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Chapter 633 Difficulties in Issuing Banknotes

After experiencing the economic wars of later generations, as well as the US dollar hegemony of the beautiful country, and harvesting these horrible methods from all over the world, one can imagine the importance of coinage rights to a country. Therefore, after Li Chaosheng solved the problem of food and clothing for the people of Lantian, he finally What urgently wants to be solved is the currency problem of the common people.

Zhu Yuanzhang's wrong move back then caused the entire Ming Dynasty to lose the right to mint coins. The people would rather trust heavy and stupid silver than national credit. This is sad.

Moreover, after the loss of currency rights, even the copper coins made by the Ming Dynasty no longer occupy the main circulation position. Before the Lantian Mint produced new copper coins, the copper coins circulating in the entire Lantian market were simply varied.

There are copper coins made in the Ming Dynasty, small copper coins from the Yuan Dynasty, and even copper coins from the Song Dynasty. Shouldn’t these things be considered antiques?

And the most irritating thing is the crudely made iron money, which is really a mess, which led to the fact that the private economy once entered the scene of bartering.

Therefore, after Li Chaosheng formally worked in the mint, apart from silver coins, he most often made copper coins. The size and shape of Lantian copper coins, and the level of exquisite craftsmanship far surpassed this era.

And after the mandatory use of copper coins in Lantian, Lantian's economy has achieved long-term development, which is also the main reason for the rapid economic growth of Lantian in recent years.

Li Chaosheng is also building up the government's reputation and confidence through his own efforts.

And through these years of hard work, Lantian's word of mouth has reached the level of trial and error.

So watching the large amount of silver put into the warehouse, the director of the Ministry of Finance was inexplicably excited. He felt that the new plan of their county lord could be implemented.

……

Lantian, Hall [-] of the Senior Conference.

Today, Li Chaosheng summoned members of various ministries to come to a meeting. The main topic of this meeting was Lantian currency reform.

Attendees today.

Lantian County Zun Li Chaosheng, Lantian Political Minister Guo Bao, Secretary Supervisor Zuo Sansi, Lantian Finance Minister, Banking Administration Bureau under the Ministry of Finance, Director.

The meeting starts at ten o'clock in the morning.

The person who presided over the meeting was Li Chaogu, the personal secretary of Lantian County Zun.

"Ahem, everyone, the main content of today's meeting is to discuss Lantian's new currency policy. You also know that since the Lantian Mint was put into production, after several years of hard work, Lantian's currency has undergone extraordinary changes. What kind of money do people use?"

"Silver, copper coins, the copper coins of the previous dynasty, iron coins, the whole market is in a mess, which has led to people's distrust of silver coins. The most common payment method among the people is barter, which is very bad for the economy. The people have always been facing a huge problem, that is, there is not enough silver as the main currency in circulation. Everyone knows that our Ming Dynasty lacks silver, we do not produce silver ourselves, and use silver as currency. What are the consequences? At the same time, it will lead to the scarcity of private silver.”

"With less private silver, currency circulation is inconvenient, which will hinder economic development and is very detrimental to economic development. Later, under the active reform of our county lord, we carried out currency reform like walking on eggshells, and launched the Lantian silver coin, Lantian Copper coins are divided into one silver dollar, one copper coin, five copper coins, ten copper coins, twenty copper coins, fifty copper coins, one hundred copper coins, and five hundred copper coins in multiple denominations, which in turn led to the rapid development of the entire Lantian economy. "

"And attracted a large number of foreign merchants to exchange silver coins with us in Lantian and buy goods in Lantian. On this basis, we established a banking department and improved the basic financial system of our Lantian."

"On the whole, in the past few years, we in Lantian have achieved achievements in finance and currency. This is mainly due to the wise leadership of the county lord and the cooperation of all colleagues. Thank you."

clap clap clap!
The applause was thunderous, and the applause of Gu Zi and others stopped. At this time, Gu Zi continued; "Of course, our journey is not over yet, and our work will continue. On top of what we have achieved, we have to further strengthen, BR County What do you think of the paper currency that Zun pointed out?"

After hearing this, many bigwigs present fell silent. They all looked at Li Chaosheng who was sitting on the main seat without saying a word.

