Chongzhen Daming: Starting from Coal Mountain

Chapter 126 Issuing Bonds
For the payment, the merchants who were invited had long been psychologically prepared.

Originally, the emperor would invite them to drink and listen to music at Meixiang Building for no reason?It is obviously impossible, and it is obviously hoped that they can bail out the country and donate military pay.

As for Zhu Cihong's statement that they would not let them pay for nothing, few merchants believed it, it was just a scene.

To be honest, if it wasn't for Jin Yi Wei Ti riding to the door, many of the merchants would not want to come to Meixiang Tower at all. This kind of Hongmen banquet is obviously a forced donation, so it's worth noting not to participate.

But what Zhu Cihong said next was beyond their expectations.

Zhu Cihong said: "The raising of salary this time is not a donation, but a loan!"

Someone sneered in a low voice, borrowing and not repaying, what is the difference between donating and losing?
Zhu Cihong went on to say: "Every private loan needs a guarantor or pledge. I am afraid that it is difficult for the imperial court to find a convincing guarantor, so the equivalent can only be pledged."

Hearing this, the merchants below suddenly started whispering.

These merchants are all good people, and they quickly reacted.

So it turned out that the imperial court was not simply selling official land.

Instead, they need to use the land as collateral to borrow money from merchants all over the world to raise wages.

In the corridor on the second floor, there was a faint smile on the corner of Chongzhen's mouth.

Of course, you can't simply sell fields. As a traveler who knows a little bit of economics, if you can only sell fields, it will really embarrass the traveler and make you weak.

The land that can be sold now is only [-] million mu in Xuzhou.

In addition to the four million mu of land, the land in Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Beizhi and even Liaodong, just think about it, no one will buy it if you really buy it.

The two idiots Zhu Cihong and Zhu Cijiong worshiped their father and took it for granted that merchants all over the world would have the same confidence in Chongzhen as they did, so they would definitely buy northern farmland enthusiastically.

Of course, this is not the case. Before the Ming Dynasty had built enough military power to reverse the establishment of slavery, these merchants would never bet easily, and they might not even be willing to buy the [-] million mu of land in Xuzhou.

The reason for this is very simple, because it is too unsafe, maybe Xuzhou will fall one day, so wouldn't the official land they bought with a lot of money be in vain?
Therefore, simply selling fields will definitely not sell them.

Xuzhou's four million acres can be sold for one million acres, which is already a high incense.

How much can one million acres of official land be sold for?Five taels per mu is only five million taels!Where is this little money enough?

Therefore, selling land is just a backstop, and the key is to issue bonds, which is the correct way to raise wages!

Originally, a court with national credit as a backing could issue credit bonds directly without an equivalent pledge at all, and then Jiangnan officials and gentry with a lot of money lying in their cellars would enthusiastically subscribe.

However, the reality is cruel. Since Zhu Yuanzhang founded the Ming Dynasty, the country's credit has been completely bankrupt.

Therefore, the direct issuance of credit bonds may not even be able to sell the bonds for a tael of silver. Only by pledging the four million acres of official land in Xuzhou and issuing mortgage bonds can they be sold.

That's why Chongzhen told his son before that it was selling land, but it wasn't selling land either.

The merchants below were discussing enthusiastically, but Zhu Cihong was not in a hurry, just watching the merchants discuss with a smile.

It wasn't until the businessmen's discussion subsided that Zhu Cihong said again: "The bonds for this payment are divided into four types, which are one-year payment, three-year payment, five-year payment and ten-year payment."

"All bonds are stamped with the Emperor's Seal and will be paid upon maturity."

"After the one-year debt is due, the principal and interest will be returned at twelve, and the three-year debt will be returned at twenty."

"After the five-year debt is due, the principal and interest will be [-] return, and the ten-year debt will be [-] return!"

"Some people may be worried, you say that twelve returns a year will be twelve? You say we have to believe it?"

"That's right, no one's guarantee is useless these days, and even a single guarantee is useless, so you have to take the official land as a mortgage."

"This time, the four million mu of official land in Xuzhou is used as collateral. The Ministry of Internal Affairs will use the four million mu of official land as collateral to issue one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year terms respectively. Five million taels of bonds each!"

"If the one-year bond cannot be paid at maturity, it will be paid with one million acres of official land."

"Three-year and five-year bonds cannot be paid after maturity, and they will also be paid with official land."

"But please note that there is no mandatory redemption clause for one-year, three-year, and five-year bonds. That is to say, if the Ministry of Internal Affairs repays the principal and interest by the date after maturity, it will not be eligible to be converted into official land."

"Only after the ten-year bond matures, the principal and interest can be converted into official land."

After a pause, Zhu Cihong pointed to Kang Wanwan in the audience and said, "For example, if Kang Weng bought one hundred thousand twenty-year bonds, after ten years expire, he can choose to get back the principal and interest of six hundred thousand taels, or You can choose to exchange the [-] taels of principal and interest into [-] mu of official land in Xuzhou, and the unit price per mu of official land is still [-] taels."

Hearing this, the stage immediately exploded.

The merchants who seemed a little indifferent just now also began to participate in the discussion enthusiastically.

Because converted into a ten-year bond, an acre of official land is only more than eight yuan!This is simply stealing!Faced with such cheap official land, no merchant can remain indifferent.

