen by Zhai Ruwen, who knows a little about medical skills.

A microscope shocked Zhai Ruwen!

He personally observed the small insects that were invisible to the naked eye, and when he returned home, he felt dirty when he drank water, and from then on he strictly ordered his family not to drink raw water.

Xiao Chu, who was seventy-seven years old, laughed loudly: "Today's China can be described as changing with each passing day, and the old man is eager to be twenty years younger. If nothing else, I just want to see what Daming can become. ”

Li Hanzhang said: "Reappear in the Han and Tang Dynasties, and surpass the Han and Tang Dynasties!" ”

"Haha, yes!" Xiao Chu laughed.

After Xiao Chu entered the cabinet, he didn't seem to have done anything big.

However, many systems, decrees, and academic matters, if other ministers are not sure, they will ask Xiao Chu for advice before deciding. As long as it is Xiao Chu's cabinet vote that Xiao Chu helps to check, it will basically not be sent back to the emperor and the crown prince to be redone.

Gradually, Xiao Chu was more like the prime minister, and Zhai Ruwen was suppressed.

It's just that Xiao Chu doesn't take power, this old man has no wife and no children, and he can't live long, what can he do when he takes power?

"The Emperor has arrived!"

"The prince has arrived!"

……

Father and son chatted all the way in.

Zhu Guoxiang said: "Those Jews should be able to assimilate quickly after being dispersed, right? ”

"They have no money and are independent, how can they preach?" Zhu Ming said: "The greatest weapon of the Jews is money, and then through marriage and blood to strengthen the ethnic group. Like the richest Jew Li, this time he was thrown to Youzhou, and he had to learn to farm honestly in order to survive. Even if he is particularly able to operate, after 20 years, he will become a small landlord at most. ”

Zhu Guoxiang said: "That's good. ”

Because there are eunuchs around him, Zhu Ming is inconvenient to mention his name: "You have to learn from that, we will issue an edict next year, and people of different races are not allowed to marry in the same race." forced them to intermarry with the Han people, and after two or three generations, they were all sinicized. ”

"I heard that there are many black slaves in Guangdong." Zhu Guoxiang said.

Zhu Ming said: "I asked carefully, most of them are black slaves from Nanyang, and all of them are men. Even the poorest Han girls would not marry black slaves, and they would not even be treated as human beings. In the past 100 years of the former Song Dynasty, there have been no native black slaves in Guangzhou. As long as it doesn't spread, the court doesn't have to care. ”

The father and son came to the council hall, and the important ministers of the cabinet were already standing at the conference table, and they saluted them with brushes.

Zhu Guoxiang sat down and said, "Today's meeting is presided over by the prince. ”

When the ministers heard this, they all had ideas.

Because recently, the emperor has become more and more indifferent, and everything is handed over to the prince to deal with, and today he even asked the prince to preside over the imperial meeting.

The imperial meeting of the Ming Dynasty was actually a small court meeting of the Tang and Song dynasties.

Zhu Ming was also not polite, and said some opening remarks, and soon got to the point: "Next, we must take advantage of the trend to rectify the national financial industry, that is, pawn, exchange, deposit, lending, exchange and other related businesses." Not only in Kaifeng, but also throughout the country. ”

"First, a slave's deed of employment is not allowed to be used as a mortgage or pawn. People are people, not goods! ”

"Second, the maximum lending rate is subject to the "Da Ming Law".

"Third, private traders are allowed to undertake banknote shops (banknote exchange)."

"Fourth, in the six major cities, as well as Jiangling, Jiangzhou (Jiujiang), Yangzhou, try to issue Ming treasure banknotes. Merchants are not forced to subscribe, everything is voluntary, and it is definitely more convenient for them to use treasure money for large transactions. ”

In ancient society, no matter how much the financial industry was regulated, it could only do this.

Like reserve funds or something, you can't collect them at all.

Officials can use this to bankrupt the relevant shops, and the common people will have no place to save or borrow money.

And there is no need to charge a deposit, people are willing to go to the store where they save money, they must be strong in the local area and have an excellent reputation.

As for allowing private traders to undertake banknote shops, it is to promote the Daming treasure banknotes and at the same time facilitate the economic life of businessmen.

The banknote shop existed as early as the early years of the Northern Song Dynasty, and a large number of banknotes were stored in the store.

Some merchants want to go out to do business, or people want to go far away, and metal currency is not easy to carry, so they take metal currency to the banknote shop to exchange paper money. Banknotes generally charge a 3% handling fee.

It's just that with the collapse of the banknotes, all the money shops were closed.

The Baoquan Bureau, which was used by the Ming court to issue and exchange banknotes, could not be set up in every city, so it could be solved with the help of private banknote shops.

That is, the imperial court selected two or three large cities to set up the Baoquan Bureau in the provinces that needed to issue paper money.

In the rest of the small cities, there are private traders who set up banknote shops.

Private businessmen went to the Baoquan Bureau to subscribe for banknotes, and then took them back to their small cities to help the imperial court issue and exchange banknotes.

"Who has objections or additions?" Zhu Ming asked.

Zhang Shuye, who joined the cabinet this year, said: "Treasure banknotes can also be issued in Chang'an, Taiyuan, and Zhending, so that businessmen can open up the border and transport military materials more conveniently, so as to save the cost of transporting military materials to the frontier." In the future, even if the Kaizhong system collapses, as long as the Ming treasure banknotes can still be used, Shangjia will be willing to continue to lose for the imperial court. ”

Qian Chen said: "What Zhang Xianggong said is extremely true. My proposal is that within five years, treasure money be issued in every provincial capital. According to the feedback of the merchants of Sichuan and Hanzhong, they were very fond of using treasure money, and repeatedly asked the imperial court to increase the issuance. If this is the case for merchants in Sichuan, businessmen from other provinces can also accept it. ”

In fact, those merchants in Sichuan used Daming treasure banknotes as bills of exchange.

Moreover, compared with ordinary bills of exchange, Daming Bao banknotes no longer have to bear the handling fee of cashing in other places, and can even be directly used to pay taxes in other places. Not only is it convenient to buy and sell, but it also saves costs.

Take Li Bangyan moving to Hangzhou as an example, if the 100,000 yuan capital bill is cashed in Hangzhou, the handling fee will be 1,000 yuan for Li Bangyan. It stands to reason that the 1% fee is not high, but there is a lot of money that cannot be exchanged.

If the imperial court set up Baoquan Bureaus in Tokyo and Hangzhou, Li Bangyan would be able to save this thousand yuan because the Baoquan Bureau does not charge handling fees.

Similarly, the more cities that set up Baoquan Bureau, the lower the fees for private banknote shops.

In the past, banknotes were charged 3% for currency exchange, but as competition intensified, it will gradually drop to 2%, 1%, or even less. There is a delicate market balance between the banknote shop and the customer, depending on their respective costs and benefits.

After Zhang Shuye and Qian Chen each made suggestions, the rest of the ministers did not speak again.

Seeing that the business was over, Zhu Guoxiang suddenly said: "I plan to abdicate and become the emperor." ”

The important ministers were shocked when they heard this, and they were all dumbfounded.

Although he knew that the emperor was delegating power to the crown prince, he didn't expect to abdicate directly!

(End of chapter)