The Minister of Finance stood up and said: "I think it is feasible to paper currency. At present, our Ministry of Finance has accepted nearly 800 million cash from King Qin, and nearly 500 million cash from King Fu some time ago. Li Chaoshui, Li Dingguo of Gansu and the others wholesaled the silver back. Add up, there are about 2000 million taels, and they will be handed over to the banking department to be made into silver dollars, which is 4000 million silver dollars. This amount of silver is used as a reserve fund, and the banknotes are issued. We already have the foundation, and I agree with Xianzun's idea, we can try to issue banknotes."

After hearing this, Guo Bao stood up and said: "Well, what Lao Ma said just now is quite correct. We have the basis for issuing banknotes, but what about the ability to issue them? I have two questions here. The first is the issuance of banknotes. Ability, banknotes, not banknotes, can be cryptographically anti-counterfeited on them. The prerequisite for banknotes is to carry out small denominations, large-scale issuance, and not to be exchanged to the public, but to be directly circulated in the market. How to prevent others from forging?"

"Old Ma, let me ask you, you have seen the ticket number, have you exchanged the banknotes for silver, then tell me how the banknotes are anti-counterfeiting?"

"Here, the anti-counterfeiting of bank notes mainly relies on three commonly used methods. The first is code words. In addition to numbers, each bank note will also be marked with code words, and the marking method is different."

"For example, for a two-digit bank note, they will use the three-character scripture as a code word. At the beginning of a person, it corresponds to one, two, three, and the goodness of nature corresponds to four, five, and six. In this way, for example, 32 taels of silver, the following may correspond to the beginning. Two words."

"However, the three-digit bank note may be exchanged for a thousand-character text as a code word. Tiandi Xuanhuang corresponds to one, two, three, four, and 320 one tael. It may be the three code words of Xuanditian."

"As for the thousand taels of silver ticket, another book is changed, and this code word will be changed frequently. For example, use these three books this year, and change three books or a poem next year, so that others will copy it and fail to grasp the pattern. , was seen through at a glance."

Guo Bao nodded and said, "What about the second type?"

The old horse heard the words and said: "The second method is the ticket stub method, which is what our county officials often call the seam seal. The silver ticket and the stamp on the ticket stub are complete. When you get the ticket number and find a pair of ticket stubs, they will match up." It’s fake, sorry, it’s fake.”

"Well, yes, what about the third type?"

"The third type is an old ticket number. For example, Shanxi merchants have a time-honored Pingyao Weitaihou bank. They use the watermark method. There is a hidden watermark on the silver ticket, which can be seen in the sun, but it can be seen without sunlight. No, but this technology is relatively high and requires special potions, so the cost will be high."

After Lao Ma introduced the specific situation, Guo Bao said: "So, the question arises, which of these three methods can be used on a large scale for banknotes?"

After hearing this, everyone fell into deep thought.

"The first one? Set a code word for the banknotes?"

Guo Bao asked, followed by a smile: "The biggest difference between silver bills and banknotes is that silver bills are circulated on a small scale, and the objects of circulation are fixed. people."

"The ticket number can be specified in code words, but how do you specify the banknotes? Tell the banknote collector in advance the meaning of the code words on it, and then he will talk about it, tell the next person, and spread it widely. There is no need to hide it." Is it? Everyone knows it, is it still called a code word?"

Everyone was silent when they heard the words. Yes, code words are definitely not used. If code words are used, the payee will be fixed. The code words that everyone knows can have a fart effect.

Thinking of this, everyone thinks it is, and the code words can't be used.

Following Guo Bao, he continued: "The second one is the ticket stub method. This is even more nonsense. It is the same as a code word. It also fixes the payee. This banknote is issued to the public. Who will the ticket stub be given to?"

"A fruit seller received a one-hundred-wen banknote. Who did he ask for the ticket stub? How can he confirm the authenticity? If he can't confirm the authenticity, who dares to use it? You dare to use it or he dares to use it? It's ours. Do common people dare to use it?"

"This method obviously doesn't work."

"The third method, this method is possible, watermark, but it is not reliable, the cost of watermark is too high..."

"This can be solved. Although the cost of watermarking is high, as long as it is mass-produced, the price can be controlled, which can fully meet the production needs."

Hearing Guo Bao's series of bad words, Gu Zi took a look at Li Chaosheng, who was still calm and calm, and was anxious. The county magistrate came up with a plan. You demolished it like this. expression.