Seeing this, Chongzhen smiled again.

As I said before, issuing bonds is the correct way to raise funds. If you simply sell land, Xuzhou's [-] million mu will only sell for [-] million taels at most, and it may not be sold out.

However, issuing one-year, three-year, five-year and ten-year bonds respectively only sold one million acres, and the four million acres of government land in Xuzhou had the opportunity to add four times the leverage!
Twenty million taels became eighty million!

And according to the current selling method, it will sell better.

This is only the income from the bond issuance itself. The problem is that the bond issuance is only the bond itself?

It’s absurd, the biggest benefit of issuing bonds is speculation, it is securities trading, and stamp duty is collected!
The officials of the Ming Dynasty only knew to pay attention to the taxation of the land, and Chongzhen directly reduced the dimension and attacked it, bringing the financial industry to the Ming Dynasty!

In fact, Jiangnan in the late Ming Dynasty was more conducive to the development of the financial industry than Europe at that time. Even with ten times the leverage, the 7.5 million taels of silver deposits in the Ming Dynasty could cultivate a financial industry with a scale of 75 billion!

Such a large-scale financial industry, not counting the gains from the banker's speculation, can make a fortune by collecting stamp duty.

It's just that, right now, we haven't reached that step yet. We have to eat one bite at a time, and if we take too big a step, it's easy to break the egg. For the time being, we still need to issue debt first.

……

Zhang Youyu had a lot of things these days, so he was a little late.

When passing by the cabinet court room, he unexpectedly discovered that the second assistant Gao Hongtu's office was still lit, and immediately turned around to Gao Hongtu's office.

"Mr. Gaoge, you haven't ordered yet?" Zhang Youyu bowed.

"Jinghan?" Gao Hongtu put down his pen, smiled and waved, "Come on, sit down and talk."

Gao Hongtu's old servant offered a cup of fragrant tea, Zhang Youyu thanked him, and took the cup of tea.

"Jinghan, work hard these few days." Gao Hongtu continued, "Make a detailed plan for this year's national expenditure as soon as possible, and then distribute it to all provinces, prefectures and counties."

"Yes." Zhang Youyu asked again, "Ge Lao, have you heard?"

Gao Hongtu smiled and said, "You mean, the Holy Majesty entertained merchants at Meixianglou?"

"That's it." Zhang Youyu shook his head and said, "This is really unprecedented. The emperor actually held a banquet in the brothel, and the guests were merchants. I really don't know how to evaluate it."

"Then don't comment." Gao Hongtu waved his hand and said.

Speaking of this, Gao Hongtu sighed lightly: "Speaking of which, His Majesty is also a pitiful person."

From an ordinary person's point of view, Chongzhen is indeed a poor man. His wife died, his daughter died and the other was injured. The injured one fell into the hands of Jiannu, and then his home in the Forbidden City was also robbed. In the end, he almost Hanging in Meishan, it can be said that he has tasted all the bitterness in the world.

So the big change in temperament is also understandable.

Those of us who are courtiers need to be considerate.

"That's right, if the lower official suffered such an accident from the Holy Master, I'm afraid he would have gone crazy." Zhang Youyu nodded, and then asked, "Then the lower official will not comment on the Holy Master's personal virtues, but only say that he worked in Meixiang Tower. thing."

"You mean the matter of raising wages?" Gao Hongtu said with a smile, "Your Majesty's idea is still very worthy of encouragement."

"But those merchants may not buy it." Zhang Youyu said, "Merchants value profits over righteousness, and they will not give money for clothes, ancestral temples, or the community. Only scholars in my life will care about the lives of the people of the country."

Gao Hongtu smiled and said, "There's no rush, it's good for the Holy One to run into a wall."

"That's right." Zhang Youyu said with a smile, "Otherwise, His Majesty really thinks that our household department is just a display. If the problem of national expenditure is really so easy to solve, why do we have to wait for the officials of the household department and so many officials?"

……

Meixiang Building.

Merchants have already begun to subscribe.

The first one to respond was Kang Wanwan: "His Royal Highness, I, the Kang family in Yangzhou, subscribed for one million [-]-year debts."

As soon as Kang Wanwan finished speaking, Fang Wenzhen also stood up and said, "My Fang family in She County subscribed for [-] twenty-year debt."

Immediately afterwards, Zhang Han got up and said, "His Royal Highness, my Zhang family in She County also subscribed for [-] twenty-year debt!"

Hearing this, the rest of the merchants present turned to Kang Wanwan and the others. After a few seconds of silence, merchants soon got up and subscribed for the bonds enthusiastically.

"Your Highness, the Weng family in Yangzhou subscribed for [-] taels, and a ten-year debt is required!"

"His Royal Highness, Xiuning Zhan's family subscribes for [-] taels, ten-year debt!"

"Prince, the Xu family in Yangzhou subscribed for [-] taels, and they also need a ten-year debt!"

These businessmen are all good people, so it is natural to see that ten-year bonds have the highest yield.

To be honest, the hundreds of merchants present are not short of silver, each of them has hundreds of thousands to millions of taels of silver buried in their cellars, and they are suffering from no place to spend them. Silver has become an official land that can earn [-]% of the land rent every year, and one mu of land is only eight yuan, so why hesitate?Grab it now!
(End of this chapter)