So Guzi intervened, and he was right, mass production can indeed reduce the cost, so he thinks the watermark method is safe.

Guo Bao smiled wryly after hearing the words: "Yes, mass production can indeed reduce costs, but individuals can't do it, but what about big forces? They can definitely do it. We mass-produce, and others will also mass-produce. When the time comes, foreign banknotes will hit the Lantian banknote market. It can almost instantly destroy the economic order we have built with great difficulty, and take away a large amount of wealth from the people of Lantian, and who will bear the responsibility at that time."

"You? Millet?"

Guo Bao looked at Guzi, Guzi was speechless when asked, Guo Bao said: "Don't say that you have no power to attack Lantian, Daming, Li Zicheng, Zhang Xianzhong, local warlords, Liaodong Tartars, they are all capable Counterfeit, we have to consider this, so this is the first and most important point I want to say, if the anti-counterfeiting problem of banknotes cannot be solved, I will not agree to promote banknotes.”

"Our silver coins at least contain silver. If others want to imitate them, they have to pour real money into them, but banknotes are just paper. What kind of cost does it cost to imitate them? If the hostile forces seize the opportunity, they will give Lantian an unprecedented Crackdown, our hard work for so many years has been in vain, so I disagree, banknotes cannot be issued, at least until the anti-counterfeiting problem is solved, it must not be issued."

"Otherwise, it will not only damage the money, but also the credit that Lantian has built up with great difficulty. Please think again, the county lord."

Guo Baochong bowed his hands to Li Chaosheng. He knew that his speech was a slap in the face for Li Chaosheng's plan to actively promote banknotes. If this was placed in the officialdom of the Ming Dynasty, and he did not give Shangguan face like this, he would definitely face a storm. Even if he doesn't attack him face to face, he will still wear small shoes in the future.

But not in Lantian, because Li Chaosheng is enlightened enough, he likes his subordinates to be suspicious, as long as his subordinates are right, even if he refutes his face to Guo Bao, he will not have any reluctance. The short answer is that this is really good for Lantian.

All the senior officials were lost in thought at this moment, frowning and saying nothing, looking like they were having a hard time making a choice, Li Chaosheng smiled when he saw everyone like this: "Well, Guo Bao is right, do you have anything to say? solution?"

After hearing this, Zuo thought twice: "Master Guo, what Minister Guo said is indeed a big problem. Although we now have the foundation to promote banknotes, we don't have the technology to promote banknotes. If the banknotes are not well protected, it will be a disaster. disaster."

After hearing this, everyone nodded in unison, and Lao Ma also frowned at this moment and said: "The county lord is indeed a problem, we can't guarantee that the banknotes we make will definitely not be imitated by others, our Daming is too good at counterfeiting."

After hearing this, a group of people should agree, and now the problem has become concrete at once, how to prevent counterfeiting of banknotes, how can everyone in Daming be unable to imitate them.

This is too difficult. You must know that although people in this era are not as good at counterfeiting as later generations, they can even make ancient paintings, let alone banknotes?
Thinking of this, everyone was silent. This problem cannot be solved, and the issuance of banknotes is a joke.

Seeing that everyone was frowning, Li Chaosheng reached out his hand and took out a stack of one hundred banknotes from his pocket, each of which was about the same size as ten yuan bills in later generations.

Snapped!
He threw it on the table and said, "This is the banknote I made. If anyone of you can copy it, I will throw the plan of making banknotes into the trash."

"This is!"

At this time, everyone looked at the banknotes on the table, and saw that there should be beautiful patterns on the front and back of the banknotes. The front is Li Chaosheng's head portrait, and the back is the iconic big chimney of Lantian, and the front is also marked with a face value of 100 coins.

This picture is extremely real, and it is not easy for the painter to imitate it. After taking out a piece of paper, he wiped it with his hand, and he was stupid. This paper is extremely smooth, and there is no roughness. They still use this kind of paper all their lives. see only.

Just this paper cannot be imitated in this era.

That's right, the banknotes that Li Chaosheng took out are made of offset paper used by later printing machines, the kind of paper used to hand out leaflets on the street. This kind of paper has no industrial foundation, and you can't imitate it. This is Li Chaosheng. The confidence to issue banknotes, this thing is at least ahead of the world in technology, four or five hundred years, who can counterfeit it, and this banknote has more than this anti-counterfeiting mark.

(End of this chapter)